IS THE KAISER MAD?

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 26, 1 April 1915, Page 1 (Supplement)

IS THE KAISER MAD?

For months people have heen asking this question. M. Jean Finot, among othe-s, has replied to the question. He tells us, in the "Review of Reviews," that the "aug'ist charmer'' is but a simple degenerate, one of those mattoids who astonish their friends by the versatility, the variety and the inconsistency of their gifts and the absence of all morality. Mattoid is a word used by Lombrose to denote a monomaniac characterised by a combination of criminality and stupidity. Being afflicted in audition by an hereditary disease ot the ear, William 11. is predestined to furnish yet another recruit to the great army of half-criminals, half-madmen. This 1 conformation of the ear shows, it appears, a predisposition to crime and falsehood. According to studies made by Frigcrio with normals, the auriculo temporal angle exceeds 90 degrees, but is less with degenerates. And from the indiscretions of certain doctors it appears' that with the Kaiser the n:\m.r angle is about G8 degrees, a condition which is characteristic of degenerates in gener.l, and of forgers and criminals in particular. Verenzi, who strangled several women, was, ac-ording to M. Finot, one of tli? most assiduous churchgoers. Kneeling before the altar, ho talked familiarly to his God, a God beneficent toward himself, who guaranteed the succe-s of his exploits and covered him with his all-powerful protection. Boggia, condemned to death for several dozen murders, wrote sermons, and always preached Christ's thics and religion, ordering all those who surrounotd him to pray at church. Let us make no comparisons, adds M.. Finot, but he goes on to say:—The crowned mattoid of Berlin, it is true, will have upon his conscience not a few dozen, but hundreds of thousands of victims. It matters not. His invocations to heaven and his touching familiarity with the allpoweriul God all ttrangely resemble those of Boggia.