New-York tribune., 1874-03-07
PENYSYLVANIGS INSANE ASYLUUS.
THEIR SHOCKING CoNDITIoS-How IT IS PROPOSED
70 CORRECT THE ABUSES.

THEIR SHOCKING CONFEDERATION IT IS PROPOSED
70 CORRECT TIE ABUSES.
To the Editor Of The Tribune.
SIR: bill has Just been introduced into the
Pennsylvania Legislature providing that no more
paying patients shall be admitted into the State In
sane Asylums until all applications for the admission
Of the INDECENT insane shall have been considered
At first sight this matter appears to be one of mcrey
local interest but closer examination shows that it
hints at a system of almost incredible cruelty and
injustice long pTacticed in State, TO which
slavery itself was mercful. / call attention 10 it
not only TO help Pennsylvania rid herself of this foul
plague spot but to suggest the inquiry whether New
York is any less guilty. About 19 years ago a
thorough examination made by Miss Dix into the
condition of the insane in Pennsylvania aims
houses and ails and in consequence of her appeal
State Asylum for the insane poor built at Har-
risburg and large sums have been yearly paid by
the people to maintain it, and also TO subsidize pri-
yate asylums in order that they might also recevea
part of these helpless wards of the State. The
Establishments were costly the salaries of the officers
high. il doubtless was more pleasant for these lat
ter gentlemen to receive respectable patients whose
friends were willing TO pay for their board aud at
tention rather than the miserable paupers orwhose
aid the asylums were built. Hence the institutions
are now full OF rich wellto-do, paying patients,
Willie the poor eremanded to amshouses and jaIls;
if application is made for their admission
to the houses which literally belong
to them by right, they are turned away
with the brief answer that there is no room for
them. Pennsylyaniaus, like other Americans, are
usually content TO jog under any load of injustice
that has benevolent OF respectable reputation.
They have paid heavy taxes year by year to support
these Asyums, pointing to them with pride, while
they knew the helpless beings for whom they were
meant were still Gagged III their county jas and poor
houses. Their condition in these places has at last
been investigated and made public i'll the report Of
the Board Of Public Charities Its tale of unvar
nished horror surpasses even the account of the
State Prison of Connecticut, which was supposed to
hold first rank in cruelty.
The Board report, first that so-called) insane
criminals instead of being sent by the courts to the
State hospitals, taken to the penitentaries and
there kept in cells. without any effort for their cure,
for years subjected to a treatment which the
wardens themselves declare unjust and inhuman.
MANY of these hapless wretces have there fingered,
forgotten apparently by God or man. until death
remembered to take them Still more terrible is the
condition of the insane paupers liz the county aims
houses; the details of the report too revolving
for reproduction 1t is enough TO say that III this
fair land of Penn, of the most wealthy, fertile
States in the Union, State more full than any other
of comfortable happy homes, where the sound of the
chnrch-beu is heard on every hill, thousands Of
these poor creatures, whom God has given
wards into the care of his people, kepti in filthy
cells less attention given to them than would be to
the lowest animals; naked, chained TO the floor,
sometimes with both hands to the ceiling; kept,
after all necessity for confinement had passed, for
wears without ever being led out into the fresh
air." There was one old man in chains for forty
wears, chains which one of the Board himself filed
away before leaving the cell; respectable young
woman driven TO insanity by her seducer and left
penniless and friendless, confined for twenty-One
wears in damp cell into which the daylight has
admission, without seat or other furniture beyond
a foul straw bed. Her legs have become
80 contracted by the dampness and forced
position that the only movement possible
to her il that of frog In other poorhouses there
are cells reeking with every description of filth, and
filled with women whom the inspectors found abso-
lutely "wthout a single garment, in bitter
Winters night, covered with vermn and blue with
cold brought down far below the evel of the brutes'
And all this while the State is supporting enormous
asvlums To give them shelter. The progress Of the
hill for the redress Of this monstrOus wrong should
De lnsel, watched. j. II nor Inat'rr when con
Germs PENNSYLVANIA alone but all humanity
Philadelphio March ), 1874. Yours, d.