The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1889-05-02
IN AN INSANE ASYLUM.
HaIIucInations Of Unforturates
Condemned to Life l~ncarcera-

Condemned to Life I~ncarcera-
ton.
In an asylum for the insane. The
lusterless light of a dying day falls
through the high, narrow, iron-barred
windows into a long, gloomy corridor.
With the ~tirelessness of a Gagged tig-
er, says the Philadelphia American, a
few men, most of whom are barefoot,
afflicted with a milder type of de-
mentia, pace the floor and gibber to
themselves.
Ranged on either side of the corridor
are cells, and here and there a be dis
cerned a pair of wild eyes glaring sui
lenly through the small apertures in
the door.
The weird notes of a flute fill the air.
The tune is impromptu, and is we'll
adapted to the discorded fancy of the
players.
Now its sounds are low and pathetic,
such as to make tender-hearted women
weep, and now it is shrill and exultant,
a wild series of high-pitched trills.
The music ceases, and the player,
casting aside his instrument, with a
grating, meaningless laugh, hastens
down the corridor with a desperate
energy.
When he arrives at the other end he
has forgotten his errand, and he slowly
r~etraces his steps to obey the next
capricious dictates of his imbecile
mind.
The reporter, conducted by a keep
er, ascends to the floor above.
The cell nearest the stairway is ten
anted by a d~ark-featured man, who
clutches at the bars of the door with a
fury that threatens to snap them like
SO many match sticks.
There is no danger, however.
"This," said the keeper, sis one of
our most violent patients. He is a
Germrn, and was educated in Heidel-
berg. His story is rather romantic.
Upon the completion of his scholastic
career he made a tour of the CONT
nent. While at Nice he saved the
daughter OF some nobleman from
death. He fell deeply in love with
her.
"She returned his affection, and
they were engaged to be married. Be-
fore that event could be contaminated
the girl was taken i'll with a malignant
fever and died. Her death deeply af-
fected the mar before you, and at the
solicitation of friends he left Nice. He
wandered from place to place, finally
coming to this country. Being in
opulent circumstances, and rendered
insensible to every thing good and
pure by the untimely death of his be-
trothed, he plunged into dissipation in
the widest form, which eventually
made him a mental and physical
wreck"
During this conversation the insane
man gave utterance to EXPLANATIONS of
an incoherent character, and as soon
as the keeperhad ceased, burst into a
passionate recital. He fancied that he
had cast his affiancied into a flaming
pit and that her death shrek still rang
in his ears.
"Ha! ha! ha" he laughed, wi Idly.
''They think she is dead, but she didn't,
ha! ha! ha! I killed her. Yes, killed
her. Oh, my, but wasn't it a fine
night for such a devils deed? The
darkness was frightful. Lightning
blazed forth with demoniacal fury from
the heavens. The thunder made the
earth culver like a reed in the blast.
All the imps of Patala were out"
The maniac paused in his excessive
frenzy and dashed from his distorted
face the great beads Of p%erspiration
that trickled from his forehead, and
continued in the same wild
II stole her when she was asleep,
and fled like some arch-demon from
the blacklist abyss of Hades with her,
out-out into the night. She, ha, ha,
no, no, struggled like some frightened
bird. But what good did it dor II
had her. On we went, through the
fierce nocturnal storm, until we came
to a plateau. A blazing nit yawned
before us. Oh, how merrily the yellow
and blue-tongued flames curled up.
The air was filled with an internal din
-whoops, agonized screams, yells and
laughter. S~aturnalian demons played
with cleaning rods OF flame on shin
ing death heads, and serpents Kissed in
their ambuscades. I held the one I
loved aloft, and with arms of iron hurl-
ed her into the pit. Her cry-that of
a lost soul-still haunts me-"
And the maniac sank exhausted to
the floor.
ut seems strange" said the keeper,
as the twain descended the stairs,
that a man afflicted SO violently with
insanity can talk SO coherently at
times. That mans Imagination IS as
powerful and wonderful as was Poe's."