The times., 1900-12-29
The BeIIeNne HORROR.

The Bellevue Horror.
1t is not a pleasant impression that the
American public gets from the Bellevue
Hospital disclosures in New York hell
view rather than bellevue is presented
by them. Evidence given in the coroner's
inquest into the torture and murder of
| an insane patient by three nurses
goes to show that the practice of
hazing inmates, and especially new
ones, has been customary and syste-
| matte. and, not infrequently, has led to
the death of victims. But, unlike the
hazed cadets Booz and Breth, at West
Point, until the murder of Hilliard, the
alienated condition of the prosecuted
and their inability to appear as credi-
bic witnesses. as we'll as their frienl-
lessness. has conduced to suppression
of the truth. 1t may also be said that the
high standard of ''class honor" maintained
among the nurses has rrerented volun-
tary disclosures OF q condition of things
which would have been horrible in the
torture chambers of prison in the Dark
Ages.
Hilliard, the murdered man was little,
weak, emaciated Frenchman. When he
was taken to Bellevue, suffering from hal
lucination and quite harmless, he stood
five feet two in his stocking feet and
weighed one hundred and thirty pounds.
Immediately upon his arrival one of the
nurses" decided that here was another
bum,'' who would be benefited and helped
to mental recovery by the application OF
normal Bellevue methods. So this licensed
rufian proceeded TO initiate the sick and
cringing lunatic by seizing him and kick
ing him all over the warden's room.
The discipline failed to accomplish any
useful object. At the dinner table HilIiard
turned against his food. So he was
grabbed from his chair, knocked down.
pounded by two burly nurses and
third nurse hearing the noise, rushed
in and jumped on the unfoTtunates chest, |
breaking some of his ribs. Then the trio |
drag gged him from the dining room, face |
down, to the bath room. and put him un
der 4 shower-bath. Strangely enough |
Hilliard survived all this torture, which |
was unfortunate for him, because death in |
the first instance would have been a mer- |
ciful relief. He recovered sufficiently to |
be lashed to another meal. Again refus-
ing to eat, he was felled, beaten, and |
choked to death with a sheet. the .'Ad-
ans apple in his throat being broken in |
the operation.
The, three nurses who are charged with
this hideous crime against humanity are
under arrest. Their offence, if legally |
proven, is one which no savage tribe
would tolerate. Brutal as barbarians and
the most abject savages may be in their
treatment of enemies and prisoners of
war, there is no instance reported in
which they have not and do not respect
the afiiction of insanity which what they
believe to be divine power has visited
upon the sufferer. a crazy person, among
the widest Of our Indians, or among the
most brutal tribesmen OF Asia or Africa,
IS treated with kindness because of his in
sanity.
1t seems to remain 10 supposedly CIV
lized beings to reverse this order, and TO
treat the helpless victims Of mental dis
sase with degree OF inhunanity at which
would shudder if he were
alive today. What makes it seem worse is
hat the miscreaRts charged with the mur-
Ter of Hilliard are pupils or graduates of
he D. o. Mills School for Nurses, an in
stitution presumed to ineulcate lessons of
,harity and patience in the treatment of
he insane.
Ogden Mills, son Of the founder of this
noble plant, has appeared as bail and
champion for these three nurses. Ogden
Mills appears to feel sense of response
1ility in maintaining the reputation of his
atter's foundation. So many men who
nave been at West Point think that they
must stand by the institution. and that it
would be better to let the cadets who
killed their companions, Booz and Breth,
Escape punishment. rather than to permit
/ reflection upon the standard Of honor
md "gentIemanly'' conduct preserved at
West Point In the same way, some years
.go, when great preacher was brought
o trial for destroying the home of a
riend who trusted him, his co-religionists
'et up the cry that he must be acquitted,
Irrespective Of his guilt or innocence.
since his conviction would "iniure the
.ause Of Christ"
We wonder what kind OF an institution
his Mills School for Nurses can be, which
urns out men who break the ribs of their
.harges, and. after beating them into in
,ensibility. throttle and kill them with
visited sheets? 1t would seem that the
iew York authorities had need to inyesti
gate the school as well as the hospital in
which the homicidal proe!ivities Of its stu
lents have been allowed such free range.
The West Point Outrages.
The country is disgusted and angry over