The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1886-01-29

relic of barbarism. Then there was the
man who thought he was pincushion.
He yelled like Q Comanche Indian
when ever he was touched. A touch
always drove the pins into his heart,
he said. The man who believed him.
self to be a COW afforded some amuse-
ment for two visitors who entered the
ward while we were at work. He
amused himself by pinching his bleeding
arm. He said he wanted to provide
virus for the vaccination of the world.
The men who are constantly pursued by
relatives who are seeking their lives for
a variety of reasons make hot work for
the keepers. It was generally found nee
essary to hold these patients down BY
main force, and to vaccinate them while
they are living extended on their stom-
achs. We began work before two
o'clock in the afternoon, and were
through with it by six o'clock. In spite
of the difficulties under which we labor
took
II had almost forgotten to say there
just as we were approaching the end OF
our task heard scuffle in one of the
cells. 1t lasted SO long that l became
curious to know what it all meant. just
as 1 approached the door of the cell a
short, rather heavily built, fine looking
man was propelled from the inside by q
keeper. The latter said the man refused
to leave his cell on the ground that he
did not wish to be vaccinated. A wish
of this sort, when expressed by luna
tic, did not generally meet with much
consideration. l looked at the man.
He seemed to be making an immense
effort to control himself He said to me
quietly, though in voice that trembled:
Doctor, am here by mistake. l am
not insane, and hope you will not vac.
cinate me-. He was SO much in earnest
and made the request sound SO much
like a prayer that 1 hesitated. There
was something familiar about his face
that set me to wondering if l had ever
met him under different circumstances.
l finally told the keeper would not vac.
cinate the man until the following day.
Two hours afterward, while was smok-
ing pipe with the apothecary, in his
den on the ground floor, this particular
keeper sent word that he wished to see
me. He said: Doctor, that Ghan who
didn't want to be vaccinated knows you.
After you left the ward this evening he
asked if your name wasn't such one,
and when l said it was, he said he
knew you years ago, when you were o
small boy l asked for the name OF
the man. 1t was given to me. and it
proved thorough surprise. He was
one of firm of well-knOwn stock
brokers in the city. knew his people
well, but had not seen him since [ was,
as he described me, a small boy. / lost nc
time in seeking an interview with him.
l do not think ever saw one human
being so glad to see another as he was
to see me. He told me his story. not
such an uncommon one as you may
think. He prefaced it by stating that my
presence had probably saved him from
becoming a raving mailman. He had
been in the asylum three days when
saw him, and another such three days,
he declared, would have dethroned his
reason. On the night previous to his ar
rival at Wards Island he had left his
hotel with number of friends who
wished to do the town. They did the
town in the usual manner, or perhaps
they did it little more thoroughly than
usual, for my friend became separated
from his party about three o'clock in the
at which hour he was most
drunk. He was found
wandering about by police
man, who evinced desire to lock him
up. To this he objected. The police
man, who was probably not so drunk as
my friend, dubbed the latter into state of
and then ran him in. Inthe
morning, when the ordinary natty
stock broker appeared at the bar of the
TOmbs Police Court, he was in woe
full plight. The whisky and other stuff
he had drank and the beating he had
received had made him insensible to his
or his surroundings. The po-
liceman made a charge of drunk and
against him, and in addition
said he believed the prisoner was insane
and dangerous. The stock broker
called the policeman liar. Upon this
evidence of his insanity he
was sent to the lunatic asylum on
Wards Island. He spent three nights
in the asylum, surrounded by madmen
and guarded by keepers, who listened
to what he had to say, but paid no fur
Their attention to him. He owed his de-
livery to peculiar combination of cir
was the unexpected
order to vaccinate the lunatics; the alb
sence of most of the medical staff, which |
two of us to do the work and |
gave the man an opportunity of seeing
me he would otherwise not have had,
and the scuffle in his cell, which at |
tracted our mutual attention to each |
other. Well. to make a long story |
short, had the man removed from his |
cell to my room that night, and not
many days afterward he was doing his
usual work in the street. Chicago Her
aid.
AMERICAN POETRY.