The Seattle Star Newspaper, November 18, 1920, Page 9

The Seattle Star (=« SE ATTL E, WASH, THU IRSDAY, N VE IBE , 1920. STAR WRITER GIVES FACTS ON STATE ASYLUM & CRUELTY ACCUSATIONS i) BRING INVESTIGATION Reporter Benjamin Visits Every Ward, | Some of the Worst at Night BY RALPH J, BENJAMIN Brutality to patients at the Western State Hospital for the Insane at Steilacoom? I went out to the hospital to investigate. For some months past serious charges have been made ) Against the institution, against the attendants, against Dr. | ) W. M. Keller as superintendent, against all branches of the} hanagement. I had been told the patients were treated brutally, were| beaten and kicked, were imprisoned wrongfully. I had been | Informed that the food was bad, that the patients were) overworked, that the doctors were negligent, that Dr. Keller ted the wards, that incompetency and brutality WINDOWS OF THE SOUL PRECINCT LINES | TO BE REDRAWN | Inequalities to Be Wiped Out by Readjustments City precinet boundaries will be changed | In accordance with a recommen | |dation by Thomas Irving, mupervinor of elections, the judiciary committee |has instructed the elty engineer and jelty comptroller to prepare data }upon which the councll will later }make readjustinents of the voting | precinets | cincta, says Irving characterized the hospital. ; I went thru every ward. Some of the worst wards I vis- i » ited at night. The creamery, dairy farm, poultry farm, | i wer plant, treatment rooms, work shops, and all were | é wn open to me. Dr. Kel-| | ) ler was with me much of the | ' time, but I often talked with’ tients and attendants when; was not near. He invited me to go anywhere I desired thru the institution, alone or With whom I chose. In this story I am going to tell exactly what I saw, what ‘the attendants And patients 1 me, and what my im-) pressions were. CRUELTY POSSIBLE; PATIENTS MISTREATED From my investigation I believe that crueity to patients is possible. | I believe that patients have been|1 heard voices. I don't know. You @mistreated. I also believe that Dr.| cay I didn’t hear voices. I feel all has endeavored to prevent/ right. Please let me out.” ity and that he has fired at-| ‘The doctor assured him he would ints he believed guilty of even be released as soon as he was well slightest meanness, enough. In the first ward I visited at the) That man ts getting well,” ‘@eylum I sought an opportunity to | the doctor. “He is beginning to un-| B a patient. Dr. Keller @*| derstand that he didn't hear voices. me I had a free hand; I could) He is rational. He may recover en-| Questions at all times and of any tirely. 1 hope he will, for he is « pweand or patient. fine, big fellow.” “I singled out a quiet ittle fellow) 1 asked the usnal question—one| appeared serious and entirely | nat 1 propounded a thousand times during my inspection of the warda. “What caused that man’s condi-/ HIS is the first of several articles te by Reporter ph J. Benjamin, who has been investi- gating charges of cruel- ty at the state hospital at Steilacoom. shows what progress he has made, “I am here because I was declared insane,” the man replied. “Do you still hear voices?” “I won't tell Dr. Keller or anyone if you #o desire, but I want you tell me how you are treated here,” told him, tion?” ‘The doctor shook his head. “I don’t know,” he said. “Rest, good air, good | | “Well, I don’t know who you @F*, | treatment, regular hours, cleanliness | I don't mind telling you that we) _ thoy are curing him. I may guess) treated very fine. Some of the | a+ ine cause of his trouble, but I can te are troublesome at times, | nie be sure.” rr to com- eeeere were Ss SAREE ‘THIS ONE THINKS HES n about.” he told me. - Dr. Keller finished inspecting the BEATEN AND ROBBED We met an old-timer on another if room and caught me talking | the patient. airing court. He button-holed the doctor and asked the question scores | Bi “Doctor, I may have imagined that | “vote aid) inal statistics show many vicious) jortmes are committed by people who Bullfrogs, Worms, Snakes Agree on Mild Winter NEW YORK, Nov, 18,—Bull frogs, worms and snakes—who ought to know—are unanimous in the belief that {t in going to be a mild winter, according to eter Zeilus, of Staten inland, He sald that bullfrogs croak at night In his pond, and that if the winter was to be severe, they would bury in the mud and not croak until spring. The ground worma, be saya, are crawling on the ground. If the winter was to be a hard one, they would be five feet under ground. Garter snakes are as lively and frolidsome ax in mid duly, he mays. CTCAGO. West Side | furniture torney John D. Carmody Great inequality exixts In the num-| plant burna with $15,000 loom, r of votera in the different prejcause none of employes had nickel! tion that is now bewildering the of-| by to drop in pay phone lot be. | GOT OUT OF JAIL | TO DO FORGERY? |“How Did He Do It?” Is’ Question Puzzling Officials | Altho jail records show Morris O'Keefe a prisoner In jail during the last two months, he wan arc two days ago in Judge A. Frater’s court of entering 1 it stores during that period and com- mitting the erime of first degree! fornery His identification in accepted as Stopulo will be married in Port Sunday t erdeen, T is the ques. | p complete by Deputy Prosecuting At “How did he get out?” ficlals, IF WE WERE TO SAY— Come and take them away at your own price ee “Her eyes are homes of silent prayer,” sang Tenny-| son. Beautiful Lillian Berse| illustrates what the poet} meant, Her eyes speak in the language of devotion. “What a soul, twenty fathoms deep, in her eye “Hell trembles | at a heaven-directed eye.” ~~.) H.F.W. Kilian ae Estate to His Widow! By his will filed in probate court | Wednesday the late H. F. W. Kilian, Out of Town Customers— Order Your Overcoat by Mail and Save Money |former professor of German in the iway high school, left his estate 00 to his widow. Compliment. { ary bequests of $1 each are made} to seven children. | nmr cept that he “hears voic to him. If he were reles might tell him to kil Crim “hear voices." He complains contm- | ually. He says he was robbed of! | $150,000 by the attendants and the wu-/ perintendent. The fact is this: There) isn’t @ mark on his body. He did not} have a nickel when he entered the! hogpital. He was never rich. He! jon't getting well. He is dangerous! MINISTER THREATENED TO KILL, HIS FAMILY I questioned a strapping big fel low about hig treatment. I didn’t like his eye, nor bis laugh. He is now a skilled workman about the institu: tion, but very few workmen can get! along with him. He was at one time! 4 well known miniater of the gompel. | Overwork, family difficulties, some | thing, caused @ part of his brain to run wild. Ho threatened to kui hin| wife and family. | KNOWS "EM; Rauizn kxows ee as orien = “When are you going to let me gd “How are you today™ he asked po | patient. He called him by his | 2Ome? I am all right now. jhe told me. “The treatment here te excentent” | “I believe I should be; permitted to go home I never! Girl Engaged by in the United States a month ago. THREW JUG AT HER AND LOST ALL THE BEER, WIFE MOURNS GLABGOW, feo ‘he threw a ju over my hea¢ THREE NEGROES - SLAIN BY MOB Are Lined Up and Shot by Pantages in court here her husband, “We couldna’ af ford to lose so much beer, your ludaship.” prominent young up by @ mob and Proxy Ceremony { MOQUIAM, Nov. 18 and his two deputies to take the negroes for safe keeping. collected in Chicago yielded about 4,000,000 Miss Georgia | sheriff Tanner nd as just Dimitrakakis of Ab ouple we ngaged by all arrangements being made| The garbage usin before she landed in 1918 pounds of grease they sought to Fitzgerald, Ga., xy, the girl's e We doubt if many men who know values or have looked around would offer us less than the extremely low price at which we're selling 418 “All-wool” Overcoats _ Values to $65 fume. 1 couldn't escape the}, D® you, still hear the votoss,| imnviction that the stories about Dr.| 7-7" asked the doctor. | [eller neglecting the patients are| “Certainty. Can't you | know. I never loved my wife, and I If he does not visit and| “Are you well treated?” never was happy with her. But I) the patients, how does he| “No 1 am kicked and beaten and| would never have harmed her.” them so well? Why do they *tarved. I am robbed. You robbed| We went to the upper floor, where | him? For I found nearly ali; ™¢ “nd the attendants robbed me. | the most dangerous violent cases are | nts tthe the sdperintendent. ie attendants beat me and kick | kept. very well, indeed,” the| | om apelin dP Sas cae This patient, J-—, is @ big fellow.) (Reporter Penjamin’s story will be het that this man wore on| He appears sane, and he is-sane, ex- continued in our next ianue) | 4 é ee ; 4 ' 1 ; tet ta tna Bitte | . With profits forgotten ‘Shreatened my family, as far as 1 A Special Purchase and Readjustment of Our Own Stocks torn from a newspaper. he printed words, “Prest- ‘The words had formed) of a headline. “How is the eiection coming?” ask- | “@4 the doctor. “Fine, very fine,” the patient re- The Highest Class Line of Crepe Meteor Charmeuse plied in afi seriousness. “I have Just Satin and Silk Minuette Teceived some new reports. I have been elected president and go¥@rnor. | hold all the offices in the house “and senate and the supreme court. | LE also hold most of the offices at) Diympia. ‘This man Harding is all) le mt claim hi is elect-| “ed. Pine ates gion pany ey Hart} Are Offered You Friday and Saturday at ‘Aoem’t claim office. He will turn it! Greatly Reduced Prices B over to me, Oh, yes, I have a major- ity of 200,009.000 votes.” “PRESIDENT-ELECT” _ELLS HIS PLANS +) “What are your plans now? 1 ig mam Cie oot al eM No better can be had, no finer materials can be People free—kive them their liberty | obtained, and the skill of the greatest of Amer- With a bonus, and build a new! ica’s designers is employed in the creation of these | Building here and make it a public original, dainty, and exclusive Blouses. ‘forum. Oh, yes, I shall reward the | @octor here, very well, indeed, He All new and fresh, they repfesent a wonderful [eserves well at my hands. I will) spectacle in their gay array of colors. Blues of Talso offer you a very good position | every shade, browns, golds, tans and reds, some Fh the nt eovernment <enant hand embroidered while others are very attrac- tion? I asked Dr. Keller, He doesn’t tively trimmed with hand beaded designs. el ‘That's one of the things I like| We are able to show you today the largest as- “about Dr. Keller. When he doesn't | sortment of Blouses of any retail store in Amer- ica, bar none. We are selling thousands of Blouses, which enables us to buy for considerable less money then the average store or shop. Blouses of the identical materials and workman- ship a year ago would have cost you $40 or and today are selling in other stores at $20, $30 and $35. Friday and Saturday only we will offer special this wonderful display at know he doesn't peddle technical) $ 85 — ') terms. He simply admits and lets it} _ go at that. ‘The patient who thinks himsett | No finer Christmas present could be thought of than a Blouse se ed from among those de- scribed above. We shall be pleased to wrap it and keep it for you until Christmas. The Market Blouse Shop 107 PIKE STREET Between First and Second Aves, MEANS an opportunity to buy a Fine, High Grade Overcoat at the extremely low price of $35 See them—in our window " today aes ie ha hi Ce | INCLUDED ARF— Fitted Young Men's Coats—single and double breast- ed, in plain gray, green, blue and brown, Full Belted Coats in regular and raglan shoulders, and a great variety of materials, Velvet Collar Coats, full lined, in Oxford and black, Semi-Fitted Coats with self collars, one-quarter Skin- ner satin lined, in gray and dark mixtures. Ulsters, 48 inches long, in gray, brown and mixtures, English Gabardines, silk sleeve. and yoke lined, regular and rag- lan shoulders, full belted. Full Silk Lined Chesterfield Coats in black and Oxford. . Regulars, _stouts, ongs. the president-+lect is a type, Other | Vpationts think they are superin-| fendents and Dr. Keller is a patient. | is ian’t something to laugh about. : too pitiful; too dangerous. This | man apparently {# harmless, but he! Imay become very dangerous, His tal disease is not organic, as far medical science knows. Perhaps jw an heriditary strain. Perhaps fs due to great mental anguish: to worry; to suffering; to overwork, The | Pitiful part of it is the very greatest ‘experts in the treatment of insanity eannct cure him. The mentat “doctors have not discovered the ‘cure. They classify him. They care him. That's all they can do, IN ARE YOU GOING >) LET ME OUT?” On one of the big afring courts a! Ay exeervice man stopped Dr. ler. | "When are you going to let me 7” he asked. “Why are you here? countered! doctor. It's a favorite question, way the patient answers it often Also Showing 285 Overcoats, wonderful values at $15, $20, $25 Separate Trousers to Match Your Old Coat and Vest at $6.00 ailored Ready Co. Seattle’s Largest Upstairs Clothes Shop 401 to 407 PIKE STREET pI We