The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1886-08-07

leave him to his fate, and he may be
there yet for all | know
| There was not any separation of the
patients into different classes, the
violent and quiet, the healthy and
those suffering from loathsome and
contagious diseases were all huddled to-
gether. At night the patients were all
locked in their rooms at the top of the
building, which was furnished with
narrow and crooked stairs. In case of
| fire the loss of life would inevitably
have been very great. The drainage
was SO imperfect that the air was
always tainted with repulsive and I'M
wholesome odors. For over sixty
patients there was only one closet, with
room for one person at time. The
brutality, cruelty and inhumanity of
the keepers was incredible. l would
not have believed that such a state of
things could have existed in civilized
community if had not seen it with
my own eyes. If a new patient was
quiet, well and good. If not, his spirit
was broken. | have seen three keepers
throw patient on the floor. strike him
with their fists, kick him in the face and
so abuse him that thought he would
| die under their hands. | often heard
them say: Il wonder we didn't kill
that fellow" The head keeper walked
up and down the room when he felt on;
of humor, striking the men right and left
with leather strap and sometimes
pushed them down fight of steps by
way of variety. | have seen men driven
from their meals by blows over the
head and then seen them running about
the yard with blood streaming down
their faces. l have seen an epileptic
beaten over the head until the blood
gushed from his nostrils because he did
not give up box of dominoes quick
enough to suit the keeper. When the
assistant superintendent saw him the
next morning he said:
whats the matter with your face?n
''He's got the humps" said keeper
with sly wink, and they laughed over
the matter as a good joke.
you think we're cruel" said a
keeper to me one day. You ought to
see how they treat them in Pough-
keepsie. We're kind in comparison to
the way they treat them there"
The manner in which patients are
treated in our public and private asy-
lums is disgrace to our civilization.
There will never be any change for the
better until a different class of keepers
are employed. Young medical students
or graduates, who wish to make a
specially of nervous diseases, could
find no more suitable place to study
their symptoms than in an asylum, and
l have no doubt would willingly act as
keepers, or, as they euphoniously call
themselves, attendants. Keepers are
not only brutal, but are also ignorant.
| They mistake the haliucinations and
vagaries of insanity for ugliness or bad
temper, and they try to cure it by pun
ishment. Isaw a patient suffering from
melancholia given a cold bath, and
would not behave himself properly. If
a patient says any thing insulting to
them they resent it as quickly as though
he was in his right mind. l have seen
an old man over seventy have his ears
soundly boxed for daring to criticise a
keepers baseball playing. When they
are not abusing the men they are teas
| ing them for amusement, or in order
to kill time, so that in one way or
another they are always doing some
thing to aggravate mental disease and
change temporary into chronic insanity.
| If | had been treated as most Of the
patients were | would never have left
the place alive, as | am naturally of an
unusually delicate constitution. Fertu-
nately | was a boarder, and to this
| nj To Iona /
| Iwould earnestly entreat the rel
atives and friends of lunatics never to
put them in an asylum if there is the
slightest hope of their recovery. In
these institutions every thing is against
their improvement-the associations
| for one thing. Imagine consQmp-
tive, for instance, shut up with fifty
other consumptives; the sympathetic
action would certainly increase the
violence of his disease and retard its
cure. The same thing is true of mental
diseases. Again, a person is taken
from home where he has delicate
food on a table furnished with respect
able, for want of better word | will
say, furniture, clean cloth, dainty
| dishes, glassware, etc. There he must
eat off 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 fell
low lunatics, eating like hogs with their
fingers and muttering to themselves.
The keepers meanwhile are cursing and
swearing or throwing potatoes at the
mep for joke. Your appetite is de-
stroyed, and the little food you manage
to force down is not digested and barely
suffices to keep body and soul together.
have no special fault to find with the
quantity and quality of my food,
although was never able to cut the
beefsteak, and AS for the tea and coffee
well, the paupers had enough to eat
such as it was.
Finally the patients in asylums are
always more or less cruelty treated.
The medical attention is purely per-
.fuhctory and all the officials are indif-
ferent to everything except their
salaries. If you want to see poor
human nature at its worst spend three
months in amad-house. If you want to
realize the value of money and what it
can do for you live in public insane
asylum. I've been miser ever since
/ left it. A good private nurse and a
skillful doctor can often restore a
natient to reason who would never re-