Evening star., 1935-12-29
BY DON BLOCH.

RIDAY is a sort OF nangman's
- day at the District Supreme
4 Every Friday is beginning
at 10 o'clock. 1t is the day of the
lunacy hearings de lunatico in
quirendo," according to the law.
"Inquirendo" inquiry inquisi-
tive. inquisition.
This is the day when the owners Of
sick minds, minds that have cut loose
from their moorings for some dizzy
kind of mental vagabondage, parade
before their betters. Friday mornings
the public views with dull apathy a
tiny cross-section of the vast cavalcade
of those whose poor, useless minds are
in the saddle astride their bodies.
A million things can happen to make
q man go crazy.
A lawyer rises before the judge to
drone: District VS.. -" some
body's name, he reads from the writ
to the judge We crane our necks to
see what next will come through that
door to the right. They bring in the
happy ones" there to sit while-be-
cause, under the Constitution, before
he may be supervised, restrained and
controlled" every man is guaranteed
the right of trial by jury Of his peers.
This dozen turn its head, too.
Judge Gets History.
They bring those whose names are
on the writs through that door. Some
of them walk, some are wheeled in in
chairs, some jerk in in grotesque, spas
modic lurchings, some are dragged in.
To the left of the judge, below his
rostrum, they are placed, to listen
while doctors, lawyers, wives, sons,
daughters. fathers. policemen. cousins,
housekeepers, neighbors, husbands, de-
scribe the world that only they can
see, describe to us-the public-things
they hear and do and only they can
understand.
There are 23 black and white men
and women who will pass this morn
ing, hear the reading of the facts
found" for them, hear witnesses tell
their stories, be prodded with a few
questions. listen to themselves finally
committed to an insane asylum.
Oh, not always. Some talk them
selves out of commitment right on the
floor there; sometimes the jury asserts
itself and a man Is released; some
times-any number of things happen.
Paranoiacs are surprising, for example.
There are private hospitals. There are
friends, relatives, willing to assume
burdens. Not all these folk go to st.
Elizabeth's from here.
"Unsound Mind"
". unsound mind ." re-
ports the District alienist.
It is young colored boy who Is
brought In as the doctor reads the
report of his examination. On one
side of him stands a uniformed court
guard; on the other. young male
attendant from the hospital from
which the patient has been brought
for commitment-or release.
The boy sits quietly, listening in a
wholly detached manner, as If he.
too were very much interested in this
person, whom the doctor says was con-
stantly hearing voices which, some
times woman's, sometimes q mans,
said, Leave it; leave it"-and so
would not let him eat his food.
We listen, and stare at the boy who
hears voices when nobody is about.
The jury listens, and stares at the
boy who will not eat his food. The
boy listens to the doctor tell about a
fellow who kept hearing some one
say, Leave it; leave It,"
II recommend his commitment"
concludes the doctor, leaving the
stand.
The lawyer questions the boy. but
receives no answer The judge asks
him q question. The lad only stares.
The jury rises. The clerk of the
court puts the question to them.
"Unsound," repeats the jurors in
unison. Then they sit down again.
The boy is led out the door to the
right, still silent. Now he Is on his
way to an insane asylum.
One after another they are brought
in, walked in, wheeled in.
Young Wife Wanders.
A young woman, whose eyes, liquid,
beautiful and brown, are fixed straight
ahead Of her. She Is about % or "a.
She has found something ''out there"
and she wanders away from home
in search of it, perhaps. But she
has three children, young, and q hus-
band who cannot afford to stay at
home and watch over her and his
three children.
"She wanders out of the house at
night and I have to search over half
the city to find her sometimes" he
testifies. She needs care. She is led
out the door.
An ancient lady, almost gayly be-
decked, is wheeled In in o chair. She
is s3 and her memories 60 back too
far. They recall her childhood and
all the years between are lost. She
relates her present days to those in
the far past. "Senile psychosis," the
doctors call II.