St. Landry democrat., 1891-11-21


save some of it for the country parish
es. You know but few of the parishes
have any place at all to detain insane
people, in some not even a Jail, and |
cannot give all my beds to New Or
leans.'
"Do you want any money, DR.. Per-
kins ?" | asked.
Indeed | do. could use easily
100000 if had it."
1t is true that as yet many of the pa
tieuts are lodged in dorm tories instead
of cells, and that there is no regular
hospital ward and no separate ward for
children, but these are defects that time
and money will surely remedy.
The entire building is now heated by
steam and lighted by electricity, and
supplied with hose and water pipes III
case of fire. Water closets and bath
rooms have also been supplied, and the
windows and transOms fitted with a
pretty, stout wire grating, IN diamond
design. The sleeping-roOms contain
only the beds. These are cheap, old,
shabby looking wooden affairs, with
four posts, and have to be taken down
once a month and cleaned. The mat
tresses are of straw or moss, aud the
linen is coarse but cXuuisltely clean.
The negroes arc now housed in two
very pretty detached houses, gay with
bright paint, and which they keep
decorated with moss and flowers. They
sleep on the floor, but will be given col
bedstcads us soon us there is money to
buy them.
All Of the Improvements have been
OF practical! nature. New floors have
been put in, the ceiling sealed to keep
ont rain, and paint used literally every
where. The women's wards are paint
ed in cheerful blue and gray tints, and
with potted plants, pictures, canaries
in cages, rocking chairs and sofas in the
long, wide halls, making The wards as
bright and spirit clcvating as such an
asylum ought to bc. Thee is no pri-
vate ward for pay patients. They each
occupy single room, but otherwise
there is no difference between them and
the state patients. In the male wards
a wing three stories high, with 100
rooms, has been added, aud a similar
wing is now being built for the women
These buildings are $50 feet long and
81 feet wide. The arrangement is a
hall through the center, with cells on
each side. Underneath these buildings
are concrete-paved stnrerooms, where
all supplies are kept. Needed improve
ments-are brick machnehouse and
laundry, and these are to be added as
soon as possible.
At one time an effort was made to
have religious services, but since reli-
gion is the cause of much Of the insan
ity confined at Jackson and the ser
vices excited the patients greatly, they
are not held any more. Some day in
the near future, when more money can
be had, books, papers and music will he
supplied for these dased, lreary ones.
LII the days to come, when there is
more money, the melancholy, the imbe
Gle, the violent insane, will all be
housed i'll separate wards. In fact, no
more persons should be admitted to the
congregated is enough. DR.. Perkins
himself hopes another asylum will be
eSta blished in a more central and more
desirable part of The state. liz hopes
this lust as lie hopes for some state pro-
vision for epileptics and idiots who are
not proper patients in an Insane asylum.
There are number Of men, women
and children at Jatkson sent there by
order of court, the loose way the state
allows Il person to be condemned to this
prison house for life, who properly be-
long in homes for incurables.
Among the patients is a pretty child
of years, who is not insane, only weak
minded, aud capable OF becoming a
good, useful woman. She lives, eats,
sleeps with insanity all around her.
The law sent her to jackson, and there
is no other place in the states great
charitable institutions for her.
The insane asylum has never been SO
we'll managed as it is now. 1t has new
er been so clean, So healthy or so COM
Portable. While it is bare of many
necessities, while its hospital facilities
are almost nothing, it's amusement re-
sources confined to walks in the woods
in good weather and a wheezy hand
organ in the big hall in wet weather, it
still IS hundredfold better off than it
was three years ago. This is due to the
excellent management rather than gem
erous endowment. With Il reasonable,
certain and untluctuating income it will
speedily become a model institution.
Its appropriations should be larger.
not curtailed; and its prosperity should
be matter of pride to every citizen
and every taxpayer.