Trans-Allegheny lunatic asylum, 1864 entry

[Keith&Co.]

Wow. Really could have used this for The 25th Amendment this administration.

Look at all the choice options that apply to Trump.
Not sure if "business trouble" is sufficient, or if he has to be drunk and in trouble?
But the ALL CAPS tweets support hysteria.
Immoral life.
Laziness.
Dissolute habits.
Domestic troubles (3rd wife, estranged sibling).
Opium habit may be met by his Adderall snorting. Or "snuff eating for two years".
Politics!
Political excitement...a feud with a dead guy has to qualify.
Loss of law suit!
BAD COMPANY!!
EGOTISM!!!
GREEDINESS!!!!
Feebleness of intellect...nuke the hurricane!


Absolutely no chance of novel reading, though.
Nor death of sons in war.
Falling from horse in war.
Exposure in war.
Would like to see him (or Eric) decoyed into the army...

 

[jonatha]

I suppose "gathering in the head" could refer to his hair...

 

[ideologyhunter]

Thanks for this, it's choice. Aside from Trump co-morbidities, I love how Salvation Army is sandwiched between rumor of husband murder and scarlatina. I googled scarlatina, and it's old-fashioned for scarlet fever. 'Rumor' of husband murder? So hearsay could get you committed? How about actual husband murder? Finally, Salvation Army, which cries out for a footnote. Do they mean the Salvation Army referred you? I don't think so, but what else is left? You are O-Z in your commitment to the Army? You got sick of the bell ringers, and you assaulted one of them? One of them said 'Happy Holidays' instead of 'Merry Christmas', so you kneed them in the balls? Oh wait that's Trump again.

 

[Politesse]

Most of that is a profoundly sad record of a nation utterly destroyed by civil war. The specific institution in question was one of the Kirkbride-style asylums, and like many facilities of its time, started with good intentions but became a horror show as funding disappeared and the premises became overcrowded following a rash of diagnoses in the early 1880's. Open corridors and a working farm gave way to cages, malnutrition, and rampant abuse of the inmates.