BURNING OF A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 261, 13 April 1875, Page 3

BURNING OF A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

A telegram in the San Francisco Bulletin , dated Quebec, February 24th, gives the following particulars of the burning of a lunatic asylum : The shocking incidents attending the burning of the Beaufort Lunatic Asylum for Females, near this city, on Friday night, awaken additional horror as the real extent of the dreadful calamity begins to be realised. The asylum contained 435 patients, and it is supposed that the lire originated in the cell of a woman of vicious character named Mary Breton. Her conduct had been such that she had to be put in the cells, and she vowed she would have her revenge. While the inmates were at prayers she is supposed to have set her bed on fire and shut her cell door, thus allowing herself to perish in the flames which she herself had kindled. The suffocating smoke was sufficient to deter the boldest from entering the building after it was wrapped in flames, but, in spite of it, all worked bravely to save life. Never was there a more heart-rending sight. Some of the poor maniacs rushed into corners and obstinately refused to be removed. Others fled down corridors into the darkest cellars, and were found shivering with fear. Others, again, ran up into the cupola and on to the roof, and it was only with the greatest difficulty that they could be brought out. In the craze of fright the poor creatures became almost rabid, and when they were huddled together their frantic talk and hysteric shrieks were pitiable. Young girls laughed and danced in gleeful joy ; some old dames crooned in quavering voices ballads and song. But the smell of smoke acted upon some of them as that of blood upon a tiger, and they nerved themselves to fight. They bit, tore, and scratched, and became as refractory as possible. One woman seized one of the rescuers by the arm and yelled, “ Yee’re not goin’ to roast us, ah-h-h-h !” a gurgle of despair coming from her throat and indicating such intense agony of mind. Some were sobbing piteously, some silently swaying to and fro, some passionately weeping, and some rejoicing in the work of destruction going on around them; some shrieking, howling, and blaspheming; some calm and collected, as if fully appreciating the danger 'impending over them. Strange to say, one f the worst cases of the female ward entire y recovered hex 1 reason in the panic, and n ~v is as sane as possible. The fire was spread. ig with frightful rapidity, the corridors filing with suffocating smoke and heat. Every window belched out its volume of black smoke, and the inmates became still more noisy and intractable. They would not leave : they hid under beds, wrapped up in blankets or sheets, and it required extraordinary strength to extricate them. But all could not be saved. There were those who put themselves beyond the reach of human help, and went down to the death they courted. The flames kept dancing through the lofty corridors, but still the patients hid, and, despite the almost superhuman efforts made to rescue them, at least twenty perished in the flames.