Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-11-03
CRAZY JOURNALISM.
NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED BY LUNA
TICS FOR LUNATlcS.
The Publications That Arc issued In
MRdhouses and tsylums Are Al
most Entirely Free From Gloom
and MelauchoIta.

and MelanchoIia.
Dotted here and there over the earth
are little colonies whose inhabitants
are cut of from all intercourse with
the everyday world by their OWL
Idiosyncrasies Each individual lives
| In q world OF his OF her own creation
which, in the ma iority Of cases. only
! two outside interests ever succeed in
reaching-namely the asylum doctor
and the asylum magazine.
In some cases the proof sheets are
just glanced 1T by the head doctor he-
fore the ma agaZine goes t" press, but
they are written. printed and published
by the inmates themselves.
Although America produced the first
| two lunatic journals. to Scotland be
longs the credit of having started the
first paper of this kind which has sur
vived its infn"-, In fact. the birth %!
lunatlc jourm >in took place when the
| first number of The New Moon was is
sued from tie CrchIon Royal asylum,
| Dunfries OH Dec =, 1911. Since that
date the following have been success
! fully launched: The Morningside Mir
ror. from the Royal Edinburgh asy-
| lum: The Excelsior. from James Mur-
rays Royal asylum. Perth: The Fort
England Mirror, Grahamstown. South
Africa: The Murthly Magazine. from
the Perth County asylum: Under the
Dome. the organ OF Bethlehem Royal
hospital, London. and The Conglomer-
ate which belongs TO the MiddletowD
| asylum. New York
| These magazines touch the journal
| istic ideal. as, being written by the
| readers for their amusement, they can
| not fail TO hit the popular taste. We
| find that those mentally deranged like
about four-uinths of their reading to
| take the form of travel and heavy
nature. The rest of the contents comes
| In order of quantity as follows: HUI
| NOR. local notes. poetry. chiefly In q
| light vein; special articles on local the
atricaIs and fiction.
The most striking feature about
these journals is the almost total ab-
sence of gloom and melapcholia, and
we have it on the word of the doctor
Of one of the leading asylums that this
is not owing to such contributions be-
ing tabooed. But now and again one
comes on a poem or tale drenched with
Inelancholia and morbid insanity. In
one of these Journals appeared a story
written in the first person about hero
undoubtedly the writer-who had his
head twisted round the wrong way.
The consequence WAS be invariably
had to walk In the opposite direction
to which he wanted to walk. This ter
rible fate haunts him right through the
story. causing him TO lose friends.
money and everything else which man
holds dear and ends up by his, In his
own mind, numbering the girl who was
to save him from himself
According to the story, the heroine
was standing on the edge Of great
precipice. The hero is standing near.
Suddenly the heroine becomes giddy
and totters on the brink The hero
tries to dash forward and save her,
but of course runs the other way. Here
comes a break in the narrative, which
is finished by the following sentence:
And the gates of an asylum for those
mentally deranged shut the writer off
from his friends in the outer world"
Apart from such tragedies as the
above, the whole of these journals are
saturated with humor. In one we find
the following among Questions We
Want Answered."
when does the queen of Sheba in
tend to recognize the royal rank of the
Prince of Wales?' Did Marie Corelli'
really tweak the doctors nose? Why
did 'Ranii' throw the ball at w. G.'s'
head during practice at the netsT Per.
haps 1t should be explained that the
celebrities referred to above are not
those known to the public, but other
persons who claim their personalities
and are detained in the asylums for
that very reason.
\ writer in The Fort England Mirror
gives the following reason for his de.
teation; Il met young widow with
grown stepdaughter. and the widow
married me. Then my father. who was
widower. met my stepdaughter and
married her That made my wife the
nother-in-law of her father-in-law and
made my stepdaughter my mother and
ny father my stepson. Then my STEP
mother, the stepdaughter of my wife.
had son. That boy waD, Of course,
my brother. because he was my fa-
Tiers son. He was also the son Of my
wifes stepdaughter and therefore her
grandson. That made me grandfather
to my stepbrother. Then my wife had
n son. My mother-in-law, the STEP
sister Of my son, is also his grandmoth-
er. because he is her stepson's child.
Ny father is the brother-in-law Of my
child. because his stepsister is his wife.
am the brother Of my own son. who
is also the child Of my step-grandmoth-
er. am my mothers brother-in-law.
my wife is her own child's aunt. my
son is my fathers nephew. and I'm
my own grandfather. And after try
ing to explain the relationship in our
family some seven times day to our
calling friends for a fortnight, | was
brought here-no. came Of my own
WILL
Another declares that he never found
rest from his mother-in-law before. and
he intends to hoodwink the doctors as.
long as possible. And yet another
points out that it has always been the
fate of really great men to be ignored
Or i'll treated nv their cOntempOra,ies