Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-06-17
LONE LUNATICS.
The Quarterly Court Of shelby County
to be Asked to Build a Ward
for the Insane.
Touching Incident-A Crazy Mother
aud Her Son Recognize Each
Other After Years.

A movement IL on foot to have the County
Couri appropriate $4,000, al iis meeting next
mouth, for theipurpose Of building depar,-
ment Tor the insane at the county poorhouse.
1t IL believed that the next Legislature will
take some steps toward establishing 8 State
Ins2Be Asylum in West Tennessee, but il il
considered imperative that something should
be done in the me antime. II Is often the
case that persons who are senl TO the poor
house once occupied high stations in lie,
surrounded by luxuries, education and re-
6nemeat, from which sudden whirls Of the
wheel of fortune have estraugsd them. 1t
hss been necessary to place all theae, some
If them delicate women, among the green
scum of humanity which IL usually collected
at such places.
AN INCIDENT.
Day before Yesterday Justice J. NJ. Cole
man, chsirman Of the Board Of County Com
| misEioners, was beard 10 relate an incident
which fully illustrates the above. During
one Of his visits TO the .poorhouse he noticed
| 3 young woman lying upon bunk in one OF
the wards, whose appearance was so striking
az to attract attention al once. She was evil
| IDENTIFY IN the last stages OF consumption, snd
| gssped hard for breath. Her bosom, which
lay partly exposed, was of aiabaster white
ness, aud rose ana fell like bellows az she
labored to breathe. Her form, though wasted
by sickness, was yet sylph-hke and graceful
! in every outline, and her face, upon which
sat the marble PAiioT Of csuel death, was
| lovely in the extreme. The squiline nose,
the delicate curl OF The lips, ana the general
contour of the features, betrayed the
REFINED AND CULTURED
| woman. Her beautiful eyes filled with tears
as she related her history-ene old as his
tory itself, yet one which never loses its
pathos by repetition. Her father was a
North Carolina sris;ocrat, who looked upon
his slaves "a subjects, his farm as a kingdom
and himself as Il king. Against his will mis-
daughter, who was young, beautiful and &C.
eomplished, married a poor man. From
that hour she was banished her fathers
house and her name forbid. The pair wan
dered of, frat to East Tennessee and finally
to the Twelfth District, this county. The
husband died OF consumption, and she was
obliged to go to work 10 earn living for
herself and her three helpless children. To
do this she worked st the Sashtu6 some
times and at others in the field
with the hoe. The hard work wsi
too much for her delicate constitution
and she sank into the same dread disease
which hsd deprived her Of her husband. "
will soon be with him" she said, sailing
through her tears, "but, oh, my children
what will become of them?" A pitiful wal
| ~ iuG It dlnei IA BHA-J 49, ~
poor creature turned her face TO the blsnl
white wall The next week che died ant
filed pauper's grave.
ANOTHER INCIDENT
r which occurred at the poorhouse before thu
new building wss finished is worth repeat
log. Amsster mechanic who came here viii
, his wife and six children in 1876, died of tn
plague in 1878. His vile and one son slon
, survived him. The former Loot her pIin'
and was placed in the poorhouse. The sol
wandered about the country, hopeles
ito, for months, and finally h
! 100 was placed in the asylum. Tn
male and female wards were divide'
by plank fence with small crevics
hetw zen the boards. 0le day DIR. Duucal
, noticed The mother suddenly stop SO /
s'griled aud gsze long and eagerly througI
: one of those Grevice-. Next day he notices
the same thing, aud going over into To
other ward discovered the woman's son occu
Dying The same attitude. "What are yol
I, zing az" he asked. MY mether," wa
the prompt reply. n xt day when he notice.
Tue moth=s looking through the fence agai
, ire asked her what she raw, and she prompt
a iswertd, ''Ny son" DR.. Duncan opened
gate and called the boy. He came running
and the psir clasped each other in clos
tmbrdce. i, had been more than two year
since they met, and neither had ever bee
, lucid, even for moment, before the heu
when they frat hehed each other.
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