Religious Delusion and averted Tragedy
The Cleveland Leader is reminded by the Pocasset tragedy that a man in Ohio some ten years since fell under the same hallucination that seized upon Mr. Freeman, and that only tact on the part of his wife saved him from following it to as fatal a termination. Ten years ago, it says, Truman Phinney living in Geauga county, O., an industrious well-to-do farmer, with a wife and two bright children, became deeply influenced under the excitement of a Methodist revival. His wife was aroused one morning about 3 o'clock by the noise of his whetting a butcher knife. When she inquired what it was for, he told her that in order for the whole family to be saved, he must sacrifice his little son. She was alarmed beyond description, but kept perfectly cool, and by professing great interest in what was going on, at length persuaded him to go with her to call to the sacrifice a neighbor who was much interested in the family and in religious matters. By this means help was secured to put the lunatic in safe quarters.