Delirium Tremens in the City Jail
A man suffering from severe alcohol withdrawal sparks a violent disturbance at the city jail.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Sylvester Grant, suffering from delirium tremens, caused a panic in the city jail yesterday morning, choking a fellow prisoner until he was black in the face. Grant had checked himself into custody Saturday evening, requesting to be locked up for his own safety. While in the cell, he began hallucinating about 'millions of them' and lashed out at those trying to calm him. Hugh Burk, an inmate from an adjoining cell who offered to nurse him, was attacked and held against the wall until jail authorities intervened. Another inmate, Walter Partington, also suffered a mental break from alcohol withdrawal, requiring a straitjacket after fighting imaginary demons.
“Grant was running around the room like a madman... and yelled out: 'Don't you see 'em. There's millions of them, and I can't get away.'”
This reflects the 19th-century carceral response to addiction, where the city jail was the default medical facility for those suffering from withdrawal, a precursor to modern debates over criminalization versus treatment.
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