An Amusing Incident?

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Currie
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Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

An Amusing Incident?

Post by Currie » Wed Oct 20, 2021 8:30 am

Paisley Herald, Saturday, March 26, 1859

AN AMUSING INCIDENT.
THE WRONG MAN SENT TO A LUNATIC ASYLUM.

On Wednesday last, a carter named John Russell was apprehended by the police on a charge of having, on that day, by careless driving, fractured a man’s leg in High Street. The case against Russell assumed a somewhat serious aspect, and the police deemed it necessary to report the affair to the Sheriff, which was done in due course. It so happened that the same day a man was discovered in Glasgow Green evidently labouring under temporary insanity, and the police stationed there thought it their duty to take him into custody. This was not such an easy matter, however; but, by dint of considerable exertion, the insane man was taken to the South Station House in Jail Square by several officers. This case was also reported to the Sheriff’s authorities, and two medical gentlemen were sent to examine the man, who also gave his name as John Russell. The doctors found that he was actually insane, and granted a certificate to that effect, which was, without loss of time, sent to the Sheriff, who issued a warrant for Russell’s removal to Gartnavel Asylum.

This was all very well, but, as the sequel will show, a mistake of a somewhat innocent but very laughable kind happened thereupon. The Sheriff's officers who were entrusted with the warrant had no idea that their real prisoner was lying in the South Station House, which is rather an unusual place of detention, and therefore, as was their ordinary wont, they proceeded straight to the Central Police Office, exhibited their warrant, and, on the strength of it, demanded the production of John Russell, the “daft” man. The turnkey, acting upon the principle that all men are to a certain extent “daft” who place themselves under circumstances which bring them as prisoners to the Police Office, at once produced Russell, the carter, who was in durance for fracturing the unfortunate man’s leg. The carter, having some glimmering of a liberation, rather jocosely went along with the officers, and entered a cab which was in waiting, and immediately afterwards drove off.

Under the gentle motion the carter remained well at ease for a time, but, as he observed that the vehicle passed through the centre of the city into the suburbs, and from the suburbs into the country, some rather anxious thoughts began to rise in his noddle as to what might be the upshot of this mysterious ride; for he well knew that, if he had committed a crime at all, he must answer for it in Glasgow, and not in any rural region far beyond the head-quarters of the Sheriff, and also beyond the chance of bail, and even far away from Glasgow prison.

The man could not comprehend it, and dark visions of the Spanish Inquisition and private torture began to flit before his alarmed and distempered fancy, upon which he implored the officers, who were not very ferocious-looking men after all, to tell him in the name of mercy what was the meaning of this horrid ride, and where it was to end. The officers advised the excited man to compose himself, intimating that, though he might not be aware of it himself, he was decidedly “daft,” and they were taking him to a place—Gartnavel to wit—where he would receive all the attention necessary in his unhappy condition. “Me daft?” screamed the carter; “Lord save us! I’m as clear in my senses as ever I wuz in a’ my born days. I wuz only put in for coupin’ a body in the street, and br’akin’ his leg, and it wuz his ain fau’t after a’, nane o’ mine. Wha ever heard o’ sic horrid Egyptain iniquity in a Christian country as pittin’ a man into a mad hoose for only br’akin’ banes? Da tak’ me back, like guid sowls. They'll maybe squeeze me into a straucht jacket, and pit the clay cap on my heed afore they’re dune wi’ me.”

The officers took the matter quite coolly; they did not argue the matter with the agonised carter, for it was no new thing for them to find a really insane man protest that he was as wise as the Lord President of the Court of Session; and so interjecting a few words now and then by way of consolation to their wretched prisoner, they drove along, and in due course entered the portals of Gartnavel. One of the surgeons was immediately in attendance, and the officers, by way of giving a hint as to the delusion the patient was labouring under, detailed the extraordinary assertion he had made about breaking the man’s leg. The carter backed this up by asseverations of the most urgent character, but they had no effect upon the mind of the medical officer. “Poor man,” said he, ‘‘delusions of this sort are nothing uncommon in the early stages of insanity; get him into a hot bath directly.” The doctor's instructions were accordingly carried out—the carter’s voice in the business not being at all consulted. The officers afterwards retired, leaving their late prisoner in a situation of becoming in reality “daft” as fast as possible.

Thus matters remained till late in the same afternoon, when the wife of the carter called at the Central Police Office, Albion Street, for the purpose of supplying him with some victuals of a more substantial quality than those afforded by the establishment. “John Russell,” said the officer on duty, on being informed for whom the victuals were intended; “Nonsense! John Russell’s mad, and in Gartnavel!” The carters wife nearly fainted. “Guid pity me,” said she; “can it be possible that my man wuz sae weak in the heed as to lose his senses for sic a trifle as br’akin’ a weaver's leg? Wha could hae thocht it.”

By this time, however, some light began to break in upon the affair. Was there not a John Russell in the South Station, and had not the Sheriff's officers taken the wrong man? An inquiry was actively made, the mistake discovered, and the Sheriff's officials communicated with, who without loss of time repaired to Gartnavel, liberated the carter, who had by this time come round a little, and declared that he would never forget the event, for it had been the means of affording him the first hot bath he had ever got in his life; they, at the same time, got the really “daft” John Russell into the asylum— thus putting, in every sense of the word, the right men in their “right places.”




Back in the 19th century asylums weren’t too particular about who they locked up and for how long.

Nowadays genealogists sometimes dream of being able to travel back in time to meet their long dead ancestors. I can recall a particularly sad case. A woman went back in time and met with a whole bunch of her ancestors. Photographs were taken of the get-together and they appeared in an ancestry.com advertisement a few years ago. You may recall them, she was seated in the middle of the front row. She was the one with the strange look on her face. I tried to find a copy of the photo, but, strangely, it seems to have disappeared.

The woman was very fortunate to get the chance to meet her ancestors, but, unfortunately, her next place visited back then was an involuntary one to the local asylum, and she was never heard of again.

Which reminds me of a Benny Hill episode I once watched. Benny went back in time in a time machine and had a hard time explaining things to the doctors at the local asylum. I think it was an episode earlier to the ones where he was chased around by women. I haven’t been able to find that either.

Yours Truly,
Alan

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by WilmaM » Wed Oct 20, 2021 12:34 pm

Good to have you back Alan, can we now look forward to a weekly tale from the archives?

That's the sort of situation you read of in 'historical' novels, and wonder about the accuracy.

Glad the poor man at least benefited from the hot bath!!!
Wilma

nelmit
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Joined: Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:49 pm
Location: Scotland

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by nelmit » Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:30 pm

What a tale Alan! :)

garibaldired
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:42 pm
Location: Dorset, UK

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by garibaldired » Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:17 pm

Great story, Alan :lol: =D>
Thank you.

Best wishes,
Meg

SarahND
Site Admin
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Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:47 am
Location: France

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by SarahND » Wed Oct 20, 2021 5:48 pm

Nice one, Alan! What an ordeal to go through for a hot bath :lol:

Currie
Posts: 3924
Joined: Fri Jun 22, 2007 3:20 am
Location: Australia

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by Currie » Wed Oct 27, 2021 6:53 am

Thanks everyone.

There’s not much else doing on the asylum front, but here’s another case of mistaken identity, and another happy ending.

Fife Herald, Thursday, September 30, 1847

A BURIED WOMAN ALIVE.
(From the Glasgow Examiner.)

“Truth is strange, stranger than fiction,” and the following story is not more extraordinary than true:—Two or three weeks ago the daughter of an old soldier, who resides in Miller-street, in the north-eastern part of the city, was seized with fever, and was conveyed to one of the hospitals. The old man, of course, made frequent inquiries at the hospital as to the progress of the disease, and was pained to learn, on every visit, that his daughter was gradually getting worse. At last he received the melancholy information that she was dead. The necessary arrangements were made for the funeral, and the body was interred in Sighthill Cemetery, on Tuesday fortnight.

On Tuesday week, while the mother of the buried woman was engaged in her usual household avocations, the door slowly opened, and, lo! there entered, pale and emaciated, the figure of her dead daughter, which uttered the word “mother.” “Ye canna get in here—ye canna get in here!” exclaimed the affrighted mother, “your father buried you last week;” and, having thus endeavoured to lay the ghost, fainted. On coming to her senses, and observing the unwelcome visitor sitting in the house, she rushed down stairs to the workshop of her husband, and exclaimed, in the same voice of extreme terror, “Oh, the daughter ye buried last week is sitting up stairs!” and she went off in another fit, while the husband in terror and surprise, dropped the implements of his craft, with which at the time he was engaged.

When the old couple had recovered a little self-possession, neighbours were called in, the haunted house was entered, and there sat—not an intrusive, ill-bred ghost, but the veritable daughter, pale and thin, but as truly in life as ever she was. Here was a mystery not easily to be solved at the moment, but subsequent inquiries showed that the daughter and an Irishwoman of nearly a similar name lay in the hospital next bed to each other. Hence the mistake of the father, being misinformed as to the state of his daughter’s health; and when the Irishwoman died her body was given to the supposed father, and, from the circumstance of the virulence of the disease, interred without identification.

All the best,
Alan

WilmaM
Posts: 1870
Joined: Fri Dec 17, 2004 10:46 am
Location: Falkirk area

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by WilmaM » Wed Nov 03, 2021 11:27 am

Oh Dear - 'twould take more than a hot bath to restore that poor Mother after such a fright!
Wilma

garibaldired
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:42 pm
Location: Dorset, UK

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by garibaldired » Wed Nov 03, 2021 12:18 pm

Oh my goodness me! :lol:
What a story!

Meg

SarahND
Site Admin
Posts: 5631
Joined: Thu Apr 27, 2006 12:47 am
Location: France

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by SarahND » Thu Nov 04, 2021 4:47 pm

At least it had a happy ending of sorts! But what about the family of the "Irishwoman?" Did they think she was still alive? :?

garibaldired
Posts: 642
Joined: Wed Nov 02, 2005 2:42 pm
Location: Dorset, UK

Re: An Amusing Incident?

Post by garibaldired » Fri Nov 05, 2021 1:57 pm

Good point, Sarah! :D

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