The Radical

Extraordinary Case of Insanity.--The Salem Register gives the particulars of a case of insanity, the circumstances connected with which are so extraordinary as to be well worth recording.

It seems there had been in the Ipswich Almshouse, or House of Correction, for about twenty years, an insane man, who was sent there from Salem, and who has always gone by the name of "Captain." Of his real name and residence nothing was ever known by the authorities, nor has anything been discovered until within a few months past. The man is perfectly harmless, his malady tending rather to idiocy, and he has long been allowed to go about freely, sometimes wandering into the neighboring towns, but always returning in safety.

A few months ago, the keeper presented a card to him and said, "Captain, will you give me your address?" The captain very readily took the card, and writing upon it, in an elegant hand, a gentleman's name, with the name of a town in New York, returned it. As it was somewhat uncertain if this was really his name, a few days afterward another card was handed to him, with the request that he would give his father's address. He immediately wrote the surname and town, with another Christian name.

It was then supposed that he might have given his real address, and, to ascertain the fact, a letter was accordingly forwarded to the place mentioned, directed to the person whose name was given as the father, with a request to the postmaster, if such a person had ever resided there, and had removed, to forward the letter to the present place of residence of the gentleman or his family, if it could be ascertained. Nothing further was heard until a few weeks ago, when a letter was received from New York, on the subject.

The letter was shown to the "Captain," and as soon as his eye fell upon the superscription, his countenance changed, his eyes were suffused with tears of joy, and he cried out in the most touching tone, "my mother! my mother!" It was, in fact, a letter from his mother--the father having been dead a number of years. She wrote that nothing had been heard of this son for twenty-one or twenty-three years, and he was supposed to be long since deceased.

The "Captain" was extremely affected on perusing the letter. The mother is at present residing with another son in this city. A further correspondence has taken place between the parties, and some of the relatives are expected to go on shortly, and take the lost one home. With what fervor can this mother exclaim, when she greets the wanderer, "for this, my son, was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found!"