Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1880-02-28
THE SHAME OF TENNESSEE.
Her Insane Punished as DIalefaC
tors.

THE SHAME OF TENNESSEE.
Her Insane Punished as DIalefac
tors.
A week or two ago we called
attention to the shocking deficiency
of provision for the insane in this
State. AT that time we were unable
TO speak with precision on the sub
ject through not possessing the nee
essary statistics. We have now
been furnished with theleading fact:
bearing upon this subject by the
courtesy of DIR. Calender, Superin
tendent of TenneSsee's single Hos
pital for the Insane near Nashville
Let it be remembered that all in
sane persons not provided for in
this establishment are either roam
ing at large at the peril OF their OWE
lives or those of others, or, if sc
manifestly dangerous as not to adj
nit of this, are imprisoned IN county
jdiLs, and let it also be remembered
that most county jails in Tennessee
are disgrace to the State, even
considered as receptacles for crimi-
nails. What then must they be as
places for the confinement of per-
sons suffering under so cruel NAL
ady as that of ga mind distraught?''
Lear or Ophelia confined in county
Jail how does it sound?
Now for the facts. Our statement
extends over ten years, commenc-
ing with 1870. The applications for
admission during that period have
averaged fifty-five per annum be-
yond what could be accommodated
at the time of application. Less
than half of these have ever been
accommodated at all, SO that nearly
three hundred insane persons have
during that time either been driven
like Lear into the woods and the
storms, or else confined like crimi-
nails in the dark, fetid hog-pens that
pass for county jails. And the evil
is increasing; the applications for
insane persons who could not be
accommodated amounted in 1879 to
sixty-seven; thirty-four males and
thirty-three females.
But even this shocking record
does not nearly give the actual
number of miserable persons so sit
uated. In many counties the proper
officers have ceased making appli-
cation. Statistics, however, furn-
ishes US with the means of arriving
at a proximate estimate of the real
numbers. Men eminent in science
have compiled from an immense
variety of facts statistical tables
showing that insanity is diffused in
Il remarkably even proportion ac-
cording to population; and the ratio
in America is stated as averaging
one insane person to every 1000 of
population. Tennessee cannot now
have population of much less than
100000, and this at the above
computed average would give 300
insane persons at this time in the
State of Tennessee. Our existing
asylum, strained to its utmost ca
pacity and indeed beyond the num-
Der it can properly accommodate,
holds very little if any over 400
this leaves 900 afflicted maniacs and
idiots in the State entirely unpro-
vided for. Can we add anything to
the damning record of those figures
that can enhance their eloquent
condemnation of us?
But we will make a comparison
of the accommodation furnished by
other States for this purpose
with that supplied by Tennessee.
Virginia and North Carolina each
has a smaller population than Ten
nessee, and Virginia has three in
sane asylums, North Carolina two,
Tennessee only one. Kentucky has
a population very little exceeding
that of Tennessee, and Kentucky
has three insane asylums, Tennessee
only one. Maryland, Iowa, Michi-
gan and Wisconsin, none of them
equal in population to ours, have
each two insane asylums, Tennessee
only one.
And to back all must be again
repeated the damning record that
Tennessee has probably at this mo-
nent 900 persons most lamentably
afflicted with the loss of reason and !
10 provision made for them.
What can we add to these terrible |
acts that can speak half so elo-
Iuently as the bare statement of
hem? Nothing. We will only
with urging on our candi-
lates for legislative employment
hat there are some things in Ten
lessee calling for their attention
wen more imperatively than the
necessity of limiting taxes to ten
ents on the hundred dollars.
Nine hundred insane persons I'M
provided for by the State, and most
# them imprisoned in common
ounty jails!
THE Democratic National Execu-
i've Committee met in Washington
n the 23d inst, with Hon. H. w.
3arnum in the chair, and issued
l,o eolIo,,,:.. III