The Osceola times., 1884-11-29
MAD-H0uSE MlSERlES.
Places where Obnoxious Relatives are
Consigned to Living Deaths.


The lettre de caoliet was one of the insti- |
tutons of Bourbon tyranny which aided in
bringing about the French revolution.
Thanks to a slip of paper to which the
kings name was attached any man, no mat
ter how innocent of crime, could be snatched
from friends and family and consigned to
hopeless dungeon in one Of the prisons OF
the State. There was no appeal for
him and no redress. He was arrested
at the pleasure of the king, and could only
be released at his pleasure. Men who had
been guilty of no wrong were thus made the
victims of spite and emnity, or of self-inter-
est, and no mans liberty was safe.
In his Tale of Two Cities" Charles
Dickens shows the operations of this infa-
nous tyranny, and Barriere made it the
backbone of his once famous play, The
Dead Heart" BY Carlyle, the lettre de
cachet was truthfully described as alslung-
shot in the hands of a footpad who never
showed his face.
THE ENGLISH MAD DOCTORS.
The French revolution swept the lettre dc
cdchet out of existence in the last empire of
the Bourbons. Some years later all England
was Mortified to find that the very practice it
had condemned with such detestation while
it was in use across the channel was in ac-
tive existence in the right, tight little island
itself, only in England it was not the king
who signed the lettre dc cdchet but the doc
tors. AT the will of any unprincipled physi-
clan, ready to sell himself for money orposi-
ton, sane man could be declared a mad
man, and condemned to living death in
private lunatic asylum.
The law worked very simply. If the rela-
tives of rich man coveted his estate, or if
anyone had a relative whose existence or
freedom was obnoxious, they had only to
swear that he was mad, obtain the attesta-
tions of a couple of doctors to his eccen-
tricity, and he could be carried off and
locked up, to remain so long as the annual
cost of his maintenance was paid by those
Interested in keeping him confined.
Incredible as it may seem in a country
governed with such rigorous respect for the
law, this detestable outrage upon the COM
monest rights of man was continued for
many years, and only terminated by the
most terrific battles in the courts. In
Charles Reade's Hard Cash" and in War
ren's "ren Thousand Year" it was shown
with all the graphic power of the novelist
how easy it was for man to lose his liberty
in free England and how difficult to regain it.
AMEMCA's PRIVATE MADHoUsEs.
The infamy of the private madhouses
seems to have been transferred from Eng
land TO America. If recent revelations in
our courts 20 for anything, it is quite as easy
for the mad doctor TO do his fell work here
now as it used to be for him in England
thirty years ago. The boasted land Of liberty
enjoys the lettre dc cdchet as completely as
the favorites of the king used to enjoy it in
the happy days when Madame Dubarry
ruled France with the crooking of her little
finger, and the lifting of her painted eye
brow.
There are in this country said promi-
nent physician 10 reporter "over hun
dred private asylums for the care of the in
sane. These asylums are run upon the plan
of prisons and are nothing more. They
have organized and drilled armies of keepers,
who 90 armed and ready for the fray.
They have barred windows and iron doors,
their lodging rooms are cells, and they are
surrounded by grounds with high walls,
watched over by savage dogs, and little less
savage waTders armed TO the teeth. Over
this community the resident physician pre-
sides like the governor of a prisOn-an
autocrat against whose law there is no ap-
peal
"Once incarcerated in one of those shame
full institutions, the victim is lost to the
world. Nominally they might write TO their
relatives, but really they could not, for the
mad doctor had control of the mails and
read every letter that was sent out or in,
destroying or delivering them at his discre-
ton. NOminally they could receive visitors,
but in fact they could receive only those the
mad doctor chose to admit. They were, in
short, as absolutely jailed as any murderer
condemned for life to
THE GLOOMY PRISON CELLS.
ITO these places of torment and despair
any man or woman in the land may be con-
signed. All that Is required is the testimony
of couple of medical experts and the en-
dorsement of judge. Now let us look at
the details of the process. You are a rich
man, we will assume, and have a wild son.
He is burden and an expense TO you, and
YOU wish to be rid of him. All you need
prove is that he is crazy, and TO do so you
get medical testimony to his eccentricity
and your work is done. Any judge will sign
the commitment, and he is carted off to an
asylum, where you pay for his maintenance
till he dies. In the same way the children
of rich father may get rid of their parent
and grasp his coveted fortune. When you
consider how common eccentricity is among
us, you will understand how easy 1t is to
make man out lunatic according to law.
These victims of an outrageous law have
no defense. II is impossible for them TO es-
cape the asylum, because they may be COM
mitted and kidnapped without their knowl-
edge. Once in, they may get out If they can
In order to do so they must communicate
with the outer world; but to do this is almost
impossible. Occasionally they contrive it.
But for everyone who does so, scores remain.
abandoned to hopelessness and despair.
The vigilance of their keepers is well paid
and unreaxing. To bribe them is impossible
to escape their keen supervision almost
equally so. There are in our private
asylums to-day hundreds of prisoners who
should not be Imprisoned at all. Yet they
are there and likely to remain there, unless
a change in the law or revolution deliver
them"
A lawyer who has been instrumental In
securing the release of several of the
MAD-Hoy Sc VICTIMS,
made these comments:
II have never had a case in which the
managers of the asylum did not offer every
obstacle TO the course of justice. They are
dead to all considerations of humanity and
work simply for the money which comes
from full asylum. The chief trouble is,
that the law imposes no restrictions on
them. Countless violenees and even muir
der occur in these institutions which the
public hears nothing of, because the authori-
ties of the asylums do not permit them TO be
reported. They rule their private jails with