The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1910-02-01
SCRAPP|NG OVER
PUPULE PEOPLE
Police and the Insane Asylum
Management Are at Outs
With Each Other.


Charles A. Peterson, superintendent of
the Oahu insane Asylum and the police
department. The present bone Of con-
tention is Tom Gussman, who, the
police claim, is insane, and of whom
they wish Doctor Peterson to take care.
Peterson aske dthem politely for the
papers of committal and upon their
failure to discover any gently turned
away the supposed insane man and the
guardians of the law.
"We're full up, said the police.
$50 am l., said Peterson, and Guss-
man still resides in the city bastile.
Gussman is the gentleman who be.
came inebriated in the Sunrise Saloon
| and who was taken into custody in con-
sequence. He developed symptoms of
| what is vulgarly known as "bats in the
belfry," and the police decided that
this relieved them of the responsibility
| of his safekeeping. Doctor Peterson
herds the lunatics. let him add this one
| to his collection; the man had been
there before and would feel at home
there. But lacking the proper papers
of committal the police, much to their
surprise, found themselves turned
down.
This has made the police mad. Why
should they associate with lunaticsi
They point to the Encouragement of
the insane asylum, showing that two
persons escaped in two days as extra.
proof that the refusal to accept Guss-
| man was only a piece of the general
incapablity.
Doctor Peterson, on his part, points
to the buildings he has in the Enclosure
in which the insane people are kept and
brings up statistics to show how pecu-
liarly fitted for its work the institution
is. The support rendered the insane
asylum gives some the idea that there
are as many idiots outside as inside.
In one building of twelve rooms he has
been forced to place twentyfour pa
tients, and besides this there are ten
men sleeping on lanai. He is allowed
so few guards that they have to stand
twelve-hour watches and each has forty
or fifty patients to look after.
The law expressly says that a man,
to be committed to the insane asylum,
must be SO committed by an order from
| the chairman of the board of insanity
commissioners. Therefore Doctor Peter
son wants to know why the police have
a crouch on. He says that Sheriff Jar
rett frequently sends supposedly insane
| people to the institution authorizing
| Doctor Peterson to hold hem for forty
| eight hours. Jarrett has no right to do
| this under the law, and if Peterson
| does it, he opens himself to suit for
| illegal detention, as he has no right
to hold them under these circumstances.
The superintendent points to an in
cident that happened some time ago
when supposed insane woman was
| dumped in the grounds at three CLOCK
in the morning by the police. She had
| been sent over from Molokai but the
proper papers had not been made out,
| and Doctor Peterson had to draw them
up for the Judge and send them over
to be signed 1t was "a week before
they came back during which time he
was forced to hold the woman at a per-
sonal risk as the police refused to have
| anything to do with her. He warned the
| police that he would turn her loose on
the road if they did not come after her,
but they merely said that he had better
| If Peterson had turned her loose on the
community as he had right to do and
as he should have done, according to the
law, the police might have had COM
motion on their hands.
Three or four of the buildings in the
Enclosure, including one of the wards,
the kitchen and the laundry, have been
built by the inmates themselves, as the
legislature has refused to appropriate
money enough to build them. Build
ings that were condemned some time
ago as unfit to live in are still standing,
as the legislature did not provide for
new one and some shelter is needed.
Doctor Peterson has fixed it up as well
as he could.
The police have lately turned over to
him, Fong Fook, the insane Chinaman
| who murdered All Sing, making three
insane murderers he has In custody
without any facilities for keeping the
criminaiiy insane. In this case the re-
| quirements of the law have been sat
isfed, but the law should have sent
them to the prison, he says.
| Another bone of contention between
the insane asylum management and the
| police are the few who have escaped
from the asylum. The police, Gays
Peterson, have been harping on this
while at the same time refusing to com.
ply with the law by keeping the pris-
oners until the proper papers have been
made out.
Doctor Peterson points to his lack of
guards and the other handicaps he has,
and then at the roar that certain af.
ternoon paper made over the matter
without taking the trouble TO inyesti,
gate the conditions II was writing
about. The Korean who "eseaped y
Saturday and who got ON the nerves
Of the afternoon paper mentioned walk.
ed out Of the building during the night
aud was reeaplured eight hours LATER
lie was sleeping Ia "A ward with forty
six men and there was but one goard
10 watch them, He had 10 lehya the
room and did 80 with the guard . per
mission, Az the latter still had forty
i've men 70 watch he could not follow
the one, Who was tfusiy, aud the mau
Climbed aver fh0 rpnrn An the oh