The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1905-11-30
GOVERNOR TO SHERlFFS.
Letter TO Every County On Matter OF
INDECENT Insane in County JaiIs or
Homes.

Homes.
RALEIGH, \. G., Nov. 22.-The fol-
lowing letter Governor Glenn has adj
dressed to every Sheriff in the State:
"If there are any INDECENT insane
confined in the county jail or county
home, you will please make app!ica,
ton at once to the State Hospital
nearest to your county, for the adj
mittance of these patients. Have
the law strictly complied with in re-
gard to the applications and do not
send patient to the hospital until APP
plication has been passed upon. Re
port to me the result Of your appli-
cation, if petition is accepted or re-
jected, and if rejected, the reasons
THEREFOR
In letter to the public the Gov
ernOr says:
The proper application must be
made from the val iOus counties to
admit these unfOrt mate people into
the hospitals. and II upon lnvestIga-
ton they are found to be INDECENT i'll
sane. and there is room they must be
admitted If there is room enough
for those entitled to admission, III
addition to the inmates now i'll the
hospitals, then all right, for this is
legal. but if not, then those patients
now in the hospitals, who are not in
dirent. but who themselves, or whose
families, have enough to maintain
them in some private institution,
must be removed to make room Tor
the truly INDECENT, for not a man or
woman confined in tails or county
homes, who belongs to this class OF
INDECENT insane, must remain there,lf
they can be placed in the hospitals
by removing persons, who do not
strictly belong to the INDECENT class.
1T looks very hard, and it is hard,
and to me cruel, that men who hap
pen to have property and whose peo-
pie can take care of them, should not
be able to keep their dear unfortu-
nate ones near them, III their own
State Hospitals, but must send them
away to other States, and it will
be an outrage if the law is not SO
amended, as to have accommodate
lions sufficient to care for all our i'll
sane, whether INDECENT or not, but
the law iSnOt so written now, and no
INDECENT insane person, no matter
how humble or poor, can be excluded
to make room for the most favored
or influential person in the State who
can pay.
Il trust that by sending home all
that are cured, or by exchanging
those supposed to be cured for those
who must be admitted, the hospitals
can keep the pay patients and ac-
cOmmOdate all those who are indl-
gent and now entitled to enter. |
will visit your institutions at our
next meeting and confer with your
director, but nothing less than the
rule already laid down, will satisfy
the law, and | will enforce the law as
the people made it, until they them
selves change it, or until their repre-
sentatives makeprOvisiOn by statute
to maintain all classes. In every way
possible | will try and hasten the
completion of the new building at
the Central Hospital ut Raleigh,
which will accommodate 100 patients
and thus III Il measure relieve the
congestion Neither the GovernO"
nor Council OF State has the right to
erect new buildings or appropriate
money for the maintenance OF the
same, this alone belongs to the Leg
islative branch OF the government,
but we can insist upon the law as ell
acted, being enforced, and | will do
so, even slough it deprives my
friends and relations, who may have
means, of remaining in the hospitals
in order to make room for some less
fortunate person, now in Jail.
IL repeat again, it is a shame that
ample provision is not made for all
our insane, high and low, those who
can pay and those who cannot, and
with the strongest language | can
command, in the name of humanity
and OF all the people, | will demand
of the next General Assembly to prop
erlv care for all these unfOrtunates,
whom the Master for some wise pur-
pose has afflicted, whether they can
pay IL shilling. or all necessary ex-
penses, but until the Legislature makes
this provision, and though it will
pain me to see the law strictly Ell
forced, and pay patients sent away,
still it must and shall be done, until
the INDECENT insane are first cared for,
and then others be received
Il have written the Sheriffs to
make proper application for the adj
mittance of their INDECENT insane, and
| ask and expect that you will aid
me in upholding the law as written.
I'm receiving inebriates and those
patients who are able to pay into
the hospitals, YOU have but followed
the statutes passed by the Legisla-
ture, and for one attach no blame
to YOU, still even the Legislature can
not set at naught the Constitution.
and now that it is admitted that the
number of insane makes it impossi-
bic for both the INDECENT and pay
patients to be received. | know YOU
will observe the will of the people and
give the preference to the poor and
needy, who otherwise can get no help.
our management OF the institutions
under your charge, has evoked the
praise of those at home and abroad.
and it is a great calamity that all
our insane, of every class cannot be
under your care and treatment, but
under present conditions it cannot
be, SO wemust obey the law and then
insist upon the General Assembly REM
edying this dreadful wrong.
REST assured | stand ready to aid
YOU in all things that will ameliorate
the sufferings OF these poor unfortu-