The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1905-09-08
INSANE IN NEW COTTAGES
NEBRASKA HAS ADOPTED A NEW
METHOD IN NORFOLK.
IN TREATMENT OF AFFLICTED
The Patients are Simply Delighted
With the New Homes - They All
Live in One Great, Comfortable
Room-No Little Cells.

Room-No Little Cells.
t1srom Spturdav'e Daily.1
The state of Nebraska, in the Nor.
folk hospital for the insane, has this
week begun an experiment in the cot
tage system of asylums for taking care
of the insane, this being the first cot
tage system that has yet been at
tempted anywhere in the west. And
from the results of the first few days
It is safe right now to say that the
system Is going to be eminently sue
cessful. and far superior in almost
every particular to the older form of
institution, in which all Of the pa
tients were housed in one great build
ing, with iron bars at the windows,
and with each patient sleeping In
little penitentiary-like cell.
The patients who are now at the in
stitution-there is one cottage Of wo-
men and one of men-are simply de-
lighted, with Roosevetian accent on
the word, at their new home. Brought
from the high brick walls at Lincoln,
where the wards are overcrowded any
way, to this little village on the hill,
with four handsome cottages, each
palace in itself the men and women
who are afflicted with ills of the nerves
are at once pleased at the atmosphere
of it all and proud with a personal
pride of the pretty structures that be-
long, they believe, to them.
The old hospital, whose walls still
remain visible in the ruins at the rear
of the grounds, was like a penitentiary
through and through compared to the
new The windows in that were
barred with iron gratos, through which
the inmates could merely gaze all day
long. The new cottages have great,
expansive windows with merely a lit
tie mesh of screening over them, max
ing them resemble the screens used
to keep out the flies. They are, of
course, strong enough to prevent a vi
olent patient from going through and
thus escaping
Wards in the former hospital were
great, empty, unhomelike rooms bare
and uninviting; in the present cot
tages there are no wards. On the
ground floors of the cottages are large,
airy living rooms, just like those in
a magnificent home, with CRATES for
glowing fires in the cozy hooks, rich
rugs on the prettily polished floors,
solid, handsome leather chairs, couch
es and divans, heavy tables for read
ing or writing home and furniture
through and through which rlakes the
visitor believe that he has arrived in
some parlor of state rather than in
the living quarters for the insane.
1--WE are proud of this room-every-
thing is so pretty" said one of the
female patients, in speaking of the
place. 1--WE like to stay here, it is so
comfortable"
The upper fioor-there are but two
floors to each cottage, where there
were four to the former buildings-is
one great, roomy sleeping apartment,
with half hundred iron beds ar
ranged in rows from end to end.
There will be fewer suicides in the
cottages, it is believed than in the old
institution, where the patients had
their cells to themselves and every
opportunity for self destruction if they
chose. Here, where they all lie down
at night together for their rest, their
minds are kept away from gloomy
melancholia and they take to the idea
that they all belong to one large fam
lily. With a neigbbor sleeping at your
elbow, the chances of ending ones
life are much less than with a door
locking the world away from you.
Off this big dormitory are four little
rooms in case >any of the patients
should be i'll during the night and
need especial attention.
During the day two attendants and
during the night but one, have charge
of this whole cottageful of insane peo-
pie.
There are now thirty-five patients
in each cottage in use, though the
plans contemplate fifty in each. And
these thrty-five, instead of joining pa
tients from the other cottages, eat at
a dining table of their own, each cot |
tage being equipped with a large din
ing room. There is but one kitchen,
however, to the institution-the food |
being wheeled from the main kitchen |
to the sub-kitchens through the tun-
nels that have delayed progress this
summer
On the porches, the state has pro.
vided a handsome lot of hickory chairs
and setees which are enjoyed during
the day and in the evenings. The
porches face the south and east, and
are almost roms in themselves, with
high stone walls that give an imposing
appearance. Cement walks connect
the various building and the large
lawn is lined with drives here and
there.
The officers of the institution live in
tha administration IuiIdinr n bo,,l