Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1899-11-15
CRAZY JOURNALISM.
NEWSPAPERS PUBLISHED BY LUNA
TICS FOR LUNATlCS.
The Publications That Are Issued II
Madhouses and AsyIums Are Al
most Entirely Free From Gloon
and MeIanchOlia.

are little colonies whose inhabitants
are cut off from all intercourse with
the everyday world by their own
idiosyncrasies. Each individual lives
in a world of his or her own creation,
which, in the majority 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
lust glanced at by the head doctor be-
fore the magazine goes to press, but
they are written, printed and publlshed
by the inmates themselves.
Although America produced the hrst
two lunatic journals, to Scotland De-
longs the credit of having started the
first paper of this kind which has sur
yiyed its infancy. In fact, the birth OF
lunatic journalism took place when the
first number of The New Moon was Is
sued from the CrichtOn Royal asylum,
Dumfries, on Dec. 8, 1914. Since that
date the following have been success
fully launched: The Morningside Mir
ror, from the Royal Edinburgh asy-
lum: The Excelsior, from James Muir
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 Middletown
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
u a
about four-ninths of their reading to
take the form of travel and heavy
prose articles of a strictly theoretical
nature. The rest of the contents comes
in order of quantity as follows: HUI
NOR, local notes, poetry, chiefly in a
light vein; special articles on local the
atricals and fiction.
The most striking feature about
these journals is the almost total abb
sence of gloom and meIancholia, 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 n poem or tale drenched with
melancholia and morbid insanity. In
one Of these journals appeared Il story
written in the first person about Il hero
head twisted round the wrong way.
The consequence was he 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 n 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 Il 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 'Ranji' throw the ball at w. G.'s'
head during practice at the nets?" Per
haps it 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.
4 y-rifpr. in Tho Fort ENGLAND Mirror.
gives the following reason for his de-
tention: Il met a young widow with Il
grown stepdaughter. and the widow
married me. Then my father, who was
n widower, met my stepdaughter and
married her. That made my wife the
mother-in-law of her father-in-law and
made my stepdaughter my mother and
my father my stepson. Then my step
mother, the stepdauShter of my wife,
had son. That boy was, of course,
my brother, because he was my IA
Tiers son. He was also the son of my
wife's 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.
My 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. l 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 10 explain the relationship in our |
family some seven times n day to our /
calling friends for a fortnight. 1 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
Ill