The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-05-05

DtODles lue I6uubylNhUlh IoRlSlaIure passed
a law regulating the method of admission into
madhouses last year, and from one of her
most respectable asylums eleven sane men
were disgorged in week, whose relatives had
supposed they were comfortably slowed away
for life No such law has been introduced in
New York. In the very highest of these pri-
vate asylums, the tortures of the shower-bath,
straight-jaekst, and saddle are still used: but
worse than these Qor these are only pre-
scribed by the superintendent is the fact
that the patients are under the almost abso-
lutte control of keepers who are almost inva-
riably selected from the lowest and most
uneducated classes. In the male wards
strength is, perhaps necessarily, the principal
requisite In the attendants, who are ordinarily
low, stolid immigrants. Few women of re-
fnement and tenderness unfortunately are
willing to accept the place of keeper in
madhouse. The fact is, therefore, perhaps
unavoidable, that the men and women thus
thrown in contact with the poor creatures
who are hurt in soul and not in body, are
those least fitted to understand their needs
and most apt to abuse by cruelty the power
entrusted to them. OF all helpless creatures,
the one who most strongly calls for our pro-
lection and skill and patience is he upon
whose most vital part, the very life of his
life, darkness has fallen. If his leg were
broken we would give him careful nursing,
pure air, ease and comfort; but when it is
only his brain that is diseased, we give him
for companion and keeper a man whom he
probably would not employ as a servant, and
fling him with his own peculiar mania into
the company of four or five hundred other
maniacs, that they may teach each other more
reasonable views of life.
1t needs only visit to the best of our
asylums and cool, unbiased examination of
it, according to the light of ordinary common
sense, to make us doubt the efficacy of all
overgrown routine reforms. Men (and much
less women) will not be made sane by pla-
toons, according to one vague, lndlscriminate
system. What is yet doubt with us is GER
tainty in England. The call for a change to
the Scotch mode is loud and imperative. We
should profit by their example so far at least
as to place our public and private asylums
under strict legal surveillance. The latter
have long since ceased to be charities, and
are Joint stock concerns, which yield heavy
dividends to their corporators. Whether they
are efficient or not in their mode of cure per-
haps concerns those only who make use of
them; but it is the duty of the public to make
such atrocities as that of Lancaster impossible
in them. They are not impossible now.
GOVERNOR GEARY AS AN ORATOR.
From the Harrisburg Patriot
If there be one quality for which Governor
Geary will be more distinguished than
another, it is the excellence and brilliancy of
his oratory. AS soldier and statesman he
has won unfading laurels, but the intoxicating
rewards of the orator are most dearly coveted
by his Excellency Nothing so delightful to
him as to see the crowd swayed to and fro by
his mastery eloquence. One of the pecu-
liarities of the oratory of the Governor is the
skill with which he can address himself to the
hoo WI of tho Y1ortionlar anHianaa with which
he has to deal. There are several anecdotes
which illustrate this quality, but we need not
now refer to them. An instance of his
wonderful versatility and skill is his recent
address to the negroes in the Capitol grounds,
on the occasion of the celebration of the ff-
teenth amendment. He appeared before his
audience altogether unprepared. And here it
may be remarked that his Excellency never
is, and never will be prepared. The sudden
ness of the emergency brings into immediate
play all his oratorial powers. All that is re-
quired is the audience. Set the Governor
before it and the eloquence gushes from him
as from an Italian improvisatore. Prepara-
ton we fear would mar his best efforts.
In the address to the negroes he at once
gained their sympathy by declaring that he
had been an aboltionist from the sixteenth
year of his age. He saw a gang of slaves
once, one hundred and fifty in number, hand
cuffed to a log chain, and march away to town
to be sold. He said:-'I yearned in my heart
for them, and from that day became a con-
firmed abolitionist Then skillfully chang
ing the theme the Governor told his audience
of a remarkable negro whom he once met in
Mexico Exclaimed the orator-''The best
mathematician 1 ever knew was as black as
the ace of spades the collector at Vera Cruz.
thought, up to the time met him, that
knew something of mathematics, but after a
short conversation with him l skunk away
conquered" The fame of the great Arago,
of Hutton, of Legendre, of Napier, and other
learned mathematicians, must hereafter grow
dim before that of the nameless negro whom
| Governor Geary met in Mexico. 1t must have
been an inspiring sight to witness Geary and
this negro in Vera Cruz doing sums 1t is
the first time our hero was ever defeated
ciphering with darkey in Mexico.
| Turning back again to his youthful career
as an abolitionist, the orator, with well
assumed humanity, said:-'I do not and
never did consider it disgraceful to say was
an abolitionist, although was sixteen years
of age before 1 arrived at that point. And
now how grateful to my heart is it that,
during my life from sixteen years OF age to
the present time, / have never hesitated to
give my voice and right hand" etc. We
must refer the reader to the printed report
for the remainder of this remarkable ad
dress. 1t has been said that successful ora
tors are all deceivers, and it is quite evi
dent that Governor Geary is no exception
The crowd loves to be deceived, and he who
would gain their good will must indulge
largely in invention. Governor Geary was
addressing himself to an audience consisting
mainly of negroes, not one of whom coulo
challenge his assertions; and in this, we re
peat, consists his skill as an orator. Had h'
| haan aHdraccinn av1HiannA of white m6I