The morning news., 1899-05-11

agriculture, tanning and cloth and sahot
! making. And no wonder, for the town
owes its origin to The motaer protectorees
Of the mentally diseased, Saint Dympna,
VINO has had a shrine or the spot where
the city now stands since time immem-
| orial.
The Earliest settlement.
The Burgomaster told the Enquirer cor
| respondent that long before the present
| town was thought of, IN the thirteenth
/ century, a bishop Of Antwerp recon-
/ mended pigrimages to the saints tomb
then situated IN a waste country-as a
! means of securing the holy Dympua $ in
tercession for insane relatives and friends
| at The house Of the Almighty. The moth
/ er-protectress seems TO have worked mir
/ acIes in those days, but, as a general thing,
/ she took her time about them.
! As the pilgrims had 10 remain with their
! charges in the neighborhood until cure
was effected they waited often months and
years, in some cases their whole lifetime.
| Tnus temporary settlement grew up
around the shrine. then village. The lat
ter has developed into a town whose com
nnmty achieved fair. success in various
industries yet withal stuck 70 the occu-
patton of the earliest settlers.
saint Dympna herself is almost forgot
| ten nowadays, but the legend of her pow
ers lives among the people, and where
ever in Belgium or Holland lunauc bobs
up bis folks first thought turns TO Gheel.
where an insane man, woman or child
| can find board and lodging a the rate of
$40 to 500 per month and be cured into
the bargain II there is the slightest chance
| for recovery.
patient brought to the old town loses
that depressing title or character the mo-
ment he enters his new surroundings
Whether the state medical board control
Ing the classification of new arrivals
sends him to one of the upper districts
where dangerous" cases. according to
medical parlance are kept or whether he
is at once assigned to ordinary lodgings,
the Gheelers call him innocent or
friend" Such words as lunatlc. insane
or mailman are not in the towns vocabu-
larry, common consent banished them from
conversation and the superintendent of
schools told your correspondent that his
teachers never alude to expressions Of
the sort.
The Medical Treatment.
The doctors work ceases with the act
mentioned. Knowing as they do each
family's capacity for handling certain
| forms of insanity, they dispose of new
| cases by giving each madman the keeper
his peculiar condition demands and there
as a general thing, the matter ends
| professional supervision is occasionally
exercised
The Gheelers, then, are the real medi-
cine men in this mental health resort to-
day, as their ancestors were before them.
but their success Notwithstanding they re-
mained simple-minded peasants as of old.
Common sense is their strong point, and
medical science so much out OF their line
that there are not more than two native
In hn MA
they pride themselves on two never-fail-
ing household remedies-simplicity and pa
tience.
As to each family's speciality, there are
the Steens for instance. For the mast
two or three centuries they made a spec
iaity OF taking care of epileptics the ex-
perlence gained in the treat
ment descending from father to
son They could give points
70 many college professor, you may be
sure. The Vrooms are just as well uD in
mania of persecution as the Steens are in
the other branch of suffering. And so il
! Is with the Van Zakens the hereditary at
| tendants of deirium tremens; the Breal-
monts, the Bergers, the Boulangers Bruits
and Maasns, who have a reputation for
| managing Victims of melancholia, mono
mama Of rear, OF suspicion or pride and
or emotional madness respectively.
-'Ni NiAi+N az tlitHAtTS. are professional
madhouse keepers more or less. none are
allowed TO engage in this business exclu-
siVely, each family. no matter how hira
IT'S reputation in any special branch NAV
be, receiving only as many boarders as
their house can hold without being turned
into ar asylum. The authorities calcu.
late thus. Henrik Steens has five rooms
besides those he needs for his family and
servants. That entities him to two male
/ "a. oil
| willing or able to work in tannerv and
| the household, respectively and they are
| given quarters. Or Boulanger. the halsr
| who owns big house, can have over a
| cozen n,elahcholia friends" canable nj
| working at bread and cake making or op
his farm. For every crazy man, wom an
or child living In the shadow of 81
! pympna's shrine must work With his or
her handE or so TO school, respectively.
That is enc of the conditions of their ac-
| ceptance as patients. II Is, moreover on
| integral part of the successful GheeI cura
| Complete absence of coercive measures
| plenty of good, nourishing food. of fresh
air and of sunshine and tenperanca ora
the other remedies prescribed and Insisted
upon. But these rules are enforced in the
| gentlest manner. Friends" or "inno.
cents must never be irritated, else cure
becomes impossible, and the peasant don.
tor loses cast with his fellows. AS a fu~.
ther consequence the authorities immedi.
ately shut down on his supply OF "milcb
| cow" |. G., crazy boarders
The Welcoming Feast.
The entrance of lunatic in chaot
family is marked by feast. A tabIe,
with the word Welcome" in elarjne al
ors is hung over the street door ana al
members of the household dress in thai,
best. Pater families. styled Dom nrcIe'
for that occasion, introduces the pewcon,.
er as a distant relative, cousin. or brothar
and the reunion is celebrated with NAV,
cups that cheer. after the manner of th|
country. In the evening ueighbors call
who keep up and emphasize this deusior
which henceforth and for all practica
purposes become fact.
Immediately after breakfast next ,,or,.
ing the friend is assigned to an occrna
ton in his Ooms household. the sbor -
on his farm, the choice of duties bein,
left to him. He accompanies his nse,,dn
brothers. sisters and cousins. among then
usually several afflicted like himself >,
the scene of usefulness, and all begin ,,o,l
In earnest. The friends are enconras %,