In a Madhouse

For people who like to argue subtle questions, an event last week at Lima, Ohio, furnished ideal debate. The ques-tions suggested were: Can a madman be heroic? Can a hero be mad? The event was this: George Remus, one-time Illinois lawyer, then millionaire Ohio bootlegger, then convict, then insensate wife-murderer, who was judged guiltless but mentally insecure in Cincinnati (TIME, Jan. 2), and who was confined in the State Hospital for the Criminal Insane at Lima --this man heard muffled cries in the asylum. A huge, lunatic Negro had over- powered one of the guards and .was deliberately strangling him. Was it sane courage or his own deranged brute instinct that inspired burly George Remus to leap at the Negro maniac, to smash and batter the Negro with his fists until the throttled guard could get free; to continue fighting until, with the guard's help, the Negro was over- powered and clapped into a cell?