Democratic Sentinel, Volume 6, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1882 — Criminals in the Insane Asylum. [ARTICLE]

Criminals in the Insane Asylum.

There is a just indignation in the hearts of many people who have considered the subject of committing criminals to insane asylums to protect them from the law. There is no doubt that there is something wrong and rotten in many of the courts of lunacy, or they could not take such action as they do. It has come to such a shameful pass that almost every criminal, no matter what his offense may have been, can find a set of men who will trace out symptoms of insanity and send the villain, who is eligible to the penitentiary, into the asylum sustained for the unfortunate of the State, who are in many cases kept out because the asylums are crowded with thieves and other scoundrels of every description seeking to escape the penalties of their crimes. —Richmond Independent. A young Virginian has invented a machine called the “lung destroyer.” It turns out 150 cigarettes a minute.