Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1888-04-27
.ASYLUMS NEEDED.
The Addition to the Terrell Asylum will
not Make Half Enough Room to
Accommodate the Lunatics.
A Building at Corsio ana to Accommod AZ
Two Hundred and Fifty Orphans Gould
be Filled By Fort Worth Alone.

LOCAL sTATEsMANsHIP OUT OF PLACE.
Special to the Gazette.
AUSTIN, TKx, April Pet is impor-
Legislature look upon the treasury sur
plus as 81 Oil, to be distributed through
out the state, not according to the merits
Of the institutions for which appropris-
tons are made, but in such manner that
there will be, as nearly as possible, an
equal division among the several sections.
When the House committee on asylums
had under consideration on Yesterday the
Senate bill appropriatirg $500 to be
used In building additions to the asylum
at Terrell there was no objection urged to
| the merits Of the bill, but its considers-
| ton was made to wait upon the DISPOSE
ton Of the bill providing fer an asylum in
Southwestern Texas, because that section
is entitled to its share Of the surplus
Look you now how unworthy Is such
reasoning. There is a crying demand
in the state for more asylum room-much
more. The $780, 900 asked for by Terrell
will enlarge the capacity of that asylum
by 400, and it can be done in less than a
year. II a new asylum Is built in South
west Texas, or elsewhere, Of capacity
OF 400 patients, it will cost $500. 900 and
| will consume some
TWO YEARS IN BUILDING.
Meantime 400 lunatics have died in the
jails of the state, or passed from the
durable stage to the incurable. The fact
is, both appropriations should be made
The Terrell institution should be enlarged
and an institution built somewhere else
with q capacity OF 500. There are
now hundreds of lunatics lying in the
jails Of the state because there
is no room for them in the asyluma, and
their number is rapidly increasing. APP
plications for 400 more than can be &C.
commodsted are now on file at Terrell.
Time is everything in the treatment Of
the insane. OF those received at Terrell
within three months after being declared
insane, 80 per cent. have been discharged
cured. OF those received after six
months confinement in jail, Is per cent.
only have been cured. The second three
months in j.il makes difference OF II
per cent. in the incurables. As the mat
ter now stands very large portion Of
| the insane
MUST LIE IN JAIL
beyond the fatal six months limit, the
| consequence of which will be that the
asylums will soon be filed with lot OF
incurables, and the grave will but close
over one that his place may be
| taken by another. II the state should
once provide enough room for all, the
case would be # 3rent. The poor un-
fortuna'es would be put under proper
treatment as soon as found to be insane !;
80 per cent. would be cured; the old
incurables dying Of would create all the
extra room made necessary by the in
crease in population for many years to
come; the cost per capita would be
materially lessened and q great burden
taken c e the shoulders of the tax payers.
Economy and humanity both demand
that appropriations be made now for
ample asylum room to accommodate all
the insane In the state.
| TO CARE FUR THE ORPHANS.
The Orphan Asylum bill seems TO have
struck q snsg in the Senate. The bill
creating the commission to locate thsin-
/ stitution seems to have passed at theyeg
ular session without having been given
much consideration. The object wsS ore
which touched the sympathy of members
and they did not allow the question Of
practicablity to cut any figure inzEse
matter. Now it is different. They have
paused to ask themselves II the pI6n is
8 feasible one, and some of them 4t3SSss
have answered themselves in thafnegs =
tive. The state has 1870 acres Of And tt
Corsicsra upon which to build th3 AA5lum<
The bill now pending spprop5lktes sfu6,-
900 for erecting and furnishing the builc-
ing. The building in contemplation will
accommodate $50 inmates. II Is IL
tended IS home for the ind
gent orphans Of the whole state :,
without restriction-whites, negroes ana
Mexicans. Two hundred and fifty would
not be an appreciable beginning in caring
for these. A building Of that capacity
| would do very we'll for q county institu-
ton, but one twenty times it's size would
not be large enough for the state. In
either Fort Worth, Dallas, Galveston,
Houston, San Antonio or Austin enough
homeless orphan bootblacks ana news
boys could be picked up in day to fill