St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1886-09-11


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 un-
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 . state of
things could have existed in . civilized
community if 1 had not seen it with
my own eyes. If a new patient was
quiet, we'll 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 out
of humor. striking the men right and left
with leather strap and sometimes
pushed them down a flight of steps by
way of variety. l 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?"
"He's got the mumps," said keeper
with sly wink. and they laughed over
the matter as 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 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 hallucinations and
vagaries of insanity for ugliness or bad
temper, and they try to cure it by pun
ishment. Isaw patient suffering from
melancholia given cold bath, and
afterward knocked down because he
would not behave himselfproperly. If
a patient says any thing insulting to
them they resent it as quickly as though
he was in his right mind. have seen
an old man over seventy have his ears
soundly boxed for daring to criticise
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
chan ge 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. Fortu-
nately l was a boarder, and to this
circumstance alone owe my recovery.
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 imprcvement-the associations
for one thing. Imagine consump-
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, person is taken
from a home where he has delicate
food on a table furnished with respect
able, for want of better word l will
saw, furniture, clean clo6, dainty
dishes. glassware, etc. There he must
eat off a bare plank, with i'll tasting
knives and spoons, made of pewter,
while all his food is mixed together on
one plate. All around him are his fel-
low lunatics, eating like hogs with their
fingers and muttering to themselves.
The keepers meanwhile are cursing and
swearing or throwing potatoes at the
men 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
functory 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 mad-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 q miser ever since
l left it. a good private nurse and a
skillful doctor can often restore
patient to reason who would never re-
cover if placed in an asylum.
A word or two to individuals suffer-
ing from nervousness, a mild form of
insanity, and which is always liable to
develop into q serious mental disease.
Never, under any circumstances, use
either liquor or tobacco; the fewer
drugs, the better. All these things
render the nerves more sensitive, and l