Litchfield enquirer., 1875-12-16
The walnut Fill Asylum.

tered ''The Connecticut Reformatory
 Home" This institution vas designed for the reception of inebriates seeking it's benefits voluntarily; for confirmed drunk ards committed by decree of court and for minors sent there for reformation by parents or guardians. There was, how ev- ers 10 6tats appropriation, and the oFguB- ization of the corporation was not com pleted till lest April, when the subscrip- tion of about S17. 900 enabled the directors to purchase suitable site for the propos- ed asylum At Walnut Hill about two miles southwest of the depot in the city of Hart ford. This site includes the old Walnut farm of 40 acres, beautifully situated, with complete t~o story house and two barns and costing S2i .0OO. r..ate s- 5
 In October last the executive committee of this institution made . report which has been printed, and is before us, in which they solicit further aid for their en. terprise. They urge with special force that some portion of the $2O0. 900 paid in- to the town treasuries for liquor licenses should be set apart for the reform of the inebriates caused by the traffic from which this large income is derived. The records of existing inebriate asylums indicate that through their agency about one-third of the persons treated in them are thorough. ly cured; another third is much benefit ted; while only the remaining third derive no permanent advantage When we remem- Der that the statistics of mortality report cd in the census of 1870 show 100, 900 deaths from drunkenness per annum in the United States, and that 1000 to 1,5O0 are dying annually from that cause in Con- necticut. we must confess that there is not one of our existing reformatory or charit- able institutions of equal importance with the proposed asylum. It has only to ac- complish the results attained by similar institutions elsewhere to entitle it to g lib- eral support. The committee remark that in former times the insane were neglected just as the inebriate is now neglected. Thirty years hence they predict that the inebriate asylum will be considered as much a public necessity as the insane re- treat Now, the State has authorized the committal of inebriates4o asylums "with- in the state, where there is as yet no such institution. They are illegally confined in jails; they are allowed to go at large, ene- mics to society and themselves; or they are sent to insane asylums, little to their own advantage. and greatly to the injury of those institutions. Plainly. even if on- ly small proportion of our inebriates can he cured in suitable asylums it is the duty of the community to furnish. the oppor- tunity for such reformation.
 The committee divide the persons for whom reformation is sought in such an institution into three clauses First, the vicious and corrupt with whom intemper- ance is only one form of evil indulgence among many. The cure of this class is impossible without such radical change of moral character as is not often accom- plished. The second and most hopeful class is that of persons who, in seasons of overwork, have sought the help of stimu- lants to such an extent as to poison their systems with the alcoholic virus. third class comprises inebriates allured into dis sipation by bad associations and convivi- al propensities. They urge with great propriety that the asylum should have the means of separating it's patients into their appropriate classes and giving each its ap- propriate treatment. They ask for one receiving building whose occupants are to remain under absolute control, and other buildings for such as prove able to govern their appetite and who do not require the restraints necessary for these who are lost to reason. They twill strive especially to restore to friends and society those who have blasted the hopes of their loved ones through the the deadly allurements of the social cup" This is a call to which a Connecticut legislature should give imme- diate heed. It would be parsimony, not economy, to neglect it.