A SANE WOMAN IN A MADHOUSE.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2132, 29 October 1885, Page 2

A SANE WOMAN IN A MADHOUSE.

At the twelfth national conference of Charities and Correction, held recently in Washington, Philip C, Garrett, chairman of the State Committee on Lunacy, in the course of an address, used these words:—"A beautiful and charming young lady, just out of her teens, used to wealth, is extravagant, and her father, reduced in circumstances, finds himself unable to restrain her habit of spending money, concludes she requires custodial care, and places her in a hospital, heedless of her earnest protests. He dies and leaves her there. There she has been near 30 years, and is now nearly GO years of age, and is still begging to be released, But the custodian still thinks she needs custodial care, and she semains to this day under restraint of her personal liberty." The person alluded to by Mr Garrett, the "beautiful and charming young lady," is Miss Addie P. Brinkle, now nearly 60 years of age, regains her freedom from the State Lunatic Asylum at Harrisburg afteran experienceit has fallen to the lot of few mortals to undergo. Thirty years ago Addio Brinokle was a reigning belle of the city. Her father, Dr William Draper Brinckle, was a physician in large practice, and moving in the highest circle of society, Life was a splendid dream to the young beauty until misfortune fell upon her father, who in 1854 lost the bulk of his fortune through an unfortunate business connection. Her mother died two years later, and she was thusleft to her own guidance. Always accustomed to an extravagant manner of living, she did not accommodate herself to the altered position in life. Debts accumulated upon her hands, and to free herself from the annoying creditors, she sold a piano and other furniture she had purchased, but had not paid for, The dealer from whom she had procured the goods brought a suit to recover his money, and by means of this proceeding Dr Brinckle became aware of his daughter's extravagance. She had removed to another boarding house, and was living on a small annuity she received from the estate of an aunt. Her father, accompanied by a Dr M'Olellan and John Woodward, her uncle, and a wealthy manufacturer, visited her at her new abode, and represented that to save the family honor, it was necessary that she should be declared insane and placed in an asylum. Otherwise, he said, she would be liable to a prosecution on the charge of obtaining goods oil false pretences. . Dr M'Clellan then filled out a certificate, which he and Dr Brinckle signed. On July 13,- 1858, tlie young lady was removed to tho, State Lunatic Hospital at Harrisburg and thereccmfined; and there, until a few daya ago, she remained, treated as an insane person, while all the records in the case point to the conclusion that her- only fault was triviality and extravagance, the natural result of her training and early: associations, . ' v...