In the great majority of cases no restraint whatever is placed on the actions of an innocent, when once he is boarded out. So far as he knows, he is perfectly free to go where he will, and do what he chooses. He may turn into the village inn, if he wish, and order his wine or his beer; and, providing he have money in hand, he will be served just as any other customer. If he ask for a second glass, some little difficulty may arise, it is true. The landlord will then probably appear upon the scene, and explain, with many courteous apologies, that his supply of wine or beer, as the case may be, has run short. He is expecting more in, of course, but for the moment he has not a single drop in the place good enough to set before so honored a guest. The innocent may go to the railway station, too, and take a ticket; but he will always find that there is no vacant place in the trains that are running that day. For the whole population, from the highest to the lowest, are in the secret, and do their best to keep up the delusion among these unfortunate people that they are as free as their fellows. But, little as the patients know it, a very careful watch is kept on their proceedings. They have no idea, of course, that the man who saunters about among them, chatting as a good comrade with each in turn, is a keeper who is noting every change in their mood. Nor do the majority of them ever suspect that the persistence with which their nourriciers seek their society is due to anything but personal regard. It is a very rare thing, however, for an innocent at Gheel even to attempt to escape; they are much too comfortable where they are to have any wish to go elsewhere. Oddly enough, although there are nearly two thousand lunatics living at Gheel, it is a most unusual occurrence for any act of violence to be committed there. This is the more remarkable as, with the exception of those subjected to special restraint-only some two per cent. of the whole they have as often as not knives in their posses sion, and such dangerous tools as scythes and hatchets ready at hand. So far, however, as one can judge, the desire to use them for any unlawful purpose never enters their minds. The air of the place seems to have a soothing effect on their nerves. Some of those who, on their arrival at the Asyl, are raving, become at the end of a week or two quite amenable to the gentle discipline that is in force there. The fact of their being treated as if they were sane seems to rouse their amour propre; they feel as if they had a reputation for intelligence to maintain. Sometimes when they think a paroxysm is coming on, they will make the most pathetic efforts to ward it off; and, if they find it is too strong for them, they will rush away to some solitary place where, as they believe, they can scream and struggle unobserved. Then when the attack is past, they will return home again trying hard to look as if nothing had happened. This enlisting, as it were, of the sufferers themselves as combatants against their disease, has often an important bearing on their recovery. Every effort they make to control themselves increases their chances of becoming sane. large number of very remarkable cures have been effected at Gheel. A Children play an important rôle in the colony, for it is found that, in some respects, they make better keepers of the insane than their elders. Gheelois children, it must be remembered, are not quite as other children; for, as they have grown up in the company of innocents, they are in perfect sympathy with them upon most points. It is no unusual thing to see a great strong man talking away in the most confidential strain to a mere childhis nourricier's little son, perhaps, who has been told off to take charge of him. The two are hail fellowwell-met, and the best of friends, for there is not enough difference between them intellectually to raise up barriers. Even the more violent of the lunatics will listen quite patiently to anything a child says to him, and will almost invariably do what it wishes. If a patient shows signs of restlessness, and seems | tion more self-important than sane men on the verge of an outbreak, one of the | and women, more inclined to attach nourricier's favorite devices for sooth-weight to their own opinions. Even ing him is to place a baby in his arms the gentlest and humblest among and ask him to take care of it. At them resent contradiction as if it were Gheel a lunatic was never known to a personal insult. This is, perhaps, injure a little child. after all, but natural, for many of them Infinite trouble is taken to make life are firmly convinced that they are very run smoothly and quietly for these high and mighty personages - personinnocents, and to guard them from ages whom in real life few would venall forms of unwholesome excitement. ture to contradict. Never were there At the same time many simple pleas- so many notable individuals - kings, ures and amusements are provided for generals, statesmen, millionaires — livtheir benefit. They are always present ing together in one little town as at at any entertainment their nourriciers Gheel. It is startling, to say the least may give family fêtes, Christmas of it, to hear a quiet, intelligent-looking parties, picnics, etc. — and upon such gentleman describing, in the calmest occasions comport themselves, as a tone in the world, how he won Waterrule, with the most edifying dignity loo, delivered Italy, or outwitted Bisand propriety. A surprisingly large marck. One patient believed firmly number of them have a decided talent that he was the moon, and could never for music, and this they are given the be induced to go out of doors until opportunity of cultivating. There is a after sunset; another was sure that the Philharmonic Society in the colony, responsibility for the management of and, although most of its members are the affairs of a nation rested on his more or less insane, they practise regu-shoulders; while there are many who larly and diligently, and give concerts hold firmly that they are in the possesfrom time to time—and by no means sion of secrets by which, if they had bad ones either. Then, church-going but a free hand, they could make right is an unfailing source of delight to all that is wrong in this world. many of them, especially on high cere- A chance visitor will always find in a mony days, when there are plenty of colony for lunatics much that is terribly lights and flowers on the altar, and depressing; to him even these innogood music. There is something cents at Gheel will seem but a pitiable strangely pathetic then in the passion- set. This, however, is far from being ate fervor with which they throw the view they themselves take of their themselves into the services; their condition. Some of them, it is true, voices tremble with emotion as they join in the prayers, and they seem for the time quite unconscious of what is passing around them. are subject from time to time to fits of the deepest gloom, but the majority are quite cheerful; not only are they fairly content with their lot, but they eviThe great majority of the Gheel dently think life well worth living. At lunatics are, in appearance, quite re-every turn there are hearty laughs to markably sane; the only noticeable be heard, and bright, happy faces to be difference between them and their fel- seen, among the colonists at Gheel. lows is that their eyes are just a touch brighter, and their hands more nervous. In manner, too, they are on the whole singularly calm and quiet. One might live with many of them for days, in fact, without ever discovering that they were not as other men. By degrees, however, certain little peculiarities come to the fore; for one thing, these people are almost without excep From Chambers' Journal. ELECTRICITY FROM RUBBISH. THE satisfactory disposal of the rubbish and refuse of our large towns has for years occupied the close attention of engineers and sanitarians alike, and various modes of dealing with the prob- | velocity of air through the furnace lem have been advocated and carried into practice; whilst the statement furnished by reliable statistics that London alone produces no fewer than a million and a half tons of refuse per annum, affords our readers some adequate idea of the magnitude and importance of the difficulty to be grappled with by local and municipal bodies. Conveyance of the refuse to the sea has been practised with success; but such mode is obviously too costly for towns not on the seaboard; and under these circumstances, the adoption of cremators, in which the rubbish is wholly consumed by fire, has come more and more into favor; so that at the present moment the majority of the principal cities are either constructing, or about to construct, the new refuse cremator. bars, and rapid combustion and intense heat in the furnaces themselves. A destructor erected on the Livét system is now in operation at Halifax, in Yorkshire, and produces, from the combustion of refuse, electric current sufficient for some two thousand candlepower arc lamps, and a search-light of twenty-five thousand candle-power. It is, of course, unnecessary to point out how widely diverse is the composition of town refuse; its constituents ashes, vegetable refuse, tins, cans, old boots, paper, etc., and the million items which find their way sooner or later to the dust-heap are well known to every one; and obviously any attempt to put a value on the heat-producing capabilities of rubbish must be a little vague in dealing with the subject generally. Taking, however, a rough average of the results obtained, an ordinary sample of town refuse is pronounced by experts to be equivalent to about one-third or one-fifth its weight pounds of refuse will generate as much heat as one pound of coal; whilst the refuse after consumption is found to be a clean, massive, metallic clinker, well fitted for road material; or, after being ground up, for making mortar. Much heat is necessarily evolved in the destruction of the refuse; and the idea is now gaining ground that such heat may be largely and advantageously utilized in the production of steam in coal namely, from three to five power and electricity, instead of being permitted to run to waste. The production of a furnace suitable for the most economical combustion of all kinds of refuse has necessarily required much time and skill; and it was only after twenty-five years of close application to the problem that the late M. Fountain de Livét, a French engineer, succeeded in securing a powerful natural draught in furnaces without artificial means, and in consuming rubbish without smoke or noxious fumes of any kind. Without entering into the minutiae of M. Livét's invention, it may suffice to state that the latest and most approved generator of steam from refuse consists of three cylinders, two of which are fitted with internal fire-grates and flues; whilst the third one, placed centrally above, is kept about half full of water, and acts as a steam-chest. The specialty of the furnace is the adaptation of such form of flue as will utilize the increasing density or weight of the gases generated as they travel towards the chimney, thus inducing a high It is, of course, hardly necessary to add one word of caution in regard to the invention now under consideration. It is not to be assumed that because rubbish is burnt, the electricity necessarily costs absolutely nothing; the cost of plant, distribution of power, and many other expenses, must not be lost sight of, to say nothing of the labor expended in collecting the refuse. Allowing, however, for all this, it is quite clear that an invention which rids the community of a great nuisance, and does so without creating a further one in the shape of noxious fumes and smoke, and at the same time turns to good account the heat generated, must confer benefits on the community at large; and that the keen interest aroused in the new adaptation is amply warranted by the sound economic principles on which it is based. For EIGHT DOLLARS remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage. Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & CO. Single copies of the LIVING AGE, 18 cents. THE LAST PARADE. I. THEY were days to be remembered, To the dreams that the music made, II. It was glorious while it lasted, As we rode down the street It was tears that the music made, III. But the marching days are over. Veterans! now at ease we stand, Till the sounds in the distance fade. For the last trumpet call MILKING TIME. COME, pretty Phyllis, you are late !— The black cow thrusts her brass-tipp'd horns Among the quick and bramble thorns; The wistful nightingales complain C. W. DALMON. |