Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-02-13

of the public charities of the day, none
appeal more strongly, or with greater elo-
quence and power, to the sympathies of
all classes of society than the care and
management of the insane Of all the
helpless and incapable OF the several
| grades of poor, suffering humanity who
appeal to their more fortunate fellow men,
none present more powerful supplica-
| ton than that unfortunate class, who, be-
reft of their reason, are left more helpless
even than infants, and for whose necessary
restraint, protection and care responsive
| public with each returning year
finds itself called upon to contribute
such princely sums of money, and about
which the general public are so little in
| formed. When reason leaves her throne
and man, who moment since, was but a
single degree lower than the gods, be-
comes but little better than the brute,
though still bearing the outward SEM
blance of humanity, hard must be the
| human heart which can view, untouched,
that most melancholy spectacle. Through
out the civilized world society seeks its
own protection and the care and proper
treatment of the demented through the
| establishment of public hospitals or asy-
lums, where they may be gathered together
under suitable restraint, and where such
treatment may be adopted as will tend to
relieve or ameliorate, as far as may be, or
If possible, to cure their terrible malady.
No one lives who does not appreciate
the urgent necessity for such provision,
and the utter impossibility for society to
exist without these institutions; but very
few are aware of the terrible extent of this
dread disease or the magnitude of the prep
arations necessary for the reception and
care of this numerous class of poor unfor-
tunate public wards.
| We have to-day in our young state 1000
persons who are numbered among the
class who must be provided for in public
hospital. To proyide for them at home or
at county jails or poor houses would entail
in the aggregate much larger expense,
and wherever tried has been found imprac-
ticable.
This, then, is the problem which looks
the people of the young and growing state
of Minnesota in the face. Here we are
| with
| ONE THOUSAND INSANE ON OUR HANDS,
who must be cared for at the public ex-
pense and whose ranks are being increased
from year to year as the population of the
state increases. This is the problem which
we as state have been trying to solve for
the past twenty years and which has led to
the establishment and maintenance of in
sane hospitals Nos. and at st. Peter
! and Rochester.
The foundation of these charities which
have now reached such enormous proper
tions was begun at st. Peter IN the year
1866 The following year the enormous
building which now constitutes hospital
No. 1, and which has total frontage of
| 1000 feet, was begun and was completed
in 1876. The great pile Of buildings the
| largest under one roof ever built or exist
| ing in the state, consists of central build
ing, four stories and basement, while the
annexes and wings are three stories above
the basement. The building is of st. Peter
stone, quarried upon the grounds, and the
architecture, while not elaborate, is neat
and tasty and is enough on the ornamental
to relieve the heavy monotony of the mas
sive stone walls. The original cost of the
building ready for occupancy was $450,O0O,
and it possesses a capacity for 600 patients.
When we reflect that it requires a far
| greater capacity to accommodate that
class of people and to properly care for
their sanitary condition than is needed for
ordinary hotel accommodations for
that number of guests the vastnes5 of the
structure can be better appreciated.
Scarcely was this vast building completed
and ready for occupancy when it was filed
to overlooking and temporary buildings at
the city were purchased or rented in which
the surplus were gathered. On the 18th of
Nov, 1880,
FIRE BROKE OUT
in the north wing of
the building which swept about two
ffths of the entire area, and was only
stayed after the most superhuman efforts
when it had reached the wall of the central
building. In this most serious and I'M
avoidable catastrophe some thirty one of
the patients persisted or after~ard died
from excitement or exposure. The re-
building of the section destroyed has been
done in most thoroughly fire.
proof fashion, so that a
recurrence of such horrible
calamity can scarcely occur, and as fast as
the legislature shall see fit to furnish the
means measures will be taken to recon
struct the only parts of the old building
which are deemed unsafe. The entire
building is heated by steam, Lighted by
gas and is furnished with a never failing
supply of water on every floor from their
large reservoirs, and for fire
purposes has the additional
use of the large pumps as direct pres
sure, which being located in the engine
house, itself fire-proof and issolated from
the main building, gives ample protection
against recurrence of the horrors of that
fearful November calamity.
With all the construction, reconstruction
after the fire and the support and
maintenance of those committed to its
care, the state of Minnesota has expended