The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-01-31
An OUTRAGE.
4 Sane Man Confined in Lunatic
Asylum.


New YORK, Jan. 25.-Jas. Il. Silk
man, who is now over sixty years OF
age. has lived for over twenty years
in Yonkers. His family consisted of
wife and four children-one son and
three daughters. Mrs. Si!kman died
over five years ago and bequeathed
to her children a house and lots val
ued at $4,000. The husband was ap-
pointed trustee Of the estate, in which
he held O life interest. The brother
of Mrs. Silkman, Darius Crosby, Is a
wealthy lawyer in this city and a
member of the firm of Lockwood q
Crosby. Mrs. Silkman'S son, Theo-
dore H., has for some years been en-
ployed in the Office of Lockwood &
Crosby, and is now about twenty-six
years old. 1t is alleged the son, insti-
gated 10y his uncle, began to make al
terationS in the house which Mrs.
Silkman had bequeathed TO her chill
dren without consulting his father
and in opposition to the fathers
wishes. Mr.. Silkman protested,
quarrel ensued with the son and
Crosby, who ordered the father to
leave the premises. A threat made
by Silkman to expose certain dis
CTcpduCIeS III CSIleilu iIdIEldS0S
and births in Mr.. Crosby's fam
lily it is asserted, provoked Crosby
into resentment. \ few evenings al
terward, on May Is, 1882, Silkman was
attending a lecture in the house of
bell rang and Silkman, in going to the
door, was confronted by three officers,
who arrested him, placed him in a
nd him To NNhifa
Plains. 1t is charged that on the next
day, without being taken before Judge
Clifford, who had issued the warrant
and placed in the state lunatic asylum.
There he was detained until August
%, 1888. Judge Barnard discharged
him on the ground that he was not in
ane or of unsound mind, and his re-
Straint and Imprisonment was unlaw-
full. The papers have just been served
in a suit brought in the supreme court
in West Chester county, by James G.
Silkman against Darius G. Crosby, in
which the latter is charged with inSti-
eating and procuring Silkman's incar-
ceratiOn in the lunatice asylum, and
damages Of 600 is claimed.
The most interesting part of Silk
mans complaint is that in which he
describes his treatment after he had
been incarcerated at Utica. On en-
tering the asylum he was locked alone
in a small cell or bedroom at p. m.
with no light, separated from all bod
lily comfort and friends and no oppor-
tunity given him to communicate
with any person in his interest. While |
in the mad house he was compelled to
associate with ordinary poor house |
patients and these who were really |
insane; to listen to obscene language;
to endure privation of all decent sani-
tary arrangement; to eat such fare as |
wretched butter. soggy potatoes and |
Long Island coffee, under threats to |
resort to the mouth screw and stom- |
ach tube in case of revolt at such IN |
accustomed and disgusting food, |
while the plaintiffs chronic in |
ternal ailments called for spe- |
cific articles of food, which |
were refused to him. He was COM
PEELED to make his own BED, and sweep |
the rooms and halls, go out with a |
squad of patients daily to hoe the gar
den vegetables and manure in the |
barnyard where sixty cows were fed; |
he was forced to go into the public |
streets of Utica under guard to |
sweep the sidewalks, pull weeds out
of the gutter and roadway. and hoe
cutters out. He was forced to take |
from three to five doses of drugs daily |
under threats of punishment, and had |
TO perform servile and mental labor |
in cold winter weather. He charges
that letter which he wIote to init |
mate friends containing Information
concerning important papers was sent |
by the asylum officials to Crosby, and |
that the papers mentioned were taken |
from the safe in his Office and used in |
an effort to prevent his release after |
being altered for this purpose. Mr.. |
Silkman is one of the managers of the |
society for promoting the condition of |
the insane.