Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-08-27
AMUSEMENT FOR
CURE Of INSANE
Some Interesting Things Told
in the Annual Report Of Mt.
Pleasant Hospital
PATIENTS ARE ENTERTAINED
All Sorts Of Amusements Organized for
the Benefit of the Mentally Troubled
People at the HospitaI-Work and
Play as Means of Curing Diseased
Minds.
Special to Times Republican.

Special to Times Republican.
Des Mones. Aug. 21.-Tr- weekly
band concerts, bi..weekly home talent
theatricals. regular Monday baseball
games, regularly weekly Saturday
night dances, stereopticon lectures ev-
of all legal holidays and a liberal
number of extra entertainments and
picnics thrown in is given as one of
the principal means of curing the in
sane at the insane hospitals of this
state, according to the report
OF the superintendent of the
insane hospital at MI. Pleas
ant, the oldest Insane hospital
in the state. which has just been filed
with the state board OF control In
fact the report might be interpreted
as showing that an insane hospital is
one round OF pleasure and that the
affairs" of the New York 400" are no
more regular and persistent than the
social affairs OF we'll organized in
sane hospital. The one striking diff
ference between the life of the insane
patient and the life of a member Of
the 400" is that the insane patient
gets none of the banqueting and late
hours.
Entertainment as a means of divert
ing the mind Of the insane person from
his troubles Gu is shown in the report
or the superintendent to be one of the
most successful means resorted to and
to occupy a place as important or
more SO than the administration of
medicines. A we'll organized hospital
theatrical company gives two theat-
ricals each week for the benefit and
entertainment of the insane. Three
other nights In the week there is a
band concert. These things are regu-
lar the year round. Then on Satur-
day nights during the winter there is
always dance. Besides this on We'd
nesday night there is regularly a ster-
eopticon entertainment, lecture,
calisthenc exhibition or orchestral
concert and en- Sundays from Septem-
ber / to June 30 there is church. This
makes a full week with something in
e4lO 1lllc VI GillGL 0NtIy udy.
Then as an auxiliary to this treat
ment of entertainment the women in
sane are induced to do fancy work
The report shows that the fancy work
is not only an excellent treatment for
the insane, but is also financial sue
cess to the institution and brings in
quite a revenue.
The report of the superintendent at
Mt. Pleasant shows that there was a
total of 994 inmates at the end of June
1905, and 1910 at the end of June 1906
Since the institution was started in
1861 there have been 7,444 men and
5,4S5 women admitted to the institution
and 1856 recovered, 2.721 improved, g.
All unimproved and 200 died. The
number of unimproved isTlarge because
it includes a large number sent to
| the independence and Clarinda
hospitals after these were erected,
the report asks for an appropriation
of $1S0700, of which $65,006 is for a
woman's inf1rmary, and $4,000 for a
switch track to switch cars to the hos
pital, $4,000 for converting a brick
| hay barn into a farmers lodge for
the patients who work in the fields and
gardens, $4,000 for an ice plant, $12,-
| 900 for furniture
The report states that the patients
are suffering for want of better furni-
ture The furniture is badly worn,
only nineteen of the thirty-four wards
have rugs or carpets, and many Of
the sick are kept in bed by the lack
of easy chairs in which they might sit
during much of the day time.
l \ 4
Harmony prevails in the republican
party in the office of the state auditor
if nowhere else in the state of Iowa.
1t is probable that in the office Of
State Auditor B. F. Carroll all fac
tions and elements of the republican
party are better represented in the ap-
pointmen-s than in any other office
in the state house. There is a reserva-
ton and progressive group there as
we'll as In the state and strange as it
may seern the clerks and stenograph-
ers of the standpat type, with Joe
Wall of Ringgold county. at the head.
all occupy the south side of the work
room, while the progressives with Ole
o. Roe, of Story county, at the head,
| ocsupy the northern part of the room.
| buring the late unpleasantness the
question of corporation domination,
Immediate" or indefinitely postpon-
ed" tariff revision, and the question
of primary elections has been discuss
| ed and settled 1897 times. being an
average of ten times day. since the
| close of the legislature down to last
| Saturday, when the question was fin
| ally disposed Of for good by the lead
| ers of the two factions agreeing to
! vote the straight ticket and ask no
more questions. Harmony now reigns
| in the republican party of Iowa in the
south end of the state capitol building.
The imaginary line that divided the
reservation from the progressives has
for the time at least. been wiped out
and the election could just as we'll be
held tomorrow.
| During the campaign it has been the
particular form Of amusement for the