LIFE IN A STEEL CAGE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 324, 10 June 1911, Page 10

LIFE IN A STEEL CAGE.

A MOTHER'S DEVOTION. Six husky deputies recently snared George Odette, .a raving maniac, through the bars of a steel cage in the garret of his mother's home near Waukegan (U.S.) preparatory to placing him in the Elgin insane asylum. The man had been kept in the cage for nearly thirty years, and his commitment to the asylum follows the death of his mother, nge'd 92, who had remained by his side since she was 62, seldom leaving the garret, where she prepared his food and attempted to lighten the burden of his miserable life. The formality of a test for his sanity was gone through, when members of the board questioned him as he stood nude, shrieking at them and rattling the bars, llis beard, which hung nearly to his knees, was bloodstained and matted, and his body born many bruises, marks of frequent struggles against the steel. As the man has been violent, since his incarceration, no one hut Mrs. Odette dared enter (Jin garret. When a boy Odette was shocked by a toy electric battery, and it robbed iiim of his reason. He was first sent to an asylum, but on hearing that ho refused to eat and was starving, the mother secured his release by promising to care for him herself.