A man whose mental constitution is seemingly sound in every respect save one has offered a reward of $150 for his name and the place of his former residence.
“I’ve got just $150 in sight, and I’ll give that and my four horses to any man who will tell me who I am and where I came from. I’ll give all I’ve got on earth to know just these two things.”
And the strange part of it is, the man was deeply, desperately in earnest, and he was possessed of his mental faculty save in this unfortunate respect; he could remember neither his name nor where he once lived.
“It’s the only thing I cannot remember,” he said. “If I could only hear my name mentioned I would know all instantly. If you could just mention my name I would remember everything.”
The strangely unfortunate patient sat in Chief Connolly’s office talking to the chief and to Detectives Cason and Looney. He looked vigorous and strong despite a month of confinement in the hospital. He talked with little trouble, and with intelligence upon all subjects save that relating to his name and past. Upon that his mind is a blank.
“Well, this is the strangest case I have ever seen,” said the chief, “and something must be done to identify this man. I am satisfied that he is trying to conceal nothing about himself. The trouble is, he cannot remember, just as he says.” He has been pronounced well for several days. Chief Connolly is determined to find out who the stranger is. He is confident that he is the victim of a diabolical plot, and he intends to prosecute his murderous assailants. He believes that the unfortunate man was robbed of a large sum of money.–Atlanta Constitution.
It appears that the man may have had a form of psychogenic amnesia. The reward would be about $10,000 today, depending on the condition of the horses. Seems like a large chunk-o’change for 1895, and supports the idea that he may have been attacked. I wonder if he ever recovered? Unfortunately, the online archives in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution are not deep enough to find out if there were followup stories.
That’s the difficulty with this sort of project in general. The whole point of this blog is to “follow up” and find out answers to the questions that are raised by the articles. Sometimes the Web is forthcoming with information, but others, like today, it is obfuscatory. Consider this a lesson, children: you can’t find everything on the Web.
And an aside: Why do newspapers have the most difficult to navigate websites?