Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1851-08-09
From the Cayuga Chief.
The Mad House.
BY GEORGE LIPPARD.

NEAR unto where live there is a Mad
House. 1t is surrounded 10y high walls with
two noble buttonwoods before its gloomy
portals. From its grated windows you can
command a beautiful sketch of fields and
meadows, and green woodlauds,-al bapti-
zed in the May sunshine. The other day,
impellod by curiosity (having heard much of
the Mad House.) went thither, and pass
ing from the glad sunshine, | soon stood in
vaulted hall, which was full of shadows, on
~ broken by few struggling rays, The
Keeper Tor Superintendent confronted me
there he is portly man, with a round snli-
ling iace, aud pleasant eyes, almost hidden
in wrinkles. There is All odor of pleasant
responsibility about him. Stating my object,
| was conducted through number of cells
or rooms, where almost every phase of mad
ness, met my sight,-from the melancholy
TO the raging madman. Much impressed by
what had seen, thanked the Keeper, and
was about bidding him good bye, when he
remarked,
But you have not seen the most curious
sight of ALL he said, twirling his watch
chain. 'Our hopeless cases. So we call
them. Just step this way. It's a sight
worth seeing
Hopeless cases" echoed as followed
him through long corridor,-ii was a very
dark aud gloomy passage,-' How soY.
'lIushp responded the Keeper, 'wc're
near 'em now. We call 'em hopeless be-
cause they are actually beyond all cure We
can cure the raging madman, but these iel-
lows,-O! my they're desperate casesr
Thus speaking he led me along the corri-
dor, until we came to narrow door.
You see we keep 'em in a room by them
selves. They seem perfectly quiet, but you
should just hear 'em talk If you'll step into
this closet, you can see 'em through u hole
in the wall, and you can likewise hear 'ehI
talk. o my! aint they madp
lie opened the door and stepped into u
dark closet,-dark save that some CLEANS of
light came through circular hole in the
wall.
Look and listenr said the good humorcd
Keeper.
Applying my eye to the aperture, beheld
n circular room, without windows, but with
It's ceiling rising into n Dome. Through
this Dome, the sunlight fell upon thirty or
forty men and women who were seated in
circle. These were the mad men aud mad
women, upon whose worn and pallid faces
the sunlight fell, with sort of melancholy
radiance. Seated in a circle, they conycrsed
in low tones, their eyes flashing as they
whispered to each other. The scene struck
me with something of awe. If you could
here see this circle of mad men and women,
you would never nave forgotten those pallid
faces and burning eyes.
'Listenp whispered the Keeper, r,-'T They
re mad as Tophet. You see they talk to
each other all day, and the talk goes round
the circle. Ii will make you laugh to hear
'cm. llark the one now speaking was
preacher once,-that fellow with the broad
forehead and deep-set eyes. Hush
And bending my cars 10 the aperture,
listened as the mad preacher spoke
'My friends said he, gazing upon the cir
lie of mad men aud women, Jesus Christ
,ame to this world 10 heal physical as well
rs moral evil. lie taught us to pray, 'Thy
come, Thy will be done on earth
rs il is done in Heaven, and it was therefore
his object TO remove physical as well as spi-
ritual evil from the face OF the earth. The
preacher who teaches the poor 10 endure all
forms of poverty, misery aud wrong in this
world, under the hope of compensation in
the ncxt,-who tells the mass of mankind,
that they were born to suffer, toll, to die for
of wrong done upon poor humanity by lord
ly or priesty power, with this word, 'You
were born for this, good people, the preach
er, in fact, who breaches the spiritual with
out at the same time, preaching the tempor-
al redemption of the millions, is Liar unto
Christ, aud Blasphemer before Godp
flint he mad? whispered the Keeper
Just think How would such doctrine
sound in our churches! It's well his rich
congregation locked him up here. But bark
ngainp
And / listened to this singular group of
moral people as they spoke one by one.
will try aud record their exact words.
1t is not right said mad laborer 1T is
not rightp no, no, il is not right that | should
work all my life for just enough to keep body
and soul together, while the capitalist grows
fat on my labor and the labor of such as me.
j ought to have a chance to cultivate nv
mind as well as work my body. ought in
deed! For Pm an immortal soul as well as
Il working machne,-l amp
1t is not right said mad Woman, she
was young though very pale, and with a
black semi-circle under each sunken eye.-
1t is not right, that n girl like me, who
meant TO do what was good and true, should
be forced for want ofiood to sell my body TO
pollution! There's ten thousand such as
me in New York city, who are forced by
temptation, by poverty, by bitter want of
bread, to throw themselves into living dam
nation. This is not right Every third wear
ten thousand such as these, sink into death.
in the hospital or the ditch, and new ten
thousand take their place. Ten thousand
sisters and daughters,-O, this is not right,
indeed, indeed it is not rght!'
Money is not the great object of our lives
said mad Merchant. Buying cheap and
Upon my word it is not. We who sell
should be the friends and not the tyrants of
those who produce. 1t is not right, that SO
many OF our merchants should be forced by
the 'curse of trade to sell Christ and IIu-
manity, for rise in the price of dry goods
or even for an advance on Cotton. / hardly
think its right
NaXt n mad Child snoka ho ,.,.. . n.