AN ASYLUM HORROR.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 483, 25 June 1890, Page 5

AN ASYLUM HORROR.

MANY LUNATICS BURNED TO DEATH. A TERRIBLE DISASTER NEAR MONTREAL. A telegraphic despatch to the San Francisco “Chronicle” gives details of the fearful fire by which, on May 6th last, the Longue Pointe Lunatic Asylum near Montreal was destroyed. A long line of gaunt towers is all one now sees of the Longue Pointe Lunatic Asylum, located ten miles from Montreal, and which, with many lives has been consumed by fire. Nothing could exceed the horror attending the terrible calamity, considering the number of victims, the terrible nature of their death, and the ? manner in which the helpless victims reI ceived their fate. What to tho spectators was a scene of horror, was to the lunatics a moment of supreme glee, and in their delight they disported themselves in theflames and waved their blazing limbs in turbulent satisfaction at the ruin that was about them, and not until the walls tumbled over their heads were their maniacal screams silenced. CAUSE OF THE FIRE. The fire was started in a cupboard in the second ward on the women’s side in the upper storey by a careless patient, and as the ventilation was carried on by a longitudinal shaft connected with the towers, the flames soon appeared blazing up through tho roof in the centre of each tower. A telegram was sent to Montreal for aid, and an engine and reels started at once. They might as well have remained at home, for in five minutes they exhausted the water supply. The only thing that could save the building was the St. Lawrence River, and it was half-a-mile distant. As the heat increased the statues fell from their niches to the ground, and then the inhabitants prostrated themselves, crying aloud that the saints had deserted them indeed. Beds, furniture and utensils of every description were being showered from the windows, and a stream of ill-clad men poured out of the eastern wing. THE LOSS OF LIFE. Not a male patient was lost. Among the women it was difierent. The less hopeless cases were placed in the lower wards, and they were removed without difficulty, but from the upper wards, where the most violent patients were secured, there came the wildest screams as they resisted the nuns who were beseeching them to make their escape. The firemen also did their best, but in many cases all in vain. One of the Tertiary nuns, Soeur Marie, lay sick in the infirmary on the fifth floor, and to her rescue came three others, Demerise, Gilbert, and Lumiene. They seized their companion and bore her in a blanket to the staircase, but they were met by a sheet of flame and all perished. None of them were over 20 years of age. The sisters worked with the persistency of heroines, by turns imploring, beseeching and commanding the patients, and finally saving a very large number. The number of deaths is unknown. Sister Thei'esa de Jesus, the superioress of the burned asylum, places the loss of life at certainly twenty, and possibly fifty. Dr. Duquete, the Government medical inspector, places the loss of life at least sixty. Others consider the total loss will be nearer one hundred and fifty. Seven lay nuns perished. A DEATH TRAP.

Fire Commissioner Pe*ry characterises the buildings as death traps and a disgrace to a civilised country. The greatest wonder to the firemen is th at such an absence of fire-fighting facilities could exist. Although the appliances were there they were utterly useless. The institution had excellent engines, ten good pumps and new boilers, but no connection existed between the pumps and boilers. Ever since Quebec was a province its management of these most helpless of creatures has been its shame. They have been farmed out to nuns at SIOO a head per year, and the sisters’ aim was to keep them as frugally as possible. From the construction of the building there is doubt in some minds as to whether it was intended for an asylum or a blast furnace. In any case, it served the latter purpose admirably. It was constructed of brick, and was 600 feet long.. running back from the river half that distance. The main building occupied the centre, and on each side extended wings six storeys in height. AFTER THE FIRE. There were over 1,700 patients in the building. The patients wandered about aimlessly, clad in scanty garments. When released many of them leaped for joy and bounded like deer across the fields to the woods. Patients of both sexes escaped, and though a cordon of police was thrown around, not all were included. Men coming up town' to dinner were startled by seeing a lunatic parading the streets, rejoicing in his freedom and menacing women till he was secured.

During the progress of the fire crowds of sightseers came from Montreal ; and the city’s housetops were covered with persons watching the distant flames. The Sisters of Providence spent in founding and organising this institution £225,000, of which £140,000 was spent on the building. The building was insured by the Government for £60,000.