In the summer of 1870, I had a long fit of sickness. My wife, my
brother B., and brother J. were sent for, and informed I could not live
long. During this sickness I was very weak; and, strange as it may
seem, it is nevertheless true, my bowels became indisposed, and moved
not for thirty-two days. I was under the treatment of Dr. Lomax. As the
cool weather came on, I finally recovered. As I gradually grew strong
in body, my mind strengthened. The cloud that hung o'er my mind, during
my captivity, gradually disappeared. The sweet singing of the birds was
again music to my ears. All nature, which had been shrouded in darkness
to me, seemed now to praise the great Creator and gladden my heart.
After O'Donnel destroyed the Bible in the main house, familiar passages
of Scripture seemed to rush upon my mind as though I was reading them.
I will give one. Rev. chap. ii, verse 17: "He that hath an ear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. To him that overcometh,
will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white
stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving
he that receiveth it." Most of all, this verse seemed to encourage
me. My spirits revived, and not a cloud has gathered o'er my mind
since. I became talkative, cheerful, and happy. After I had been in the
asylum more than ten years, without having an almanac, in 1870, I gave
the steward a note with the exact time I entered to a day, saying it
would be ten years and six months the 29th of September, and that is
to-morrow. I never lost time but once, to my knowledge. I always tried
to remember what day of the week the month came in on, then I could say
thirty days hath September, and so on, as my mother learnt me when a
boy.
After I was delivered from the spiritual mistake, and happy, I sought
every opportunity to reason with Dr. Lomax, knowing I must show myself
a sane man in his judgment, or stay in the asylum. Previous to this, I
did not talk with the doctor. I began on Scripture reasoning, for here
my mind ran from a boy. He is a Greek scholar. I asked him if Emmanuel
was a Greek word. I asked some other Scripture questions. After a
time, he waived the subject, saying he was a doctor; I must ask some
clergyman. We had some pleasant interviews, but I perceived he wanted
me to do the talking, and that upon pleasing temporal matters, such
as telling anecdotes. This I could do, for I was jovial as a hungry
pig squealing for his dinner. I mind one. A Dutchman, who had spent
a fortune by intemperance, after which becoming a good and temperate
man, says: "I know more than any Dutchman in town." "How is that?" says
doctor or Haunse, who were standing by. "Can't you furstawn, Haunse? I
have found out that I am a fool."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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