Notes and Items [excerpt]

     Dr. Bratz, of Berlin, the eminent authority on mental diseases, says Czolgosz, the assassin of President McKinley, suffered from precocious imbecility as long ago as 1896, and shows how his curious notions about his meals and his evident fear of being poisoned by his stepmother support this theory. Rubbishy books only increased his imbecility and led him to the mad idea that he was called to murder the president. Vodartz [sic], commenting on Dr. Bratz’s article, says: “The wretched man was condemned to death because political passion ran high, rather than on consideration of justice.”