IN HIS OWN WORKSHOP.
"It must be sad and painful to a visitor," the matron said, "to have a passing glance at the worst cases, but to live amongst them, as she had done for eleven years, was full of interest. Nearly all were capable of some improvement."
A home where everything is done to promote their health and happiness is, for the weak-minded, a new world. To be taken from conditions of continual disadvantage, and placed under the charge of guardians whose first duty is to work and watch for the awakening of soul and mind, brings hope and comfort into their life. A poor constitution is often added to the disadvantages of the imbecile; and in families where their friends cannot constantly protect them they are often exposed to teasing, and driven into fits of fury, ending in chronic bad temper, by the mischief or malice of their companions.
A VIEW OF THE ASYLUM.
"No one is allowed to tease them here," a nurse remarked, in speaking of the patients' affection and their general disposition to get on well together. They are classified, so that they meet companions on equal terms. The lowest have not the spirit or independence to defy lawful authority; to the highest but refractory, degradation to a class below is the most salutary punishment that can be inflicted. They soon try by their conduct to rise to their former level. Anyone in charge giving a patient a blow would be liable to criminal prosecution. The vicious or dangerous cases are not admitted, and the authorities do not encourage the re-election of those who give absolutely no promise of improvement. The vacancies ought to be filled by candidates to whom care and treatment will be of use. In the great busy world outside Earlswood are muscular limbs dwindling or growing stiff for want of exercise, and hands framed for skill which are only filled with mischief by the active spirit against whom Dr. Watts left an immortal warning. They need not remain idle, for special training can supply much that Nature has denied.
AT SCHOOL.
It requires a great deal of patience to teach this class of pupils a useful calling, as more than one instructor remarked when the doctor conducted a visitor through the various workshops. Some are unwilling to learn; in Earlswood, as in all communities, each variety of disposition is represented, as well as every degree of lack of ability.
"You can't make me work, you know, doctor," one patient maintained, "for I am only an imbecile."