Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-01-01
Mental Condition Of Twenty
Seven Persons Examined.
ONLY THREE ESCAPED
How a Chicago Woman Reporter
Fooled a Board Of Insanity
Experts.

During the year 1899 the mental cOndi-
ton of q persons was made the SUBJ
ject of investigation in the district court
of this city, and of the total only three
escaped the asylum. 1t is not always an
easy matter to determine the true status
of the human brain. Where a case Of
insanity is well defined all a commits
sion has to do is to press the button and
draw it's pay but there are other cases
in which the greatest care must be ex-
ercised in order hat no mistake may be
made. Some of the patients are perfectly
rational on every point V one, and it
often requires lots of questioning to dis
cover the one They are first taken on a
trip through their family circle and If
the answers are satisfactory the plot
%thickens, finally drifting into mathemat-
zeal problems, religion, air navigation
astronomy. Although it has never
been done in the courts here, persons sup
posed to be insane have been called upon
to describe the condition of the inhabit-
ants of Mars and the age at which the
whisky there Is considered good enough
for use in ordinary cocktails. Most of
the asylum candidates here are examined
in department No. I, and Judge Lindsay
always asks each one a sufficient num-
Der Of simple questions to enable him to
determine at which station the patient
should alight. Then he turns them over
to the commission and pay close atten-
ton to the balance Of the proceedings.
There is now teaching in the Butte
public schools a young woman who once
sat before an insanity commission COM
prising three Of the crank wheel physi-
4-.-- - ~- --l 49, (~~1,l ~ 1880
tlemen SO completely that they moved
west shortly afterward and changed their
names. She was then employed as a re-
porter on one of the big dailies of Chi
cage. Competition among the papers was
so keen that fields outside OF the routine
work were invaded in search of material,
One day the young woman was picked
up on the street and taken to the deten-
ton hospital. To all appearances she
had 'em, and had 'em bad. The matron
of the place synpathized with her, poor
girl, but it did not prevent her from run
ming her fingers through her loose hair
increasing the dimensions of her wild
stare and drinking in an occasional Gee
but amt she nutty!" and similar remarks
from half-grown street boys who fire.
quently satisfied their idle curiosity
through the bars. After spending three
days in the hospital without improving
she was taken before the prize commits.
Sion OF uOclOIS aIIu eAdliliLcO. VuIlc III
work was in progress a lady friend o.
the young woman, an attorney, on seeing
the reporter, dropped her books of au'
thority, threw up both hands, and ex'
claimed:
why, Miss"
But before the sentence vas finished
) the INSANE" woman jumped towards her
, crying out:
The lost Charley Ross at last!" throw
: ing 10th arms frantically about her necl
) and whispering in her right ear: "Fo
} goodness sake, don't give me away!"
II Then suddenly discovering that a mis-
I take had been made in the identity of tn
lady attorney, she gradually relaxed he
hold and waited for the bailiff to jar he
Z down in her seat.
} Five minutes later the commission pro
! nounced her insane and ordered her t.
! be confined in the state asylum. but JUS
! as the curtain fell on the last act sh
\ pronounced herself sane, and severa
J newspaper men from the office in which
! she was employed corroborated her state
! ment. They were there for that purpose
4 her release was ordered by the court
J and on IN following day a lengthy spe
! cial article on the treatment of the In
! sane in the detention hospital and Tho,
! it felt to be shanghaied into a lunati
} asylum appeared in the paper she repre-
Al Cnnfnd