Evening star., 1925-02-08
OLD ROW PICTURED
BY AMNES|A VICTIM
Man Accused of Theft Now
Tells of Leaving Father.
ForgetS All But War.
By Consolidated Press.

By Consolidated Press.
MONTREAL February 7-Some
place, somewhere, some time-he
clenches lis hands and sobs in a
futile effort at recollection-two sur
geons, clad in prophylactic white.
battled in the tiled operating room
with the grim angel of death. 1t was
a delicate operation and the least
slip meant disaster.
One of the white-r,asked figures
was the father, and his assistant the
son. The former belonged to the less
recent school, perhaps; the latter to
the ultra modern college.
At the most critical moment there
arose a technical difference of opin-
ion in the manipulation of an alb
doininal clamp; it was the clash of
the newer method of surgery with
the old.
The clash was scarcely apparent on
the surface-the mere lifting of
brows, the tightening of lips already
compressed in the stern resolution
of the surgeon. That was all. Yet.
underneath, seethed the eternal war
between age and youth. famed into
vivid outbreak.
Scene Shifts to France.
Then, after the tense protracted
struggle. came the final break. The
young doctor went away, no one
knew where, and the weeks merged
into years. Then the World War
and all it's horrors intervened.
Somewhere, some place, he can't re-
member now, the young surgeon an
swered the call to arms. Some where
on desperately contested road in
France between Monchy and Arras,
he fell before ripping fusillade of
machine gun bullets. Then oblivion
Today, at detective headquarters
here, a man who thinks he is Robert
John Mccullough passed a tremulous
hand through his hair in an attempt
to brush away the deadening amnesfa
which has gripped his intellect, since
when he cannot tell. How he came
to Canada, or when, is all dim. dis
torted, Elusive mirage. Through his
mind persist f1eeting echoes of for
mer life.
For Gods sake send me a doctor
and let me talk surgery" he cries,
tit may bring it all back, per-
haps''
The man carries distant. discon-
nected recollections of places and
people, the operating room of the
Mayo Brothers at Rochester. Mimi:
the famous Doctors Judge, Hamilton
and Armstrong, an indistinct memory
of the Royal Herbert hospital at
.
atchewan-under circumstances
that remain complete, irritating
blank All these and more rise up
in disjointed figments to torture him
till he sobs.
I'm the daytime, 1 am better, and
sometimes ! think it is all coming
back he says. Then comes the
night and it all goes away again
quick. give me a pencil"
1t was passed to him and excltediy
he wrote: John Robert Mccullough
Look, it must be my name.' he
cried when 1 feel a pencil between
my fingers and let myself go-this is
what / always write"
Accused of Thefts.
McCulIough-if that is his name
is FIVE feet, seven and half. has fair
waSy hair, blue eyes, weighs about
40 pounds, and is obviously some
where in the neighborhood of 80
years old. He was taken into custody
by the detective bureau under the
charge of being implicated in chain
of housebreakings Goods valued at
$1,000 have been recovered to date.
1.-The extraordinary part of it is. that
he will enter a house and take goods
of kind not generally preferred by
professional thieves" Detective Gau-
thier explained to Adjt. Tricket of the
Salvation Army, who is trying to
trace the mans relatives.
Furthermore, in disposing of his
loot, he evidently does so at a. mini
mum price, for when we took him he
was in rags, although he had just
stolen several hundred dollars worth
of property"