The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1913-10-09
Many in AsyIums Earn Excellent
Salaries.
There Are Scores of Lunatics Who
Are Good Artists, and Some of
Them Make Big Incomes by
Their Art-Work Is
Unreliable.


mind doctor, in an interview with the
New York Press, you would be
amazed at the clever work that is
done by hundreds of men and women
who are hopelessly insane. Some of
it at least is as good as that done
by sane people who earn large in
comes.
Among my patients today is one
man whose skill with the brush would
almost surely qualify him for high
rank if he were only in possession OF
his senses. There are few of the
great exhibitions which do not con-
tain one or more of his canvases, and
he has often received as much as $500
for picture. And yet this man is
as mad as a halter, the victim OF
terrible delusions and subject to vio-
lent homicidal attacks.
Naturally, his work is unreliable.
One week he will produce a mastery
and beautiful picture, with genius in
every line of it. The next he will
paint the most weird picture, per-
feet nightmare in color which, curl
Ously enough he always considers
masterpiece.
And this man is no exception, for
there are scores Of lunatics who are
quite excellent artists, and many of
them make good incomes by their art.
Several years ago an exhibition OF
pictures, the work of insane patients
of the Bethlehem Royal hospital, was
open to the public, and l can assure
you many of them are beautiful
works of art
There are hundreds of other luna
tics who are just as skillful in music
and literature. One of my own pa,
tents, who is hopelessly mad on one
subject, and who is perfect musical
genius, has composed operas and
symphonies and scores of songs which
have won considerable fame for him
and have brought him a small fortune.
And know of many other insane men
and women who earn small and reg
ular incomes in the same way.
There are, similarly, hundreds of
the insane who make a hobby, and
sometimes a very profitable one, of
writing. Indeed, many of our asy'
lums have magazines which are al
most entirely the work of the pa
tents.
Even in our public asylums there
are hundreds of patients who make
money by skilled wctk of one sort or
another. Thus, in a county asylum
know well one man who does the most
exquisite water color sketches, for
which he receives from SIS to $50
each and he has a market for as
many as he can produce. Unfortu-
nately. like so many mad artists, he
is often unable or unwilling to finish
a picture, and thus at least four-fifths
of his work is wasted.
Another patient, former sea cap
tain. spends his time in making the
most perfect tiny models of ships,
carved with infinite skill and pains
from bone or ivory, for each OF when
he gets IS to $40. For one very elab-
crate and beautiful model of cathe-
dral he was paid as much as $3.50,
and it was certainly very cheap at the
price. A third patient in the same
asylum earns many dollars year by
cutting the cleverest silhOuettes out
of colored paper.
"Other patients are equally skilled
IN a very wide range of industries,
from inventing toys and puzzles to
making watches and picture frames,
and from breeding canaries and mice
to raising flowers. One very ingenious
man actually made clock, with no
other material than pins, buttons, iron
bed laths and pieces of knitting nee
dies.
THE women, too, are just as clever
as the men. | know one demented
woman who writes the most charming
books for children, and verses for
Christmas cards, another who makes
a good income, in her lucid hours, by
illustrating books, and third who
draws several hundred dollars year
from royalties on her plays. And
there are countless women in our
public asylums who earn money in
scores of ways, such as knitting, lace
making straw plating and leather
work"