The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-02-12

New 1OTk CITY OI JHS uduhS VI thc
Hudson river. 1t is great red brick
building with numerous wings. An
unfortunate approaching Mattaewan
in a carriage from Fishkill landing
was silent as the carriage drove slow
~ up the broad yellow road that
wound about the natural terrace
made by successive hills, mounting
to the cedar fringed grounds of the
institution.
"Ah! We are here!' he said, rs
the carriage rounded with flourish
through the drive to the foot of the
wide steps at the grand entrance.
''Here at the sign of the red hen,
and | am to be one of her chicks. -
Though coming from mind de-
ranged the figure was apt, Mattea-
wan, in the brillianey of her often
renewed crimson paint, with multi
tude of wings, looks like a giant red
hen summing herself and ruffiing her
red feathers in sheer enjoyment of
the wealth Of sunshine that floods
the highest hill on the lower Hudson,
when the sun chooses to shine at
all.
Thus it was that Matteawan earned
it's nickname, the Red Hen, and it's
inmates their title of the Red Hens
Chicks Down in the hollow south
of the building the sWard is dotted
by shafts of cleaning white or dull
brown. They are the tombstones of
the asylum cemetery, and the inmate
who christened MatteaWan by its
more popular name lies beneath one
of them. 1t is pointed out to Wis
itors: There lies the godfather of
the institution" say the guides.
The New York American, day or
two before Thaw's trial ended, de-
scribed what his life at Matteawan
would be, if he were sent there.
All persons committed to the asy-
lum as they enter are taken by the
arm by an attendant, an inevitable
incident of arrival at Matteawan.
Impulse is the demon that all fear
at Matteawan, and impulse shakes a
man to his center when on mounting
| Tue lOHS hight VI DIOdu, 81 dy OCOhC
stairs leading to the grill door, he
axes his last backward glimpse of
the outside world One unwilling
guest threw off the attendants grasp
and flung himself headlong down the
stairs, nearly ending his life upon
the granite steps.
They call this view from the stairs,
the vista of broad shining river seen
through interlacing coughs of ever
green trees, with the winding yellow
road piercing it as a crooked finger
of an old man, the Last Glimpse. De-
spair fills the soul at S ght of it. 1t
is that last glimpse chat causes the
patients mental state to be worse
for days or weeks after his entrance
to Matteawan than ever before.
The big grill doors swing back.
A cunning-faced doorkeeper grins at
the new patient. That grin of semi
understanding is the passport to the
house OF horrors. 1t says: Enter.
Be one of us. God help you, for this
is a place that passes pity" Past
the great grill doors, through a wide,
sunny corridOr-fOr there is pleni-
tude of air and sunshine at Mattea-
wan-the new inmate passes into the
= superintendent office, where the rec
ord of the commitment is made and
the newcomer is turned over to a
keeper. If quiet and passive he is
= taken to the observation ward.
Through the broad corridor he goes
with a silent, watchful-eyed, brawny
muscled nurse. Up another flight of
wide stairs, where the nurse walks
quietly and closely behind him, and
the newcomer stops before a door.
On a level with his eyes, high on the
door, he sees what makes him visibly
start 1t is a peephole. There are
three others in the door If for a
+ second an attendant leaves the ward
8 by one door inevitably at the other
doors the light through one of the
{ pair of peephOleS is INSTRUCTED by the
e gray or blue or brown of pair OF
Y eyes. Always, no matter how studi-
Ously the attendant avoids seeming
to look at him, he is looking, and be-
| sides there are always the peephOles,
S and always eyes ready to be applied
to them The observation ward is a
: long, wide, high hall, with snow
e white walls and large arm-chairs set
\ primly along the walls.
These chairs are loaded 1t re-
] quires all of a strong mans strength
n to drag them about. No man even
0 in the superhuman strength of frenzy
t could lift one to crush his fellow
= man with it, Figures that had been
: shadow-like at first take substance.
They crowd about the new inmate,
pushing aside the keepers to give
!. him strange greeting.
Il am the King of Dynamite, cries
i shrunken little man with flaming
eyes. whom the attendants call
Quimbo. Il am glad you have come
: Il am going to blow up the place
}, at G o'clock, The devil has asked
:, me to send him large consignment. "