The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-25
MEET AGAIN
 IN PRIVATE
from Pare Oue. i
\

brought them IOrlh Has one WTsCheu faculty and its power and usefulness is gone forever.
 She knows it. Nor does she wish to leave the asylum. In her contentment, she Is most unlike the other patient, for their buring desire is to get out and the more insane they are, the more mortified they are at the terrible intus- tice of restraining thenlwithin asylum walls.
 She is of another State and is now 60 year of age. Her people have been famed for their brilliance and none had fairer right to the family fame than she. The strain of her work brought on nervous prostration. The final at tack came In Birmingham and now her life's work Is ended The curtain Is drawn--darkness has come. As the Commission passed through the corridors on their trip of inspec- ton she thrust a manuscript into the hands of Chairman King. At the hotel that night, he read it and then passed it among the other members of the Commission saying:
 It is manuscript of English. The manuscript consisting of some seven of eight pages of fools cap paper. dealt with conditions in the Hospital as she saw them. The Commission, at the next days session had her be- fore them. that she might tell in per. son 0I Llo things chS heFN ANNSS@@~~~ in the manuscript.
 Her name would instantly challenge attention. But what end would IL serve to giYe it except to humiliate those on the outside who are near and dear to her. The third witness of refinement and gentleness was & young lady of Hunts yflle She was an acquaintance or Chairman King, when he was young lawyer of that city As he passed through a corridor she recognized him and drew him aside to tell him of con- ditions at the Hospital as she saw them.
 l. Chairman King had her brought before the Confusion that she might l tell her story.
 COmmissary Department | The Commission is carefully looh- ! ing into the commissary Department of the Hospital Former patients, who testified in Montgomery and Birming- | ham attacked the food and the dining | room service. The Commissioners have made frequent visits to the din- | ing rooms and kitchens to inspect the quality and the quantity of the food The visits have feen made without | notice.
 | The Hospital s-s-orites are advance ing the arguments as to the necessity | for more liberal treatment from the | State T. Hospital receives the small sum of $3 a week for the maintenance of each inmate. The amount was fixed several years ago.
 Out of this $3 for each inmate each natient must be clothed and fed. Out | of this same amount, the physicians must be paid and the attendance of nurses must be provided. And out or this slender amount there must De secured a fund for extending the build inRs of the Hospital, for the state makes no appropriations for this pur> pose. Ao
 The space in the Hospital must be | increased, for the population Of Ala bama steadily and rapidly increases and with the increase of popuiatioh the percentage of the Insane Is naturai- ly maintained.
 Tn the meanwhile, the cost of living has wtdened and enlarged. The hos pital authorities feel the pressure of the increased cost of living for those committed to their care, even as the head of the family feels 1t in the out side world. Still the increase re- mains at the figure fixed several years ago.
 former patients who have heretofore been examined have been patients who had zone to the hospital because Of the morphine or whiskey habit. In thls connection it Is to be recalled that Dr' Searcey urged the last Legislature tn establish an inebriate ward, separate department for the treatment Of mor- phine and whiskey patients. | For treatment. of this class Of the insane brings about the best results. A large per centage of them are restor- ed to mental soundness. On the other hand, three-fourths of the patients who are in the hospital are in there for good and all, They will never recover But the whiskey and morphine patients are, if brought in time, restored to physi- cal and mental health. But the Leg islature failed to establish the in- ebriates ward.
 The patients who are brought there suffering from whiskey and morphine and whiskey excesses are the patients who are most given to violent delusionF. l It is the ordinary thing for them to believe firmly in the first night in the | hospital that some persons entered 1 their room and violently mistreated them. They are subject to reported delusions and these delusions are ac- cepted by the patients as incontrovert- ible facts of memory.
 DeIusive suf1erinGs.
 We once had here one of the lead ing professional men of the State, who was suffering from excesses,' said pr. Searcey. He acquired the delusion that he had been taken to a stall in a barn and then beaten and choked. AS he recovered. he knew from every cir cumstance that such a thing was im> possible. Yet. when he was in the full possession. of his faculties he found 1t extremely difhcult to reason away that delusion.'
 In one of the trips of inspection. Rep resentative Gaston Gunter asked to be shown a friend of his who had been in the hospital twelve years. young
 man with whom he had gone to school in Montgomery. They found the un-
 fortunate man gazing steadily upward at the blank wall. They spoke to him.
 but he did not heed.
 The doctor shook him by the arm and asked: Do you know who this is. He
 turned and in the flash of an eye said
 ''Why it's Gaston Gunter. How are
 you getting on, GastonT'
 He turned immediately and resumed
 his gazing at the blank wall. The doc
 tor could not again attract his atten- | he pVtbfOG p1aa O