The New Hampshire Gazette

Communication.

The following letter was published in the Nashua Telegraph. It was addressed by a physician to a gentleman who is much interested in the establishment of an Asylum for the relief of the Insane.

abject suffering, which, in sober truth, are appalling. For the cause of Humanity, however painful the recital, insane are before the public. Their abject suffering must be relieved;—the public will never consent that human beings shall continue to be treated worse than brutes. There afflicted ones in this neighborhood. Is it true that two or three lunatics, not far from us, are confined in bridewell—in brick cells, about 6 feet by 10, with a hole in the wall for air? Are not the holes unglazed, and when the weather is cold, stopped up by a board, so that the prisoner is in total darkness? Are not these poor suffering individuals left alone, in solitary confinement for the greatest portion of the time, to live or die by themselves? We do not accuse those who have the charge of them, of inhumanity: they have no other means of safely keeping them.

For obvious reasons we do not wish to enlarge on the subject but merely advert to this 'solitary imprisonment,' worse than a convict's, to shew the necessity of an establishment for the Insane, who merit from the rational, that kindness and attention which, as at present situated, they cannot receive.

Dear Sir: At our last interview you will recollect that the subject of the contemplated Asylum for the Insane, was introduced, and it was believed that the people of New-Hampshire, if correctly informed, would unite heart and hand in the endeavor to ameliorate the condition of the 'poor lunatic.' The following facts (which did not occur to me at that time) are at your disposal.

In the winter of 1833, I was called to visit a poor maniac, the inmate of the almshouse of a certain town in New-Hampshire, which for the honor of human nature, but more particularly for the honor of those concerned, I forbear to name. He was a man aged about 45 years, more than half of which were years of gloom and suffering, being through the latter period insane. Forced to throw himself on the charities of the world, which are indeed cold, and whose tender mercies are cruel in the treatment of the pauper lunatic. his sufferings like the wretched Cain's, became greater than he was able to bear, denied even the power of reflecting, unlike that fratricide of old, that they were merited.—He was of course 'set up at auction' at town-meeting, that glorious and humane manner of disposing of the unfortunate poor among us, & which particularly distinguishes our favored section of the country from lands lying in 'pagan darkness,' and indeed I believe from all the rest of the world. Carried about from one part of the town to another, now an inmate of a house not sufficient to shield him from the cold of winter or the pelting showers of autumn; and now where the occupants were almost if not literally obliged to beg their daily bread. In the course of his weary pilgrimage through the parish, he has been 'bid off' by the intemperate, the worthless and the lewd; indeed by almost every species of human beings whose avarice, or what is worse, whose love of 'strong New England' might induce to become the lowest bidder. Traversing a town in this manner, with no one to sympathise with him in his distress, receiving sometimes a gentle rebuke and then a severe curse for his foolishness, as it was termed—now a gentle shove with the elbow, then a severe kick, in order, as they very philosophically expressed it, 'to make him know something.' It was not much matter what he had to eat, said they. he is crazy, and would never know the difference! When the poor-house was established in the town aforesaid, he was brought there truly an object of commisseration, pale and exhausted, with scarcely power to walk—a mere skeleton. Having now a permanent home, we might hope that a gleam of happiness might be anticipated for the poor wanderer—that a small ray of light in this dark corner of the world might be granted to him. But no! his former sufferings might be termed felicity, when compared with what he afterwards endured. The almshouse was small, and, as the Overseer said, 'he must put the crazy man out into the shed,' which was in the same building, and separated only by a partition of rough planks, from the swine! The dreary month of November had nearly passed when the humane overseer felt somewhat alarmed from the appearance of the pale and haggard countenance of this remnant of mortality, lest he might die there alone, and as he said 'folks might blame him.' In this dilemma, he applies, as is usual in such cases, to that epitome of omnipotence, the board of Selectmen. These gentlemen willing to do every thing to accommodate, very humanely ordered a place to be built in the cellar! for his special accommodation. A pen, 6 feet by 8, of rough planks, and six feet high, was erected, but which was not calculated to exclude any of the air of the cellar, so that the temperature in and about this dungeon remained the same. He was kept in this abode without fire or a sufficiency of bed clothes, the landlady observing that she was afraid if she trusted him with fire that he would burn the house. During his residence in the cellar, apples, potatoes and cider froze within a few feet of him, and as might have been expected, his limbs shared the same fate. Let it be recollected that during all this time he was perfectly passive and harmless.

Can the annals of the Spanish Inquisition furnish a counterpart of cruelty like this?—The Selectmen happening to call, and finding, that he must soon die, advised to send for a doctor. I happened to have the honor of being called, and found his feet and hands frozen, with other symptoms of extreme suffering from cold, which I cannot put upon paper. In this situation he languished several days, when the welcome messenger, death, put an end to his sufferings. I do not hesitate to say that the immediate cause of his death was being frozen in that cellar. Let those who were actors in this tragic scene, reconcile it with their consciences in the best manner they are able.

The foregoing is no wild excursion of the fancy, no flight of the imagination, but a plain statement of facts. Can a man in New-Hampshire be found, who is worthy to bear the name of a man, who would not contribute something, even ever so small, towards the relief of suffering like this? And this, it is believed, is but one fact among the many which might be named of extreme mental and corporeal suffering among our indigent insane.

Yours, with esteem.