I watched their return in fear and trembling. Presently the two
cowards, encouraged by David Hicks, a child of the devil Isabel, for
he often called her mother for the sake of gain. Hicks was a strong
person, of more than medium size. The three rushed up to me, Hicks
grabbed me around my body and arms, hurling me to the floor in a
moment, placing his heavy knee upon my left side. "Oh," said I, "You
will break my ribs." "It is of little consequence," says Hicks. Holding
me fast, whilst the two cowards bound me with the accursed harness. The
attendant then raised me upon my feet; the three ruffians then kicked
me into another room to a chair that was ironed to the floor, when
seated, my hands being bound as seen in the engraving; the attendant
ran strap B and B between my body and arms, on either side, then
below to the rounds of the chair; then drawing strap F, which was fast
to my feet, by cuff D and D, strap F was locked to the back round of
the chair. In this suffering condition, in pain from my wounded side
and ribs, all day long I sit, nothing to eat, not even a cup of cold
water. I was much fatigued and faint when the sun set in the west. But,
says the reader, as many others have said, who have listened to the
rehearsal of this transaction, did the attendant cut your hair off, he
did not, he loosed me in the evening, told me he would never bind me
again, and he kept his word as to that.
REMARKS.
I wore the accursed harness but twice in the asylum, and that too
against my will, not as a duty. But now in 1874 I am exhibiting a
similar one that I bought of a Mr. Hogan, as a duty, to let the people
know how patients are treated in lunatic asylums. Although I have
received maltreatment in asylums in New York and Vermont States, I
am not altogether opposed to these institutions, for there are insane
persons who have no homes, yet I protest against maltreatment. We are
received as insane, unfortunate beings, use us kind, and the good Lord
will reward you. Will lecture upon this subject, and exhibit the asylum
harness, when arrangements are made in proper places. Address M. Swan,
Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer county, N. Y.
A charge to keep, I have,
A God to glorify,
A never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the skies.
To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill,
Oh, may it all my power engage
To do my master's will.
Although I may not have the gift of a poet, and may not have the gift
of prophecy, neither be as good as John the Baptist, yet I can truly
say, like Paul, I have been beaten for Christ's sake, when bound in the
Ida Hill Lunatic Asylum.
It is not a pleasant task for me to reveal the faults of others, more
particularly those of the dead, yet when I realize how many are robbed
of their liberty and lives, my soul is stirred within me, in behalf of
poor sufferers in these institutions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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