Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-07-15
A PUBLIC INSANE ASYLUM.
An Ex-Psticnt's Words of Warming
How to Avoid Mental Disease.

An Ex-Psttcnt'S words OF warning
How to Avoid Mental Disease.
Iwould earnestly entreat the relatives
and friends of lunatics never to put them
in an asylum if there is the slightest hope
OF their recovery. In these institutions
everything is against their improvement
the associations for one thing. Imagine
a cOnsumptive, for instance shut up with
fifty other cOnsumptives; the sympathetic
action would certainly increase the VIC
lence of his disease and retard its cure.
The same thing is true Of mental diseases.
Again, a person is taken from a home
where he has delicate food on a table fur
nished with respectable, for want of
better word | will say, furniture, clean
cloth, dainty dishes, glassware, etc There
he must eat off a bare plank, with ill
tasting knives and spoons, made Of pewter,
while all his food is mixed together on one
plate. All around him are his fellow luna
tics, eating like hogs with their fingers
and muttering to themselves. The keep
ers meanwhile are cursing and swearing
or throwing potatoes at the men for
joke. Your appetite is destroyed, and the
little food you manage to force down Is
not digested and barely sutfices to keep
body and soul together. have no special
fault to find with the quantity or quality
Of my food although WAS never able to
cut the beefsteak, and as for the tea and
coffee-weu the paupers had enough to
eat such as il was
Finally the patients in asylnms are al
ways more or less cruelty treated. The
medical attention is purely perfunctory
and all the officials are Indifferent TO every
thing except their salaries II you want
TO see poor human nature at its worst
spend three months in a mHdhOuse II
you want to realize the value of money
and what il can do for you live in public
insane asylum. I've been a miser ever
since left it. A good private nurse and
a skillful doctor can often restore a pa
tient to reason who would never recover
If placed in an asylum.
A word or two to individuals suffering
from nervousness, a mild form of insanity,
and which is always liable TO develop into
a serious mental disease Never, under
any circumstances, Use either liquor or
tobacco; the fewer drugs, the better. All
these things render the nerves more sen
sitiye and can say from bitter experience
do far more harm than good. Avoid
anOdynes as you would poison You had
better lie awake all night than suffer
from the effects that invariably follow
from their use. Fresh air, gentle exer-
cise-violent exercise is very injurious
and suitable employment are the RENE
dies that will alleviate this disease. Don't
think about yourself; get outside of your
self as much as possible. l accomplish
this by frequentIng places Of amusement
and losing self in the woes of the hero.
forget myself and my troubles. most of
which are equally fancifuL But the best
of all specifics is music, which acts like a
charm to soothe the aching and feverish
nerves. Make up your mind to avoid
everything that Injuries you, screwing
your courage up to the sticking place,
bearing always in your mind the mad
house. If you do not exert your will
power, its doors may close on you, per
haps for rlife.--JaQues" in Brooklyn Eagle.