The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1870-10-06
THE PARADISE OE LUHATIcs.

Inc straDgest OF all strange cities Is
Ghee|, as any one will. say who reads
this account of it: -. :, &
AS strange as anything produced by
the fancy of tue ,omahcist is the hn-
tory Of the town Of Ghecl, in denssly
populated Belgium, not more than
tweaty-six miles from Antwerp, yet as
uoknow. to the world at large q: if il,
were hamlet in the interior Of, Africa
more 50 opsrhaps, for We have great
curiosity concerning that which is diff
cult of attainment. For more than
twelve centuries, d is believed, has the
town Of Gheel, with the villages about
it, been a great asylum for lunatics, and
its people, for forty generations, l popu.
lation Of warders, till they have grown
to understand mental disease, as it were
by instinct, and the best means of
treating persons bereft Of reason. Lu-
natics are to the Gheelois simply af-
flicted persons, whom it is their tradi-
tional business to protect and if posi-
tle to cure, but WHO are welcome to the
town as tourists to Florence or Lucrene,
and excite an interest almost of the
same kind, though gen:ler and nob!er
in its manifestations. There, and there
alone in the world, they are made part
Of the population. -. -..
.''There they come and go as they c
please, they feel as much at liberty ss
the other Inhabitants Of the place.: and 4
recognize no inequality in their oondi::
zion, and there We End they act 'ss they
see others act, and it, 1ever occurs to
them 10 complaiu7 Of their psitios.r
What should they seek to escape ftom2 :
The place is theirs. "t1f. they leave the 4
house, nd one asks them whether they
are going, or'hov long they will Be ab~L
sent; and if, through sinadvetsnce,
they wander along the road which :
takes them out Of The village, it is
never with view to-: withdraw them
selves, and they arc only too sthankfnl
to be brought back: d' IF they ne 40.
lively dangerous, they are placed 10 the:
farm: houses scattered over the sut
heath Or ~ HCsmpiuea (camtaena) which:
surrounds Gheel, or if o1iHsc les
dangerous, in an. intermediate -:circle';s :
but the q eat majority, including men
whom We should deem dangerous mono
maniacs, are. biIIcted in cGheel itself ;;
every tiohahi'aht. Of the six hundred
households, though he spurs1es some
ordinary trade Or haodi-cr.ft, is also y
professional tn5urricier:' Once receir.
ed-and he is always welcomed to his
home by little family -festival-the
patient is left to himself, not watched,
not restrained, unless his fits render, .
padded ankle chain a necessity not
forced or even requested to work. but
allowed to joine in it or in household
occupations if he will-left, in, fact, %
.
free as he would be. in any city in
which his passport must be v;sed be-.
fore. leaving. The worthy Gheelois
do not mind, have no more feeling
about the presence of such patients
than Euglishmen would have about.
the presence ia few guests with gout,
ard treat threirl strange fellow-toHns-.
men as skillfuBy as if they were AL
mad doctors" Ut. :on 2: =: ;..,: -. p,
The ability to control lunaics has
been specially of the Gheelois for
centuries, and is dae like the success
Of many beast tanners, in the first place
to total asencc Of fear.f There il
more in it, however than this, sort of
intuitiyc shrewdness. as to the. mest
complicated of all the phenomena Of
madness-namely the permanent mo-
tives of the mad, and as to the means
Of suspcnding dangerous fit by turn
ing the mind from its contemplation #
the then dominant idea. One Of the
patients was. incessautly threatening
suicide, till bis 'nourricier,' cobbler
who had been attentively studying bis
boarder, at last remarked to lin "I'n
tell you what it is, you've talked Of this
so often that l am qnite tired Of the
subject, and em persuaded you are
right, and that the best thing you: can
DO is to try the window, since. you: are
not satisfied with going opt at,the door,.
HBut /, shall be killed z replied the
lupatic, completely taken abaek by the
coolness Of his host, "Oh! that is yoxr
look out. See here, TIL help you. .s
far as opening the, window gees, but
the rest you must DO for YOURSELF
And he arose .and deliberately. 'e opened
the lattice, which vas eeplys eenne: story
from the ground, and and beoY i. Hyass =
dung heap reaching fully hal half JEsat Jths dis
tapee. ta 4NoN,"o ks.e khs eoantieaed, a s:Iplan Il am
going down t. to dinner iE 90 % FL [,l say good
BY !'osl 'os suppose HF y9n dopt, dog t,v.pt M" !"
Il the eobbleF6 S! felt 'J aDJ alarm fof the
result Of bis experiment, sp, be was 50 soon q.
rsassspred, 4Soq 4for tbs llyppatic, ly o looking
steadily at him to see II he could posi-
by be in earnest, est, y; walked y :ogbee to tbs case
ment and closed a9s il observing, ba Vin,;G G.sTo s
dinner you said We Well [d19,a ddon't mind q
if dine too TOO 4l5c'. 5c,r do this aftsrygard:"
The patients asuaF uaFpembbsErasssd & p y as's ~ CON
6nemeInt, r1ever cont'adieted, never
compelled to compulsory idleuess. learn