The General was some seventy years of age; a man of wealth; lived an
unmarried life; to all appearance a man of bad habits. I think his sins
had found him out. He was kept by his respected friends for a long
time, at length his guardian paid $10 per week for his board in the
Troy Asylum. He died one night in an adjoining room to mine before I
left.
I saw him bound at bed-time one night with the accursed harness,
and lashed to the bed, his feet being drawn to the foot round and
made fast; and as the door was soon to be locked, he exclaims: "Mr.
Anderson! Mr. Anderson! how long are you going to keep me here?" "All
night," says Anderson. "Water! water!" "Can't have any," says Anderson;
and locks the door, and leaves the General in bonds.
ISABEL'S TREATMENT TO MALE AND FEMALE PATIENTS.
Isabel, the magdalen woman, could not only bind old men and women, but
the young and strong.
I saw her walk up to a young man by the name of Patrick Donahue; put on
to him the asylum harness. Isabel might have been the devil, for aught
I know, that Donahue was trying to get away from her when he leaped
from the window of the third story; as he said when asked why he did
so, "_I was trying to get away from the devil_."
Again I saw this wonderful female come to the men's hall with a skirt
in her hand; laid hold of Patrick Fitzgerald, a young man; stripped off
his clothes to his shirt, and put on him a skirt. There was no shame in
her; there was no part of a lady in her.
TREATMENT OF THE PATIENT CALLED AUNTA BY ISABEL.
Aunta worked in the dining-room through the day.
Saw Isabel put on Aunta's night-dress, and that consisted of the asylum
harness; then saw Isabel go down stairs night after night with her,
saying to put her in a crib or lock-up. Q. Is not this slavery in the
first degree?
ISABEL'S CRUEL TREATMENT AGAINST MISS LAWN.
I first saw Miss Lawn in the short hall from the head of the stairs;
appeared pleasant and sociable; days passed and I again saw her, but
she was much disfigured; she had lost her beautiful head of hair;
appeared to be in trouble on that account; talked much about it; months
passed on, and I saw her hands bound with the muff, E; not long after
saw her with the whole of the harness on, walking in the hall below me,
where I first saw her.
Next, to add to her torture, Isabel, the magdalen attendant, fastened
her to a window bar in the south hall, where the sun, with all its
meridian heat, beamed in upon her.
Many has been the time since I left the incurable house in 1870, I have
visited it merely to ferret out what I could for the benefit of others,
taking minutes in my diary.
Learned of Wm. Anderson that, in 1873, Miss Lawn, Bridget Hamilton,
Walis and others, to the amount of twenty-two, considered incurable,
had been sent to the western part of New York State to a State Lunatic
Asylum. The Lord have mercy upon them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account