The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1860-03-23


side has recently given some entertaining
scenes and incidents of tour from New Or
leans to New York. We find In tho last num-
ber an interesting sketch OF Miss Dix. This
lady has made q noble consecration OF her life.
energies and means for the good OF the insane.
We reproduce the sketch:
must not close this letter without IN aliu.
sion to one of the most remarkable women OF
her age. whom met OH the platform here, A.
left the Memphis cars. She had alighted
from the Cairo frain, and was entering that
tor the South. l knew her well. l had met
her several times In the past few years, on her
missions Of mercy. had only time to shake
hands with her, and learn from her tnat two
weeks before she had left st. Johns, New
foundland, where she had been to get grant
from the Colonial Government for the esiab-
lishment of an Asylum for the Insane there.
and was on her way to Jackson, the capital or
| enlarge, by forty rooms, the state Asylum
there, which her own noble efforts lew years
since had caused to be erected.
speak of Miss Dorothea =. DIX. VINO ma.
not heard of the name of this benefactress Of
her race She has been called the Flora
Nightingale, of this country. There is no
need OF making this comparison She stands
| alone in her own high place. The two are
wholly unlike. Each has her own mission on
earth.
will describe her as saw her on the plat
| form. Tall and naturally graceful. plainly
dressed in black silk, With a dark bonnet SIM
nified in her manner, and with the air of a
true and gentle lady she moved along, holding
hand, and her saichei and shawl hanging on
! the other arm. Her face fair and lorid. but
| Drowned a little with exposure and travel,
had that steady, berign expression mlngsd
with decision and energy, which character
izes her. This, with her calm blue eyes. her
| fine expressive mouth, her intelligent aspect,
marked her rs no ordinary woman. Shrink
| ing from observation, she was moving towards
hSsn n or I ma N
| the cars she sought. Ten years ago met her
at Nashville, where she was trying to get the
Legislature to appropriate $l000OO to State
Asylum! and succeeded, too She was then
very fair and in interesting looking, but constant
travel over the Union and in Europe, had told
upon her, and her face was strongly marked
with lines Of thought and energy.
For twenty years this noble Christian lady
has been devOting her time and private means
| to improve and elevate the prisoner and the
| lunatic She has been their advocate before
| every Legislature in the States! More than
| twenty States have asylnms erected through
| her elOqu quent appeals to Legislatures! She has
visited others, and had them enlarged and re.
| formed! Those which she has compelled Il
use the proper word) Legislatures to erect,
! she has revisited. Every one she keeps under
her eye, and jealousy watches against abuses
A few years ago she induced Mississippi TO
build an Asylum. II is now too small, -" she
said to me. "They have to put beds on the
floor; 90 to ask an appropriation for its en-
largement''
| And not only does she make Legislatures
| erect asylumS in all States, but she makes
| them reform their prisons! She has person.
ally ins pected every penitentiary in the Union,
and reported on them to the Legislatures, and
| recommended reforms and i'm prov eme IT'S, and
| ways and means for the moral and physical
| benefit OF the prisoners. She presents libra
| res TO prisons and asylums Last year at
| Natchez she solicited and obtained s., 500 from
| opulent citizens TO furnish pianos, pictures,
books, and oher means of passing time, for
| the use of female and male patients of the
| State Asylum. She said The State pro-
| vides buildings and officers and food. but
wealthy citizens must contribute comforts, and
even Injuries, to the unhappy inmates"
| few years since she visited England,
France, Italy, Russia. Austria. She was re-
ceived with distinction by Victoria, Louis
| Napoleon, the Emperor of Russia, and by the
Pope. Facilities for inspecting prisons and
| asylums were freely furnished her by the
crowned heads. At first the Pope refused her
| applications to visit his prisons! She then
| an audience. 1t lasted for an hour, and she
left him with the keys of all his prisons in her
| hand, in the form OF general order TO their
| governors to admit her. He said to her: "Re-
port to me what you see.' AT the end OF a
| fortnight she made her report, rebuking Ger.
| tain cruelties and recommending reforms "es-
| pecially the separation Of lunatics from con-
victs." His Holiness thanked her, and (what
| is more) adopted to the letter all her sugges-
! toIs! She left q blessing on the prisons Of
| Europe, as if an angel had visited them, and
| with large experience returned to this country.
| And now, one week III Newfoundland, and
another on her way TO Mississippi. she still
| goes on her mission. Quiet, retiring, self
possessed, full of courage and love for the suf-
fering, she traverses State after State doing
good.
| "And WHERE" do you ask, does she obtain
the means p They are from her own re-
| sources! She has never asked for 8 dollar for
| herself or for defraying her expenses in travel.
| Now, indeed, she is so well known that she
| goes free as air from Maine to Texas on all
routes! SGperintendents OF roads eagerly
give her free tickets for year!
| She is not rich! native of Salem, Massa.
| chusetts, she was born forty-ftve years ago OF
an old and aristocratic family. At the age OF
twenty, with party Of ladies and gentlemen,
| she visited the States Prison in CharlestoWn,
Mass. At that day lunatics were alwaye con-
fined with criminals. There were no separate
asylums for this unhappy class. The incon-
mad men in the prison: Misfortune, dis.
: ease, is no crime! Why are these here p she
asked member of the Legislature, who was
one Of her party. ut is customary was the
careless reply. "Iou ought to appropriate
| money to erect a separate institution for the
insane !" she said.
"Draw up your bill, Miss Dix he said
| pleasantly, ''and l will introduce ceit!''
She took him at his word the bill was in
troduced. Much debate followed. She ad
dressed letters to its bitterest opponen Is, plead
ing for it! She prevailed. 1t was carried, anG
| an APPROXIMATION OF 4 large amount Of money
was voted, and the next year :he walls of al
| insane asylum began to be upreared! Thii
| noble young woman did not stop here! Sh,
visited Rhode Island Connecticut and othe
States! She made it her mission to build VI
asylums and to reform prisons. She has trav
eled on her own paternal income of two thou
sand dollars, or little more, and out Of it ha
borne all Of her expenses, and done all that sh
has done!
God bless her! Heaven reward her! o.
earth tens of thousands Of the hapless insan
and OF the unhappy prisoners lift up thei
1hands and voices in grateful benedictioRs upol
her head Honor to her sex! Honor to he
| race! What homage shall be Withdrawn frcn
her, that a grateful age can give! Long ma.
of the lunatic, and ameliorate the condition o
the "prisoner and captive.'
DEATH OF FRENCH e Z L EBRIT Y.-Th
Athenssu um, in its Paris correspondence, call
attention to the death OF Coulon, q surgeo
} who was well known in Paris in the time c
/ Louis the Eighteenth He possessed exiraoy
dinary powers Of imitation. Coulon gave I'M
tations of the princes and princesses OF til
| ROYAL family but he was good cOurter.-
r He mimicked the elder branch with reserva
, ! tions; but on meeting prince or princess
. | the Younger he kept back nothing, but gave hi
! | talent tull play. He was particularly success:
. full with the Duke of Orleans, Louis Philip,
said-"Monsieur Coulon, you initiate me won
z derfully. l was enabled to judge for myse
o Yesterday. One small detail is only wantin
| for the compile ton Of the protrait; but that, I
e an artist like yourself. is an important one
What is it, MOnseigneur! asked Couton. ratf
| or embarl assed. Il always wear this damon
in my cravat," said the Duke; "permit III ,
/. offer it to you, that you may render the imits
q tion perfect" Aud, unfastening the pin, /
presented it to Coulon, who bowed, and said.
t generous. AS an imitatOr, had only u rigl
q ! To nastan Ooulon made his fOrtune,-tbanl