Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1916-07-23
BY Leonard Keene Hirshberg,

Abb. M. A., M. D. (Johns HopkIns).
TN the career of the late Hetty Green who died
Gently. leaving an estate estimated TO be worth
considerably more than $780, 100000, psychology has
most curious and interesting problem.
Was Mrs. Green. her friends and admirers firmly
insist financial genius OF surprising shrewdness and
foresight whose life furnishes example Of honesty
that every young would do well to
emulate?
Or she. many who have studied her life and
character believe, ptabe monomaniac with mind
so wrecked by insane greed that lodged her taxes
ignored her duty to her fellow and sacrificed even
her own happiness. in the most misery way for
moneys sake?
No man woman Of ahom history makes record
ever displayed both in private life and in contact with
the rest Of the world bewilderng completely
OF contradictory eccenricities than Hety Green To
solve the puzzle which she presents TO science-to
separate her good qualities from her bad form
just estimate of her characerhis be done only
oy dissecting the mental processes which made her
what she was and comparing them with the processes
which are found in normal men and women. we'll
as with those which are known produce the curious
types call misers.
Like other braintwistc people Hetty Green
scohcd at the idea that she was mser and
cecded in convincing many OF her friends that il
an Injustice to call her one. But consider how she
lved-only for moneys sake. She gave little 10
charity and had only small circle OF friends Her
life for many years was given up almost exclusively
TO lodging tax collectors and beggars and TO Rghtng
all sorts Of legal proceedings She never used her
wealth for the development OF great industries
Rockefeller, Carnegie. James j. Hill and other
wealthy men have done
Whatever enjoyment she got of life seems TO
have been through the accumulation of money and
the anticipation that her sor might some day be the
richest man in the world. Even death would not
relieve her sordd career with touch Of human kind
nessher will reveals not single bequcst to charity
Not only that, but she drew it in such
leave it doubtful whether the State will he able
collect its just dues in the shape of inheritance taxes
In reply TO Chicago minister who her that
she would be lost to Heaven If she insisted her
money none from $4,000 mort gage on his church she
eaid: You mad better pray for my soul then because
am going TO foreclose within thirty days and she
At various times she charged with having tried to
doctors bills by applying free clinics and
charitable hospitals for treatment for herself and
family The loss OF her sons leg is said to have been
due to such penuriousness
In little matters the same spirit was shown Once,
it is said she Ouarrelled with her washerwoman
because she would not reduce the amount of her bill.
AS a compromise Mrs Green ordered that iii the
future when the woman washed the peticoats sho
wash only the lower half OF them. This would reduce
the labor and would enable her TO reduce the bill.
All these things psychology convincing proof
Of the existence in Mrs. Green of the perverted type
of mentality which call the miser
One of the first msers whom we have any
knowledge Dichaeus Dichaenus, descendant OF
the Byzantine monarchs. but without any OF their
travagances. lie carried his miserliness to such an
extent that he had the slightest regard for any
human being who did not live and think in terms OF
avarice. Mrs. Green showed precisely the same
symptoms when she repeatedly expressed her admra-
ton for the late Russell Sage Of almost if not
quite parsmonous habits as herself.
THE true mser," DR.. Charles W. Burr. pro-
lessor OF mental diseases at the University Of Penn
sylvania, gets pleasure from sensations which give
the normal person pain" How we'll Mrs. Green fitted
this description is apparent from casual study
of her life and habits.
:. For many years her annual income was more than
s5000000, and yet she rarely spent than $4,000
1000 year to live. For long time she occupied
a three'dollar week Dom In tenement house in
Hoboken, and AT oth lines she occupied modest
fat In the same G osting not more than s25
month.
She scrimped and saved her living expenses not
because she had any idea that by living on a more
liberal scale she would nlper her fortune but be.
like all misers her aesthetic sense was so per-
verified that she derived peculiar pleasure not only
from the saving of money, but from doing all sorts
OF things which would be revolving normal person
Science has discovered that soon after a miser's
brain becomes permanently warped signs of this men,
tai weakness begin to show in his physical appearance
Hetty Green showed all these signs
Perhaps the most striking Of the marks which miser
illness sets upon PERSONS body to be found in
the eyes. Nobody who Mrs. Green even once will
ever forget those deepset eyes of hers When
not furtivey roaming from side to side they would
f1 themselves in steady gaze that seemed perfectly
we'll able to pierce flesh and hone buildings walls
In Mrs. Green's face long before she reached old
age there appeared the peculiar seams and wrinkles
which indicate the atrophy of the thyroid adrenal and
other ductless glands In msers these glands shrink