Says She is Sane

New York, 1895

Sent to an Asylum After Marriage and Wants to Get Out.

Mrs. Mary S. Half, 45 years old, who was committed to the Long Island Home at Amityville as a lunatic shortly after her marriage in New York on Jan. 15 last to 22 year old Arthur Half, was produced before Justice Bartlett in the Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Tuesday. She was brought there on habeas corpus proceedings instituted by Lawyer Mott.

Lawyer Mott said that the woman had been improperly railroaded to the asylum and locked up there twelve days in a room. The manager would not allow her husband to see her, and it was only through a letter that she managed to have sent out of the Home that Mr. Mott learned of her incarceration. Mr. Mott also alleged that the purpose of the relatives was to get possession of her estate valued at more than $10,000.

Justice Bartlett adjourned the hearing until Friday.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, March 15, 1895, p. 1.

Grave Yards Not Wanted

New York, 1895

Respecting Farmer John O'Donnell's suggestion that the Long Island railroad company establish cemeteries in the "wild lands" of Suffolk county, the Greenport Watchman has this to say:

"Thanks; the 'wild lands' of Suffolk invite settlement and would welcome colonies, but not by any underground route. Two plantations of live lunatics are enough for the present; moreover the Long Island railroad makes more than sufficient money out of Suffolk county residents in the flesh without picking the bones of the dead. Really we hope our philanthropic neighbors over the border will not insist on forcing their benevolence upon us in this sort of collateral inheritance style."

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Feb. 1, 1895, p. 12.

Back To The Asylum

New York, 1895

Mrs. Maggie Lepper, aged 40 years, was taken to Newtown Tuesday to undergo an examination as to her sanity. Mrs. Lepper is the mother of six children, the youngest or which is only 6 months old. She spent two and a half years in an asylum. One year ago she was discharged as cured.

—The Long Island Farmer, Jamaica, NY, Jan. 25, 1895, p. 1.

Temperance Notes

1900

The first temperance journal to be published in Russia is the Viestnix Tresvosti (messenger of temperance). Its first issue appeared Sept. 1, 1899.

The Kansas Senate has passed a bill to make more efficient the enforcement of the prohibitory law. According to its provisions, the third violation of the law subjects the liquor seller to a term of from one to three years in the penitentiary.

Twenty-six thousand arrests for drunkenness a year and eight thousand imprisonments is the appalling record of one of the most enlightened of American cities. It means one arrest to every four families. The net cost to the city was therefore more than $100,000.

The Herald and Presbyter says: "The best authorities tell us that for every dollar of revenue the saloons bring in, they occasion a cost, direct or indirect, of $21. Blot out the saloons with the costs they compel, and the raising of the incurred deficit in the revenue would be as easy as laying aside one dollar out of twenty-one that you put in your pocket."

The terrible ravages of the opium trade in China is indicated by the number of suicides. In Yunnan province there are on an average a 1,000 attempted opium suicides per month. The average for the whole of China is not less than 600,000 per year. Dr. William Park says here are over 800,000, and that the number of deaths from opium poisoning is not less than 200,000 a year.

Rev. J. Q. A. Henry, superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League in New York, said recently concerning the church and the saloon: "One or the other is right; one or the other is wrong. One must triumph. If the saloon stays, the church must go. The solution of the problem is in the church. The charge cannot be turned over to any other body. The saloon is hostile to Christianity, to citizenship and to true Americanism."

A law which will go into effect in Germany in 1900, places every confirmed drunkard under the espionage of a "curator." This person will he empowered to put the individual whom he regards as a dipsomaniac anywhere he pleases, there to undergo treatment for the malady as long as the "curator" wishes. The law defines an habitual drunkard as one who, in consequence of inebriety, cannot provide for his affairs or endangers the safety of others.

Iowa first tried license laws, then prohibition, and now tries, in its larger cities, what is known as a mulct law. Under the license law, the number of penitentiary convicts was 800; under prohibition, 532; under the mulct law, 1,171. By a recent decision of the Supreme Court, brought about by the Anti-Saloon League, two-thirds of the saloons were temporarily closed, because they had not filed the consent petitions required by the new code of 1897.

The establishment of an asylum, or hospital, for drunkards by the state is being urged in South Carolina, the home of the state dispensary scheme. One set proposes to establish the asylum, or institute, as an annex to the State Insane Asylum, conducting it under the same management. Others urge that the Legislature pass a law making drunkenness a crime, and establish a reformatory for drunkards, where they can be given hard work in a cotton mill, machine shops and on a farm.

From the official report of the superintendent of the Washington police it is shown that while the whole number of arrests in the District, with a barroom for each 441 of its population, was equal to one arrest for every eleven of its population, the number of arrests made in the First precinct, with a barroom for every 113 of its population, was equal to one for every three of its population, and in the Ninth precinct, with a barroom for every 1048 of its population, the number of arrests was only one for every eighteen of its population. A petition to Congress to prohibit the liquor traffic in the District of Columbia is being prepared.

—The Ram's Horn, March 17, 1900, p. 15.

Insane Man Clings to His Blind Wife

1919

WILL BE RELEASED FROM ASYLUM TO JOIN HER.

Love Keeps Sightless Girl and Mad Husband Together Despite Obstacles Imposed.

NEW ORLEANS, La. — Lying in the Home for Homeless Women, a blind woman smiles. She smiles the smile of expectant motherhood.

In the City Hospital for Mental Diseases, a man smiles. His smile is that of a man about to be freed of the charge of insanity and allowed to return to his blind wife.

Dr. Earl Joseph Vollentine, graduate of Tulane College of Dentistry, will not be returned to the Southwestern Insane Asylum in Texas, if Charles H. Patterson, secretary of the Charity Organization, can prevent it.

Dr. Vollentine, says Secretary Patterson, will be released from the City Hospital for Mental Diseases in time to be near his blind wife when their expected child arrives. Instead of allowing Dr. Vollentine to be returned to the insane asylum in Texas, it is Secretary Patterson's plan to start the little family on their way to Vivian, La., where the husband has been assured work.

Not Dangerously Insane.

In the opinion of Dr. Henry Daspit, of the City Hospital for Mental Diseases, the young husband is not dangerously insane. He is merely the victim of nervous attacks said to have been brought on by overstudy.

And then there is the charge of his blind wife that her husband was sent to a Texas insane asylum by his rich father because the youth dared to marry her.

The story of the blind wife and the alleged mentally deficient husband verges on the dramatic — even melodramatic.

The girl was blinded when a child. One eye was lost when she fell on a pair of scissors. The other was shot out accidentally by the wad from a blank pistol. She was sent to the Blind Institute in Austin, Texas, by her father, of moderate circumstances.

It was while she was visiting her sister in Yoakum, Texas, that the young doctor first saw the helpless blind girl. First it was sympathy. Then it was love.

Marriage Was Annulled.

They were married. Then, says Mrs. Vollentine, her husband's father interfered and had the youth sent to the Southwestern Asylum in Texas, saying that he could be cured of his nervousness in about a month. The marriage was annulled.

The blind child wife waited. Her husband was not released. She grew impatient. So did he. He escaped. They journeyed to Vivian, La., and were remarried.

The husband obtained employment as a boilermaker. They saved money. Then the search for the cure of the wife's blindness began. They came to New Orleans to consult specialists. They applied to Secretary Patterson, of the Charity Organization, for help.

Making no attempt to conceal anything from Secretary Patterson, the young husband informed him that he had escaped from the Texas Insane Asylum.

Ask Return to Asylum.

Learning of the young wife's condition, Secretary Patterson had her sent to the Home for Homeless Women. He communicated with the Texas authorities, who requested that Doctor Vollentine be held until a representative of the asylum arrive to return him.

When informed by Dr. Daspit that young Vollentine's mental deficiency is of a minor nature, Mr. Patterson determined not to allow the young husband to be returned to Texas without a fight.

"If Vollentine refuses to accompany the Texas authorities back to the asylum," said Mr. Patterson, "I do not think they can take him forcibly."

Charges Father Opposes Her.

"My husband is so sympathetic toward the afflicted. It was when I lost the sight of my second eye thru an unfortunate accident that he was drawn toward me. He read in the papers how I completely lost my sight and told my sister he would like to know me.

"He was so kind and attentive that I loved him. We married — and then his father interfered. They tore him from me; sent him to an insane asylum and left me helpless. My husband was determined. He escaped. As our marriage had been annulled, we remarried and made our way to Vivian, Where my husband was employed.

"When we saved a little money my husband insisted that we go to New Orleans so my eyes could be treated. We came and then came our present trouble. But thank God there seems to be a silver lining to our dark cloud. He will be released. Our baby will be born and then we will go back to Vivian and happiness."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 11.

Note: Dr. Daspit's name in the first instance (in the original newspaper printing) was spelled "Despit." But the correct spelling is Daspit. He's referred to in books at Google Books, and was working at the City Hospital for Mental Diseases just as in this article.

Slain By Naked Maniac

Iowa, 1900

James Fitzsimmons Dead, Three Others Injured

Cedar Rapids dispatch: Charles Mefford, a maniac, at 5 o'clock a.m. killed James Fitzsimmons, fatally injured John Drake, seriously and possibly fatally injured Mrs. James Fitzsimmons and then ended his own life.

Mefford was 20 years old and had been insane for a number of years. Two years ago he was in the Independence asylum for a short time, but escaped and was never returned. He was not generally considered dangerous. Saturday night about ten o'clock, while clad in nothing but a shirt, he darted out of his home, a raving maniac. He was seen two or three times between then and midnight, but the police failed to find him.

Shortly before 5 o'clock Reginald Andrews, the janitor at the Old Ladies' Home was awakened by crashing glass. The next moment Mefford stood before him. stark naked, swinging a neck yoke. He warned Andrews that his time had come and swung the neck yoke in an effort to brain him. The latter dodged and grabbed the weapon, threw Mefford on the bed and choked him until he begged for mercy.

Then Andrews agreed to give him a bath, a suit of clothes and some breakfast, which apparently satisfied him. Rushing through the house, Andrews locked the twelve or fourteen old ladies in their rooms, notified the police by telephone, and then ran across the street, to the home of Joseph Drake for assistance.

Drake dressed, picked up a revolver, and they started out. As they did so Mefford, carrying an ax, was seen to plunge through a window in the home of James Fitzsimmons, about 150 yards away. As he entered the room Mrs. Fitzsimmons uttered a scream. Mefford swung the ax and brought it down toward her head. Her uplifted arm saved her life; the arm was broken in two places and she sustained a serious scalp wound. Mr. Fitzsimmons hurried to the aid of his wife and his skull was crushed with the ax, death resulting immediately.

The maniac then rushed into the room of Miss Katie, who escaped with a few scalp wounds. Starting down stairs he was met by Drake who snapped his revolver four times at the madman, each time upon an empty shell. Mefford grabbed the revolver, ran a few blocks and killed himself with the one load the revolver contained.

—Humeston New Era, Humeston, Iowa, July 4, 1900.

Sledgehammer Bandits Raid St. Paul Safes

1920

Also Steal 800 Quarts of Liquor From State Asylum

ST. PAUL, Minnesota — The band of "sledgehammer" bandits, after looting more than fifty safes in Minneapolis in the past month, evidently have begun operations in St. Paul by raiding three Como avenue business places.

The lock of a safe at the Great Lakes Coal and Dock Company was hammered open and $500 worth of Liberty bonds and $40 in cash was taken.

The same gang is believed to have hammered the lock from the safe at the Carnegie Dock and Fuel Company, and strong box in the office of a third Como avenue company.

That the "sledgehammer" bandits have a taste for good liquor as well as safes became apparent when nine of them in three automobiles made an informal call on the State asylum for the insane at Anoka.

Eight hundred quarts of liquor, used for medicinal purposes, packed in the refrigerator, were stolen.


Hens Laying for a Record

LINCOLN, Nebraska — Twenty-six hens laid 23 or more eggs each during February in the national egg-laying contest being conducted by the Nebraska agricultural experiment station. One hen laid 28 eggs. She is a Rhode Island Red, owned by M. C. Peters, of Omaha. Two others, both White Leghorns, laid 25 eggs each. Seventeen hens laid 22 eggs each.

Sane Woman Describes Her Experiences in Insane Asylum

1905

"Ordeals There Would Drive Any One Crazy"

NEW YORK, Dec 2. — "The best way to make a sane person demented is to send him or her to a lunatic asylum. It is death in life. Men and women with staring eyes look into yours and despite your certainty that your sanity is perfect, you suffer one of the most horrible sensations that a human being can have — you feel that the men who are watching you believe that behind your eyes lies the same distortion of intellect that is harbored by the heads which wag from side to side around you."

Mrs. Sara Dean Reid, bride of Capt. Albert Dean Reid, who is in the Tombs on a charge of bigamy, talked thus last night in Mount Vernon about her nerve-wrecking experience as an inmate of Bloomingdale Insane Asylum, from which she was released by order of Judge Platt, who, at the demand of her counsel, John M. Digney, had her sanity investigated. Mrs. Reid was placed in the institution at the request of her three brothers a few days after her marriage. The woman is heiress to a large estate.

"The most vivid imagination cannot conceive," said Mrs. Reid, "the horrors of an insane asylum. I felt as one might feel if suddenly transferred to another planet. Everything was strange. The voices were not human, the glances were full of terror, the treatment was brusque, and the life so mechanical and circumscribed that I am astonished I was not driven crazy myself.

"The one thing that helped me to fight off the impulse to shriek as the unfortunates around me did was writing. Day by day since a year ago I have jotted down my impressions of the awful place, and I shall some time publish a book on the subject.

"An insane asylum spells monotony. You rise in the morning, bathe, eat, walk, and, after the hours have worked themselves out with the dreariness of the ticking of a clock, you go to bed again while all around are mental wrecks. You cannot sleep. You never lose the consciousness that you are sane among the insane, that mad people who may at any moment rend the air with shrieks that will kill the slumbers you woo are almost within arm's reach.

"I was treated by the attendants just as if I were really insane. They watched me constantly. I could walk nowhere without having eyes following me. I could not go out without having two nurses, grim and reticent.

"About seventy insane people were in the ward to which I was assigned. There were all manner of lunatics, and when I tried to sleep at night the babble of their incoherent, senseless voices awakened me with a start.

"There is one prayer I have added to those I learned in childhood, and it is 'God keep the sane from the asylums.' "

Mrs. Reid will not return to her brothers. She has decided to live at Mamaroneck, for a time, as the guest of the Rev F. F. Gerran, rector of St. Thomas' Episcopal Church.

A Two Day's Bride Insane

Kansas, 1879

July 13 — Mr. Oliver Mottier was joined in matrimony with a very estimable young lady of Williambury. On Tuesday, the 15th, only two days after her marriage, she became a raving maniac.

The first indications had of anything being wrong was her going into a trance, similar to that of a spiritual medium. Her talk appeared to be entirely with Minnehaha, or about her, she having previously read about her, then there appeared to be a struggle between Minnehaha and another, a male Indian, to get possession of her mind; the latter succeeding, she commenced going through the war-hoop and yells, and all other maneuvers incident to Indians starting out upon the warpath.

This part of the sad scene having come to an end, her ravings day and night were of a very promiscuous character, but showed very little symptoms of vicious or profane temper. Her father informed us that she had not been in the habit of reading or studying Spiritualism, and knew comparatively nothing of the subject. The woman was brought to Ottawa on Monday, where she was declared insane, and ordered to the Ossawatomie Asylum. — Ottawa Gazette, Kansas.

Pretty Co-ed Loses Heart to "Doctor," A Lunatic

1920

Pretty Co-ed Loses Heart to "Doctor" Before She Finds He Is a Lunatic

DES MOINES, Iowa — Before a pretty Drake University co-ed loses her heart again, she is going to demand to see the family tree for years back of the subject of her infatuation and receive a report from a reputable detective bureau that he is all he pretends to be.

This is why. This last month, the co-ed in question lost her heart, but without stopping to take the various cautions mentioned. He was a young medical student from the State University of Iowa, so he said, and he, with some other students from the same institution, was studying cases at the insane asylum at Clarinda, Iowa, not far from the co-ed's home.

He came often, and fell into the habit of talking his plans over with her, not neglecting to hint that she had a large share in them.

On the occasion of one of the visits, just as the Drake girl was beginning to feel that he would pop the question that very day, they were interrupted by the tramp of booted feet on the piazza.

"Excuse me, lady," said one of the two men who stood at the door, "one of the trusties form the asylum has been slipping out, and we're trying to find him. Have you seen him?"

The girl averred that she hadn't but allowed them to search the premises anyway. They came at last to the room where the young doctor was sitting. "This is him, Jim," cried one, and they took the alleged medical student away with them.

And so, while the co-ed still believes that love at sight is all very well, in the future she will demand a doctor's certificate before she responds to it.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 20, 1920, page 1.

Faust Story in Court

1901

Des Moines, Dec. 28 — Suit has been brought in the district court by J. R. Faust against the Hawkeye Insurance company to recover on a policy of $2,000 of insurance on the property of Faust which was burned several years ago on his farm in Marshall county.

The suit is the sequel to the startling story which was made public some weeks ago in regard to the life story of Faust. His statements were so strange that many persons believed them to be the vaporings of a disordered mind, but in the suit just brought this matter will be fairly tested.

Faust sets up that his property on his farm in Marshall county was insured by Hawkeye Insurance and that it was burned, but the company refused to settle with him. Before he could fight the case in court he was arrested and accused of having set fire to the property, and for this he was sent to the penitentiary on testimony which he declared was false.

Later another person made full confession of having set fire to the property for the purpose of robbery, and declared that Faust was in Des Moines at the time and could not have been guilty of arson.

Faust was released from the penitentiary after serving his time and was seized and spirited away to the Ohio State Insane asylum, where he was kept for several years. He finally made his escape and rejoined his wife in Cedar county, Iowa. His wife had supposed him dead.

Now he comes to the front to collect the insurance money and to test in the courts the entire proceeding by which he was deprived of his living. He is either strangely insane or has been a terribly abused man, and this fact will probably be demonstrated in court.

—Davenport Daily Republican, Davenport, Iowa, December 29, 1901, page 3.

No Lunatic Asylums in Antiquity

1912

Insane Asylums

The great Greek physicians had devoted much attention to insanity, and some of their precepts anticipated modern discoveries, but no lunatic asylum appears to have existed in antiquity. In the first period of the monastic life a refuge is said to have been opened for the insane at Jerusalem, but this appears to have been a solitary instance, arising from exigencies of a single class, and it may be said that no lunatic asylum existed in Christian Europe until about the time of the fifteenth century.


Birds Worthy of Gratitude

It has been estimated that the birds in the United States save $200,000,000 worth of crops each year. The tree sparrows in Iowa eat 4,666 pounds of weed seed daily. One full-fledged robin will eat 16 feet of caterpillar daily, or about 4,569 individuals a month.


Happiness

Those who have the most of happiness think the least about it. But in thinking about and in doing their duty happiness comes — because the heart and mind are occupied with earnest thought that touches at a thousand points the beautiful and sublime realities of the universe. — Thackeray.


Mechanical Typesetting

Seventy years ago type was set by machine. December 17. 1842, James Young of London set type for his paper, The Family Herald, with a type composing-machine. It was a crude affair and was scoffed at by the type-setters of that day. In spite of ridicule, Young kept on and others took up the idea. The present method of rapid machine type-setting tell the story of success. — From an ad for a bank.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 5.

Man Blows Off Head with Shotgun, Temporarily Insane

Waupaca, Wisconsin, 1912

BLOWS HEAD OFF WITH A SHOT GUN

George B. Rhodes Suicides While Temporarily Insane

RELATIVES ARE SUMMONED

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet, 227 North Main Street, Called to Waupaca by News of Sad Tragedy.

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet, 227 North Main street, were called to Waupaca Monday by the suicide of their son-in-law, George B. Rhodes, who took his life early in the morning by blowing the top of his head off with a shotgun.

According to a message received from Waupaca this morning, Rhodes, who has been employed as a sexton at the Riverside cemetery there for several years has been despondent of late and it was the verdict of the coroner's jury that he took his life while suffering from a fit of temporary insanity induced by despondency.

Sunday afternoon Rhodes dug a grave in the cemetery. Monday morning he arose at 5 o'clock, without arousing other members of the family, lighted the fire in the kitchen of his home and then left the house. Shortly after 6 o'clock his body was found back of an outbuilding.

Physicians who examined the body testified at the inquest that Rhodes placed the mouth of the muzzle of the gun against the back of his head and reached around to pull the trigger. The top of the head was literally blown off. The shot gun that was used had been left at the house by a friend.

Rhodes was formerly engaged in the barber business. He leaves his wife and two children. According to Waupaca dispatch he was confined in an asylum years ago because of mental disturbance, but was released later and pronounced cured.

Mr. and Mrs. Rhodes were visitors in Fond du Lac on several occasions.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 17, 1912, page 5.


RETURN FROM FUNERAL.

Mr. and Mrs. M. D. Sweet and Roy and Clifford Sweet have returned from Waupaca where they attended the funeral of George B. Rhodes, who committed suicide in that city ten days ago. The funeral was also attended by Eugene Sweet, of Berlin; Ross Sweet, of Rhinelander; John Rhodes, of Rhinelander; and Mrs. James McCallister, of Hancock, Wis.

—The Daily Commonwealth, Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, December 24, 1912, page 1.

Note: A couple mistakes in the headline fixed, not called to WAUPUN, and not M. B. Sweet.

Here's George B. Rhodes' cemetery information: Lakeside Memorial Park, Waupaca, Wisconsin. Lot #529-L, Space 2, born 1863, died 1913, age 50. [They say 1913, but it would appear he died in 1912.]

Deaf and Dumb, Insane 42 Years, Ends His Life

1913

ESCAPES ASYLUM BY SUICIDE

Pauper, Born Deaf and Dumb, Ends Long Life As Public Charge

BEACON, N. Y., Nov. 12 — Levi Bodine, deaf and dumb since his birth in an almshouse sixty-five years ago, committed suicide today by leaping into an ice pond of the Matteawan State Hospital, where he was an inmate. Forty-two years of his life had been spent in insane asylums. Bodine was born in the Ulster County almshouse and taken from there by a respectable farmer whom he later killed. At his trial he was declared insane and was committed to Auburn. He was one of the first patients to arrive in Matteawan when this hospital was opened.

—The Indianapolis Star, Indianapolis, Indiana, November 13, 1913, page 15.

Wedded, Then 15 Minutes Later Off to Asylum

1909--

WEDDED AND THEN TAKEN TO ASYLUM

After Courting Girl Twelve Years Man Has Hard Luck.

WORCESTER, Mass., Feb. 20.— Wedded to Miss A. Mary Hanff, a $200,000 heiress, after a twelve-year courtship, W. W. Sargent, a prominent business man of Worcester, was today committed to an insane asylum with the promise of two doctors that in two years he will be a raving maniac.

Sargent, who is wealthy and one of the biggest vehicle dealers in the state, yesterday was married to Miss Hanff. Immediately on the news reaching his aged father, B. W. Sargent went before Judge Samuel Uttley and swore out a warrant for his son's arrest as insane. The bridegroom was in custody within 15 minutes after his marriage, but was allowed to spend the night with his bride under police surveillance.

He was, however, examined by Doctors Burley and Brown, who gave it as their opinion that he was suffering from dementia paralitica.

This afternoon Sargent was examined in the district court and Judge Uttley at once signed the warrant committing him to an insane asylum.

--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, February 21, 1909, page 10.

Comment: Let's review. He gets married, then somehow the news reaches his aged father, who is able to get before a judge, present his case, get a warrant, serve the warrant, get the arresting officers there, and have his son in custody, all "within 15 minutes." That's pretty fast. So a lot of it had to be set up in advance, or the 15 minute part is wrong. But the part I really like is the "promise" of the two doctors that "in two years he will be a raving maniac."



QUARTETTE TO USE MEGAPHONE

Dr. Arthur Manuel, musical director of the Y. M. C. A., is planning to have his quartet sing through a monster megaphone on the streets Saturday night. Heretofore it has been very difficult to sing loud enough above the noise of the streets and it is planned to try this new idea next Saturday night.

--The Des Moines News, Des Moines, Iowa, July 22, 1909, page 1.

Comment: A "monster megaphone."