The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-07-20

from having been cruelty beaten by the
attendants. "But," he continues, she was
compelled by his heartless supervisor
and physician to go down to the dining
room for his meals; in doing so he suf-
fered severely, and would groan and cry
out with pain as other patients would
crowd against him, his ribs evidently
being broken. But in a few days he
could go down no more, and on the tenth
day after he was thus stamped and
bruised by his attendants, June 18th,
death, welcome visitor to most of the
patients in this place of torture, relieved
him Of his suferings Thus a man in
good bodily health, appetite good. quiet
and gentlemanly, but afflicted with cpl
lepsy, sent here by the friends and citi-
zens of Cowley county for treatment,
was brutally and barbarously assaulted,
and received injuries whereof he died,
within twenty -four hours after his arri-
val into this place of christian charity"
The next case given is that of pa
tient named Lewis Mays. who was re-
ceived on December 10, 1894. Like the
recent case at the Topeka insane asylum
the doctor reported that he died of appo-
plexy on December 81. An attendant
whose name is not given gives the fol-
lowing story of the death of Mays:
''Well, to make long story short, we
got the coon ready for bed with quite a
little scuffle, ETC., and after we had his
clothes off and he laid on the tick, his
hands in restraint and legs in anklets,
A. kept up his humping, and he
kicked him somewhere about the head,
1 think on the jaw or butt of his ear. and
the negro, with a groan, stretched out,
and he never raised hand afterwards.
"The blankets were strewn about the
room to indicate that he had been rag
ing about during the night, and his room
was locked. A. was scared, he fear
ed he had broken his neck; the doctor
said his skull was broken just above the
temple, on the left side"
There are other cases of i'll treatment
given in the book, and all are horrible in
the extreme. 1t is impossible to publish
all in this article. The author then
gives examples of how deception is
practiced on the friends of the patients
who call at the asylum to see them:
"Some time in the fall of 1894, Mr..
Bragg, of Wyandotte county. who had
lain for several months in ward eight, in
a room with six patients in like suffer
ing, was about to die. Word came that
his wife and sister would be to see him
on the evening train. We were ordered
to fix up room in ward one, the first
convalescent ward, and bring him down.
The poor dying man was dressed in
clean clothing; we carried him down from
the third floor and placed him on a clean
bed. The doctor ordered US to get a
table. which we placed in the room, with
water pitcher and goblets; he then
brought in some bottles with wine, etc.,
representing medicine, piece of carpet
was put on the floor, and the ladies were
brought in; they found everything nice
and comfortable, not knowing that with
in the last hour the poor dying man had
been carried from a room on the third
floor, where he had been for months,
with six of the worst defiling patients in
the institution, and had not had spoon
full of medicine in all that time. In
about two hours the man died. The sOr-
rowful ladies expressed their gratitude
at finding him so comfortably provided
for"
Another case is given of a patient
who was allowed to suffer with burns for
three months when he died, "and he was
hauled out in the sIOp cart and buried"
The quality of the food served is shown
! up in a light not very favorable to the
| management of the institution or the
state board of charities. There are in
stances of spoiled food of all kinds,
which is served to the patients, while the
| officers receive the very best the market
affords. In one instance a mouse was
j cooked in a kettle of rice and 460 pa
| tients ate the rice in which the mouse
had been boiled.
A chapter is devoted to the treatment
/ of old soldiers. One of these cases is
enough to make the blood of every old
soldier boil.
The patient was NJ. M. Young, of Co.
E. As Indiana Mr. Wilson says: From
our Investigations we are fully convinced
that NJ. NJ. Young who died on the I'd
day of October, 1892 in ward four of the
Osawatomie insane asylum, then in
charge of L. F. Wentworth, superinten-
dent, came to his death at the hands of
employees of the said institution, by
being cruelty and barbarously stamped
kicked and pounded, and that the said
death was known to the superintendent
and that he has not to this writing taker
any steps to bring the guilty parties tC
justice"
The whole book is q story of horrors
almost too terrible to believe but the
statements are substantiated by the very
best of evidence. The people of Kansas
who pay the bills do not SO much care
whether an attendant is a Republican
Democrat or Populist, but they expec
him to be man who will properly care
for the unfortunates entrusted to hi
charge. How long the people will sub
nit to the present syste m is question to
be solved. Politics must be eliminated
somehow.
An ex-oficer of the Topeka asylum
said to a JOURNAL reporter: 81 have reaC
Wilson's book, and what he ays is onl.
a repetition of what has occurred at tn
Topeka asylum. The whole business re
quires renovation, and true reform i
what is needed"
This the people of Kansas know to b.
true.
Another ex-oficer of the Topeka asy
lum said: 'FThe present superintendent
does all he can to suppress anything tina
happens in ward and one of the regu
lations is that an attendant is to say moth
ing outside of the institution. That
} why an attempt to investigate rumor q
the asylum has so often failed"
One of the rules of the institution
| that attendant lcnnoLr faE