Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1890-05-09
Many of the Poor Maniacs Cling to-
gether and refuse To
Go Out.
They Scream and dance With Fiend
ish Glee rs the Flames ell
velOpe Them.
It is Thought that One Hundred Per.
sons may have Perished
in the Flames.
Lunutics Dancing in the Flames.

TONGUE Po1NTE, Quebec, May GA
long line Of gaunt towers, blazing de-
bris shining in the wild eyes of thes ma
MACS, is all that one now sees of the
Tongue Pointe maniac asylum, located
ten miles from Montreal and which, with
many lives, was to-day consumed by
flames. The sights one witnessed before
this tragic scene are such as can never
be forgotten. Takingit all in all nothing
could exceed the horror attending this
terrible calamity, considering the num-
ber of victims, the terrible nature of their
death and the manner in which the help-
less victims received their fate. What
to spectators was scene of horror was
to the lunatics moment of supreme glee
and in their delight they disported them
selves in the flames and waved their
blazing limbs in turbulent satisfaction
in the ruin that was about them and not
until the walls tumbled over their heads
| we're their maniacal screams silenced.
There was incarcerated in Tongue
Pointe thirteen hundred lunatics, for
that asylum was prison more than a
hospital, and now not mora than eleven
hundred are accounted for, but many es-
capped into the fields and woods and the
dead are ashes amongst ashes. What
the number of dead is is purely q mat.
ter of conjecture and can never be
ascertained, since no other record is kept
than that III the asylum books and it is
also destroyed. Taking into considera-
ton the whole of the evidence from for
mer half sane inmates, sisters in charge,
bystanders and personal observation, it
is conservative estimate to say that
HUNDRED VICTIMS
met their death, though some assert that
the number is double that and others
place it below this figure. However, this
fact remains, that no such calamity has
fallen upon the province of Quebec since
it's earliest times. Ever since Quebec
was province its management of these
most helpless of all creatures has been its
shame. They have been farmed out to
nuns at $500 head per year, and the Sis
ters' aim was to keep them as frugally as
possible with the least possible outlay
for permanent works or repairs. While
their most urgent bodily wants were sup
piled, no attempt was made at systematic
medical treatment BY curious coinci-
dence the. only Protestant insane
asylum in the province was inaugurated
to-day by it's new superintendent. Hith-
erto patients Of all denominations we're
crowded together and the Protestants, by
persistent personal solicitations, raised
enough money to found an institution of
their own in which their own patients
are being cared for. For years the gov
ernment has been urged to redeem it's
treatment of the insane, but last summer
the mother superior, with body guard,
sent abroad with due solemnity to ascer-
tain if anything could be learned from
similar institutions in Europe, but up to
this morning she had evidently discov-
cred nothing that would be of value to
her in the care Of those intrusted to her.
Ten miles below Montreal point of land
juts into the river. Here is the village of
Tongue Pointe and here was the famous
lunatic asylum. Fifteen minutes before
noon > - E=45 ..gt- ,a:.J !
THE CRY OF "FlRE''
was given. The fire originated in a
cupboard and was the work of patient
From the construction of the building
there is doubt in some minds as to
whetheri it was intended for an asylum or