Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-11-07
CARE or THE INSANE.
The NEcRoMANcY .oF KINDNESS AS
ILLUSTRATED IN WISCONSIN.

HE NECROmANCY OF KINDNESS AS
ILLUSTRATED IN WISCONSIN.
Taking = Patient ont of the Strait Jacket.
In Charge of a Runaway-Defect in the
Present Methods of Treating the Insane.
A Wonderful Man.
It was in q parlor car en- route from
Chicago to Madison, Wis, one evening,
that the representative of Tho Times was
awakened from a reverie, or a semi-slum-
Der, by the sound of a voice. 1t was q
voice that made itself heard with distinct
ness above the roar of the wheels and the
o~bstreperous rumbling of the train. 1t
thus spake:
myers said he would take her, and
they said they wished him good luck, al
thoughthey were sure he couldn't do any
thing with her. She was n bad one and
no mistake. They had kept her in a soil
tary, with a strait jacket, because she'd
tear of every stitch of her clothes, and
when she had an opportunity she'd
break every dish she could get at. They'd
been feeding her in q tin dish which was
passed to her through q hole in her cell.
The only dress she could wear was a sin
gle garment of luck which she couldn't
tear. Well, Myers took her into his
buggy and drove out to the farm, and the
first thing he did was to have a regular
woman's dress made for herof print, with
underclothing and all complete. Then
he removed her camisole, had her dressed
in her new clothes, and took her dom to
dinner and seated her next to him at his
own table. He said to her: Now you are
To behave like a lady, and not break any
dishes, and act like other women. Well,
sir, she went to eating, she behaved with
perfect propriety, she never offered to
tear her lress or break any dishes, and
from that time IN she was N of the best
behaved inmates in the establishment"
myers is a wonderful man" resumed
the old gentleman, his face shining with
~benevolence. ''There was a young German
at the asylum who had an invincible de-
sire to run away. He would skip out at
every possible opportunity. They had to
keep him locked in a room night and
day, and generally with handouts,
Myers was in town one day, and the asy-
lum folks told him about this case. Let
me take him. says he. 'Whatr says
they, Take him! You can't do q thing in
the world with him. He'll run away a
dozen times before you get him home
Never mind, says he, PHI risk all that
They laughed at him, and says, We'll, go
ahead and you'll see.'
''Bimeby Myers got ready to go, but
before driving out to the asylum he went
10 a carpenter shop and took a piece of
board and had some cleats put on it so
that it looked like n framed looking
glass, all but the glass. He wrapped
this up so carefully in n paper and
then drove around to the hospital. He
had the handouts taken off the young
man, and then brought him down
to the wagon. See here says he, Il
want you to take a ride with me- The
patient got in, and then says Myers:
Here's Il looking glass that my wife
wanted inc to bring out to her, and |
wish YOU would hold it, and be very care
full not TO break it. She would feel aw-
full bad if it was broken The young man
took the package as if it was the most
! fragile glass, and her they drove off.
On their WAY out of town Myers drove up
to Il store, and he says to the young fell
low: Here, you hold the horses while
60 in and 81 some things, and be sure
| and don't let them get away from you
''He came back in n few minutes, and
there sat the chap holding the glass and
the horses, and seemed very proud of his
duty. They drove out to the farm, and
Myers took the young fellow in to supper
with him, and after the meal he says:
Look here, now! You've come out here
| to visit me and to stay awhile. This is
your room; there isno lock on it, and you
| can enter and leave whenever you feel
like it. And here leading him TO the
main entrance, is the door out of the
house, and it is never locked, and you can
get out ut any hour, night or day 1t is
a fact, that after this the patient never
left the premises, and never even showed
the slightest desire to leave, and he be-
came one of the most valuable workers
on the farm"
The benevolent old gentleman related
| several other incidents all relating to
what had been done by Myers. All OF
them were marvellous, and in some cases,
almost miraculous. When the train
reached Madison the old gentleman and
The Times exchanged cards. That of the
former read Andrew +. Gilmore" and
in the lower left-hand corner, Estate OF
Wisconsin. state board of charities and
reform, Andrew L. Gilmore, Fort Howard,
president" Iii not long since it began
to dawn on some thinkers of Wisconsin
that there was some defect in the prevail,
ent system of caring for the insane. That
system was the aggregation of these pa
tients; the construction Of enormous re.
ceptacles at unlimited cost, into which
cOnduits led from all parts of the state.
This agglOmeratiOn of mania produced
great masses, which fermented, putre1ied,
and rotted like accommodations of offal.
There was no opportunity for the air to
penetrate these cORgeries, with the result
that there was offensive decomposition.
The stencil from the aSylums peryaded the
land and offended the nOStrils of the SEN
sitive.
And then occurred to someone the idea
OF distribution in place of accumulation,
| OF diffusion instead of congestion. In
lieu of masSing the incurably insane il
was thought advisable to separate them,
SO as to secure the free inlet OF air and
sunshine and to allow Il larger personal
liberty. OF this idea was the Wisconsin
system born. In brief, this system is
enc which distributes TO the care of the
counties the victims of chronic dementia.
IL was found that such cases of insanity
as were treated in the county poor
houses exhibited better average results
than those cared for by the state hos
pitals.-Chicago Times.
If 1t Could TIE Thus.
uNur D,ucb p1nocoptnr II wnulI ha ~ n