was at once telegraphed, and about fifteen minutes later the three steam fireengines then owned by the city were throwing water from the cisterns. The steam pump at the asylum was also at work. One of the city steamers, the John Miller, had been engaged with the fire but a short time when it was disabled. The Ridgway, an old engine lately from the repair shop, took the Miller's place, but soon failed and was also retired. Within half an hour after the pumping began the water in the asylum cisterns gave out. Wells and other cisterns of the neighborhood were resorted to, but in vain. The fire made steady progress along the great wing, pushing its advance under shelter of the heavily-sheathed tin roof, and devouring everything before it. Its fierceness set the feeble resources of the fire department at defiance; its smoke repelled all who sought to penetrate

its lair.

The asylum contained at this time about 330 patients. The most violent of these, about sixty in number, were lodged in a hospital, detached from the main building. They were safe. The entire official and working force of the institution, together with scores of helpful citizens who came rushing to the scene, therefore bent their entire efforts to the rescue and removal of the insane from the burning building. This was accomplished in various ways. Some were lifted through holes cut in the roof and ceiling, others were taken out through the windows, from which the strong iron gratings were wrested. Women with hair dishevelled, almost naked, and shrieking with terror were borne by strong arms through the glare of the flames along the steep roof. A thrilling story is told of a physician who rushed to the rescue of a robust female maniac, who, as soon as he entered her room, shut the door, threw herself against it, and with the fury and strength of wild delirium, defied all attempts to open it. The flames which hissed, crackled, and darted their red tongues gave her no fear; she scorned them with a demoniac laugh. Fortunately for the imprisoned man an attendant came to his rescue, and together they removed the frantic woman to the amusement hall, where she vented her remaining fury by dancing on the piano until it was completely ruined.

The ward where the fire first appeared contained thirtytwo women. Six of these were caught in the smoke before help could reach them, and were suffocated to death. Their lifeless bodies were snatched from the flames and stretched upon the grass, then rapidly whitening with falling snow. The patients who were assembled in the amusement hall when the fire broke out were locked up there to prevent their escape. Thus imprisoned they indulged their wild fancies in many fantastic modes. A few, not confined to the hall, escaped from custody in the confusion and broke away through the dismal night on foot for their homes. As rapidly as possible the patients confined in the amusement hall and those rescued from their rooms were removed in omnibuses and carriages to the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb. Meanwhile the fire moved resistlessly on, and on, throughout the night until it passed through the central building and reached the last extremity of the western wing. It halted only because no further food for it lay within its reach. The central wing, midway between the eastern and western one, was saved almost entire; the rest, when morning dawned, was blackened, roofless walls.

The origin of the fire was never ascertained with certainty. It was first detected in the attic at the northwest corner of the east wing. No fire was in use in that part of the building, nor were there any flues there from which ignition was at all probable. Doctor Peck thus stated his own theory :

The origin of the fire was in the clothing room of the number six ward. This room contained all the clothing of thirtytwo patients, and the sudden filling of the ward with such a dense, stifling smoke was the natural result of the burning of so much clothing made of both cotton and wool. How did the fire find its way into that room? In answer to this question

I have but one theory. While the patients were being put to bed, some one of the mischievous ones must have lighted at the gas burner some combustible material like paper, or cotton, or cloth, and thrown it over the transom of the clothing room door into the clothing room. ... While writing this article, a conversation with Doctor G. H. Stewart, who has been in charge of all the patients sent to the Newburg Asylum, has established in my mind my theory of the origin and cause of the fire. One of the patients of that ward was a subject of periodical attacks of maniacal excitement. While passing through these periods her impulses were various, but she was almost always mischievous, often violent, and always perfectly reckless. At the time of the fire she was in an excited state. After she arrived at the Northern Asylum, it became necessary to use restraint by confining her hands. While Doctor Stewart was making his morning round a few days since she urged the removal of the restraint, and while he was hesitating to do so she remarked to him: "I know the reason why you do not take off these mittens; it is because you are afraid I will burn up this asylum as I did the other." She added further that she lighted paper in the gas and threw it over the door into the room.

Immediate rehabilitation of the institution was universally concurred in, but with respect to reconstruction of the burned buildings there arose a wide difference of opinion. A proposition to remove the asylum for the insane to a farm somewhere in the vicinity of Columbus, and erect upon its Broad Street site an institution for the blind was ably advocated in the General Assembly by Hon. James Scott. This plan was reinforced by declaration officially adopted by the asylum trustees that it would be inexpedient to rebuild on the old site unless it should be enlarged by the purchase of at least fourteen acres of additional ground. The trustees further declared that enlargement of the buildings and material changes in their plans would be imperatively necessary. In advocating removal Judge Scott pungently stated that on its Broad Street site the asylum was "a nuisance to the city and the city a nuisance to it." The writer of these lines and others who happened to be at that time colleagues of Judge Scott in the House of Representatives heartily seconded this view, and did all we could to insure its acceptance, but in vain. On April 23, 1869, the General Assembly passed an act providing for the erection of a new building on the old grounds, and, so far as possible, with the old material. This act made an appropriation of $100,000, required that the new building should be large enough to accommodate 400 patients, and limited its maximum cost to $400,000. Nothing was done under this act until September, 1869, when contracts for work and materials began to be let. Levi F. Schofield was chosen as the architect, his plans were accepted, and on an inclement day in October, 1869 - twentythird - the ceremony of breaking ground for the new building took place. The spot selected for this ceremony was that where the northeast corner of the new structure was intended to rest. A considerable number of ladies and gentlemen were present, one of the most notable members of the party being the Governor of Ohio, Hon. R. B. Hayes. After brief remarks by Doctor S. M. Smith, one of the trustees, an invocation was offered by Rev A. G. Byers. Governor Hayes then lifted the first shovelful of earth into the barrow. This act was repeated by Doctor Smith, Judge W. B. Thrall and others. Demolition of the old walls began at the same time, and continued during the few weeks which remained prior to the close of the season.

Fortunately for the institution, and for the city, the opening of the season of 1870 brought with it an entire change of programme. On April 18 of that year the General Assembly authorized the Governor, State Treasurer and AttorneyGeneral to sell the grounds of the old asylum, then comprising seventytwo and onehalf acres, for not less than $200,000, and to purchase a new site, in the vicinity of Columbus, at a cost of not over $100,000. Pursuant to this authority a sale was effected in May, 1870, for $200,000, the sum of $60,000 to be paid in cash down, and the residue in nine equal annual instalments. The purchasers were William S. Sullivant, Andrew D. Rodgers, John G. Mitchell, Richard Jones, John and T. Ewing Miller, Orange Johnson, Frederick J. Fay, James Watson, S. S.

Rickly, Charles Baker, D. W. H. Day, W. B. Hawkes, John Joyce, John L. Winner and W. B. Hayden. By this syndicate the grounds were handsomely platted into streets, avenues and parks, and named East Park Place.

After examining various lands offered, the committee decided to purchase for the new site the farm of William S. Sullivant, west of the city. The tract contained three hundred acres; the price paid for it was $100,000. The new institution was planned on a vast scale, and on May 16, 1870, its erection was ceremoniously inaugurated Hitherto, the elevation on which the new buildings were staked out had been known as Sullivant's Hill; at the suggestion, it is said, of Mrs. Doctor W. L. Peck the trustees decided to name it Glenwood. On July 4, 1870, the cornerstone of the new asylum was laid, with Masonic ceremonies, conducted by officers of the Grand Lodge of Ohio. A street parade in the city, preceding the ceremonies, was participated in by the fire department, State officers and visiting Masonic bodies. Governor R. B. Hayes presided at the grounds and delivered an address. Hon. Bellamy Storer, the orator of the occasion, delivered a disquisition on Masonry. In the course of his remarks Governor Hayes made the following historical statements:

Prior to the legislation of the last session of the General Assembly the law made a broad distinction between cases of chronic insanity and cases of recent origin. Those who had been insane more than two years and those who had been returned from an asylum as incurable were not entitled to the benefit of the provision made by the State for the insane, but were left to such care as their families, or the counties of their residence, were prepared to give. Last winter the General Assembly took a great step in advance of all our previous legislation on this subject. The second section of an act passed April 12, 1870, is as follows: "The chronic insane shall be admitted to the several lunatic asylums of the State upon the same terms and in the same manner that other insane persons are admitted thereto, and no discrimination shall be made against those whose cases may be adjudged chronic, nor shall any preference be given to those whose cases may be regarded as curable."

In order to carry out the wise and humane object of this section, extensive additions to existing asylums, and to the asylums now building, were authorized. The Central Asylum here building was required to be enlarged so as to accommodate six hundred patients at an increased cost of $200,000.. With this legislation a new era begins in the history of the treatment of the insane in Ohio. Hereafter the policy, the purpose will be to make as speedily as practicable ample provision for all of this unfortunate class of our people.

Additional remarks were made by Doctor Peck, in the course of which he paid a high tribute to Doctor William M. Awl as the founder of this great charity. In behalf of the trustees, Henry B. Curtis presented the cornerstone, which was then laid under the direction of Grand Master Alexander H. Newcomb, assisted by Deputy Grand Master Philip M. Wagenhals. In a cavity beneath the stone various documents and other articles were deposited.

The first patients regularly received by the asylum were an instalment, 180 in number, transferred to it from the Dayton institution on September 7, 1877. Doctor Richard Gundry, an eminent expert in the treatment of insanity, was the superintendent in charge. He had been transferred to the Central Asylum from the one at Athens. During the spring of 1878 Doctor W. W. Ellsbury was chosen to supersede him, but after coming to Columbus to assume his duties he resigned, whereupon Doctor Gundry was offered reinstatement, but declined it. The eminent qualifications of Doctor Gundry did not, however, fail of due appreciation, for the superintendency of the Maryland Institution for the Insane at Spring Grove, near Baltimore, was tendered him, at a salary of $2,500 per annum, and was accepted. On February 10, 1881, a few months before his death, Doctor Gundry wrote to the author in response to some inquiries. His letter contained the following passage:

My connection with the Central Asylum was very short, and not remarkably pleasant. I assumed charge as superintendent January 9, 1877, furnished it, opened it for patients in September of that year, and had admitted about one thousand patients when, on April 9. [1878], I was superseded by the appointment of Doctor W. W. Ellsbury who, resigning, gave way to Doctor [L.] Firestone. I left the institution, and Ohio, May 27, 1878.

These examples will serve to illustrate a long series of changes in management with which this great charity has been visitsd, chiefly for partisan reasons, in the course of its history. The story is a painful one to contemplate, and we gladly turn from it to other themes.

1. J. H. Pooley, M. D.

NOTES.

2. The different purchases of ground for the use of the asylum, made then and subsequently, were as follows: August 12, 1835, thirty acres and half of the width of an alley conveyed to the State by Alfred Kelley and R. Neil for $1,980; March 26, 1839, twentysix and eightyeight hundredths acres, conveyed by Alfred Kelley for $2,925; nine acres conveyed at a later date by William Burdell; seven and onehalf acres conveyed in February, 1869, from the estate of Robert Armstrong.

3. A correspondent of the Cincinnati Chronicle, writing in February, 1838, described the location of the asylum, then in course of erection, as "about a mile east of the Capitol, on the north side of the old Zanesville road."

4. The members of the board at that time were Doctor S. M. Smith, William B. Thrall, Henry B. Curtis, Henry Wilson, John Hunter and Doctor William Fullerton.

5. These victims were Mrs. Caroline Corner, Miss Lizzie Herold and Mrs. C. Bradford, of Athens County; Mrs. Murphy (over eighty years of age), of Wyandot County; Mrs. Susan A. Parker, of Licking County, and Bridget Brophy, of Franklin County.

6. The first earth was thrown by William S. Sullivant, the next by Hon. Josiah Scott, Judge of the Supreme Court, the next by W. W. Pollard, surveyor of the grounds, and the next by Hon. A. D. Rodgers.

7. It was thus formally christened on September 1, 1870. The trustees decided at the same time to name the institution the Central Ohio Lunatic Asylum at Glenwood. It was afterwards, in much better taste, given its present title as the Central Asylum for the Insane.

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

INSTITUTION FOR THE DEAF AND DUMB.

BY ROBERT PATTERSON, PRINCIPAL OF THE SCHOOL DEPARTMENT.

SKETCH OF ROBERT PATTERSON.

BY PROFESSOR ROBERT P. M'GREGOR.

[Those who imagine that the loss of one of the most important senses, that of hearing, incapacitates from attaining distinction in any walk of life, or dwarfs the moral and mental attributes, find a perfect refutation in the career of the subject of this brief sketch. It is also of value as an example of what can be accomplished under the most adverse circumstances and apparently crushing misfortunes at the very outset of life, by an indomitable will and a spirit that soars above all earthly trammels.

Robert Patterson was born in Oakley, Fifeshire, Scotland, near Dumfermline, December 11. 1848. When about two weeks old he was carried, in the arms of his aunt Marion, mother of Attorney James Allen, of this city, to the kirk at Carnock, two miles from Oakley, to be christened. He was named after his grandfather. His father was a miner. When Robert was three years and seven months old, his parents emigrated to this country and settled at Bloomsburg, Columbia County, Pennsylvania. At the age of six he had an attack of scarlet fever which was prevailing in that neighborhood at the time. He grew worse and worse till at last the doctor lost all hope and, on leaving the house, one morning, happening to meet an undertaker just entering the house next door, where a child had died during the night from the same disease, he said: "There is another job for you in there. The little boy," referring to Robert, "cannot live." Robert's mother overheard this, and the indomitable spirit which she has transmitted to her son was aroused. She resolved that the doctor's ill-omened prediction should not prove true. She threw his prescriptions to the winds and, resorting to old country remedies and careful nursing, wrought such a change that when the doctor called next morning to, as he believed, write out the death certificate, he was astonished to find Robort alive and likely to recover. From that time he rapidly improved, but the disease, as if in revenge at being baffled of its prey, left him without his hearing and a cripple, his left leg being drawn up some six inches shorter than the other.

One day while he was slowly convalescing, as he sat in the doorway enjoying the scenery, being still too weak to do anything else, he attracted the notice of a young doctor who had just come to town. He offered to cure the defect in Robert's limb for a consideration. The offer was accepted by Robert's parents and the doctor went to work, spurred on by the incredulity of the neighbors, who did not believe a cure could be effected. However, after several months of patient labor, Robert was able to throw away his crutches, the doctor's reputation was made and his success assured.