New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-03-04
ORR INSANE,

provident tendencies of organized society
than those presented by the poor, de-
mented creatures of our race whose rea-
soning powers have been obscured by
rooted sorrows no medicine can reach.
They are with us and of us; but having
lost the light which guides and the hope
which cheers, they are more dangerous
than the most furious, and more helpless
than the most helpless of all the brutes
that perish. Than the mailman, whose
rawlings are bitter mockery of the divine
gift of speech, and whose laugh suggests
the reVels of a fend, nothing more terri
BILE can possibly be presented to sensitive
intelligence. He gnaws his own flesh, as
if some ghoul, hopeless of a better feast,
had turned in fury upon himself, and sea-
soned his repast with curses as direful as
the utterances of f-llen angel. But there
are degrees in madness as well as in rea-
son. From an extreme case, such as that
described, to the mild lunacy which has
unconsciously exchanged the griefs and
cares of life for imaginary Injuries, there
is difference as wide as that betwixt the
witches hell-broth, brewed on the blasted
heath, and the honied stores which bees
gather from spring flowers.
But in what form soever insanity pre-
sents itself it furnishes sad subject for
the contemplation of the humanitarian
and the Christian. The soft melancholy
of the love-lorn Ophelia, though set to
gentlest music, is scarcely less pitiable
than the stern madness of Lear, when he
invokes the fury of the storm, prays in
formation from the imaginary lore of
some learned Theban, or finds tempo
rary relief in tears over the dead body of
his greatly wronged yet ever faithful
daughter. Though "sweet bells tangled,
out of time and harsh, be less offensive
than the frenzied fury of the maniac, yet
both are equally interruptions of that
'tstill small voice" which is the souls
highest and noblest, speech and which
carries the aspirations of the mortal into
the sublime infnitudes where immortality
is put on as never failing vestment.
1t is not, therefore, wonderful that the
tenderest sympathies of humanity go out
toward those of the human race who have
lost the light which gives to the life that
now is all its highest possibilities, and
enables the soaring soul to look forward
to illimitably grander possibilities in the
life beyond.
Time was when the care of the insane
was given over to stern, unfeeling men
whose only rule was the rod and whose cure
for the slightest mental alteration was cru
city. This system eventually became so
extreme as to provoke popular commisera-
ton and condemnation, and kinder and
gentler one was adopted, to the great adj
vantage of the unfortunates who had been
forced into confinement. From the time
this change was effected the number of
so-called incurables rapidly declined, and
the victims of mind diseased, no matter
what the peculiar form of alteration, be-
came more completely manageable. Even
for the confirmed Bedlamite more potent
persnasives were found than those adj
dressed merely to his fears. Though he
could not reason as man, mis- animal in
stincts could be aroused into unwonted
activity by aggressive violence, or he
could be tanned down into comparative
acquiescence by the ministrations of a
c onsiderate kindness.
Throughout this country the treatment
of the insane has of late years received
large measure of scientific and humanita-
ria attention, and in almost all of the
older States of the Union ample provi-
sion has been made for the unfortunates
whose strength is weakness, whose light
is darkness, and whose proper care is
admitted to be a question of high moral
and political concern. In this State, how
ever, the authorities have been sadly de-
linquent in the matter of providing proper
accommodation and treatment for the in
sane who have fallen to their charge. The
temporary asylum in this city is
deficient in the requisites necessary
for life's eommonest comforts, and
the State institution at jackson
is but little better. Such condition of
affairs is at once wrong to the sane and
and wrong to the dementsd. 1t inn
plies a pr ostitution of that representative
authority supposed to be derived from
popular consent, and is violatiye of every
principle of religious ethics by which the
proper care Of the unfortunate is imposed
as a solemn duty.
We trust that ere the present session of
our State Legislature closes ampler pro-
vision win be made for the comfort of
those in our midst who have been stricken
from the rolls Of reasonable and response
bic human creatures. In numbers they
are constantly increasing; they represent
all classes Of society and all varieties of
blood, and appeal alike through their
misfortunes and Affections to the benef-
cent care Of the generous and Just.
NEW YORK IN THE CABINET
Il seems TO be accepted by one of those
faeft undarafandinos mora rioidIv adhered