The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-04-02
THE cRAzIEsr PEOPLE.

Dr. White, statistician of the Govern
 ment hospital for the insane, has been
 saying some things lately that will set | the teeth of all New England on edge, and is likely to raise a storm that VIII | be worse than the recent earthquake in | that section. He finds, from careful in
 vestigation, that New England leads the i entire country in the percentage of in
 sanity, and especially is that true when
 that section is compared with the South
 and West His tables show that there is 1 one insane person for every S59 of the population of New England, while in the South the ratio is one in s35, and in the l far Western States 1t Is one to 1.-6S. Is not this enough to jar staid New England to the very foundation? It Is nothing new to be told that the New
 Englanders are the craziest people OH
 earth in some respects. We always knew
 that, and they have been that way from
 the time their ancestors first landed on
 the coast of that bleak region. In cer-
 tain respects they have shown a lack of
 mental boise not noticeable elsewhere,
 but that they are almost three times as
 crazy as the Southern people and nearly
 four times as crazy as are the Western
 CTS, is a bad showing, to say the least
 of 1t. The New Haven Register has this
 to say about 1t:
 Last year a reason was given. and made
 great furore al the time. by the rev
 erRn6 OanFlpnnQn .at
 was d practical worker in the church mis-
 sionary field in New England and had A
 personal knowledge of the. facts from which he drew his generaliza tions. This ! gentleman, as We remember advanced the notion that most of the insane cases were to be found in the old New England ldnlhes, more often than otherwise among the farmers wives and children ] and that the Fundamental cause was 10 1 De found in the moral and spiritual de- ] terioration of the old New England stock | re lound as we remember. most deplor- l apie conditions existing in the backwards 1 district of this State, for instance. Hr ! round that the church attendance had | iallen oil, that there was much loose Iiv- ais among the people. that there was no | stern social regulations against the inter marriage Of half witted people and that | In numerous cases he had found descend-
 ants or old Puritan stock In the depths | or poverty. ignorance and moral inio1itv He traced the actual presence of acuIe | or simple forms of insanity to these eauses-the segregation of a great part
 ot the rural neighborhood. the absence of | strong neighborhood feeling the lack of good schools Nh the country towns and the general deterioration of morals among the backwoods settlers.
 The Register is not willing to accent
 reasoning above given as a full solution
 of the matter, and we opine that its dis
 belief is largely because what we have quoted shows that the unfavorable show | ing is 10 great extent the result of 1 their own misconduct and bad habits. or
 their methods of living. It argues that
 the conditions set forth by Dr. White
 may be caused in great degree "througn
 the great inflow of herds of illiterate
 aliens to New England shores" We do
 not know that this is really fair state
 ment of the case, for we are not aware
 that there is a greater percentage of in-