The Idaho Republican. [volume] (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1904-1932, 1919-07-18
UPROAR AT THE
STATE ASYLUM
Investigation Would Re-
veal Changes for Bet
\ ter Could be Made
CONSULTS DOCTOR

The public are generally inter-
ested in the affairs of the asylum
and especially if anything has gone
wrong. If there is anything needing
to be done to set matters right, the
public are less interested, and pre-
fer to let somebody else attend to it.
If the average person sees heading
in the newspaper indicating that
there is or has been trouble or an
uproar in the institution, it will be
read. If the heading of the news
article indicated that someone's help
was needed to better the condition
of an unfortunate, fewer people
would read it.
Saturday morning we asked DR..
Hoover, the medical superintendent,
if any of the ministers or musicians
or up-lift people of the town give
him any help in coping with the
mental and spiritual feeding of the
patients at the asylum, and he said,
mo. Practically none. And those
are things that some Of the insane
people need the most. Some of them
need love and sympathy; some OF
them need counsel; some need
mental refreshment; some need
spiritual refreshment, and some need
comradeship such as is manifested
if a member of the same lodge or
same religious faith merely calls for
a little chat because of that tie Of
membership or faith
Continuing, DR.. Hoover said,
''None of the religious denomina-
tions do anything in the line men
toned, excepting the Roman Catho-
lies. OF all the other denominations
represented here, they are an abso-
Lutte blank so far as any kind service
is concerned, either individual SER
vice or collective service by ministers
or committees, or musicians. There
are people at the asylum who are
actually starving for just those
things, and they starve on and on
and there is no relief offered not
withstanding the great pretensions
of our so-called Christian people
The lodges are better in that re-
spect. They attend to a good many
duties of this kind, and patient
fares much better at the hands OF
his associates if he has lodge associa-
tions than If he has religious con-
nections as stated. There are per-
sons in the asylum who are suffer-
ing from melancholia, who could be
brought out of it by proper atten-
tion from persons outside of the in
stitution, but attent tions such as can
be given by attendants and persons
they see in the daily routing, cannot
render such aid. 1t is the outside
influence coming in that does the
work.
"There are a good many curiosity
visitors that go to the asylum to
see crazy people. They look upon
these unfortunates as they would
look upon animals in a menagerie.
Patients feel this very keenly some
times, and some of the more lntelll-
gent and more sensitive ones-those
that have the best chance to get
we'll if conditions were right, are
made worse by it. There was a time
when visitors flocked out there for
amusement. They were shown thru
the wards and stared at the inmates
and went away snikering and litter
ing. 1t kept the patients in an up
roar, and they hardly got settled
down to normal conditions from one
such visit till there was another
bunch of the same kind of visitors
to go thru. But we have stopped
that kind of thing, The institution
is being conducted for the best in
terests Of the insane, and not for a
show-house for the curious. Any
one having a friend or relative there,
anyone who has a good reason for
seeing some inmate, either in the
reception room or in the ward or
room, is welcome at any reasonable
hour. Our rules admits them from
nine in the morning till five in the
afternoon, any day but Sunday, but
we disregard our rule when there
are special reasons or circumstances
that warrant it. On the same
grounds we tighten the rule to bar
out the curious who have no legiti-
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