In the Louisiana State Insane Asylum, patients were ripping apart a minimum of 15 blankets a night in 1909. Why or how is not mentioned, but the expense of the destroyed blankets was getting to be a bit too expensive.
Insanes Tear Up Fifteen Blankets a Night
Fifteen blankets a night is frequently the number torn up by the patients of the State Insane Asylum at Jackson. Some times the number destroyed by the insane patients in one night is as high as twenty.
This very interesting fact was brought out by the visit of Dr. Clarence Pierson, superintendent of the State Asylum for the Insane.
Dr. Pierson was here regarding the financial affairs of the institution and mentioned the blanket bill as one of the items of expense which the institution has to meet. The loss of fifteen blankets a night is quite an item, and no blanket has yet been found by the superintendent which was sufficiently warm to make the patients comfortable and sufficiently strong enough to prevent them from tearing it up.
Source: St. Landry clarion. (Opelousas, La.), 16 Jan. 1909.
