The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-07-03

mystery of insanity. Some shadoWy cause, as invisible and as intangible as the electron of the chemist, Is responsible for this tangle in the affairs of men, and only the law Is bold enough to pin label to the phenomenon. Science can only say, Behold, l show you mystery!
 Story of an Attendant.
 The following story does not shadow forth any interpretation of the mystery, but 1t does suggest that there is perhaps one factor in madness of which the pa thologist Is not usually disposed to take account. The tale Is told to me by one who for many years was charge attend ant in one of the largest lunatic asylums In this country. In those days. he con fesses, he did not reflect upon the under lying mystery in madness; he found him self a wheel in a big machine, and did the work appointed to him with preci- sion and care. but without intellectual inn pulse. It was not until the incident had happened which l now tell that he began to think and to see; and from that day to this the impression of the spiritual mystery has never deserted him.
 He was going his rounds at midnight. The huge and hideous building was silent except for the sound of his feet on the stone corridors and the muff1ed sighs and nOdnS or the unIOftundte pdupeTS. The attendant thought no more of those sounds than one thinks of the wind in the chimney or the groan of old furni- ture. But as he approached one of the enormous wards his thoughts did for a moment run on before him to a poor crea- ture lying in that room, to whom, he knew, kind death was now beating its way through time. Would he find the madman dead, or would he find him bab- bling in feverish dreams of things and sights and thoughts of which our sanity has no cognizance?
 He entered the long ward, and stood for a moment looking to the dusky end, across those lines of rumpled beds in which pale madness hugged itself in dreams Save for the dscordant breath ing, and the occasional twitch of limb, all was silent and motionless It was the same blurred page of eternity; the same mockery of night. He began his solitary tour of inspection. Down the center of the sleeping ward he went slowly and perfunctorily, with tired eyes looking at every huddled bed upon his right side before turning at the end to study those upon his left. How often had he gone down between these lunatics2 How often had he looked and never comprehended! !! The common round, the daily taskl
 Madman's Midnight Prayer.
 As he went forward he heard noise upon his left, little behind him, and, turning around, he beheld the poor dying lunatic rising out of his bed. The sad and friendless madman thrust back the clothes, brought hts feet slowly to the floor, and then stood up with white and strangely quiet face. The attendant. thinking he was in delirium. moved back to help him into bed. But before he had taken a few paces, as though aware only of his own presence in the ward, the dy- ing lunatic kneeled solemnly down at the side of the bed, buried his face in his hands, and began to pray aloud
 The attendant tells me that never be- fore and never since did his ears listen to prayer so fervent, so wonderful so sublime. The words came quietly. slowly. orderly, Sat they were each one heavy with almost unima ginable earnestness. and seemed as though they were breathed from the lips of mighty soul pressed close to the very ears of Diety. He asked for forgiveness. and he made suppliestion for help. From the side of his banner bed, in the midst of those sleep-breathing madmen, the hushed and feryent voice of this hitherto dumb soul climbed sacred ly to the Almighty, asking the eternal to forgive him the sins of which he had been guilty, and to bow down His heaven and come and save him. There was no frenzy, no chaotic tumble of words. no aimless sentimentalism. As spirit to spirit. this one hopeless and dangerous l,,na,ia prayed in that haunting scene for God,s clemency and heavens help. as tbongh the illusions of madness had rolled snd denly away, and he was looking straight into the holy of holies and was ,,ns afraid.
 All prayers l have heard since" say. the attendant, have never reached ths fervency, the pathos, or the sublin,;,y as that mans prayer. I was spellbo,n5 for the time and stood motionless fear,rx .a