The Completion Of St. Paul's Cathedral.

may contribute something when the debt has been paid off our own Hall . By-the-bye , I have been told that the Grand Lodge is in possession of the trowel used in laying the foundation stone

of the cathedral . Apologising for occupying so much of your valuable space , I am , yours fraternally , Nov . 18 , 1871 . P . M .

A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.

A DAY AT THE EARLS WOOD ASYLUM , RED HILL , SURREY .

BY BRO . J . C . PARKINSON , P . M . 181 , P . Z . 259 . Idiocy cannot be defined . Weak organizations , mental and physical ; faculties unbalanced even when abnormally developed ; an incapacity for the every-day duties of life ; and a childishness

which instruction and tender guidance may modify but can never remove , are the characteristics of the idiots and imbeciles assembled at the Earlswood Asylum . But many ofthe weaknesses and defects of its inmates are shared in a

greater or less degree by the outside world , and one ofthe most startling conclusions to be drawn from a quiet day spent with these unfortunates , is the narrowness of the border-line between idiocy and what vain man calls sense . If tlie

most stupid of one ' s acquaintances and friends were selected on the one hand , and the most intelligent of the idiots picked out on the other , an astute jury would be puzzled to decide which were the most capable of taking care of themselves , which the least likely to be injurious to

the community . For our own part , we should have little hesitation , in many cases , in giving the palm to the idiots , for reasons which will be apparent to any one who visits the Earlswood Asylum on an off day , when the turmoil of galas and festivals is not , and when the ordinary routine of its home life can be observed . This

noble Institution is not sufficiently known . Travellers by the Brighton railway are attracted by the sight by a palatial building near Red Hill , and perhaps read its uses from an adjacent board . On certain red-letter days , the friends of and

subscribers to the Asylum make merry in its grounds , and the inmates rejoice over Punch and Judy or the fancy fair ; and from time to time it is visited by the representatives of the press , and accounts are published of what the idiots said

and did , and how they looked at a representation of private theatricals , or during an amateur concert got up for their amusement . But these occasions are purely exceptional , ancl the ordinary inner life of this remarkable place is as little known as that of a man who conceals a secret

pride , or ambition , or scorn , beneath a frivolous or jocular exterior , and the result is that scant justice is occasionally done to its remedial discipline , to its scrupulous internal economy , and to the broad spirit of charity in which its good is worked .

\ Vt * have recently spent an . entire day at Earlswood , making our visit without warning , and at a time when special preparation was out of the question , and a plain record of our experience may possibly help to remove some erroneous

theories respecting idiots . There is nothing unpleasant to be seen . Painful it must always be to behold those afflicted mentally or bodily ; but , after a close personal investigation , we have no hesitation in affirming that one-half the popular

traditions and beliefs concerning idiots are unfounded and unjust . Earlswood is a wonderful corrective to these , for it is an eminently happy place . The helpless gibbering wretch , loathsome to others , and a torment to himself ;

the scarcely human object , to be passed by with a shudder , and forgotten as speedily as possible ; the shrieks , and groans , and cries we associate with the idiot of the past , are none of them to be seen or heard . In their place is a happy , united family , proud of its occupations , attached

to its instructors and friends , harmonious in its relations , and quiet and peaceful in its life . You have to constantly ask which are inmates and which attendants , as you progress through the house and grounds . On inspecting the substantial block of workshops which have been built

A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.

and opened within the last few years , and in which various industrial occupations are in full progress , you are amazed at the intelligence and skill displayed . Mats and hearthrugs are being made in one department . Frames run down the centre of the room , in each of which an idiot is

busy . One deftly weaves cocoa-nut fibre into substantial matting ; another converts coloured wool into a gay appendage for the fire-place ; while , all round the room , figures are seated sorting , combing , or picking the material out of which these articles are made . A watchful

attendant and trade-teacher is instructing , and now and then gently admonishing ; and the lacklustre eyes brighten , and the heavy countenances grow less soulless , as kind words pass , and ques tions and answers are exchanged . A general air of mental weakness and stupidity is over them

all . They laugh consumedly at trifles , have little self-control , are obtuse in catching your meaning , and sometimes seem perversely obstinate in refusing to understand . But who has not suffered from these very deficiencies in his acquaintances outside ? The idiots , moreover , are in

certain respects better citizens than some stupid people we have read of . They do their work bravely , find no pleasure in afflicting pain , or in annoying each other , and are not without a sense of humour . For example , when a stout man of five-and-twenty leaves his mat-frame , to steal

behind you on tip-toe , and tickle with his fat forefinger the palm of the hand you hold behind your back , the other idiots laugh delightedly to see you rouse from your meditations with a jump ; while the perpetrator of the joke nods his broad good-humoured face , like a grotesque

Chinese monster , and grins at your surprise . Some of them babble incoherently , but all are harmless , and all full of enjoyment in their simple way . A very low average of intelligence , stimulated into usefulness and consequent happiness by circumstances judiciously arranged to meet

this end , is your verdict as you leave the matroom . The historical idiot is in one of the adjoining chambers , busy at work upon his handicraft . This man is a curiosity . Though utterly incapable of acting rationally , he has a prodigious memory , and can and does answer

recondite questions 111 history with extreme exactitude . He is delighted to attract notice , and favoured us with abstracts of the lives of Julius Ccesar , Henry VII ., Charles II ., and Queen Elizabeth , all given without hesitation , and with a

gabbling volubility which suggested a piece of rather clumsy mechanism just wound up and uttering sounds by steam . Learning that he had been busying himself with astronomy , we inquired after the planets Saturn and Jupiter , to be forthwith overwhelmed with a torrent of scientific

terms , and an intimate description of the rings of the one and the moons of the other . Tlie chief confusion perceptible in this idiot ' s answers was a tendency to describe Julius Cajsar as Jupiter , with facetious allusions to his moons , and to dwell upon the twenty-three wounds

inflicted on the planet , which caused his death , " as every one who ' s read Roman history knows . " This , we are assured , was fun . He knew that he was talking nonsense , and did it to see how far he could hoax his interlocutor ; but he could , if encouraged , have answered questions in history

by the hour , giving each name and date correctly , and without faltering once . Where is the line separating this idiot from the sane ? He is unfit for the daily business of life—so are many learned men ; he is incapable of taking care of himself , or of observing the simplest rules of prudence

and common sense—so have heen some of the most brilliant geniuses , so are thousands of the commonplace . It was curious to see the interest taken in his talk by the other inmates . They evidently looked up to and admired him as an ornament to society , but regretted , while they were diverted at , his want of ballast . We have

seen " agreeable rattles" and dining-out wits , known to be impecunious , regarded in precisely the same spirit by the substantial but dull people they have amused . There is no malice nor cunning in idiots . There are exceptional examples in which this rule has seemed to fall through , one or two of which we shall mention presently ; but a good temper which is incapable

A Day At The Earls Wood Asylum, Red Hill, Surrey.

of resentment , dull perceptions , combined with childish amusements and beliefs , are the characteristics brought out by the admirable discipline of Earlswood . There is great merriment as we go through the boot-making room . The row of boat cleaners in red flannel jackets and black

aprons , like Lord Shaftesbury s shoeblackbngade , are hard at it with brush and blacking pot . The menders , sewers , and welters , are all doing useful work , under the superintendence of the master tradesman ; and many a pluck at the coat tails , and constant offers to shake hands , and efforts

to provoke our smiles , testified to the supreme contentment of them all . The different trades carried on in this imposing block of buildings have each rooms set apart ; and inmates are drafted off according to any mechanical taste they may have developed . Basket-making , mattress-making ,

unpicking and renewing ; the tailor ' s shop , where the male dresses are made , being cut out by the master tailor and sewn by the idiots ; the laundry , where idiots are interspersed with attendants , and rendering yoemen ' s service in the carrying of linen and other useful tasks ; the carpenter ' s

shop , where furniture is being made , and where one inmate proudly shows us a row of invalid chairs he has manufactured himself , and another displays the treasures of a tool-chest he has just completed ; the school , where a spelling-lesson is being carried on , and where the letters forming

the word " magnificent are transposed mentally by idiots , and the other words to be made out of it written out at their bidding by the master standing at the black board with chalk in hand ; the lower schools , where writing is being slowly acquired , and where the formation of letters is

practised by aid of bits of wood constructed for the purpose , are all visited in turn . Everywhere there is good temper , and dimmed or partial intelligence . Bearded men talk like little children , while many of the children cannot talk at all . But it is impossible not to be struck with

the exceptionally developed faculties of many of those we see . One youth has the gift of mental arithmetic , and adds sums together , and multiplies three figures by three figures , giving the product with lightning rapidity . Another and older man is a humorist , whose bent is peculiar .

He cannot read , but , if given a newspaper , will pretent to read paragraphs from it which sound marvellously real . Out of the advertisement page of the Daily A ews he read three railway accidents , each with separate characteristics , and all with a specific number of lives lost , and a

closely particularized variety of injury to life and limb ; two fires , with some appreciative praise from " we " on the gallant conduct ofthe firemen ( names and numbers given ); some suicides , with the age , appearance , and disposition of the self murderers minutely described ; and a variety of

general intelligence of a less exciting kind ; Each imaginary paragraph was read off without a pause , and all sounded real enough , save when the burlesque element was introduced purposely , as when " the coroner ' s jury having considered tlie case very carefully found him guilty of an

interrogation . " This man had lost an eye , and there was something irresistibly comic in the way he fixed his solitary orb on those he read to . He was obviously poking fun , even when most obsequiously pretending to amuse . A patient with a genius for mechanics is , however , the most

singularly gifted ot the inmates . He has constructed a model of a man-of-war , and an allegorical vessel which was exhibited at the Paris Exhibition in 1 S 62 , both exquisitely finished ; and he is now busy upon a carefully proportioned model of the Great Eastern . He worships

mechanical and scientific knowledge , as a simple incident served to show . It chanced that a gentleman , who was visiting the asylum at the same time as ourselves , had been engaged in the manufacture of the existing Atlantic cables , and it was very touching to see the reverential admiration with which this visitor was watched

by the idiot when the fact was told . Following him with his eyes whenever he moved , and addressing all his explanations to him exclusively , the poor fellow seemed like an intelligent savage , seeking to learn more of thc mysteries of science and civilization . This man is an admirable carpenter , and works so many hours a day for the