It must not be understood that the same mode of operation is practiced
in all cases. Some patients are supported in the Troy institution
solely by the county; while others by the patient himself or herself,
for instance, as General Schuyler, whose guardian paid $10 per week for
his board, he died in an adjoining room to me, fared no better than
Bacon and others (property sold since for $20,000).
I entered the Brattleborough institution as a private; it was not
necessary to consult doctors, judges or jurors; I was a husband;
Brother B. gave bonds for security; I heard him call for them, and
saw the doctor hand them to him before we left; suppose it to have
been a wife or a child, it would have been all the same. When Brother
B. came for me to go home from the Troy Asylum, October 13, 1870,
we met Steward Harrison. I asked him for my trunk and clothing, but
have not as yet obtained it. I shall ask once more. Oh! how much I
needed my overcoat in the cold fall and winter after I got home, going
to and from my shop; I well remember what my wife and daughter said
after cordially greeting me, "We don't expect you to do any thing;"
thought I, "these feeble women can't support me and themselves with the
needle," and I, joking, said to encourage them, "You will see me coming
up this hill, with a half barrel of flour on my back" (at the time a
pail of water was all I could carry up stairs); sure enough, before
January, I surprised my family by sending up the hill a barrel of flour
and 160 pounds of pork, besides many other necessaries; these I earned
working upon my knees part of the time, and they did not set us back,
but came good when I lay sick in January and February, 1872, nigh
unto death with inflammation of the lungs; but thanks be to the great
Giver, in that sickness I had a beloved wife to smooth my pillow, and
an affectionate daughter to administer the necessary cordials.
* * * * *
My daughter writes as follows, before I left the asylum:
PITTSTOWN, _September 23, 1870_.
MY DEAR FATHER,--I received your letter, and was pleased to hear you
are better. I will write you a few lines to let you know what we intend
to do about having you come home. We are intending to have you come
home when Dr. Lomax says you are well enough and can, and when you come
home we will try to make home as pleasant as we can, so try to keep up
good courage. Please write if you feel able.
This from your affectionate daughter,
MARTHA A. SWAN.
A WORD TO THE PEOPLE. PROVERBS 22, 23.
Buy the truth and sell it not; also wisdom and instruction, and
understanding.
For a description of my heart-felt sorrow during those ten years of my
captivity, read Psalm 22.
To know my joys and hopes since the cloud passed off, that hung so
heavily, long over my mind, read Psalm 23.
"The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want."
"If any one knoweth how to appreciate the blessedness of liberty and
good society, I more."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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