The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1884-04-29
A SAD CASE.
Mrs. Adkins. Ten Years a Luz
matte, Confined IN the
Pest House.
She Has to be Tied in Bed, and Be-
comes Violent on the Change
OF the Moon.

One of the saddest, most fearful cases of
lunacy that has been presented to the peo-
pie of this city for many a long day is
that of Mrs. Mary Adkins, whose malady
is not of the common order, and
whose rawlings at times are enough to excite
the sympathy of a wooden man.
She is a married woman, TWENTY-FIVE
years OF age, the mother of three children
aged six years, four years and fourteen
months respectively. Her husband, Isaac
Adkins, has long been resident of Soda
liza, and for some time has done little or
nothing to support his family, spending
his scanty earnings at the saloons, aud in
his drunken passions beating his helpless
and afflicted wife until her arms, body and
feet are covered with scars and bruises
A reporter called at the city pest house
yesterday afternoon, where Mrs. Adkins is
confined, or, rather, guarded, for only at
times does she show a disposition to
BREAK AWAY FROM HER KEEPERS.
She was sitting by the cooking stove read
ing copy of the BAzoo aloud, in a voice
one would hardly take for that of an in
sane person. She was clad in plain calico
dress, over which was fastened a heavy
wooden skirt. Her hair, long enough to
reach to her shoulders, was uncoutined,
and spread over her shoulders, neck and
face, and it was with some difficulty she
could keep it from her eyes. The reporter
engaged her IN conversation as to her his
tory. She freely told of the terrible beat
iDgs she had received from her husband
and motherin-law, and placed all the
blame on the latter. She said her
husband had never struck her when
she did not deserve it, but was very bitter
10 her denunciation of his mother She
has lived in Sedalia for num5er of years,
and has been afflicted about ten. She has
twice been an
| INNATE OF THE FULTON ASYLUM
! for the insane, returning the last time only
few weeks ago. She can give no salts
| factory cause for the refusal of the ASYLUM
authorities to keep her.
! For the first half hour of the reporters
presence she was, apparently, sane, and
talked like woman who had received no
small degree of education, but at the end
OF that time the malady again beset her,
! and she became, In an instant, a gibber-
ing maniac. No cause is known for this
sudden change, nor could she, afterwards,
remember anything that had been said or
done during the attacks.
She would take the paper, spread it
smoothly over the top OF the stove and
drum on ii with her hand, at times
STRIKING VERY HARD BLOW,
in time to a tune she was humming. Once
when thus beating she glanced ost of the
window and saw passing funeral eortege.
At this she set up a still more furious
humping, saying she was drumming for
the passing of an army OF soldiers.
This over, she laid her head down on
the stove, keeping it there until her hair
began to smoke from the heat. After lift
ing her head she would claim the loss of
her eyesight, ard
DEMAND PAIR OF DARK GLASSES
before she would again try to see. 1t is
not known whether her eyes were affected
or not, but her keeper said complaints of
loss of sight we're frequent, and caused him
much uneasiness,
All at once her mind would become Sc
rene again, and the conversation begin
where it was dropped by her Eighty
actions.
Clearly, it is case of genuine lunacy,
she herself, saving that the moon affected
her most wonderfully. In one of her sane
moments she told the reporter that she
would have to be
TIED NEXT SATURDAY,
when the moon becomes full, or she might
do great harm to herself or her keepers.
Ii is a case t. attract the attention of the
medical profession, and unless something
is soon done, she will be beyond the hope
of recovery.