A “ SANE” LUNATIC.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1371, 4 November 1884, Page 2

A “ SANE” LUNATIC.

The Globe, gives the following account of an interview with a patient in a lunatic asylum:—“ Too thought at first I was not a patient. Of course not; lam aa sane as you are—perhaps more so if wo were fairly tried. And lam not a patient really. lam just a prisoner kept here most unjustly. 1 don’t know exactly what for, but I have an idea that it’s for the benefit of the house, and nothing more. Why don’t my friends take me out 1 Ah! yes, why? You're free, and it’s very kind , of you to come and visit me here and try to cheer me up a bit, but I do wish you would use your freedom a little in another way. Just go and see my friends, and tell them how well I am, and chat I am only kept in hers for the sake of the doctor’s pocket. I can’t go to them, and it’s no use writing; my letters are all examined and stopped; and I’m sure if they only knew the truth they would let me out; not that they care much for me, or they would never have sent me here. You will do this for me, won't you? Now do. No; don’t say you’ll see. Promise me you will do it. How did I manage to get in here ? Well, they sent me he e from another asylum, and I went to that one from another. The first was so bad I thought I must have a change, and after a time Z managed to get it. But it wasn’t any improvement, and so after a deal of bother they sent me here. But it’s only out of the frying-pan into the fire. They are all alike, nearly; if there’s any difference each one is a little worse than the other. Now my friends say I can’t change any more, it’s so expensive, and there seams to be no chance of satisfying me. It Just shows how much they care for me. 1 wish they were here instead of me. Then they’d know what it was. I don’t know what the law is about that it lets people be treated in this way. “Am I not happy here? How can I be ? Oh, yes, it’s a pretty place—lovely, if you Hire, and well kept, and all that, i and there's plenty of amusement, too, if we cared for it. We want to get out for good and all, and do what we like—at least, that’s what I want What is there wrong in this place ? Why, everything ? They’re all alike in that way. As least ( have found it so in all the three asylums i I have been in. At first it is all i pleasant enough, and one enjoys the . rest and change; ,the food is good, : and the people are pleasant and • nice, and one begins to feel so much , better somehow. But it does not last ; long. The food gets nasty and bad, so i that one can hardly eat it, though some of [ the patients stuff like pigs, and the people change and become unpleasant, and one can’t bear the sight of them or have any- ■ thing to say to them, they are so vulgar i and common. As to the doctor, he’s just ' a dishonest tradesman, keeping people 1 here for the sake of their money. How i did I get in here ? You asked me that , before. I suppose you mean how did I get into an asylum ? Why my friends put main? What for? You’d better go and ask them. It will rather puzzle them to [ answer you. It was a regular plot and conspiracy. They followed me about and hadme watched till my life became amisery to me, and then they got a couple of doctors to say 1 was mad, and then they seized me like a criminal and shut me up. . It was all that brother-in-law of mine. He hates me for some reason, and he did it. If my poor husband had been alive, or if 1 had someone who really oared for i me, he would not have dared to do it. 1 “ Did I ever do anyone any harm ? They would tell you that I tried to commit suicide. But if they made my life so 1 miserable that I felt something dreadful mu it happen, and I wanted to get rid of it. It wan their fault; they should have taken beicer care of me. You see lam much better than they are. They can’t come near me in intellectual and mental power, and so they hate me. They try to laugh at me, and say it’s all nonsense, but I know better; they just hate me, and that’s^why lam here. Am I clever,

then ? Well I don’t know—it’s such a funny question to answer ; but I have aom —gifts, wa will call it, which you won’t find in anyone else. I have never learned the languages at all, but still at times I am able to talk Greek or Persian, or Tamil or Telugu. Again, I ha-’e the gift of knowing what other .people are doing and saying, though I can’t see or hear them. Ifyou werein another room, right over there, and talked about me, I should know what you said. That is how I I now that I have been plotted against and victimised by my friends. You smile but it’s true. If you don't believe it, you can go away; I don’t want friends who don’t believe me.”