Show A Pitiful Yet Horrible Story CHICAGO May 2Iit the inquiry as to the state of affairs in the Cook county insane in-sane asylum today Dr Clevenger formerly for-merly a member of the medical staff there testified that it was impossible for a reputable re-putable practitioner or attendant to stay there The most disreputable ones were the ones to stay because they devoted more time to intrigue The disreputable ones practiced a system of elimination of the better element bj either physical violence vio-lence or other means In 1SSO said the doctor the physi cans who secured bodies at the asylum for dissection the Rush Medical college told Medic1 me tne Domes were so covered witn vermin that they had to be scoured before being placed on the dissection table Once in 1885 I heard screams of pain and running from my office found two of the attendants standing over a patient who was bleeding bleed-ing profusely I knew there was no use of making any complaint as these attendants were supported by influence on the county board Soon after they refused to obey my orders They secreted the bodies on which I desired to hold a postmortem post-mortem examination and I could not get them for two or three days after they were buried 1 published a statement and the following night one of the attendants abused we A few minutes later a shot was fired down stairs and the bullet crashed through the door and lodged in my book case I Soon after this the doctor resigned What is the matter with the institutiou now asked an attorney It is under the influence of boodlerism I is in a bad place and on unsalubripus grounds There should be two new build lags one for the male and one for female patients Then the county board should be kicked out and the asylum put into the lands of a state commission Dr Clevenger told how boodlerism had prevented an investigation Even the ministers of the gospel were afraid of the boodlers who occupied seats in their churches He said there hd been repeated testimony that vermin abounded in the I wards and Dr Kohler an assistant physician I physi-cian found maggots in the wounds of neglected can glected patients in 1X54 Bedbugs would I torture the patients under their straightjackets straight-jackets and rats would mutilate the bodies I of those who died unattended during the night The male attendants were usual appointed by county commissioners for their fighting abilities at the polls at election time Brawls drunkenness oaths incessant alarms pistol shooting immorality stealing etc cxerter a very depressing influence upon the decent officials there and caused them to waste much of their energy in keeping out of rows The county boards financial reports I re-ports were falsified and confused in a variety i riety of ways and often the expression general expenses would cover thousand dollars or more of unnccountedfor bills Everything was done to make an apparent showing of external cleanliness but the whitewashing and the flowers and well epulchre kept lawn constituted the place but a whitec |