SIX MONTHS AT THE INEBRIATE ASYLUM.

Tuapeka Times, Volume IV, Issue 221, 25 April 1872, Page 9

SIX MONTHS AT THE INEBRIATE ASYLUM.

Others have sketched for the "Tribune " the pictures presented by a brief visit to the State Inebriate Asylum in this city ; but I propose to give my experience during a residence of six months spent there for the cure of the habit of intemperance.

Of those who were my companions in the long walks over the hills in spring, but half a dozan remain, and they may be regarded as life members of this institution. One after another returned to . his home with renewed health and strengthened will ; some to fall again through over confidence, want of occupation, hereditary appetite, or others sources of temptation; but a majority will undoubtedly exhibit in their own persons the best proof of the usefulness and success of this noble charity. As to myself, I only know that I came here an invalid in mind and body, and can now walk my twenty miles daily, both 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 weak, a month, or longer to elapse between his spre(S Usually he makes a business of drinking, when he has once commenced, and gives up all other occupations, often going, a hundred miles from home 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 to prevent an attack of delirium tremeus. His c.ire is a more difficult and tedious matter than that of the habitual inebriate, but it is quite certain that he can be cured aud 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 favourable. No more beautiful spot could have been selected for its location. It stands on an eminence three miles from the city of Binghampton, having Susquehanna River at the foot of the hill forming the base of its south wing, and Avith the silver thread of the Chenango fsi* in front. Around ths asylum stand the everlasting hills, still coverpd

by the "forest primeval" but the railroads give- animation to the scene, and the spires aud roofs at Binghampton suggest the vicinity of a city. When making up my mind to come here I expected to find my companion 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 i eyes fell upon a group of vigorous men ! playing at football, with lusty motions and loud laughter, and in the distance a stalwart nine were doing law justice to a game of base-ball. Through a lower window I saw some young gentlemen, who appealed to be fib canddates 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 "jimjams;" 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 wbon 1 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 w.is taken for granted that 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 honour never to go into the city without permission (and for the first eight weeks not without an attendant), I .was told that I might go elsewhere freely and without being placed under special supervision. Then began long walks through the woodsandover 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 inebrir te. 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 vigour. It was the common work of all to resist temptation, and make that resistance strong' m others. So, by degrees, and almost insensibly, the proneness to temptation was changed for a new and manly life. The process for curing an inebriate is very simple. Many persons imagine that it is done by cone magic process — through whiskey administered in food, or by means of potent drugs. Nothing of the kind is in use here. In'e nperance is a social sin generally, and its cure must be sought by an aggregation of patients similarly afflicted. \ Here are gathered men who honestly propose to rid themselves of an evil j habit, and who honestly help one another to resist the temptation, just as they once helped others to fall into it.^ Foi* this reason men can be cured here by the same process that has proved a failure at home aud that would be suc-

cessful if tried in isolated cases. There are none here who despise the drunkard and give him the cold shoulder, but ail are interested in enabling him to rule his appetites. The patient ia removed from temptation, and kept out of its way until his moral courage is restored to the point of saying jNTo when he ought to do so. Others work for him and with him, while he labours with all his might for himself. Of course, his chief dependence must be on himself; but it is a great and constant source iof strength to find himself surrounded by men who not only wish him well, but are persnaded that he can be cured. Most persons 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 ia cured. On the contrary, it is oneof 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 effecting 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 Bingharapton are the very scum of the earth." He did not dream that two of the gentlemen to whom he addressed his remarks were graduates of this as)lum. This partially explains why comparatively little is known of the institution. Patients conceal their residence here, and go home under the pr6fcence 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 pmise of the good work of their Alma Mater. Society is a Pharisee

in its treatment of the drunkard. Jt fills high the wine-cup and invites to driuk. 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 inebriate asylum, and it expresses its utter want of faith ia 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 licenses men to sell the liquor that will intoxicate 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 prcvide f.n* himself nor for his family. — Special correspondent of the "New York Tribune."