The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1892-07-28
A DAY AT SOCKANOSSET.
The State Board and the Women's
Board Inspecting.
HOT, BUT THEY PERSEvERED.
Mr. Coggeshsll Said "Come." and Up and
Down and Round and About They
went snd sew Things Clean and
wheIesons n Not Cool.

BY invitation of the State Board of
Charities and Corrections yesterday was
the date appointed for q joint inspection
with tho Board Of Women Visitors of the
State institutions Of Cranston. The
scorching heat did not favor full attend
ance Of the members of either branch,
but when Supt James H. Eastman came
down with carriage to meet the morn
ing train from Providence, he found a
larger number Of people awaiting him
than be could, weather considered, have
reasonably expected.
Mrs. Barney, chairman of the Woman's
Board. was there; she never fails. Her
secretary, Mrs. Walker, was with her.
Mrs Sanders, the boards secretary WAS
there with great bunch of cool-looking
pond lilies for the sick In hospital. Mrs.
CLARK and Mrs. Hesron, two of the
Elk Mayor Coggeshali Of Newport. chair
OF the State Board was waiting for his
feminine colleagues in Mrs. EaStmap's
cool parlors He said IL was only 20 do
grees on his porch when he left home In
the morning and he laoled out glasses OF
ducsment be could to believe that perhaps
sometime they might feel cool. Col.
Spooner turned up presently and by q
later train Secretary Peckham appeared.
Mr.. Coggeshall didn't let his charges
sit very long In idleness. He told them
they had . long days work before them
and led the way to the Asylum for the
this remark was made before-,nd the
patients In most Of the wards were sitting
or lying In the shade out of doors. Super
intsndent Eastman and Dr.. Keene
pointed to their apple trees with regret.
All that stood In the asylum courts and
green apples tempt the mentally weak a.
they do children, and can't be allowed to
hang within reach OF hands or stones
after they are a. big a. the end Of your
finger.
Mr.. Coggeshall and Mrs. Barney. and
some smiled when they were addressed
and some asked pathetically to be sent
home. There was . woman who was
crooniuR over two dolls, and others who
wero able to help themselves with the
woman's relief, sewing.
There was one very clever contrivance,
at which every body looked with great
used to fasten the doors Of the violent
patients at night, instead Of lock and key.
"You see," said DIR. Keene, If we had q
fire here and somebody came along In
furry and went fumbiing with keys, the
attendant mfghy biunder all about the
ksyhole, especially a woman"-though,
really, DIR. Keene might have left out
that espccially--"and waste precious
minutes; whereas anybody can strike up
that hook in an instant and while run
ming"
And speaking Of fires reminds one that
IL Is really strange what reliance can be
pleced on the self-control OF the insane In
some particulars. In all the wards At
Cranston the fire hose Is not locked up,
but left in plain sight ready for instant use,
and also ready, in case mischievous fingers
felt inclined tor wetting the floor down.
But this, it is said, has happened only
once in the mems wards and once among
the women In recorded history.
The number of insane women at Grams
ton now exceeds the men and the dispro-
portion Is said TO be increasing. Not 10
very many years ago the case was quite
otherwise. The weather must affect the
insane as it affects other people, but con-
forgive this further reference to tempera-
ture-the wards were wonderfully quiet,
only one woman lifting her voice in
harangue, on the merits OF vegetarianism
apparently.
fhe assembly hall of the asylum wants
q drop curtain and flies for theatrical per-
formances. Only q certain proportion Of
some few being restrained as too excitable
and more r, r,m..iaing away of their own
notion-"a voice" telling them they must
do this, that or the other, much as mediums
profess to be guided from above-but the
200 or more who constitute the audien ces
mensely, and are so benefited as to make
it highly advisable to increase the range
of amusement as much as possible. Clubs
in PROVIDENCE and other cities have often
offered to give plays, IL the stage facili-
ties could be provided.
But there are other buildings than the
homes of the insane. There hre the aims
houses and sad enough hey are with all
their spotless cleanliness and the intelli-
gent thought for the comfort of those
within them. The children's wards are
sad with SO many of the little faces with
no gleam of mentality In them. Here
and there are bright eyes and smiling lips
and the little chap with bib about his
neck and bread crumbs on his chin as he
lifts his face from his mug OF milk makes
you wonder very seriously what, whom
his mother gets out Of the workhouse, she
may be going to do with him.
The big boxes OF playthings and the
croquet lDallets and balls brace you up q
bit, as showing that there Is deal Of
pleasure in lite even for these sometimes
wore than fatherless and motherless little
ones. There Is babies ward that had
three tiny mites in it yesterday and one
year and half urchin sittinx up In a
rocking chair and clasping her Bits Of
fingers about any hand that poked her
dimples There were mothers with pink
morsels Of humanity that could claim no
fathers, and women who lay back in hos
pital beds aud thought the weary day a
little more nearly endurable when one Of
Mrs. Sanders great white fragrant lilies
was put into their wasted fingers.
Aud ever Mr.. Coggeshall said, "Come,
come" and the women climbed up aud
down aud Col. Spooner sat for a minute
on step in the shade as often as the con-
junction Of shade and step gave him op-
portunity. There was dinner at noon in
Mrs. Eastman's dining room. and then
there was an hour In the workhouse
among the women, who sit In n big,
slfaySJ room with ivy climbing over It's
windows, apd cut and sew and knit and
look up with such smooth, clear faces
that you wonder why one sex doesn't
show Il In the complexion ~ quickly ~
the other wneu> given to habisual
dYnnkeuness" Committed sixteen