The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-01-14

ago al COlQ me tnat no one
need suffer for lack of something to
read here. He then allowed me to
borrow many excellent books from the
state Library" I am a fast reader
and | can read a book through In a
day or two. There is a library of sew
eral hundred books on Ward 1 that
were left by an old man, who bought
hundreds of books while a patient here
and left them to the institution when
he died. Perhaps you have read the
comic anecdote about the young wo-
man who visited an insane asylum
and a lunatic chased her and chased
her until she was out Of breath. Then
he merely tapped her on the shoulder
and said, Tag, You're It." Most of
the insane are harmless, About n
third Of them recover. l have seen a
few patients that are snatchers. They
will snatch a book, paper or magazine
out of the readers hand. Some will
snatch the food on the table. heard
a story of one who dumped the whole
dish of beans on his own plate at the
dinner table. l have seen some throw
the reading matter of the wards out of
windows.
When a visitor enters the hospital
building here he sees tables piled with
magazines, pictures on the walls, a
gramaphone, and potted palms and
ferns, everything that CELSIUS advocat-
ed for the use of the insane before
THE Birth of Christ"
The state gave many of its patients
watches for Christmas presents.
Things may improve until, "The
world is great and goodly, as he plan
ned it long ago"
There is a beautiful framed picture
of a mountain on the lower fiat Of the
hospital building. l remember Sheep
Mountain in Lawrence county. From
the flats above Lead it looks like a
gigantic straw colored sheep. Around
Sheep Mountain with its dome shaped
upper portion that looks like a per-
feet earth ball in the distance are
many high hills.
The United States Geological Survey
a y it is typical Pleistacene Scenery.
To me they look like the hills and
mountains of Palestine look in pic
lures. They seem to be built on the
same plan. Many forms are visible
away out on the prairie from their
SUBMITS. Most of them are bare. One
is crowned with crags Of white lime
stone and Is higher than White Rocks
which tower 500 feet above the city
Of Deadwood. And contains a ceme-
terry on a high sloping fiat, wherein lie
the remains Of Wild Bill, whose
corpse according to an account in
the Deadwood Daily Pioneer Times)
was petrified when they removed 1t.
They couldn't tell what process did 1t.
Most of these hills are bare although
in places there are large spaces over.
ed with spruce, pine, aspen, oak or
white birch. Wild r~aspberries and
cherries are often gathered here In
large quantities.
Polo Peak Is bare and brown. Green
Mountain is covered with tall pines
that look dark green in the distance,
interspersed with massive brown por-
pheretic cliffs. There are over a hum
dred kinds of wild flowers in The
Black Hills"
People became frightened at Sheep
Mountain eight years ago thinking It
showed signs of volcanic activity, but
I don't think there Is any danger OF
that. A gigantic belt of gray boulders
girdles it near the summit. l have
climbed it several times.
Very truly yours,
A Student.