August 19, 2025 • 23 mins
In 1887, Nellie Bly, a pioneering female journalist and soon-to-be famous investigative reporter, made a daring decision she had herself committed to the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum in New York. Her mission? To unveil the shocking realities faced by those labeled insane. What she discovered was a harrowing tale of mistreatment and neglect that would change public perception and lead to significant reforms in the asylum. Join us as we explore her incredible journey and the impact of her groundbreaking reporting. (Summary by Alice)
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This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to find out
how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Ten
Days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly, Chapter thirteen, Choking
and Beating Patience. Miss Tillie Mayred suffered greatly from the cold.
(00:22):
One morning. She sat on the bench next to me
and was livid with the cold. Her limbs shook and
her teeth chattered. I spoke to the three attendants, who
sat with coats on at the table in the center
of the floor. It is cruel to lock people up
and then freeze them, I said. They replied, she had
on as many as any of the rest, and she
would get no more. Just then, Miss Mayard took a fit,
(00:46):
and every patient looked frightened. Miss Neville caught her in
her arms and held her, although the nurses roughly said
let her fall on the floor, it will teach her
a lesson. Miss Neville told them what she thought of
their actions, and then I got orders to make my
appearance in the office. Just as I reached there, Superintendent
Dent came to the door, and I told him how
(01:06):
we were suffering from the cold, and of Miss Mayard's condition.
Doubtless I spoke incoherently, for I told of the state
of the food, the treatment of the nurses and their
refusal to give more clothing, the condition of Miss Mayard,
and the nurses telling us because the asylum was a
public institution, we could not expect even kindness. Assuring him
that I needed no medical aid, I told him to
(01:27):
go to Miss Mayard. He did so. From Miss Neville
and other patients, I learned what transpired. Miss Mayard was
still in the fit, and he caught her roughly between
the eyebrowser thereabouts and pinched until her face was crimson
from the rush of blood to the head, and her
senses returned. All day afterwards she suffered from terrible headaches,
and from that on she grew worse. Insane, yes insane,
(01:53):
And as I watched the insanity slowly creep over the
mind that had appeared to be all right, I secretly
cursed the the nurses, and all public institutions. Some one
may say that she was insane at some time previous
to her consignment to the asylum. Then if she were,
was this the proper place to send a woman just
convalescing to be given cold baths, deprived of sufficient clothing,
(02:17):
and fed with horrible food. On this morning I had
a long conversation with Doctor Ingram, the assistant superintendent of
the asylum. I found that he was kind to the
helpless in his charge. I began my old complaint of
the cold, and he called Miss Grady to the office
and ordered more clothing. Given the patience, Miss Gradie said,
if I made a practice of telling, it would be
(02:38):
a serious thing for me. She warned. In time, many
visitors looking for missing girls came to see me. Miss
Gradie yelled in the door from the hall. One day,
Nellie Brown, you're wanted. I went to the sitting room
at the end of the hall, and there sat a
gentleman who had known me intimately for years. I saw,
by the sudden blanching of his face and his inability
(03:01):
to speak, that the sight of me was wholly unexpected
and had shocked him terribly. In an instant, I determined
if he betrayed me, as Nellie blind to say, I
had never seen him before. However, I had one card
to play, and I risked it. With Miss Gradie within
touching distance, I whispered hurriedly to him, in language more
(03:21):
expressive than elegant. Don't give me away. I knew by
the expression of his eye that he understood, So I
said to Miss Gradie, I do not know this man.
Do you know her? Asked Miss Gradie. No, this is
not the young lady I came in search of. He replied,
in a strained voice. If you do not know her,
(03:44):
you cannot stay here, she said, and she took him
to the door. All at once, A fear struck me
that he would think I had been sent there through
some mistake and would tell my friends and make an
effort to have me released. So I waited until Miss
Gradie had the door unlocked. I knew that she would
have to lock it before she could leave, and the
time required to do so would give me an opportunity
(04:05):
to speak, So I called one moment signor. He returned
to me, and I asked aloud, do you speak Spanish? Signor?
And then whispered, it's all right, I'm after an item.
Keep still, no, he said, with a peculiar emphasis, which
I knew meant that he would keep my secret. People
(04:25):
in the world can never imagine the length of days
to those in asylums, they seem never ending, and we
welcomed any event that might give us something to think about,
as well as talk of there is nothing to read,
and the only bit of talk that never wears out
is conjuring up delicate food that they will get as
soon as they get out. Anxiously, the hour was watched
(04:46):
for when the boat arrived, to see if there were
any new unfortunates to be added to our ranks. When
they came and were ushered into the sitting room, the
patients would express sympathy to one another for them, and
were anxious to show them little marks of attention. Hall
six was the receiving hall, so that was how we
saw all new comers. Soon after my advent, a girl
(05:07):
called Urina Littlepage was brought in. She was, as she
had been born, silly, and her tender spot was, as
with many sensible women her age. She claimed eighteen and
would grow very angry if told to the contrary. The
nurses were not long in finding this out, and then
they teased her. Euurina said, miss Gradie, the doctors say
(05:28):
that you are thirty three instead of eighteen, and the
other nurses laughed. They kept up this until the simple
creature began to yell and cry, saying she wanted to
go home and that everybody treated her badly. After they
had gotten all the amusement out of her they wanted
and she was crying, they began to scold and tell
her to keep quiet. She grew more hysterical every moment
(05:51):
until they pounced upon her and slapped her face and
knocked her head in a lively fashion. This made the
poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her, yes,
actually choked her. Then they dragged her out to the closet,
and I heard her terrified cries hush into smothered ones.
After several hours absence, she returned to the sitting room,
(06:13):
and I plainly saw the marks of their fingers on
her throat. For the entire day, this punishment seemed to
awaken their desire to administer more. They returned to the
sitting room and caught hold of an old, gray haired
woman whom I had heard addressed both as Missus Gradie
and Missus O'Keefe. She was insane, and she talked almost
continually to herself and to those near her. She never
(06:36):
spoke very loud, and at the time I speak of,
was sitting harmlessly chattering to herself. They grabbed her, and
my heart ached as she cried. For God's sakes, ladies,
please don't let them beat me. Shut up, you hussy,
said Miss Gradie, as she caught the woman by her
gray hair and dragged her, shrieking and pleading, from the room.
(06:58):
She was also taken to the closet, and her cries
grew lower and lower, and then ceased. The nurses returned
to the room, and Miss Gratie remarked that she had
settled the old fool for a while. I told some
of the physicians of the occurrence, but they did not
pay any attention to it. One of the characters in
Halseox was Matilda, a little old German woman who I
(07:21):
believe went insane over the loss of money. She was
small and had a pretty pink complexion. She was not
much trouble, except at times she would take spells when
she would talk into the seam heaters or get up
on a chair and talk out of the windows. In
these conversations, she railed at the lawyers who had taken
her property. The nurses seemed to find a great deal
(07:43):
of amusement in teasing the harmless old soul. One day
I sat beside Miss Grady and Miss Group and heard
them tell her perfectly vile things to call Miss mac Carton.
After telling her to say these things, they would send
her to the other nurse. But Matilda proved that she,
even in her state, had more sense than they. I
cannot tell you, it is private, was all she would say.
(08:05):
I saw Miss Gradie, on a pretense of whispering to her,
spit in her ear. Matilda quietly wiped her ear and
said nothing. End of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen, Some unfortunate stories.
By this time I had made the acquaintance of the
greater number of the forty five women in Hall six.
(08:27):
Let me introduce a few. Louise, the pretty German girl
whom I have spoken of formerly as being sick with fever,
had the delusion that the spirits of her dead parents
were with her. I have gotten many beatings from Miss
Grady and her assistance, she said, and I am unable
to eat the horrible food they give us. I ought
not to be compelled to freeze for want of proper clothing.
(08:50):
Oh I pray nightly that I may be taken to
my Papa and Mamma. One night when I was confined
at Bellevue, doctor Field came. I was in bed and
weary of the examination. At last, I said, I am
tired of this. I will talk no more, won't you?
He said angrily, I'll see if I can't make you
with this. He laid his crutch on the side of
(09:12):
the bed, and getting up on it, he pinched me
very severely in the ribs. I jumped up straight in
bed and said, what do you mean by this? I
want to teach you to obey when I speak to you,
he replied, if I could only die and go to Papa.
When I left, she was confined to bed with a fever,
and maybe by this time she has her wish. There
(09:34):
was a frenchwoman confined in Hall six or was during
my stay, whom I firmly believed to be perfectly sane.
I watched her and talked with her every day excepting
the last three, and I was unable to find any
delusion or mania in her. Her name is Josephine de Pray,
if that is spelled correctly, and her husband and all
(09:54):
her friends are in France. Josephine feels her position keenly,
her lips tremble, and she breaks down crying when she
talks of her helpless condition. How did you get here?
I asked One morning, as I was trying to get breakfast,
I grew deathly sick, and two officers were called in
by the woman of the house, and I was taken
(10:14):
to the station house. I was unable to understand their proceedings,
and they paid little attention to my story. Doings in
this country were new to me, and before I realized it,
I was lodged as an insane woman in this asylum.
When I first came, I cried that I was here
without hope of release, and for crying, Miss Gradie and
(10:34):
her assistants choked me until they hurt my throat, for
it has been sore ever since. A pretty young Hebrew
woman spoke so little English I could not get her
story except as told by the nurses. They said her
name is Sarah Fishbaum, and that her husband put her
in the asylum because she had a fondness for other
men than himself. Granting that Sarah was insane and about men,
(10:58):
let me tell you how the nurses tried to keep
or her. They would call her up and say, Sara,
wouldn't you like to have a nice young man? Oh? Yes,
a young man is all right. Sarah would reply, in
her few English words, Well, Sarah, wouldn't you like us
to speak a good word to some of the doctors
for you? Wouldn't you like to have one of the doctors?
(11:21):
And then they would ask her which doctor she preferred
and advise her to make advances to him when he
visited the hall, and so on. I had been watching
and talking with a fair complexioned woman for several days,
and I was at a loss to see why she
had been sent there. She was so sane. Why did
you come here? I asked her one day after we
had indulged in a long conversation. I was sick, she replied,
(11:46):
Are you sick? Mentally? I urged, Oh no, what gave
you such an idea? I had been overworking myself and
I broke down, having some family trouble and being penniless
and nowhere to go. I applied to the commission to
be sent to the poor house until I would be
able to work. But they do not send poor people
(12:06):
here unless they are insane, I said, don't you know
there are only insane women, or those supposed to be
sent here. I knew after I got here that the
majority of these women were insane, but then I believed
them when they told me this was the place they
sent all the poor who applied for aid as I
had done. How have you been treated, I asked, Well,
(12:30):
so far I have escaped a beating, although I have
been sickened at the sight of many and the recital
of Moore. When I was brought here, they gave me
a bath, and the very disease for which I needed
doctoring and from which I was suffering, made it necessary
that I should not bathe, but they put me in,
and my sufferings were increased greatly for weeks thereafter. A
(12:52):
Missus mc cartney, whose husband is a tailor, seems perfectly
rational and has not one fancy. Mary Hughes, and Missus
Louise Shawn showed no obvious traces of insanity. One day,
two newcomers were added to our list. The one was
an idiot, Carrie Glass, and the other was a nice
looking German girl, quite young, she seemed, and when she
(13:12):
came in, all the patients spoke of her nice appearance
and apparent sanity. Her name was Margaret. She told me
she had been a cook and was extremely neat. One day,
after she had scrubbed the kitchen floor, the chambermaids came
down and deliberately soiled it. Her temper was aroused, and
she began to quarrel with them. An officer was called
(13:33):
and she was taken to an asylum. How can they
say I am insane merely because I allowed my temper
to run away with me, she complained. Author people are
not shut up for crazy when they get angry. I
suppose the only thing to do is keep quiet and
so avoid the beatings which I see others get. No
one can say one word about me. I do everything
(13:56):
I am told and all the work they give me.
I am obedient in every respect, and I do everything
to prove to them that I am sane. One day,
an insane woman was brought in. She was noisy, and
Miss Gradie gave her a beating and blacked her eye.
When the doctors noticed it and asked if it was
done before she came there, the nurses said it was.
(14:18):
While I was in Hall six, I never heard the
nurses address the patients, except to scold them or yell
at them, unless it was to tease them. They spent
much of their time gossiping about the physicians and about
the other nurses in a manner that was not elevating.
Miss Gradie nearly always interspersed her conversation with profane language,
and generally began her sentences by calling on the name
(14:40):
of the Lord. The names she called the patients were
of the lowest and most profane type. One evening, she
quarreled with another nurse while we were at supper about
the bread, and when the nurse had gone out, she
called her bad names and made ugly remarks about her.
In the evenings, a woman whom I supposed to be
head look for the doctors used to come up and
(15:02):
bring raisins, grapes, apples, and crackers to the nurses. Imagine
the feelings of the hungry patients as they sat and
watched the nurses eat what was to them a dream
of luxury. One afternoon, Doctor Dent was talking to a patient,
Missus Turney, about some trouble she had had with a
nurse or matron a short time after we were taken
(15:23):
down to supper, and this woman who had beaten Missus Turney,
and of whom Doctor Dent spoke, was sitting at the
door of our dining room. Suddenly, Missus Turney picked up
her bowl of tea, and, rushing out of the door,
flung it at the woman who had beat her. There
was some loud screaming, and Missus Turney was returned to
her place. The next day she was transferred to the
(15:43):
Rope Gang, which is supposed to be composed of the
most dangerous and most suicidal women on the island. At
first I could not sleep, and did not want to
so long as I could hear anything new. The night
nurses may have complained of the fact. At any rate.
One night they came came in and tried to make
me take a dose of some mixture out of a
glass to make me sleep. They said, I told them
(16:06):
I would do nothing of the sort, and they left me.
I hoped for the night. My hopes were vain, for
in a few minutes they returned with the doctor, the
same that received us on our arrival. He insisted that
I take it, but I was determined not to lose
my wits even for a few hours. When he saw
that I was not to be coaxed, he grew rather
(16:26):
rough and said he had wasted too much time with
me already, that if I did not take it, he
would put it into my arm with a needle. It
occurred to me that if he put it into my arm,
I could not get rid of it. But if I
swallowed it, there was one hope. So I said I
would take it. I smelt it, and it smelt like laudanum,
and it was a horrible dose. No sooner had they
(16:47):
left the room and locked me in than I tried
to see how far down my throat my finger would go,
and the chloral was allowed to try its effect elsewhere.
I want to say that the night nurse Burns and
Hall six see very kind and patient to the poor
afflicted people. The other nurses made several attempts to talk
to me about lovers and asked me if I would
(17:08):
not like to have one. They did not find me
very communicative on the to them popular subject. Once a
week the patients are given a bath, and that is
the only time they see soap. A patient handed me
a piece of soap one day, about the size of
a thimble. I considered it a great compliment in her
wanting to be kind but I thought she would appreciate
(17:28):
the cheap soap more than I, so I thanked Herbert
refused to take it. On bathing day, the tub is
filled with water and the patients are washed one after
the other without a change of water. This is done
until the water is really thick, and then it is
allowed to run out and the tub is refilled without
being washed. The same towels are used on all the women,
(17:50):
those with eruptions as well as those without. The healthy
patients fight for a change of water, but they are
compelled to submit to the dictates of the glazy, tyrannical nurses.
The dresses are seldom changed oftener than once a month.
If a patient has a visitor, I have seen the
nurses hurry her out and change her dress before the
visitor comes in. This keeps up the appearance of careful
(18:13):
and good management. The patients who are not able to
take care of themselves get into beastly conditions, and the
nurses never looked after them, but order some of the
patients to do so. For five days, we were compelled
to sit in the room all day. I never put
in such a long time. Every patient was stiff and sore,
(18:34):
and tired, we would get in little groups on benches
and torture our stomachs by conjuring up thoughts of what
we would eat first when we got out. If I
had not known how hungry they were and the pitiful
side of it, the conversation would have been very amusing.
As it was, it only made me sad when the
subject of eating, which seemed to be the favorite one,
(18:56):
was worn out. They used to give their opinions of
the institution in its time management. The condemnation of the
nurses and the eatables was unanimous. As the days passed,
Miss Tillie Mayred's condition grew worse. She was continually cold
and unable to eat of the food provided. Day after
day she sang in order to try to maintain her memory,
(19:18):
but at last the nurse made her stop it. I
talked with her daily, and I grieved to find her
grow worse so rapidly. At last she got a delusion.
She thought that I was trying to pass myself off
for her, and that all the people who called to
see Nellie Brown were friends in search of her, but
that I, by some means, was trying to deceive them
(19:40):
into the belief that I was the girl. I tried
to reason with her, but found it impossible, so I
kept away from her as much as possible, lest my
presence should make her worse and feed the fancy. One
of the patients, Missus Carter, a pretty delicate woman, one
day thought she saw her husband coming up the walk.
She the line in which she was marching, and ran
(20:01):
to meet him. For this act, she was sent to
the retreat. She afterwards said, the remembrance of that is
enough to make me mad for crying. The nurses beat
me with a broom handle and jumped on me, injuring
me internally so that I shall never get over it.
Then they tied my hands and feet, and, throwing a
sheet over my head, twisted it tightly round my throat
(20:24):
so I could not scream, and thus put me in
a bath tub filled with cold water. They held me
under until I gave up every hope and became senseless.
At other times they took hold of my ears and
beat my head on the floor and against the wall.
Then they pulled out my hair by the roots, so
that it will never grow in again. Missus Carter here
(20:45):
showed me proofs of her story. The dent in the
back of her head and the bare spots where their
hair had been taken out by the handful. I give
her a story as plainly as possible. My treatment was
not as bad as I have seen others get in there,
but it has ruined my health, and even if I
do get out of here, I will be a wreck.
When my husband heard of the treatment given me, he
(21:07):
threatened to expose the place if I was not removed,
so I was brought here. I am well mentally now
all that old fear has left me, and the doctor
has promised to allow my husband to take me home.
I made the acquaintance of Bridget mc ginnis, who seems
to be sane at the present time. She said she
was sent to retreat four and put on the rope king.
(21:29):
The beating I got there was something dreadful. I was
pulled around by the hair held under the water until
I strangled, and I was choked and kicked. The nurses
would always keep a quiet patient stationed at the window
to tell them when any of the doctors were approaching.
It was hopeless to complain to the doctors, for they
always said it was the imagination of our diseased brains
(21:51):
and besides, we would get another beating for telling. They
would hold patients under the water and threaten to leave
them to die there if they did not promise not
to tell the doc. We would all promise, because we
knew the doctors would not help us, and we would
do anything to escape the punishment. After breaking a window,
I was transferred to the lodge, the worst place on
(22:12):
the island. It is dreadfully dirty in there, and the
stench is awful. In the summer, the flies swarm the place.
The food is worse than we get in other words wards,
and we are given only tin plates. Instead of the
bars being on the outside as in this ward, they
are on the inside. There are many quiet patients there
(22:33):
who have been there for years, but the nurses keep
them to do the work, among other beating. I got there.
The nurses jumped on me once and broke two of
my ribs. While I was there, a pretty young girl
was brought in. She had been sick, and she fought
against being put in that dirty place. One night, the
nurses took her and after beating her, they held her
(22:56):
naked in a cold bath. Then they threw her on
the bed. When morning came, the girl was dead. The
doctors said she died of convulsions, and that was all
that was done about it. They inject so much morphine
and chloral that the patients are made crazy. I have
seen patients wild for water from the effect of the drugs,
(23:17):
and the nurses would refuse it to them. I have
heard women beg for a whole night for one drop,
and it was not given them. I myself cried for
water until my mouth was so parched and dry that
I could not speak. I saw the same thing myself
in Hall seven. The patients would beg for a drink
before retiring, but the nurses, Miss Hart and the others
(23:38):
refused to unlock the bathroom that they might quench their thirst.
End of Chapter fourteen.
This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
the public domain. For more information or to find out
how you can volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. Ten
Days in a Madhouse by Nellie Bly, Chapter thirteen, Choking
and Beating Patience. Miss Tillie Mayred suffered greatly from the cold.
(00:22):
One morning. She sat on the bench next to me
and was livid with the cold. Her limbs shook and
her teeth chattered. I spoke to the three attendants, who
sat with coats on at the table in the center
of the floor. It is cruel to lock people up
and then freeze them, I said. They replied, she had
on as many as any of the rest, and she
would get no more. Just then, Miss Mayard took a fit,
(00:46):
and every patient looked frightened. Miss Neville caught her in
her arms and held her, although the nurses roughly said
let her fall on the floor, it will teach her
a lesson. Miss Neville told them what she thought of
their actions, and then I got orders to make my
appearance in the office. Just as I reached there, Superintendent
Dent came to the door, and I told him how
(01:06):
we were suffering from the cold, and of Miss Mayard's condition.
Doubtless I spoke incoherently, for I told of the state
of the food, the treatment of the nurses and their
refusal to give more clothing, the condition of Miss Mayard,
and the nurses telling us because the asylum was a
public institution, we could not expect even kindness. Assuring him
that I needed no medical aid, I told him to
(01:27):
go to Miss Mayard. He did so. From Miss Neville
and other patients, I learned what transpired. Miss Mayard was
still in the fit, and he caught her roughly between
the eyebrowser thereabouts and pinched until her face was crimson
from the rush of blood to the head, and her
senses returned. All day afterwards she suffered from terrible headaches,
and from that on she grew worse. Insane, yes insane,
(01:53):
And as I watched the insanity slowly creep over the
mind that had appeared to be all right, I secretly
cursed the the nurses, and all public institutions. Some one
may say that she was insane at some time previous
to her consignment to the asylum. Then if she were,
was this the proper place to send a woman just
convalescing to be given cold baths, deprived of sufficient clothing,
(02:17):
and fed with horrible food. On this morning I had
a long conversation with Doctor Ingram, the assistant superintendent of
the asylum. I found that he was kind to the
helpless in his charge. I began my old complaint of
the cold, and he called Miss Grady to the office
and ordered more clothing. Given the patience, Miss Gradie said,
if I made a practice of telling, it would be
(02:38):
a serious thing for me. She warned. In time, many
visitors looking for missing girls came to see me. Miss
Gradie yelled in the door from the hall. One day,
Nellie Brown, you're wanted. I went to the sitting room
at the end of the hall, and there sat a
gentleman who had known me intimately for years. I saw,
by the sudden blanching of his face and his inability
(03:01):
to speak, that the sight of me was wholly unexpected
and had shocked him terribly. In an instant, I determined
if he betrayed me, as Nellie blind to say, I
had never seen him before. However, I had one card
to play, and I risked it. With Miss Gradie within
touching distance, I whispered hurriedly to him, in language more
(03:21):
expressive than elegant. Don't give me away. I knew by
the expression of his eye that he understood, So I
said to Miss Gradie, I do not know this man.
Do you know her? Asked Miss Gradie. No, this is
not the young lady I came in search of. He replied,
in a strained voice. If you do not know her,
(03:44):
you cannot stay here, she said, and she took him
to the door. All at once, A fear struck me
that he would think I had been sent there through
some mistake and would tell my friends and make an
effort to have me released. So I waited until Miss
Gradie had the door unlocked. I knew that she would
have to lock it before she could leave, and the
time required to do so would give me an opportunity
(04:05):
to speak, So I called one moment signor. He returned
to me, and I asked aloud, do you speak Spanish? Signor?
And then whispered, it's all right, I'm after an item.
Keep still, no, he said, with a peculiar emphasis, which
I knew meant that he would keep my secret. People
(04:25):
in the world can never imagine the length of days
to those in asylums, they seem never ending, and we
welcomed any event that might give us something to think about,
as well as talk of there is nothing to read,
and the only bit of talk that never wears out
is conjuring up delicate food that they will get as
soon as they get out. Anxiously, the hour was watched
(04:46):
for when the boat arrived, to see if there were
any new unfortunates to be added to our ranks. When
they came and were ushered into the sitting room, the
patients would express sympathy to one another for them, and
were anxious to show them little marks of attention. Hall
six was the receiving hall, so that was how we
saw all new comers. Soon after my advent, a girl
(05:07):
called Urina Littlepage was brought in. She was, as she
had been born, silly, and her tender spot was, as
with many sensible women her age. She claimed eighteen and
would grow very angry if told to the contrary. The
nurses were not long in finding this out, and then
they teased her. Euurina said, miss Gradie, the doctors say
(05:28):
that you are thirty three instead of eighteen, and the
other nurses laughed. They kept up this until the simple
creature began to yell and cry, saying she wanted to
go home and that everybody treated her badly. After they
had gotten all the amusement out of her they wanted
and she was crying, they began to scold and tell
her to keep quiet. She grew more hysterical every moment
(05:51):
until they pounced upon her and slapped her face and
knocked her head in a lively fashion. This made the
poor creature cry the more, and so they choked her, yes,
actually choked her. Then they dragged her out to the closet,
and I heard her terrified cries hush into smothered ones.
After several hours absence, she returned to the sitting room,
(06:13):
and I plainly saw the marks of their fingers on
her throat. For the entire day, this punishment seemed to
awaken their desire to administer more. They returned to the
sitting room and caught hold of an old, gray haired
woman whom I had heard addressed both as Missus Gradie
and Missus O'Keefe. She was insane, and she talked almost
continually to herself and to those near her. She never
(06:36):
spoke very loud, and at the time I speak of,
was sitting harmlessly chattering to herself. They grabbed her, and
my heart ached as she cried. For God's sakes, ladies,
please don't let them beat me. Shut up, you hussy,
said Miss Gradie, as she caught the woman by her
gray hair and dragged her, shrieking and pleading, from the room.
(06:58):
She was also taken to the closet, and her cries
grew lower and lower, and then ceased. The nurses returned
to the room, and Miss Gratie remarked that she had
settled the old fool for a while. I told some
of the physicians of the occurrence, but they did not
pay any attention to it. One of the characters in
Halseox was Matilda, a little old German woman who I
(07:21):
believe went insane over the loss of money. She was
small and had a pretty pink complexion. She was not
much trouble, except at times she would take spells when
she would talk into the seam heaters or get up
on a chair and talk out of the windows. In
these conversations, she railed at the lawyers who had taken
her property. The nurses seemed to find a great deal
(07:43):
of amusement in teasing the harmless old soul. One day
I sat beside Miss Grady and Miss Group and heard
them tell her perfectly vile things to call Miss mac Carton.
After telling her to say these things, they would send
her to the other nurse. But Matilda proved that she,
even in her state, had more sense than they. I
cannot tell you, it is private, was all she would say.
(08:05):
I saw Miss Gradie, on a pretense of whispering to her,
spit in her ear. Matilda quietly wiped her ear and
said nothing. End of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen, Some unfortunate stories.
By this time I had made the acquaintance of the
greater number of the forty five women in Hall six.
(08:27):
Let me introduce a few. Louise, the pretty German girl
whom I have spoken of formerly as being sick with fever,
had the delusion that the spirits of her dead parents
were with her. I have gotten many beatings from Miss
Grady and her assistance, she said, and I am unable
to eat the horrible food they give us. I ought
not to be compelled to freeze for want of proper clothing.
(08:50):
Oh I pray nightly that I may be taken to
my Papa and Mamma. One night when I was confined
at Bellevue, doctor Field came. I was in bed and
weary of the examination. At last, I said, I am
tired of this. I will talk no more, won't you?
He said angrily, I'll see if I can't make you
with this. He laid his crutch on the side of
(09:12):
the bed, and getting up on it, he pinched me
very severely in the ribs. I jumped up straight in
bed and said, what do you mean by this? I
want to teach you to obey when I speak to you,
he replied, if I could only die and go to Papa.
When I left, she was confined to bed with a fever,
and maybe by this time she has her wish. There
(09:34):
was a frenchwoman confined in Hall six or was during
my stay, whom I firmly believed to be perfectly sane.
I watched her and talked with her every day excepting
the last three, and I was unable to find any
delusion or mania in her. Her name is Josephine de Pray,
if that is spelled correctly, and her husband and all
(09:54):
her friends are in France. Josephine feels her position keenly,
her lips tremble, and she breaks down crying when she
talks of her helpless condition. How did you get here?
I asked One morning, as I was trying to get breakfast,
I grew deathly sick, and two officers were called in
by the woman of the house, and I was taken
(10:14):
to the station house. I was unable to understand their proceedings,
and they paid little attention to my story. Doings in
this country were new to me, and before I realized it,
I was lodged as an insane woman in this asylum.
When I first came, I cried that I was here
without hope of release, and for crying, Miss Gradie and
(10:34):
her assistants choked me until they hurt my throat, for
it has been sore ever since. A pretty young Hebrew
woman spoke so little English I could not get her
story except as told by the nurses. They said her
name is Sarah Fishbaum, and that her husband put her
in the asylum because she had a fondness for other
men than himself. Granting that Sarah was insane and about men,
(10:58):
let me tell you how the nurses tried to keep
or her. They would call her up and say, Sara,
wouldn't you like to have a nice young man? Oh? Yes,
a young man is all right. Sarah would reply, in
her few English words, Well, Sarah, wouldn't you like us
to speak a good word to some of the doctors
for you? Wouldn't you like to have one of the doctors?
(11:21):
And then they would ask her which doctor she preferred
and advise her to make advances to him when he
visited the hall, and so on. I had been watching
and talking with a fair complexioned woman for several days,
and I was at a loss to see why she
had been sent there. She was so sane. Why did
you come here? I asked her one day after we
had indulged in a long conversation. I was sick, she replied,
(11:46):
Are you sick? Mentally? I urged, Oh no, what gave
you such an idea? I had been overworking myself and
I broke down, having some family trouble and being penniless
and nowhere to go. I applied to the commission to
be sent to the poor house until I would be
able to work. But they do not send poor people
(12:06):
here unless they are insane, I said, don't you know
there are only insane women, or those supposed to be
sent here. I knew after I got here that the
majority of these women were insane, but then I believed
them when they told me this was the place they
sent all the poor who applied for aid as I
had done. How have you been treated, I asked, Well,
(12:30):
so far I have escaped a beating, although I have
been sickened at the sight of many and the recital
of Moore. When I was brought here, they gave me
a bath, and the very disease for which I needed
doctoring and from which I was suffering, made it necessary
that I should not bathe, but they put me in,
and my sufferings were increased greatly for weeks thereafter. A
(12:52):
Missus mc cartney, whose husband is a tailor, seems perfectly
rational and has not one fancy. Mary Hughes, and Missus
Louise Shawn showed no obvious traces of insanity. One day,
two newcomers were added to our list. The one was
an idiot, Carrie Glass, and the other was a nice
looking German girl, quite young, she seemed, and when she
(13:12):
came in, all the patients spoke of her nice appearance
and apparent sanity. Her name was Margaret. She told me
she had been a cook and was extremely neat. One day,
after she had scrubbed the kitchen floor, the chambermaids came
down and deliberately soiled it. Her temper was aroused, and
she began to quarrel with them. An officer was called
(13:33):
and she was taken to an asylum. How can they
say I am insane merely because I allowed my temper
to run away with me, she complained. Author people are
not shut up for crazy when they get angry. I
suppose the only thing to do is keep quiet and
so avoid the beatings which I see others get. No
one can say one word about me. I do everything
(13:56):
I am told and all the work they give me.
I am obedient in every respect, and I do everything
to prove to them that I am sane. One day,
an insane woman was brought in. She was noisy, and
Miss Gradie gave her a beating and blacked her eye.
When the doctors noticed it and asked if it was
done before she came there, the nurses said it was.
(14:18):
While I was in Hall six, I never heard the
nurses address the patients, except to scold them or yell
at them, unless it was to tease them. They spent
much of their time gossiping about the physicians and about
the other nurses in a manner that was not elevating.
Miss Gradie nearly always interspersed her conversation with profane language,
and generally began her sentences by calling on the name
(14:40):
of the Lord. The names she called the patients were
of the lowest and most profane type. One evening, she
quarreled with another nurse while we were at supper about
the bread, and when the nurse had gone out, she
called her bad names and made ugly remarks about her.
In the evenings, a woman whom I supposed to be
head look for the doctors used to come up and
(15:02):
bring raisins, grapes, apples, and crackers to the nurses. Imagine
the feelings of the hungry patients as they sat and
watched the nurses eat what was to them a dream
of luxury. One afternoon, Doctor Dent was talking to a patient,
Missus Turney, about some trouble she had had with a
nurse or matron a short time after we were taken
(15:23):
down to supper, and this woman who had beaten Missus Turney,
and of whom Doctor Dent spoke, was sitting at the
door of our dining room. Suddenly, Missus Turney picked up
her bowl of tea, and, rushing out of the door,
flung it at the woman who had beat her. There
was some loud screaming, and Missus Turney was returned to
her place. The next day she was transferred to the
(15:43):
Rope Gang, which is supposed to be composed of the
most dangerous and most suicidal women on the island. At
first I could not sleep, and did not want to
so long as I could hear anything new. The night
nurses may have complained of the fact. At any rate.
One night they came came in and tried to make
me take a dose of some mixture out of a
glass to make me sleep. They said, I told them
(16:06):
I would do nothing of the sort, and they left me.
I hoped for the night. My hopes were vain, for
in a few minutes they returned with the doctor, the
same that received us on our arrival. He insisted that
I take it, but I was determined not to lose
my wits even for a few hours. When he saw
that I was not to be coaxed, he grew rather
(16:26):
rough and said he had wasted too much time with
me already, that if I did not take it, he
would put it into my arm with a needle. It
occurred to me that if he put it into my arm,
I could not get rid of it. But if I
swallowed it, there was one hope. So I said I
would take it. I smelt it, and it smelt like laudanum,
and it was a horrible dose. No sooner had they
(16:47):
left the room and locked me in than I tried
to see how far down my throat my finger would go,
and the chloral was allowed to try its effect elsewhere.
I want to say that the night nurse Burns and
Hall six see very kind and patient to the poor
afflicted people. The other nurses made several attempts to talk
to me about lovers and asked me if I would
(17:08):
not like to have one. They did not find me
very communicative on the to them popular subject. Once a
week the patients are given a bath, and that is
the only time they see soap. A patient handed me
a piece of soap one day, about the size of
a thimble. I considered it a great compliment in her
wanting to be kind but I thought she would appreciate
(17:28):
the cheap soap more than I, so I thanked Herbert
refused to take it. On bathing day, the tub is
filled with water and the patients are washed one after
the other without a change of water. This is done
until the water is really thick, and then it is
allowed to run out and the tub is refilled without
being washed. The same towels are used on all the women,
(17:50):
those with eruptions as well as those without. The healthy
patients fight for a change of water, but they are
compelled to submit to the dictates of the glazy, tyrannical nurses.
The dresses are seldom changed oftener than once a month.
If a patient has a visitor, I have seen the
nurses hurry her out and change her dress before the
visitor comes in. This keeps up the appearance of careful
(18:13):
and good management. The patients who are not able to
take care of themselves get into beastly conditions, and the
nurses never looked after them, but order some of the
patients to do so. For five days, we were compelled
to sit in the room all day. I never put
in such a long time. Every patient was stiff and sore,
(18:34):
and tired, we would get in little groups on benches
and torture our stomachs by conjuring up thoughts of what
we would eat first when we got out. If I
had not known how hungry they were and the pitiful
side of it, the conversation would have been very amusing.
As it was, it only made me sad when the
subject of eating, which seemed to be the favorite one,
(18:56):
was worn out. They used to give their opinions of
the institution in its time management. The condemnation of the
nurses and the eatables was unanimous. As the days passed,
Miss Tillie Mayred's condition grew worse. She was continually cold
and unable to eat of the food provided. Day after
day she sang in order to try to maintain her memory,
(19:18):
but at last the nurse made her stop it. I
talked with her daily, and I grieved to find her
grow worse so rapidly. At last she got a delusion.
She thought that I was trying to pass myself off
for her, and that all the people who called to
see Nellie Brown were friends in search of her, but
that I, by some means, was trying to deceive them
(19:40):
into the belief that I was the girl. I tried
to reason with her, but found it impossible, so I
kept away from her as much as possible, lest my
presence should make her worse and feed the fancy. One
of the patients, Missus Carter, a pretty delicate woman, one
day thought she saw her husband coming up the walk.
She the line in which she was marching, and ran
(20:01):
to meet him. For this act, she was sent to
the retreat. She afterwards said, the remembrance of that is
enough to make me mad for crying. The nurses beat
me with a broom handle and jumped on me, injuring
me internally so that I shall never get over it.
Then they tied my hands and feet, and, throwing a
sheet over my head, twisted it tightly round my throat
(20:24):
so I could not scream, and thus put me in
a bath tub filled with cold water. They held me
under until I gave up every hope and became senseless.
At other times they took hold of my ears and
beat my head on the floor and against the wall.
Then they pulled out my hair by the roots, so
that it will never grow in again. Missus Carter here
(20:45):
showed me proofs of her story. The dent in the
back of her head and the bare spots where their
hair had been taken out by the handful. I give
her a story as plainly as possible. My treatment was
not as bad as I have seen others get in there,
but it has ruined my health, and even if I
do get out of here, I will be a wreck.
When my husband heard of the treatment given me, he
(21:07):
threatened to expose the place if I was not removed,
so I was brought here. I am well mentally now
all that old fear has left me, and the doctor
has promised to allow my husband to take me home.
I made the acquaintance of Bridget mc ginnis, who seems
to be sane at the present time. She said she
was sent to retreat four and put on the rope king.
(21:29):
The beating I got there was something dreadful. I was
pulled around by the hair held under the water until
I strangled, and I was choked and kicked. The nurses
would always keep a quiet patient stationed at the window
to tell them when any of the doctors were approaching.
It was hopeless to complain to the doctors, for they
always said it was the imagination of our diseased brains
(21:51):
and besides, we would get another beating for telling. They
would hold patients under the water and threaten to leave
them to die there if they did not promise not
to tell the doc. We would all promise, because we
knew the doctors would not help us, and we would
do anything to escape the punishment. After breaking a window,
I was transferred to the lodge, the worst place on
(22:12):
the island. It is dreadfully dirty in there, and the
stench is awful. In the summer, the flies swarm the place.
The food is worse than we get in other words wards,
and we are given only tin plates. Instead of the
bars being on the outside as in this ward, they
are on the inside. There are many quiet patients there
(22:33):
who have been there for years, but the nurses keep
them to do the work, among other beating. I got there.
The nurses jumped on me once and broke two of
my ribs. While I was there, a pretty young girl
was brought in. She had been sick, and she fought
against being put in that dirty place. One night, the
nurses took her and after beating her, they held her
(22:56):
naked in a cold bath. Then they threw her on
the bed. When morning came, the girl was dead. The
doctors said she died of convulsions, and that was all
that was done about it. They inject so much morphine
and chloral that the patients are made crazy. I have
seen patients wild for water from the effect of the drugs,
(23:17):
and the nurses would refuse it to them. I have
heard women beg for a whole night for one drop,
and it was not given them. I myself cried for
water until my mouth was so parched and dry that
I could not speak. I saw the same thing myself
in Hall seven. The patients would beg for a drink
before retiring, but the nurses, Miss Hart and the others
(23:38):
refused to unlock the bathroom that they might quench their thirst.
End of Chapter fourteen.
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