Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.: Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors. The Trying Ordeal of the New York World's Girl Correspondent.Bly, Nellie
History
Ten Days in a Mad-House; or, Nellie Bly's Experience on Blackwell's Island.: Feigning Insanity in Order to Reveal Asylum Horrors. The Trying Ordeal of the New York World's Girl Correspondent.
Bly, Nellie
Bly, Nellie, 1864-1922; Mentally ill -- Commitment and detention -- New York (State) -- History -- 19th century; N.Y. City Lunatic Asylum; Psychiatric hospital care -- New York (State) -- History -- 19th century; Psychiatric hospitals -- New York (State) -- History -- 19th century; Women -- Mental h
“Come along,” Bockert said, “I will find your trunk for you.” We all
went together, Mrs. Stanard, Tom Bockert, and myself. I said it was very
kind of them to go with me, and I should not soon forget them. As we
walked along I kept up my refrain about my trunks, interjecting
occasionally some remark about the dirty condition of the streets and
the curious character of the people we met on the way. “I don’t think I
have ever seen such people before,” I said. “Who are they?” I asked, and
my companions looked upon me with expressions of pity, evidently
believing I was a foreigner, an immigrant or something of the sort. They
told me that the people around me were working people. I remarked once
more that I thought there were too many working people in the world for
the amount of work to be done, at which remark Policeman P. T. Bockert
eyed me closely, evidently thinking that my mind was gone for good. We
passed several other policemen, who generally asked my sturdy guardians
what was the matter with me. By this time quite a number of ragged
children were following us too, and they passed remarks about me that
were to me original as well as amusing.
“What’s she up for?” “Say, kop, where did ye get her?” “Where did yer
pull ’er?” “She’s a daisy!”
Poor Mrs. Stanard was more frightened than I was. The whole situation
grew interesting, but I still had fears for my fate before the judge.
At last we came to a low building, and Tom Bockert kindly volunteered
the information: “Here’s the express office. We shall soon find those
trunks of yours.”
The entrance to the building was surrounded by a curious crowd and I did
not think my case was bad enough to permit me passing them without some
remark, so I asked if all those people had lost their trunks.
“Yes,” he said, “nearly all these people are looking for trunks.”
I said, “They all seem to be foreigners, too.” “Yes,” said Tom, “they
are all foreigners just landed. They have all lost their trunks, and it
takes most of our time to help find them for them.”
We entered the courtroom. It was the Essex Market Police Courtroom. At
last the question of my sanity or insanity was to be decided. Judge
Duffy sat behind the high desk, wearing a look which seemed to indicate
that he was dealing out the milk of human kindness by wholesale. I
rather feared I would not get the fate I sought, because of the kindness
I saw on every line of his face, and it was with rather a sinking heart
that I followed Mrs. Stanard as she answered the summons to go up to the
desk, where Tom Bockert had just given an account of the affair.
“Come here,” said an officer. “What is your name?”
“Nellie Brown,” I replied, with a little accent. “I have lost my trunks,
and would like if you could find them.”
“When did you come to New York?” he asked.
“I did not come to New York,” I replied (while I added, mentally,
“because I have been here for some time.”)
“But you are in New York now,” said the man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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