, 1890-05-07
ROASTED.
The Insane Asylum at Tongue
Pointe, Que, Burned.
One Hundred Patients Believed
to Have Lost Their Lives.
ManiacaI Joy of the Victims at
the Sight Of the Fire.
They Cling to Each Other and
Refuse to be Saved.
Many Of the Inmates Escape to
the Country.
The Singer Sewing Machine
Works Also Burned,
With a Loss of Several Mil
ManiacaI Joy of the Victims at
the Sight Of the Fire.
They Cling to Each Other and
Refuse to be Saved.
Many Of the Inmates Escape to
the Country.
The Singer Sewing Machine
Works Also Burned,
With a Loss of Several Mil.
lions of Dollars.

Tongue POINT, Que, May Ga long
line of gaunt towers is all hat one now
sees OF the Tongue Point ~lunatic asylum,
located ten miles from Montreal and
which, with manv lives, was today con-
sumed by flames. The sights witnessed
at this tragic scene are such as can never
be forgotten. Nothing could exceed the
horror att tending the terrible calamity,
considering the number of victims. the
terrible nature Of their death and the
manner in viii. h the helpless victims re-
ceived their fate. What to the specta-
tors was a scene of horror. was to the lu-
natics a moment of supreme glee, and in
their delight they disported themselves in
the flames and waved their blazing limbs
in turbulent satisfaction at the ruin that
was about them and not until the walls
tumbled over their heads were their ma
niacal screams silenced.
There we're incarcerated in Tongue
Pointe 1900 lunatics, for that asylum
was a prison more than hospital, and now
not more than LOO are accounted for,
but many escaped into the fields and
woods, and the dead are ashes amongst
the ashes. What the number Of the dead
is is purely a matter of conjecture and can
never be ascertained, since no other
record is kept than that in the asylum
books. and they were destroyed. Taking
into consideration the whole of the evil
denc from tiremen, the sane inmates and
the sisters in charge, it is a conservative
estimate to say that 100 victims met their
death, though some assert that the mum
Der Is double that, and others place it be-
low this figure. However, the fact re
mains that no such calamity has fallen
upon the province Of Quebec since the
earliest times.
Ever since Quebec was a province its
management of these most helpless of
all creatures has been its shame. They
have been iarmed out to nuns at 500 a
head per year, and the sisters aim was to
keep them as frugilly as possible. From
the construction of the building there is
a doubt in some minds as to whether it
was intended for an asylum or a blast
furnace. In any case it served the latter
purpose admirably. 1t was constructed of
brick and was 600 feet long, running
back from the river half Of the distance
The main building occupied the center
and on each side extended four wings, six
stories in height.
The fire today was started in a cupboard
in the second ward. on the women's side.
in the upper story by a careless patient,
and as ventilation was carried on by a Ion
gitudinal shalt connected with the lowers
the flame, soon appeared blazing up
h-4V.k fkA na-ta- -f .oaL -
telegram was sent to Montreal for aid and
an engine and reels started at once. They
might "a well nav remained at home, for
in five minut IS they exhausted the water
supply. The only thing that could save
the building was the st. Lawrence river,
and it was half a mile distant. When the
Associated Press reporter arrived with the
firemen the dome of one tower had Just
fallen and the flames were bursting
through everywhere.
As the heat increased statues fell
from their inches TO the ground and then
the habitants Frustrated themselves,
crying aloud that the saints had deserted
them indeed. Beds, furniture and utensils
Of every description were being showered
from windows and a stream OF ill-clad
men poured out of the eastern wing.
Not a male patient was lost. Among the
females it was different. The less hope.
less cases were placed in the lower wards
Ind they were removed without difficulty,
but from the uppe wards, where the vio-
lent patients were secured, there came the
widest screams as they resisted the nuns
who were be~seeching them to make their
escape. At the windows a maniac would
be seen peering through the bars, grin
ning and jabbering at the bright flame
that went up to the sky. As the heat
became more more intense she would
grasp the bars n remain there until the
flames enveloped her.
The inhabitants had come from all
parts around about, attracted by the
blaze, and in an hour the little village was
a surging mass of shouting, vociferatinp
people. When the people found they
were powerless to save the building they
turned their tention to the inmates and
burst in the doors with axes. :
Inside. Chief Benoit says, was such a
a sight as no fireman ever before wit
messed. In one ward he entered were
twenty-five patients, and at his entrance
they huddle3 together like a pack of
beasts, entwining their arms into one
mass of humanity. He seized the nearest,
but, said the chief. II could no more sep
arate the crowd than | could parts of your
horse" He tuRged at them until the fire
darted into their garments and embodied
them with a shroud of fame. and then
he escaped with his life.
In another ward three fremen were
nearly trapped to death. They entered
and the door, which had a spring lock,
closed behind them. AS is customary
there was no handle inside. The door re
sisted their efforts aud they rushed to
the windows, but were driven back by the
flames The chief, suspecting their peril,
sent aid to the other side and the men
were carried down on ladders.
A loud explosion wa followed BY the
crash Of beam. The interior was giving
way. Wild faces sank from the windows
and the shrieks Of the maniacs were lost in
the general uproar. One BY one
the walls toppled inward and a fierce
blaze burst up from the newly added
fuel that rose to the dark sky and shot Ito
glare over the st. Lawrence to the south
ern shore and even tinged the crest OF
Mount Royal. ten miles distant. Then il
died down into blackness and nothing bul
broken fnwprs remained M n hnundorv m