A LUNATIC’S FREAK.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 2122, 11 December 1880, Page 3

A LUNATIC’S FREAK.

One day last week (says the« Daily Telegraph* of Sept. 18th) as the insane patients of the great Charity Hospital at Berlin were taking their aoouatomed exercise in the gardens of that establishment, under the supervision of several attendants, one of them, a lunatic cab-driver of herculean strength, contrived to i slip away from his companions and to clamber ] up the trunk of a huge elm tree. Having ] reached one of the topmost limbs and armed i himself with a stout branch, which he I Bnapped asunder as easily as though it had ' been a mere twig, he announced in stento- < rian accents his intention of " staying there ' for ever." In vain did the perplexed i warders alternately coax and threaten him; • he laughed at their blandishments and i defied their menaces. No one dared 1 to attempt his capture by foroo, so, i after a couple of hours had elapsed, i the medical authorities, having obtained t permission from the district lieutenant of I police, summoned to their assistance a detaoh- 1 ment of the fire brigade and an engine, which forthwith commenced to play upon the ( deranged gymnast. Havhjg drenched him i for a ten minutes' spell, the firemen sum- 1 moned him to a parley, but could get nothing i out of him save a fantastic and highflown < speech of thanks for their "refreshing atten- ( tione." Another and still more protraoted < deluge proving equally ineffectual in induoing 1 him to descend, the warders and policemen 1 recurred to friendly negotiations, and their i persuasions at length moved the triumphant * madman to declare that if they would pay horn- t age to hia gymnastic skill and heroic endur- i ance by three rounds of enthusiastic applause l he would come down. His terms were i promptly accepted, and he descended to terra \ firma amidst the vehement plaudits of police- i men, warders, and firemen, thus honorably capitulating after a siege of five hours and a t half duration. 1