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292 "though this be madness,
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
¦ » • Part Ii. We Resurne Our Analysis O...
cab proprietor , though , she could neither cook Ms dinner , make Ms hedsew a button on his shirtnor sweep . a room ? . Her place in
the , household was supplied by , of her sisters , who devoted herself to doing all that she should have done . At forty years old she
was brought where she should have been froin the first—to the Salpetriere , and remained there until the age of sixty , when she died .
A passion for stealing , on which plea well-dressed persons are occasionally let out of our police courtsissays M . Trelatoften to
be noticed in imbecile patients . Those , who , never could be , taught to read , to write , or to reckon , will sometimes show infinite cunning
in accomplishing their thefts , and causing suspicion to fall on others . An idiot at the Salpetriere was known to be constantly stealing , yet
they could never catch her in the act , except by patiently hiding in some place which she believed ' to be quite solitary . But people
need not be idiots in an asylum for such a propensity to break out . M , aged fifty-six , who led an elegant bachelor life at Paris , kept
three separate lodgings , each attended by a female servant ; giving as a reasonthat he liked to keep rooms in different quarters of the
, metropolis , so that he need never have far to return at night from any friend ' s house . This gentleman lived uponbut did not exceed
, , a good income ; in intellect , he was considered somewhat below the anark . Dying suddenly , however , his three lodgings were examined ,
and found stuffed with linen , towels , pocket-handkerchiefs , candlesticks , vases , opera-glasses , canes and -umbrellas , small pictures and
jnedals , silver dish-covers , watches and jewels ; all of which he had in the course of years quietly taken away from the houses where
3 ie visited without ever having been even suspected , though he continually heard lamentations about these lossesand saw servants
accused and dismissedwhile he condoled with , the victims of his thefts . Neither did he , derive the slightest advantage from this
little habit ; he never attempted to sell any of his accumulations of valuables ; and when they were discovered , his friends quietly sought
out the right owners ( or their heirs ) of the articles ; and such as ¦ could not be thus restored were soldand the proceeds given to the
, poor A . similar case is found in Madame V a well-educated
young woman , managing satisfactorily her household , and a family of children . Her husband and friendshoweverare astonished
at the elegant habits she keeps up upon a small , income , . She replies to their praises , that she understands and practises true economy ,
and never spends money on useless things . This answer is accepted for years , until one day Madame V is arrested as a thief ;
and her unfortunate husband discovers that his wife had never bought a dress for her own use or that of his daughters . They had all
been stolen from the shops , with such adroitness as blinded all suspicion . *
thirty * It years is said ago that , prided in some themselves of the St on ates this of manner South Americ of procu a , ring the dresse ladies s , .
292 "Though This Be Madness,
292 " _though this be _madness ,
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1862, page 292, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071862/page/4/
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