Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-02-25
REPORT ON
ASYLUM
CAUSED A LIVELY DEBATE THIS
MORNING.
COMMITTEE WAS SATISFIED
BUT FAVORABLE FINDINGS DID
NOT PLEASE ALL THE
MEMBERS.
Mr.. STULL FOUGHT THE REPORT
MacGinnis Loses More Votes-Six-
teen Absentees-Several Bills 90
Through Both Houses.
THE VOTE FOR SENATOR.
THE VOTE FOR SENATOR.
SHORT TERM.
Thirty-Fifth Ballot.
Special to the Inter Mountain.

Special to the Inter Mountain.
Helena, Feb. 25-The senatorial situa-
ton shows no marked change, though
indications are that the MacGinnis forces
are beginning to lose heart. Fitzpatrick
has deserted from the camp of "the ma
jor," and joined the forces of the man
from Butte. Woods vote for Conrad to-
day was by special request of the lat
ter, otherwise Frank would have re-
ceived %.
The report of the committee on state
institutions ana public buildings to the
effect that Stull's bill relating to the es-
tablishment of an insanity commission
should be indefinitely postponed and the
report of The committee on the asylum
investigation We're adopted but caused
a lively racket in the house this morning.
Stull declared he had several letters and
affidavits in his possession showing that
the institution was not conducted on
right lines and asked that the report be
laid on the table.
He read letter from j. c. Hastings.
Of Butte, saying that a barber named
GleesOn who had been an inmate of the
institution had been badly treated; that
the BARRIERS wife had once visited him at
Warm Springs and found his collar bone
had been broken by the physician having
him in charge.
Stul! read a second letter without CIV
ing the name of the writer. who lives in
Ravalli county. The author asked that
the asylum investigation be pushed to
the utmost. He said that friends once
put him there to keep him from being
arrested for an indiscretion committed
1r,1n ho had !,
asylum a hell hole" The letter made
very sensa tional charges, declaring
that patients were half starved and that
one man mad been forced to go hungry
three days because he did not know his
proper place at the dining table, The
writer said that patients We're compelled
to sleep weeks at time in the same
filthy sheets and that patients We're bru-
tally treated and confined in cells for the
most trivial offenses.
1t was further asserted by the writer
that feeble mind d children We're shame
fully whipped; that no damaging dis
closures could be made. The writer de-
clared he saw enough at the asylum to
melt a heart of stone" and concluded
by saying: that Joseph Rodgers of yell
lOwstone, though perfectly sane, is kept
confined at the asylum because the Off
cials get 65 cents day for his keep.
Hill, as member of the committee,
read a letter from Rev. Father p. A.
Quesnell of Frenchtown, to o. Y. War;
rem, extoling the conduct of affairs at
the asylum.
Hedges asked for an investigation. as
sorting that such grave charges should
not be permitted to pass Various men,
bers of the committee declared that all
the charges had been duly investigated.
BY vote, on division. the report of the
committee was adopted, dissenting.
Stull and Hedges, however, managed to
get the insanity commission bill sent to
the printing committee.
A bill appropriating Sal. 800 for deaf.
dumb and blind asylum and the bill re-