The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1873-01-30
<@ TIPTON, IOWA. JANUARY 80 1873.

O, 1878.
r commissioners allowed claim for re
, pairs at every meeting, the repair
; were never made, and it would not d.
: to scrutinize Mr.. Jones' bills too close
ly, unless you gave up all hopes Of
renomiEation to Office. One curiou
J effect of the political aspirations IL
Hooppole County, was to shut the eye
that they could not see, to close tn
ears that they could not hear, and t
destroy the sense Of smell. But Ralph
not being . politician, smelled the hog
pen without and the stench within
and saw every where the transparent
fraud, aud heard the echo of Jones
cruelty.
A weak-eyed girl admitted him, and
as he did not wish to make his busi-
ness known at once, he affected q sort
of idle interest in the place, and asked
to be allowed to look around. The
weak eyed girl watched him. He
found that all the women with chill
dren, twenty persons in all, were OBJ
liged to sleep in one room, which, ow-
ing to the hill-slope, was partly under
ground, and which had but half q
window for light, aud no ventilation,
except the chance draft from the door.
Jones had declared that the women
with children must stay there-"he
warn't goin' to have brats a-runnin'
over the whole house, Here were
vicious women aud good women, with
their children, crowded like chickens
In = coop for market. And there
were, As usual in such places, helpless,
idiotic women with illigitimate chill
dren. OF course this room was the
scene of perpetual quarreling and oc-
casional fighting.
In the quarters devoted to the in
sane, people slightly demented and
raving manaics were in the same
aOutHSs WuHc tucIO WcIc olSO tuOoc w
ter wrecks which sat in heaps on the
floor. mumbling and muttering unin-
telligible words, the whole current of
their thoughts hopelessly muddlNf,
turning around upon itself in eddies
! never ending.
THAT air woman said the weak
eyed girl, s'used to holler heap when
she was brought in here. But pap
knows how to subjue 'em. He slap
ped her in the mouth every time she
hollered. She don't make no furss
now, but jist sets down that away all
day, and keeps a-whisperin'."
Ralph understood it. When she
came in she was the victim OF mania !;
but she had been beaten In hopeless
idiocy. lDdeed this state of incur&ble
imbecility seemed. the end toward
which all Travelled. Shut in these bare
rooms, with no treatment, no exercise,
no variety, aud meager food, cases Of
slight arrangement soon grew into
chronic lunacy.
One young woman, called Phil, .
sweet-faced person, apparently farm
er's wife, came up to Ralph and look
ed at him kindly, playing with the
buttons on his coat in child-like SIM
piicity. Her biue-drilling dress was
sewed all over with patches Of white,
representing ornamental buttons, and
the womanly instinct toward adorn-
ment had in her taken this childish
turn.
Don't you think they ought to let
me 20 home ?v she said with sweet
ness and wistful, longing, home
sick look, that touched Ralph to the
heart. He looked at her, and then at
the muttering crones, and he could
see no hope of any better fate for her.
She followed him round the barn-like
rooms, returning every now and then
to her question, Don't you think /
might go home now?'
The weak eyed girl had been called
away for q moment, aud Ralph stood
looking into cell, where there was .
man with gay red plume in his hat
and strip Of red flannel about his
waist. He strutted up and down like
drill-sergeant.
II am General Andrew Jackson"
he began. "People don't believe it,
but am. had my head shot off at
Bueny Visty, and the new one that
growed on isn't nigh SO good as the
old one its tater on one side. That's
why they take advantage of me to
shut me up. But know some things.
My head is tater on one side, but it's
all right on t'sther. And when l
know a thing in the left side of my
head, | know it. Lean down here.
Let me tell you something out of the
left side. Not out of the tater side,
mind We. | wouldn't . told you il he
hadn't locked me up fer nothing.
Bill Jones is a THIEF! He sells the
bodies of the dead paupers, and then
sells the empty coffins back to the
county again. But that amt ALL"
just then the weak-eyed girl came
back, and, as Ralph moved away,
General Jackson called out: THAT
amt all. I'll tell the rest another
time. And that ant out of the tater
side, youscan depend on that. That's
out of the left side. Sound as nut on
that side -
But Ralph began to wonder where
he should find Hannah's 8 mother.
"Don't go in there!" cried the weak
eyed girl, as Ralph was opening q
door. "Ole Mowley's in there, and
she III cuss you."
''Oh! well, if that's all, her curses
won't hurt said Hartsook, pushing
open,the door. But the volley Of bias
phemy and vile language that he re-
ceived made him stagger. The old
hag paced the floor, abusing every body
that came in her way. And by the
window, in the same room, feeling
the light that struggled through the
! dusty glass upon her face, sat sorrow
ful. intelligent English woman.