A TOUCHING INCIDENT
The Bay State Monthly — Volume 2, No. 6, March, 1885
The St. Louis express, on the New York Central road, was crowded one
evening recently, when at one of the way stations, an elderly gentleman,
accompanied by a young lady, entered the cars and finally secured a
seat. As the conductor approached the pair, the young lady arose, and in
a pleading voice said:
"Please, sir, don’t let him carry me to the asylum. I am not crazy; I am
a little tired, but not mad. Oh! no, indeed. Won’t you please have papa
take me back home?"
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The conductor, accustomed though he was to all phases of humanity,
looked with astonishment at the pair, as did the other passengers in
their vicinity. A few words from the father, however, sufficed, and the
conductor passed on while the young lady turned her face to the window.
The writer chanced to be seated just behind the old gentleman, and could
not forgo the desire to speak to him. With a sad face and a trembling
voice the father said:
"My daughter has been attending the seminary in a distant town and was
succeeding remarkably. Her natural qualities, together with a great
ambition, placed her in the front ranks of the school, but she studied
too closely, was not careful of her health, and her poor brain has been
turned. I am taking her to a private asylum where we hope she will soon
be better."
At the next station the old man and his daughter left the cars, but the
incident, so suggestive of Shakspeare’s Ophelia, awakened strange
thoughts in the mind of the writer. It is an absolute fact that while
the population of America increased thirty per cent. during the decade
between 1870 and 1880 the insanity increase was over one hundred and
thirty-five per cent for the same period. Travellers by rail, by boat,
or in carriages in any part of the land see large and elaborate
buildings, and inquire what they are?
Insane asylums!
Who builds them?
Each state; every county; hundreds of private individuals, and in all
cases their capacity is taxed to the utmost.
Why?
Because men, in business and the professions, women, at home or in
society, and children at school overtax their mental and nervous forces
by work, worry and care. This brings about nervous disorders,
indigestion, and eventually mania.
It is not always trouble with the head that causes insanity. It far
oftener arises from evils in other parts of the body. The nervous system
determines the status of the brain. Any one who has periodic headaches;
occasional dizziness; a dimness of vision; a ringing in the ears; a
feverish head; frequent nausea or a sinking at the pit of the stomach,
should take warning at once. The stomach and head are in direct
sympathy, and if one be impaired the other can never be in order. Acute
dyspepsia causes more insane suicides than any other known agency, and
the man, woman or child whose stomach is deranged is not and cannot be
safe from the coming on at any moment of mania in some one of its many
terrible forms.
The value of moderation and the imperative necessity of care in keeping
the stomach right must therefore be clear to all. The least appearance
of indigestion, or mal-assimilation of food should be watched as
carefully as the first approach of an invading army. Many means
advocated for meeting such attacks, but all have heretofore been more or
less defective. There can be little doubt, however, that for the purpose
of regulating the stomach, toning it up to proper action, keeping its
nerves in a normal condition and purifying the blood, Warner’s
Tippecanoe The Best, excels all ancient or recent discoveries. It is
absolutely pure and vegetable; it is certain to add vigor to adults,
while it cannot by any possibility injure even a child. The fact that it
was used in the days of the famous Harrison family is proof positive of
its merits as it so thoroughly withstood the test of time. As a tonic
and revivifer it is simply wonderful. It has relieved the agony of the
stomach in thousands of cases; soothed the tired nerves; produced
peaceful sleep and averted the coming on of a mania more to be dreaded
than death itself.