WHY RICH MEN'S SONS GO CRAZY.

Hastings Standard, Volume XIII, Issue 4310, 13 November 1909, Page 1 (Supplement)

WHY RICH MEN'S SONS GO CRAZY.

AMAZING ILLUSTRATIONS OF A NEW SCIENTIFIC THEORY.

Does the struggle fot great fr.jtunes priKlucs abnormal brains in multi-mil-lionaires, which develop insanity or suicidal mania in their children? Such is the question which has been agitating the minds of American scientists and doctors lately, aiul t'.uy have arrived at the somewhat startling conclusion that there is a great tendency amongst the children ot millionaires to suffer mental breakdown earfy in life. And as a proof of this contention they cite

j number of recent cases of insanity ■ and suicide among children and dej icendani.s of very rich people, j The cause, according to these <locj tors, is t.> be found in the fact that i the fathers of thesj children subject : themselves to such mental f-train in the | race for wealth, and exhaust body and ! nerves to such an extent, that they ' minimize the mental and nervous organization which otherwise would be imparted to iheir offspring. The consequence is that many children of such ' parentis come into the world unstable in i their mental p-oweis. THE CASE OF HARRY THAW. "No one." ran a certain report, dur- ! jug the trial of Hurry Tiiaw, "who faw those wild, staring eyes, the furrowed forehead, the drawn face, had _ any doubt as to his mental instability." And scientists quote the homicidal tr-n----dencieis of Thaw as one of the most striking illustrations of the "money twist" in the brain of the child of a million-lire: for Thaw's father left a colossal fortune made out (if iron, coal, and 1 ail" ays. One ■){ tho most trrsgie cases is that of Mrs. Herbert M. Sears % a noted beauty £<nd society leader in .Ni-ir York, who, not, long ago. leapt out of hci lxdroom window while suffering from a fit of stii idal mania. Mrs. Sears had a personal estate of over .-£1,000.000 sterling, inherited from her maternal grandfather. John F. Slater, the noted financier of Norwich, Mass. The nervous instability of Mrs. Sears man j tested itself during the first yearg ol her marriage. She imagined herself surrounded by enemies and at last, in sudden fear, destroyed herself i:i the manner mentioned. ROCKEFELLER'S ELDEST DAUGHTER. It is a curious irony of fate that Mr. Rockefeller* eldest daughter became haunted with the delusion that she was on th" verge ol poverty, and she searched the household garbage to rescue casts of bread to firing back for the servants" supper. It was mt until some months after her marriage with Pro-f<s-or Charles A Strong, a Columbia, College instructor, that the taint began to manliest itsefl' in her. Then she began to do the most cii-ioug things. She <!ved her children's clothes, making them and her own, over and over again. She would buy only tho most minute quantities of necessities, and doled out the servant,s' shares, going at last to the garbage, for replenishment. No amount of persuasion by her husband or father could remove the impres sion from her mind that she was on the v< rge ot poverty. On one occasion, it is said. Rockefeller drew one million dollars from his banks and, in thous-and-dollar bills showed the money to his daughter as an object-lesson that poverty d d lot confront them. She only looked at tliem vacantly. At last, in the hope of curing her. she was taken to France. There she died, still under l;er delusion. A MANIA FOR SPEED. Particularly sad is the case of one of the sons of Cyrus Hall MeC-ormick. the inventor of tlie f,tcam reaper, who became president of the Harvester Trust 2nd acquired one oi. the biggest fortunes ill America. MrCerinick's case, say the doctor-, is one of those that reveal most c'eariv the danger which threat.-ns th • children of millionaires. MeC-ormick lived the cleanest kind of life. He graduated from Princeton, where h 6 was noted as an athlete. He showed great business ability, and took n prominent part in the organization of the Harvester, Trust it,se]f. Suddenly, some little time ago, he went insane. There had been hardly anv warning. His mania began to manifest itself in a desire for great speed This was interspersed with periods ot acute melancholia. Alt -r a few week;, so rapid was the breakage of the brain once the strain had started that his wife found it impossible to conceal jus con lition any longer. He is now liopel fsly mad, and under restraint at SeJita jMaroara, California FEARED INSANITY.

Tragedy. too. has followed the great money-making s hemes of Theodore Havenieyer. one ot : the founders of the Sugar Trust. Two of his children shot thems 'lves, while another relative died in>ane. Natalie Ida. Havemeyer was one of the n.o-t charming, beautiful, and accomplished girls ever introduced into New York society. She had many suitors until finally she married Mr. .John Mayer. At the very height of her life, with everything apparently a woman could widi for, the taint appeared i;. her. There was a brief period of in,*lar. India. and then she ghot herse'f. There was absolutely no reason for selfdestruction — except that lack ot stability by which the brain was torccd to break under the strain o-i life. The death of Charles Frederick Ilavemeye •. her brother, is still fresh in the memory of his friends. v\ ith him too, there was no reason for self-destruc-tion, except an over-haunting fear of insanity that would not b ■ d'H> 'lled. This'and the cases of Mrs. John Wilmeroing and William S. \ anderbilt Ailen seem to prove the theory. Mrs. Wilinerding was the great-granddaugh-ter ot the old C imiv.od ire, and Allea was his gi'L'.rd-on. lioth were in asylums for y.-ars. lioth v, ere finally ro--1 eased mor? beause their mania was rat dangerous than that they were entirely- sane. The=e, it might be mentioned, are but a -few of the cases cited by American scientists witli a view of hearing out their theory that there may bo a Bad reckoning to the making of millionaires.

'■' Fairest Ethelinda," lie cried, falling on his knres beside her. '"'l adore thee! When thou art present T live in rapture. I need no .stars in heaven to guide me when thv bright eyes are open Ijefore me! When thou art approaching my heart beats, throbs, palpitates—palpitates with a "Indeed V' interrupted she. "Why, I'm so glad yon spoke. I've got a mplendid recipe for palpitation of the heart. I'll get it for you."