SIX MONTHS AT THE INEBRIATE ASYLUM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 45, 21 February 1872, Page 2

SIX MONTHS AT THE INEBRIATE ASYLUM.

(From a special correspondent of the New York Tribune). Others have sketched for the Tribune the pictures presented by a brief visit to the State Idebriate Asylum in this city; but I propose to give my experience during a residence of six months spent there for the cure of the habifc of intemperance. Of those who were my companions in the long walks over the hills in spring, but half a dozen remain, and they may be regarded as life members of this institution One after another has returned to his home with renewed health and strengthened will; some to fall again through overconfidence, want of occupation, hereditary appetite, or other sources of temptation; but a majority will undoubtedly exhibit in their own persons the best proof of the usefulness aud success of this noble charity. As to myself, I onjy know that I came here an invalid in mind and body, and can now walk my 20 miles daily, both For remainder of news see fourth page.

in and out of town, and do a day's work with the pen afterwards without feeling any need of a stimulant. The larger part of the inebriates on our register are of the class that is known as " periodical drinkers," and to this class your correspondent belonged. The steady drinker takes his 10, 20, and 30 glasses daily, and never intermits his draught until disease or delirium seizes upon him. But the "periodical" allows an interval of a week, a month, or longer to elapse between his sprees. Usually he makes a business of drinking, when he has once commenced, and gives up all other occupations, often going a hnndred miles from home in order to have his bout in quiet, and leaving no tidings or trace of his departure. As suddenly as he left he returns home, a wreck in body and requiring careful nursing topreveut an attack of the delirium tremens. Hib cure is a more difficult and tedious matter than that of the habitual inebriate, but it is quite certain that he can be cured and made perfectly strong against a relapse. It was a week after the close of one of these " sprees " described above that I came to the asylum. My first impression was favorable. No more beautiful spot could have been selected for its location. It stands on an eminence three miles from the pretty city of Binghamton having Susquehanna River at the foot of the hill forming the base of its south wing, and with the silver thread of the Chenango far in front. Around the asylum stand the everlasting bills, still covered by the " foiest primeval," but the railroads give animation to the scene, and the spires and roofs of Binghamton suggests the vicinity of a city. When making up my mind to come here I expected to find my companions brokendown invalids, red-nosed apoplectics of aldermanic proportions, and those made maimed, halt, and blind by strong drink. But as I rode to the front my eyes fell upon a group of vigorous men playing football with lusty motions and loud laughter, and in the distance a stalwart nine were doing full justice to a game of base-ball. Through a lower window I saw some young gentlemen who appeared to be fit candidates for the Sons of Temperance engaged at billiards, and. a number of healthy gentlemen of elegant leisure were chatting together on the wide stone steps. These were all inebriates and patients. To my surprise there were none done with the "jim-jams;" none crawling about with crutches ; and but few whom a casual visitor would have picked out as given to a love for the flowing bowl. Still greater was my surprise when I discovered how discipline is administered. After being ushered into the superintendent's room, and questioned as to age, occupation, habits, &c, I was told that it was taken for granted I had come here with an honest purpose to cure myself of habits of intemperance. Much of the means of recovery rested with myself. Placed upon my honor never to go into the city without permission (and for the first eight weeks not without an attendant), I was told thatl might goelsewhere freely, and without being placed under special supervision. Then began long walks through the woods and over the fields, with the return of the tide of health through sluggish veins, and the new birth of faith in myself. Surrounded by those who had failed and fallen also, there were none here to point the hand of shame at the inebriate. His restoration was the common cause of all. Whatever word was needed to cheer was spoken. Every kindly act of sympathy that was necessary was afforded. The moral sense was quickened with the growth of physical vigor. It was the common work of all to resist temptation, and make that resistance strong in others. So, by degrees, and almost insensibly, the proneness to temptation was changed for a new and manly life. The process of curing an inebriate is very simple. Many persons imagine that it is done by some magic process — through whisky administered in food, or by means of potent drugs. Nothing of the kind is in use here. Intemperance is a social sin generally, and its cure must be sought by an aggregation of patients similarly afflicted. Here are gathered men who honeßtly propose to rid themselves of an evil habit, and who honestly help one another to resist the temptation, just as ' they once helped others to fall into it. For this reason men can be cured here by the same process tha? has provad a failure at home,, and that would be successful if tried in isolated cases. There are none here who despise the drunkard and give him the cold shoulder, but all are- interested in enabling him to rule his appetites. The pitient is removed from temptation, and kept put of its way iintil his moral courage ia restored to the point of saying no when he ought to do so. Others work for him, and with him, while he labors with all his might for himself. Of course, his chief dependence must be on himself $ but it is a great and constant source of strength to find himself sur>»

rounded by men who not only w'i9h him well, but are persuaded that he can be cured. Most persona imagine that the place is a cross between a penitentiary and a poor-house, where the victim is immured under a species of medical inquisition until he is cured. On the contrary, it is one of the pleasantest public residences in the land, whose inmates for the most part are men of culture, wealth and position. Society has allowed and tempted them to drink, but society frowns on their attempts at reform by affecting to despise the men who have gone forth cured from this roof. Said a merchant of New York to three gentlemen last winter — " Why, those men at Binghamton are the very scum of the earth." He did not dream that two of the gentleman to whom he addressed his remarks were graduates of this asylum. This partially explains why comparatively little is known of the institution. Patients conceal their residence here, and go home under the pretence of having returned from a trip to Europe or a journey to the West. They fear the reproof of society for the most manly act they ever did, and dare not speak in praise of the good work of their Alma Mater. Society Is a Pharisee in its treatment of the drunkard. It fills high the wine-cup, and invites to drink. Lovely woman reaches out the juice of the grape, proclaims him a " milk-sop '* who fears its power. Then if a man drinks and falls, society has no words too harsh for his sin. , It dodges him in the street, it shuts the door against him, it looks on him as a moral leper if he goes to an inebrate asylum, and it expresses its utter want of faith in his reformation after he has gone out again into the world. In its action it is aided and abetted by the law of the land. The State licences men to sell the liquor that will iDtoxicate many, and when a man has drunk according to law and become drunken, it fines him and pockets the money — or it shuts him up where he can neither provide for himself nor for his family. If the law continues to act thus illogically, it ought, in justice to the inebriate, to give these asylums full facilities for demonstrating the succes or failure of the experiment they are making.