New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-04-26
THE OLD MARINE HOSPITAL

The proposed change of the Insane Asy-
lum from its present abode to the Marine
Hospital, Common street, meets with gen.
eral disfavor. We are not by any means to
be understood as saying there is no change
needed, but transfer here would be the
easiest way of avoiding the future payment
Of charges, lnasmuch as the present force of
lunatics would all die off and trou BILE the
world no longer. It is a large iron-clad
building, this hospital, painted brown stone
color, and to increase the cheerful prospect,
the poor devil luneys will feast their eyes
on unexploded shells, twenty four Founders
that some one with an eye to business has
tastefully ranged on the margin of the
walks, while his frenzied eye, rove as it
will, will find nothing to distract his mind
but an open space, in which the dank
grass grows moodily, and over which the
miasmatic breath of the neighboring bitches
and drains rolls and cumbers like fog.
The impression that steals over q sane man
as he stands upon the rotting galleries of
comes in streaks, is like that of one who
stands amid the ruins of dismantled grave
yard whose tOmbs are empty and whose
narrow gorges, that have swallowed up the
dead, cape in an everlasting yawn. 1t
makes one remember all the sins he has
committed, to look around upon these dim
and rusty walls, looking ghostly in the sun
light, and appearing as if they had risen
"like an exhalation" suddenly from the
depths of some God-forsaken country where
the tread of human feet or the sound of
human voices has not been heard for ages.
Everything is tumbling into fragments;
the granite steps have caved in on their
brick foundations; rot has nibbled at the
edges and chafed the seams of the gal
leries, has eaten holes through the roof and
sides, has broken in the window sash,
stamped down the gables of outhouses and
kitchens, struck down the chimneys in a
promiscuous heap, honeycOmbed the iron
plates, and scanned the brick walls, while
over all hangs an ever present cloud, grow
ing deeper and heavier as the night ap-
proaches, and when the sun goes down this
malaria shudders through the gaunt and
lonely rooms like the shade of malignant
spirit. You would take the insane man,
for whose dread malady only kindness and
gentleness, cheerful pictures, an ever
changing landscape, or healthy employ
ment, would cure here where the soul of a
happy, healthy man would sicken. You
would take the poor unfortunate with his
mind diseased and ''raze out the unwritten
troubles of the brain; pluck from the heart
a rooted sorrow" by such means as this.
Not living thing upon which he may en-
terrain his sight or relieve the ceasless
twang of the one idea which drives any
man mad. You would give his senses to the
fetid odors of the surrounding cesspools.
This is modern civilization. This is the
plan proposed to relieve the present condi-
ton of our insane-bad enough, but this is
worse; "out of the frying-pan into the fire."
We don't believe man who has proposed it
knows what he is about This is one ct May
or Flanders projects. He has chung to it,
brought it up, and rolled it about before the
Council. Mullet, supervising architect, or
ders the sale Of the building on account OF
its unhealthiness and disease; an old, white
headed physician turns aside from the
building in disgust; two other physicians
have given certificates, attesting the disease
that turks about these arches and wreathes
about the regiment of iron pillars, like a
snake. Temperature, changed from summer
by the cold iron on the walls,
drips from the walls in noisome ex-
halations, concentrated from the mists
that arise from the bitches. With
army officers. surgeons, physicians, build
ers, architects, humanitarians, all pro-
nouncing against it, Mayor Flanders still
insists on driving the insane within one
wing of this institution and penning them
I'D in board fence sixteen feet high. To
make the place tenantable will cost $4,000,
with which more useful building could be
built up. There are hundreds of residences
with gardens around them better adapted.
A hundred thousand dollars in bonds has
already been appropriated specially for the
Insane Asylum, and yet the lunatics are to
be herded in this played out and unfinished
concern which brings on chill to LOOK
upon. The mere idea of being Imprisoned
in this worse than haunted house is enough
to make one raying mad, and it is the only
horrible thought we have had to entertain
our own head for some time. 1t would be
better to bury the insane people at once
and have done with it.