Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1842-12-16
VOL. IX.-NO. Is.

said that he could read it well enough, but
that his knowledge was not of a practical
kind. "What studies did he chiefly pursue ~
"a little of ALL" "But what did he prefer r.
" None: he liked all study for its own sake"
We can to this hour place the whole picture
before us. Twenty pair Of eyes, glaring,
wild and distorted Twenty faces convuis-
ed or collapsed Twenty pair Of hands OPP
pressed by calling chains clanking around
us! Twenty tongues employed in ceaseless
and vain attempts to expostuae against
bonds or restraints, not to be endured with
patience in a calm state of health, and doubly
uncomfortable in the excited state of a mad
mans brain The filthy bedding, the be-
grmed walls, daubed and painted by the
manlacsl the dirty floors, the scanty light!
half naked bodies tossing about under the
influence of disorderly will the hoarse
din, the idlotic laugh, the intense hate, the
suppressed malice Of some, and the yoceess
wo of others, and amidst all the keepers indie
ierence-all these were elements of whole
which none can describe, but which none
having witnessed can forget.
The women were more in number, and as
fierce as the men. Three times were we as
tents flung at us, and once by girl with
such a pair Of beautiful eyes Every where
in this division Of the house, such iabber.
twiter, mockery and laughter, that one new
er heard anything like it. The females were
generally old and some few showed so much
delicacy and propriety and had so little of
the wildness of an unsettled mind, that we
could have hoped any thing for them any
where else. How much might not have been
expected had these been underline judicious
treatment Of Esqniro or Munro!
! We were too much interested not TO pay a
second visit to this place, when we saw some
OF those who had been most violent on the
first, now coied up in the bed-cothes, silent,
cftte, and motionless others were gesticu-
lating just as before, and seemed never to
have slept from that moment, as # they were
wound up to speak or scold cternally. One
magnificent countenance Of man lay mo-
tloness gazing at us, as it had done yestef-
day, with mild dignity and consciousness
of suffering dishonor-a face such as the FIRST
Charles might have shown towards the rabble
that hooted him to execution. Our mathe-
matical Capuchin was in his bed and reading
his Bible, which he does every morning, aud
4 says It gives him composure for the trials Of
the day, and, he added, il is much wanted
here His salutation was the most graceful
imaginable. The women were as vocifer.
, Gus as ever, and as active as squirrels. They
lose about nine patients for every hundred
, annually, which speaks well for their gen.
eral health. The nun who went round ~.h
hoped to be c Continued for anoih saa' ana
women, in the attendance of kind person
Of their own sex, are much better off than
5 the men, to whom is denied the unspeakable
4 advantage of sympathiEing friends. and who
{ are abandoned to keepers, themselves scarce
above the capacity of brutes. Surely to
such men as these the care Of the over SEN
. sitive lunatic ought never to be confded
II As to the cause Of madness in Italy, love,
, it is said, fills the ward with his victims, and
!, such cases often exhibit a frightful expression
of lost or depraved intelligence, making dew
y ills of the quiet and inoffensive, and speedily
precipitated the young into old age, Human
y ity is not wanting in Italy, but it requires
more attention than ii is their custom to give,
10 hit upon the best means Of alternating the
distress Of these poor unatics. On the spot
where we saw these distressing scenes, there
is now nearly or quite finished, noble build.
ing admirably adapted for the separation oil
1t its inmates. The number of its compart.
,r ments will afford the further advantage o
., enabling those who are furious to be KEEP,
e apart, and without chains, though complete
J. emancipation from bonds did not appear in
,e the contemplation of the keepers. One o.
h. the attendant sisters said to us, "If we were
t. not to chain them they would bite, though
lie their hands were restrained by the camisole.'
tn told her we had no chains now, either in
lie France or England.