The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1914-12-25
INMATES ENCOURAGED TO
WORK IN GARDEN AND ON
BIG FARM NEAR FARMINGTON
Prove Their Ability TO Make Good by
Capturing Many Prizes at Missouri
State and Southeast Fairs.
(BY RoBERTUS LOvEl


In this hospital there is work for
the women also. Those who are not
hopelessly insar.e and helpless be-
cause of their mental darkness, do
plain sewing for hospital needs, and
there are some patients who perform
marvels in needle and crochet work
Of the finer kinds. There is, by the
way, one male patient who is a wiz
zard in making things ordinarily
made only by women. He can knit
an artistic sweater-coat, make hand
bag that is beauty Of workmanship,
or crochet coverlet which any house
wife would call a-dream.
Virtually all of the house WOW
about the asylum is done by the r. \
tients. There are, Of course. SAM
cooks and supervisors of the work in
general, but the patients set the ta-
bles, do the waiting, wash the dishes
and also assist in the cooking. They
clean their quarters in the big cot
tages. In this hospital the accent
should fall on the word clean. Ger
tainly no adverse criticism of the in
stitution in this respect can be made.
DR.. Scrutchfeld took us through
most of the cottages. The outer doors
are kept locked. Surprises greeted
us everywhere. One surprise was due
to the fewness of the attendants nee
essary TO look after the patients. In
several of the cottages where female
patients are accommodated, we found
on duty only one young woman.
About two-ffths of the patients are
women, and in all there wns 631 per
sons in the hospital the day we spent
there.
The patients as a rule were sitting
around in big living room of the
cottage. This occupies most of the
ground floor. The furnishings are
suited TO the particular class of pa
tients. For instance, in some cottages
we found the living room embellished
with rugs. cushions and potted plants,
with flowers blooming. In others,
these accessories were absent. 1t
was explained that the patients in
these cottages would be unable to ap-
preciate such adjuncts. They lack
the mental power. Some of them i'm
prove and are promoted to cottage
for patients of higher grade. They
get into the flower and cushion class.
Others. unfortunately, remain per-
manently in the somewhat bare quar-
ters, which are deemed under all the
circumstances best for them. There
are patients who have been in the
hospital since the opening. Mostly
they are hopeless cases. They are
1ife-termers.
It was pathetically interesting to
watch the patients tending the flow
er pots. AS rule only few in each
cottage care to look after the flowers,
though many of them, if asked, will
ray that they enjoy having such
things about.
One big cottage is known as the
disturbed ward In this house are
kept the patients whose minds are
so disturbed that they are likely to
disturb the attendants and make
trouble. On one side are the women,
on the other side the men, with a
blank wall between. We visited the
disturbed ward last of all. p '""'
want to see the hospital tho
you must see this ward, but
probability you will not care
it twice. While we were
man became obstreperous
be restrained by the atte
wag observed that no
was employed.
Every morning Dr.. s