The asylums of yesteryear were never pleasant and have long been the foundation of numerous horror stories. While reading through the newspapers of the 19th century, I found the following article describing the foul conditions the “insane poor” had to endure in 1874.
Insane Poor In Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, March 7.—The Evening Bulletin of to-day publishes a lengthy and interesting description of the treatment of the insane poor in certain county almshouses in Pennsylvania. The Balletin states that terrible abuses have grown up in this connection which only need exposure to bring about a speedy reform, and announces its intention of publishing all the facts that can be obtained concerning these abuses.
A visit to one county poor house betrayed a terrible condition of affairs in the insane department. All sanitary measures were neglected, and a sickening odor prevailed in the department named.
The insane paupers were confined in wooden cages, having only a small opening protected by iron bars to admit air and light. The interiors of the cages were covered with piles of dry straw and filth, and the atmosphere was indescribable.
In cage No. 1 was an agricultural laborer, clad in rags. He was quiet and civil, his derangement not being of a violent character. He had been shut up in the filthy box for eighteen months, simply because they had no other place to put him in.
In the other cages the scenes presented were even more inhuman and revolting. The unfortunate inmates were nearly naked, two of them wholly so. They crouched among the straw and litter in their dens, some asleep or in a stupor, and all suffering greatly from the wanton neglect of their keepers. Some could not rise from weakness, their limbs having been so long in a crouching attitude they could not move them.
A still more shocking sight, however, was revealed on proceeding to the basement of the hospital. There, is a similar cage, lying on a heap of loose straw, was a young woman twenty years of age. She is dumb, distorted and idiotic. For eighteen years she has been confined in the poor house, and for six years she has occupied the cage, her only clothing being a piece of coarse bed-ticking. She is so weak from lying that she can neither move her limbs, rise nor walk.
The almshouse in which these terrible scenes were witnessed is situated ten miles from Easton, Pa. The Bulletin, in concluding the exposure, calls upon the State to see to it that the Board of Public Charities does its duty in wiping out this deep stain on civilization and humanity. [Source]
