The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1908-06-22
INSANE MAN HAS
NO PLACE TO co
Hospitals and Jail Doors Are
Closed to Elmer
Baker.
PUZZLED.
1T is NOT KNOWN WHAT CAN BE
DONE WITH BAKER SINCE ALL
REFUSE TO GIVE HIS NEEDS
ATTENTION.

What shall be done with Elmer
Baker?
Will some one kindly volunteer so
| luton to this question which has baffl-
ed the city and county authorities
| Any suggestions will be appreciated as
all that have been made up to the
present have been found impractical.
Baker has been adjudged insane and
the disposition that shall be made of
him is what has placed the authorities
in their predicament. He is insane
at least so reported the commission
and for this reason he is denied ad-
mittance to the county farm or to the
Reid Memorial hospital He is not
dangerously insane-or so regarded by
the sheriff-and for this reason this
officer will not admit the man to the
county Jail. Members of his family as
sert they are unable to care for him
longer 1t is claimed he requires a
guard but the family is without means
to employ one.
The chief source of trouble is attri-
exercise physical control over his per-
sonal habits. 1t is due to this reason
primarily that the sheriff has refused
him admittance. The Jail is without a
nurse or any proper place to put a
| person in the condition of Baker. The
county pays for guard for the in
sane but if this guard were to be re-
quired to devote the large part of his
time to attending to the needs of one
man, he could not discharge his duties
in regard to the other insane prison
ers at the Jail. One of these others is
violent and force is required several
times a day to subdue him. Admit
tance can not be secured to EAsthav.
en- for this man and the superinten-
dent of the state epileptic village will
not admit him there.
Sheriff is Upheld.
There are about seventy inmates of
| the county farm and the superinten-
dent and his employees have all they
can do to take care of those in their
custody. The township trustees have
been instructed not to send insane
| patients to the county farm as there
is no accommodations for them. Sew
| eral feeble minded persons are now
| given homes at the institution but no
additions are desired by the superin-
| tendent and the county commissioners
/ assert he is justified in his position.
The county commissioners will I'D.
hold the sheriff in his determination
| to refuse Baker admittance to the Jail
The commissioners remember the
| Thorman case of recent date too well
to risk any repetition. Thorman was
| in about the same condition as Baker
I The man had to be handled like a
baby and required special attention
He had no self control and kept the
part of the Jail in which he was cared
for in an unsanitary condition.
| 1t has been suggested that mas
much as the city makes a large an.
nual contribution to the Reid Memor.
| ial hospital and it is claimed to be a
| city institution Baker might be cared
| for there. A member of the board of
| physicians of the institution has in.
/ ioi LnSu the SH6TiIl IIldC BAKER Will not
be admitted to that institution.
! With the man regarded as too great
a care to be kept at the home of rela.
| tves and none of the charitable instf.
tutions open TO him, a perplexing puz.
zle is presented. Baker was removed
TO the Jail in the ambulance Saturday
afternoon, but the sheriff would not
accept him upon ascertaining his con.
dition. When he was taken back 10
| his home on South Ninth street, obiec.
| ton was made to receiving him there
and the sheriff left him in front of the
house.
When adjudged insane by a commits.
sion, the usual papers committing
| Baker to the custody of the sheriff
were prepared. The law stipulates
| that the sheriff shall care for danger.
ously insane persons but specifies nc
others. The commitment papers have
been shifted about from sheriff to
| township trustee. The trustee gave
| them TO the deputy sheriff when last
| heard from but the sheriff could not
find them this morning