Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1884-01-18
Mhat 10 DO WITH the Insane.

what 10 DO WIN the insane
The New York Ssm, commenting upon
~. soa death of Charles Delmonico,
th,nks that It Is the duty of the relatives
n those who are not OF sound mind 10
80. ,hsm into asylums, where alone they
san be properly watched and cared for.
with certain limitations, the judgment
~ the Sun in this matter Is sound per-
sons who are insane, without lucid inter-
walls, or who are likely to be dangerous
In others in their insanity, should Ger.
tainly be confined in asylums, Tender
mass for the afflicted friend need NOS
ureyent his confinement when he Is not
In condition to be grieved at 1t or its
cause, and a proper sense of what is due
TO others will always call upon the judi
cIous friends OF those who are violently
insane. even though only at intervals,
60 put them under guard.
aut Mr. Delmonico's case was not one,
anparently, which called for his contne-
ment In an asylum, since he had lucid
intervals and was harmless in his mad
nass save to himself. The question is
whether It was more humane TO him to
confine him in an asylum, to his infinite
distress in his sane moments, or to take
the risk of his wandering away as he
did TO solitary death on the frozen
s,ope of the Orange mountain. Mr..
Delmonico's wealth enabled him to be
proyided with attendants, to whose fall
ure of duty his lonely wandering was
due. To such disaster as befel him he
wonld have been liable even in an asylum
where the guard is not so habitually yigi'
liant as to guarantees the friends OF the in'
mates against their escape. But few
DAYS ago such an inmate escaped from
New York institution in the night time,
and was found dead at a distance from
1t in the morning.
There is a class of persons, however,
whose confinement the law should re
auire their relatives to secure, upon Their
assurance of their insanity. It is that
class of man killers whose friends are
ever ready to swear to their insanity
when they are put on trial before aJury'
Young Mutt is the present case of this
kind which invites public attention to
the criminal responsibility of those who
declare aud swear that they have long
known their prisoner friends to be insane
and irresponsible for their deeds. Nutt'E
relatives rise up now with this unani'
nous testimony, and their physician
corroborates them. But surely if Nut
was thus deranged, and they knew Il
was it not their clear duty to pu
him in such confinement that he coul
not do the deed, which for weeks it wa
threatened that he would do? Betor
Dukes death it was the common repoI
that young Mutt would slay him. W
remember that it was reported tha
Dukes himself said that lie feared sue
an act OF vegeauce from this member {
the Mutt family. Nuts relatives Cal
not plead ignorance of this. Yet one {
them is found pistol practising with hi
on the day on which Dukes was slain.
We enot now expressing any opiniC
on the testimony in Nuts case as
whether he was sane or otherwise WHIT
he killed Dukes The suggestion '
make has only this extent that if Nut
friends knew, as they now swear tn
did, that he WAS irrespOnsibly insa
when he killed Dukes they are in fl
responsible for the killing, and shot
be punished by just law. There is
safety in permitting the natural custC
ians of those of unsOund mind to esCa
from legal responsibility for the Grimm
acts of their charges, when it is shOS
that they could well foresee and preve
them. Perhaps if the consequences of
prisoners crazy acts were to be visit
upon his friendly witnesses, there wou
be fewer crazy prisoners.