Idaho semi-weekly world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1875-1908, 1888-09-28
TIE INSANE era.
.rmoroux Essay Seasoned wiz"
A Of Cutting satire

| alarming inCreaoo u" a.. sun
civilized peoples, and it Is fair 70 SUP
pose that the gain of mental aonot'n
ILL continue with advancing years
until sanity will be the exception ra'n-
or than the rule. In that happy o"y
for we hold that the imbeciles are the
only happy persons in this worl ORIG. ..
ours-the sane man will be an once.
If nitv and. alas too frequently Oh
mirtb. and he will be locked up ana
strait-iaeketed and repressed ana re,
strained in divers ways now prescribed
for the care and cure OF the crazy anu
the putting of the lunatic under LOCK. !
In society the people living at that
time will cease to hear OF the eccen-
tricities of genius. and the discourse
will consist in praise or blame OF the
neculiar phase of insanity of this or
that distinguished parsonage Cen
eral A. will be severely criticised for
permitting his normal tendencies 10
interfere with his darling project OF
building covered way to the moon;
Judge B. will be eulogized to the heav-
ems for his persistent purpose in select
ing for iurymen only such as have slain
a relative or compounded a felony,
and interminable discussion will be
provoked by the course of Rev. Mr.. b.,
who has enunciated the dogma that
there may be an opportunity for the
right-minded to repent after death, the
arguments of the disputants at times
waxing as warm as do some OF the
wranglcrs of our own day over specu-
lations equally abstruse.
There will be societies for the sup
preston of the sane and associations
for the amelioration Of the mentally
albright, and while the crazy ones OF
the earth shall fill all public stations
and move about at their pleasure. the
normal-minded shall be thrust from all
places of trust and emolument and
, be INJURED up within lofty buildings.
which shall internationally burn down
and thus work radical cure upon the
inmates.
q Matters will not be greatly unlike
| what they are at present, but the
q tables will be turned. and as public
q affairs can not be conducted less skill
fully than they are now. it is fair to
| presume that they may be carried on
n more successfully. for the insane who
e will then have charge will not be
hampered by those conventional ideas
r which have proved so abortive OF
n progress and which have bound nor
- NAL humanity to an inexorable follow
;. ing of methods that have invariably
$ sought out the longest way toward de-
o sired results and the least practicable
means for the end in view. Untram.
. meled. therefore. by the WORKOUT and
u discredited practices of the past, thu
a lunatcs will start out ab initto, and W.
II have faith to believe that they will
,r strike out better systems of govern
d ments and develop more perfect idea
y of social science than any that eve
n obtained during the ascendency of TIN
healthy-minded race, so called
r. There will. of course, be man
N changes in public sentiment, which t
n anticipate seem odd enough, but whic
;s will in their own season excite little o
no comment People will DO foun
who will boast that there has been in
- sanity in their family for counties
~ generations. and they will consequent
-, ly be envied and at the same tim
10 looked up to as favored ones; while
-. on the contrary, families whose ances
,u tors. Immediately or remote. ar
I known to have been sane will b.
i, stunned and condemned, and inter
y. marriage with them will be regarde,
r. as something to be dreaded, and
o. thing 70 be discouraged and avolde,
ii by all possible means.
III 1t is likely, also, that when a ma
" commits some such indiscretion a
at murder or bigamy, efforts will be mad
il to prove that he is the victim {
o emotional sanity, and the lawyers G
rs that day will indulge in long an
in wearing arguments, based upon genei
rs logical data, to show that one of til
TX prisoners ancestors. few generation
n back, was noted for his strength {
mlnd and the unvarying irmness {
e: his mental grasp or negatively upo
e statistics to prove that no case of |,
I'd nacy was ever known in his famil,
n Ine prosecution. probably, will eli
IS. cases of eccentricity in the past of tn
er accused. as, for example, that ON on
OF occasion he had been known to te
r. he truth when falsehood well stuc
in to would have been better for h;
wv reputation. or that he once refused t
d accept lucrative office upon tn
m Specious plea that he was entirely ur
"a lifted for the position. But the weiol
IS, of evidence will be entirely in his fayo,
r. and the jury will acquit him triumph
he antly without leaving their seats; fo
i 1t Is presumable that our insane no,
to lerity will look upon criminal wit
he the same prediction that obtains wit
ed US and mercifully declare him to be i
ri his right mind, and therefore nm orn
as ment to society, as we in our dav M,
id nounce him insane that he NAV %,
rs, Anue to embellish and adoru our 9,
y clety and to further pursue his caret
ur OF crime. Boston Transcript.
We -
IN II seems strange that mona ~ -.
~. exchanges have attcmntnJ f. 49, ~