There were many odd stories that came out of the old mental asylums, and, fortunately for history’s sake, newspapers from the past would publish these stories for all the world to see.
Sewed Lips Shut
We may have all given thought to sewing our lips shut in protest to terrible tasting food, but one man, back in 1902, took that thought and made it a reality.
Jeremiah Peabody, an inmate the Tipton County Infirmary in Indiana, really did not like the food the hospital was serving him and, from the sound of things, were physically forcing him to eat.
In protest, the aged man got ahold of a needle and thread one night and sewed his lips together so that he would not have to eat anymore of the awful food.
The next morning, the hospital staff discovered the man with his lips sewn shut and had to call in the doctors. The stitches were, of course, removed and the man, it was reported, seemed happy to be able to speak again.
He was placed on a light diet and, as long as he did not get blood poisoning from his sewing project with the dirty needle, he would suffer no further damages. [1]
Days Off
Back in 1915, there was an uproar about the common “day off” within a number of the asylums. Inmates of the insane asylums were being allowed a day here and there to leave the asylums and roam the streets unsupervised.
However, people became angry about this practice after a man left the asylum on his day off and visited his wife to murder her. All of a sudden, the asylums had to clamp down on the practice and keep the inmates within the walls of the asylums. [2]
19 Teaspoons
Pica disorder was not recognized back in the early 1900s, so it was fairly common for newspapers to print up reports of patients eating “strange” things.
For example, in 1912, it was reported that a patient in the Eastern Maine Insane Asylum had swallowed 19 teaspoons which were later discovered inside the patient’s stomach.
It makes one wonder just how how long it took the staff to realize the spoons were missing. [3]
Scattered Bones
At the Territorial Insane Asylum, Las Vegas, 1903, bones were found scattered about the yard. A quick investigation into the matter proved that the bones were those of a former patient in the asylum. One of the men running the asylum had a patient who was also a physician. The official had the physician prepare the body so that he could have the skeleton for his office. The physician inmate left the body parts inside a barrel of water so that they could decompose, but the rotting body parts were eventually forgotten about. The barrel was knocked over at some point and the bones were scattered around the yard. [4]
Ending the Genetic Spread of Insanity
In 1916, a strange article appeared in a Chicago newspaper. It was strange because it used the word “abortion,” something that was not openly discussed in the early 20th century.
According to the article, a doctor announced to the audience of a medical society meeting his plans to perform an abortion upon a woman who was 4 months pregnant, and everyone in the room cheered.
The pregnant woman was only 20-years-old and already had a 6-month-old baby. Because the father was a “mental subnormal” and because her mother was in a mental asylum, the doctors believed that her children would also be insane.
The woman’s husband had already been convinced to be sterilized and agreed to have the baby boy sterilized, as well.
On the topic of abortion, the doctor said, “Statistics indicate that scientific and intellectual men are having smaller and smaller families. The rich can learn how not to have children by paying a physician a fee. The wife of the poor ought to have this knowledge, too.” [5]
Housing Dope Fiends
Opium addicts were a major problem back in 1915 and, like today, society had no idea how to handle them. One psychopathic hospital received 40 drug users, leaving little space left over for people who were declared insane by the state. A nearby medical hospital was also filled up by the dope fiends, as well as the local jail.
The only option left to house the opium users was to begin storing them in abandoned school buildings. [6]
Unsafe for the Kitchen Help
As we can well imagine, some insane asylums were dangerous places for both the patients and the medical staff, but there was one group of people inside the asylums who were often overlooked.
In 1913, it was reported that the baker inside an Illinois state hospital for the insane got caught in the electric dough mixer and was ground into pieces.
While this may seem like an unusual event, that is far from the truth. There were many accidents inside the asylum kitchen, often run by an outside crew and not the inmates. The kitchen crews used large, unsafe equipment to assist them in preparing large batches of meals for the growing number of inmates. There were no safety regulations in place and the staff was usually untrained when it came to using the equipment. [7]
No One Saw a Thing
Back in 1912, an inmate was waiting in the receiving room of the Longview insane asylum when he was murdered. There were nine other patients in the room and yet the killer could not be identified and apparently got away. [8]
Dance Party
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, some asylums tried to break up the monotony of being labeled insane and threw dances for the inmates. It gave the inmates something to look forward to and it gave them a chance to socialize more freely.
However, there were also open dances where the public could go to the insane asylum and dance with the inmates. It may have been nice for the families of the inmates, but for much of the public, it was a freak show. People would attend to dance with the patients, which would be reported on later:
“My first partner was so queer looking and had such a restless, anxious look in his eye that I was afraid of him. Every now and again he would pause or stop short in the dance to look at some other mental wreck, and once I was dreadfully frightened for fear he was going to attack a demure little woman who of all those present looked the most tractable.” [9]
