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Speaks Up For Mr. Shankland

Speaks Up For Mr. Shankland image
Parent Issue
Day
4
Month
September
Year
1903
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

SPEAKS UP FOR MR. SHANKLAND

Herman Hartwig Danser Answers Mr. Lesimer

ONE THING PLAIN

Insane People Should Not Be Kept in the County House

County House, Aug. 31, 1903.

Editor Daily Argus:

Dear Sir--Will you kindly permit me space in your valuable paper to correct the erroneous impressions Editor Lisemer of the Union Record seems to have about the management of the County House.

As I have known the publisher of the Union Record since the year 1883, and as I have been employed by him in the capacities of editor, translator, printer and bookkeeper at various times, when he published the whilom Washtenaw Post and later the Hausfreund, I should think to know a little of this would-be friend of the laboring class. I shall not attempt to go into details about the virtues of Mr. Lisemer and about the way he has treated me when in his employ, for that is yet in the minds of many old citizens of Ann Arbor and the German population especially; but, now that he poses in the role of a friend of the laboring man, I will hope that this new reformation of his versatile character will be a lasting one. If Mr. Lisemer is a sincere friend of the union laborers he must employ different methods than of slinging mud on other people and speaking about the management of the Washtenaw County House, for he knows indeed very little about that, and hearsay evidence is not always good evidence.

The management of the County House he can safely and easily leave in the hands of the superintendents of the poor, appointed by the Board of Supervisors of Washtenaw county. The superintendents, Messrs. Duffy, Taylor and Fletcher, are to my knowledge, true gentlemen and painstaking officials, and will see to it that affairs in this home for the unfortunates like those some years ago Mr. Lisemer run the old Washtenaw Post on. As I am an inmate of the County House since several years, I think I should know how things are going on here, and for the benefit of the misinformed readers of the Union Record and the public in general I will say that the attacks of Mr. Lisemer on Mr. Shankland, the keeper of the County House, are entirely unfounded.

There is an unfortunate man by the name of Frank Wright here and has been since a good many years. This man has frequent attacks of bad temper. Yea, I may properly say, fits of temporary insanity, in which he does not care if he assault old helpless inmates, as well as the keeper of the house, or anybody near him. He must be managed then, and nobody can do that with soothing syrup or kid gloves. But I have never seen at such instances that Mr. Shankland treated Frank Wright in the brutal way of which Mr. Lisemer claims he was informed by an inmate of this house. The accusation is as malicious as it is untrue, and the man who made this accusation must have a grudge against Mr. Shankland if not a spite.\

Under the rule of Mr. H. Wirt Newkirk, as judge of probate, it was found necessary to transfer three inmates from the overfilled insane asylum at Pontiac to the County House. These unfortunate men were described as harmless, but at times they will be troublesome and cannot be managed easily. There is no special watchman here to take care of them, nor can Mr. Shankland when he is busy on the farm, in the house or field, always be on hand when such outbursts of insanity or boisterous shouting do occur.

In fact, Mr. Editor, I can assure you Mr. Shankland and his estimable wife are not sleeping on a bed of roses in the County House. I for my part have always experienced when there was complaint that it was speedily rectified.

For the sake of justice I wish you would publish these lines, and Mr. Lisemer should remember that a poor house is neither a hotel nor a boarding house.

Very respectfully yours,
HERMAN HARTWIG-DANSER.