Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 30, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 March 1888 — The Story of the Crimen of the Insane Hospital Told in a Few Words. [ARTICLE]

The Story of the Crimen of the Insane Hospital Told in a Few Words.

The “Brown Bill,” a partisan Democratic measure, introduced in the Legislature of 1883/by JaB. Brown, made tho three great benevolent of [the state the spoils of the -DemoI crntic caucus, and “Dr.” Harrison, ! Phil Gapcn and B. H. Burrel! ' were elected by a striot party vote as the trustees for the Indiana | Hospital for the * Insane. Hew (have they administered their trust? | These men have filled the Asylum with their political henchmen i for partisan purposes. They have I purchased legislative influence by I wholesale nepotism., They have ! established sinecures, have paid | excessive wages to political favor- ; ites, and reduced to a system the ! trnflic for place. They have permitted and encouraged political activity,- the raising of campaign funds; the formation of Democratic political clubs, at the Asylum; IE? candidacy of employees and their attendance at ■ political conventions, thus impairing the efficiency of the service and diverting the funds of the whole people to party in

consideration for political work. They hftve eo conducted the Asylum that (513 changes had to be made in less than four years by reason of the unfitness and incompetency of their employes. They have thus consigned the insane to the care of reckless, brutal attendants, by whom one pa- ] tient was wilfully suffered to escape, by whose negligence others were killed, and by whose cruelty many of these, helpless beings were systematically beaten, tormented and abused. Under their administration, hogs were killed for the tables of the patients out of a drove dying from a malignant and contageous disease; oleomargarine, rancid and maggoty butter, decayed and wormy apples, peaches and prunes; bad bread and coffee; rice, fish, pork, cheese and other articles unfit to eat were furnished and supplied to the insane, while food better in quality and in greater variety was placed upon the tables of the officers. They caused goods to be accepted by the Hospital which were not according to the contract, and which were uufit for use, because such goods were furnished by cmit ractors who vvere tlieif personal and political friends. They fraudulently. allowed a claim of 8500 to be paid out of state funds, of which they were trustees, to C. S. Wesuer, an attorney employed in defense of the iniquitous management before the Committee of the House of Representatives.

After their misdoings had been exposed, they procured the appointment of a committee by the Senate for the purpose of exonerating themselves from their guihfey responsibility for these abuses. The investigation of their conduct was taken away from the Senate Committee on Benevolent Institut hmsi to which -it properly belong--edj-and was consigbed so a special committee appointed by Green Smith, who was a personal beneficiary of the present corrupt system of party management. This committee was composed in part of other beneficiaries of this corrupt management, among whom was a relative of a member of the Board of Trustees, and a majority on said committee were the devoted political adherents of said Board. They produced as a fit instrument of their defense an attorney, Henry, N. Spaan, a man then under charge of .fraiwlnVnHyaltering election returns, and whoi was then under indictment Mot

crimes coii mitted in connection therewith. They corruptly procured the appointment of this man, their own attorney, to be the attorney of the Senate Committee, who were their judges, and thus caused' him not only to assume inconsistent duties but to be corruptly allowed the sum of 8200 out of the moneys belonging to the State for services performed in their behalf. By their said attorney there was drawn up and prepared a pretended report and finding of facts, filled with falsehoods and misstatements of every kind, which paper was signed by the chairman of the Senate Committee, and adopted by vote of the Democratic members of the Senate, and published as a correct statement of their administration of.tiie Hospital. Mr. Gapen abandoned his duties as Trustee for a year to engage in. business in Arkansas, and yet demanded and leceived salary for services which were never performed, out of a fund which was not applicable for such a purpose. As Treasurer of the Asylum he received from Mellen & Co. a rebate upon the purchase money for to the Asylum by that firm, which rebate he f eloniouely

embezzled and when detected he falsely charged that the sum had been appropriated by Dr. Fletcher an innocent man, who had never received the money. According to his own testimony he was in the habit, as Treasurer of tho Board, of £>hying out radney without taking receipts therefor, and he erroneously paid out funds of the State for debts which had already been paid in full. Even after the investigation conducted by the last General Assembly, he continued to abandon bis Trustee and Treasurer of the Board to prosecute his private business in Arkansas, and continued to draw pay for services which he neglected to perform.