August 19, 2025 • 18 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)
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
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 fifteen, Incidents
of asylum life. There is little in the wards to
(00:21):
help one pass the time. All the asylum clothing is
made by the patients, but sewing does not employ one's mind.
After several months confinement, the thoughts of the busy world
grow faint, and all the poor prisoners can do is
sit and ponder over their hopeless fate. In the upper halls,
a good view is obtained by the passing boats in
New York. Often I tried to picture to myself as
(00:44):
I looked out between the bars to the lights faintly
glimmering in the city, what my feelings would be if
I had no one to obtain my release. I have
watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they
in all likelihood, will never enter again. It means liberty
and life. It seems so near, and yet heaven is
not further from hell. Do the women pine for home?
(01:07):
Excepting the most violent cases, they are conscious that they
are confined in an asylum. An only desire that never
dies is the one for release, for home. One poor
girl used to tell me every morning, I dreamed of
my mother last night. I think she may come to
day and take me home. That one thought that longing
(01:30):
is always present, Yet she has been confined for some
four years. What a mysterious thing, madness is. I have
watched patience whose lips are forever sealed in perpetual silence.
They live, breathe, eat, The human form is there, But
that something which the body can live without, but which
(01:50):
cannot exist without the body, was missing. I have wondered
if behind those sealed lips there were dreams we can
not of, or if all was blank. Still as sad
are those cases when the patients are always conversing with
invisible parties. I have seen them wholly unconscious of their
surroundings and engrossed with an invisible being. Yet strange to
(02:13):
say that any command issued to them as always obeyed
in about the same a manner as a dog obeys
his master. One of the most pitiful delusions of any
of the patients was that of a blue eyed Irish
girl who believed she was forever damned because of one
act in her life. Her horrible cry morning and night,
I am damned for all eternity, would strike horror to
(02:37):
my soul. Her agony seemed like a glimpse of the inferno.
After being transferred to Hall seven, I was locked in
a room every night with six crazy women. Two of
them seemed never to sleep, but spent the night in raving.
One would get out of her bed and creep round
the room, searching for some one she wanted to kill.
(02:58):
I could not help but think how easy it would
be for her to attack any of the other patients
confined with her. It did not make the night more comfortable.
One middle aged woman who used to sit always in
the corner of the room was very strangely affected. She
had a piece of newspaper, and from it she continually
read the most wonderful things I ever heard. I often
(03:19):
sat close by her and listened. History and romance fell
equally well from her lips. I saw but one letter
given a patient while I was there. It awakened a
big interest. Every patient seemed thirsty for a word from
the world, and they crowded around the one who had
been so fortunate and asked hundreds of questions. Visitors make
(03:40):
but little interest and a great deal of mirth. Miss
Mattie Morgan in Hall seven played for the entertainment of
some visitors. One day. They were close about her until
one whispered that she was a patient crazy. They whispered
audibly as they fell back and left her alone. She
was amused as well as indignant over the episode. Miss Mattie,
(04:00):
assisted by several girls she had trained, makes the evenings
pass very pleasantly. In Hall seven, they sing and dance.
Often the doctors come up and dance with the patients.
One day, when we went down to dinner, we heard
a weak little cry in the basement. Everyone seemed to
notice it, and it was not long until we knew
there was a baby down there. Yes, a baby, think
(04:23):
of it, A little innocent babe born in such a
chamber of horrors. I can imagine nothing more terrible. A
visitor who came one day brought in her arms a babe.
A mother who had been separated from her five little children,
asked permission to hold it. When the visitor wanted to leave,
the woman's grief was uncontrollable as she begged to keep
(04:44):
the babe, which she imagined was her own. It excited
more patience than I had ever seen excited before at
one time. The only amusement, if it may be so called,
given the patience outside, is a ride once a week,
if the weather permits, on the merry go. It is
a change, and so they accept it with some show
of pleasure. A scrubbush factory, a mat factory, and the
(05:08):
laundry are where the mild patients work. They get no
recompense for it, but they get hungry over it. End
of chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen, The Last Goodbye. The day
Pauline Moser was brought to the asylum, we heard the
most horrible screams, and an Irish girl only partly dressed,
(05:28):
came staggering like a drunken person up the hall, yelling.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hurrah, Hurrah, three chairs, I have killed the devil, Lucifer, Lucifer, Lusifer,
and so on over and over again.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Then she would pull a handful of hair out while
she exultingly cried.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How I deceived the Devil's They always said God made hell,
but he didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Pauline helped the girl to make the place hideous by
singing the most horrible songs. After the Irish girl had
been there an hour or so, Dent came in, and
as he walked down the hall, Miss Group whispered to
the demented girl, here is the devil coming, so go
for him. Surprised that she would give a mad woman
such instructions, I fully expected to see the frenzied creature
(06:14):
rush at the doctor. Luckily she did not, but continued
to repeat her refrain of oh lucifar. After the doctor left,
Miss Group again tried to excite the woman by saying
the pictured minstrel on the wall was the devil, and
the poor creature began to scream, you devil, I'll give
it to you, so that two nurses had to sit
(06:36):
on her to keep her down. The attendants seemed to
find amusement and pleasure in exciting the violent patients to
do their worst. I always made a point of telling
the doctors I was sane and asking to be released.
But the more I endeavored to insure them of my sanity,
the more they doubted it. What are you doctors here for?
I asked one whose name I cannot recall, to take
(07:00):
care of patience and to test their sanity, He replied
very well. I said, there are sixteen doctors on this island,
and excepting two, I have never seen them pay any
attention to the patients. How could a doctor judge a
woman's sanity by merely bidding her a good morning and
refusing to hear her please for release? Even the sick
(07:20):
ones know it is useless to say anything, for the
answer will be that it is their imagination. Try every
test on me, I have urged others, and tell me
am I sane or insane? Try my pulse, my heart,
my eyes. Asked me to stretch out my arm to
work my fingers, as doctor Field did at Bellevue, and
(07:40):
then tell me if I am sane. They would not
heed me, for they thought I raved. Again, I said
to one, you have no right to keep sane people here.
I am sane and have always been so, and I
must insist on a thorough examination or be released. Several
of the women here are also sane. Why can't they
be free? They are insane? Was the reply, and suffering
(08:05):
from delusions. After a long talk with doctor Ingram, he said,
I will transfer you to acquired reward. An hour later,
Miss Gradie called me into the hall, and after calling
me all the vile and profane names a woman could
ever remember, she told me that it was a lucky
thing for my hide that I was transferred, or else
(08:25):
she would pay me for remembering so well to tell
doctor Ingram everything. You blank hussy, You forget all about yourself,
but you never forget anything to tell the doctor. After
calling Miss Neville, whom doctor Ingram also kindly transferred, Miss
Gratie took us to the hall above number seven. In
(08:46):
Hall seven there are missus Croner, Miss Fitzpatrick, Miss Finney,
and Miss Hart. I did not see as cruel treatment
as downstairs, but I heard them make ugly remarks and threats,
twist the fingers and slap the faces of the unruly patience.
The night nurse Conway I believe her name is, is
very cross in Hall seven. If any of the patients
(09:07):
possessed any modesty, they soon lost it. Every one was
compelled to undress in the hall before their own door,
and to fold their clothes and leave them there until morning.
I asked to undress in my room, but Miss Conway
told me if she ever caught me at such a trick,
she would give me cause not to want to repeat it.
The first doctor I saw here, Doctor Caldwell, chucked me
(09:28):
under the chin, and as I was tired refusing to
tell where my home was, I would only speak to
him in Spanish. Hall seven looks rather nice to a
casual visitor. It is hung with cheap pictures and has
a piano which is presided over by Miss Mattie Morgan,
who formerly was in a music store in this city.
She has been training several of the patients to sing,
with some show of success. The artist of the hall
(09:51):
is under pronounced Wanda, a Polish girl. She is a
gifted pianist. When she chooses to display her ability the
most difficult music, she read at a glance, and her
touch and expression are perfect. On Sunday, the quieter patients
whose names have been handed in by the attendants during
the week are allowed to go to church. A small
(10:12):
Catholic chapel is on the island, and other services are
also held. A commissioner came one day and made the
rounds with doctor Dent in the basement. They found half
the nurses gone to dinner, leaving the other half in
charge of us, as was always done. Immediately orders were
given to bring the nurses back to their duties until
after the patients had finished eating. Some of the patients
(10:34):
wanted to speak about their having no salt, but were prevented.
The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat trap.
It is easy to get in, but once there it
is impossible to get out. I had intended to have
myself committed to the violent wards the lodge and retreat,
but when I got the testimony of two sane women
and could give it, I decided not to risk my
(10:56):
health and hair, so I did not get violent. I had,
toward the last been shut off from all visitors, and
so when the lawyer, Peter A. Hendrix came and told
me that friends of mine were willing to take charge
of me if I would rather be with them than
in the asylum, I was only too glad to give
my consent. I asked him to send me something to
(11:17):
eat immediately on his arrival in the city, and then
I waited anxiously for my release. It came sooner than
I had hoped. I was out in line taking a
walk and had just gotten interested in a poor woman
who had fainted away while the nurses were trying to
compel her to walk good bye. I am going home,
I called to Pauline Moser as she went past, with
(11:38):
the woman on either side of her. Sadly, I said
farewell to all I knew as I passed them on
my way to freedom in life, while they were left
behind to a fate worse than death. Arios, I murmured
to the Mexican woman. I kissed my fingers to her,
and so I left my companions of Hall seven. I
had looked forward so eagerly to leaving the horrible place.
(12:01):
Yet when my release came, and I knew that God's
sunlight was to be free from me again, there was
a certain pain in leaving. For ten days, I had
been one of them, foolishly enough. It seemed intensely selfish
to leave them to their sufferings. I felt a quixotic
desire to help them by sympathy and presence, but only
for a moment. The bars were down, and freedom was
(12:24):
sweeter to me than ever. Soon I was crossing the
river and nearing New York. Once again, I was a
free girl. After ten days in the madhouse on Blackwell's Island.
End of Chapter sixteen. Chapter seventeen the grand Jury investigation.
Soon after I had bidden farewell to Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum,
(12:48):
I was summoned to appear before the grand Jury. I
answered the summons with pleasure because I longed to help
those of God's most unfortunate children, whom I had left
prisoners behind me. If I could not bring them out
of that boon of all boons liberty, I hoped at
least to influence others to make life more bearable for them.
I found the jurors to be gentlemen, and that I
(13:10):
need not tremble before their twenty three August presences. I
swore to the truth of my story, and then I
related all from my start at the temporary home until
my release. Assistant District Attorney Vernon M. Davis conducted the examination.
The jurors then requested that I should accompany them on
a visit to the island. I was glad to consent.
(13:33):
No one was expected to know of the contemplated trip
to the island, yet we had not been there very
long before one of the commissioners of Charity and doctor
mac donald of Ward's Island were with us. One of
the jurors told me that in conversation with the man
about the asylum. He heard that they were notified of
our coming an hour before we reached the island. This
must have been done while the Grand Jury were examining
(13:54):
the insane pavilion at Bellevue. The trip to the island
was a vastly different to my first. This time we
went on a clean, new boat, while the one I
had traveled in, they said, was laid up for repairs.
Some of the nurses were examined by the jury and
made contradictory statements to one another as well as to
my story. They confessed that the jury's contemplated visit had
(14:17):
been talked over between them and the doctor. Doctor Dan
confessed that he had no means by which to tell
positively if the bath was cold, and of the number
of women put into the same water. He knew the
food was not what it should be, but said that
it was due to lack of funds. If nurses were
cruel to their patients. Had he any positive means of
ascertaining it, No, he had not. He said all the
(14:41):
doctors were not competent, which was also due to the
lack of means to secure a good medical men and
the conversation with me, he said, I am glad you
did this now, and had I known your purpose, I
would have aided you. We have no means of learning
the way things are going, except to do as you did.
Since your story was published, I found a nurse at
the retreat who had watches set for our approach, just
(15:03):
as you stated. She was dismissed. Miss Anne Neville was
brought down, and I went into the hall to meet her,
knowing that the sight of so many strange gentlemen would
excite her even if she was sane. It was as
I feared. The attendants had told her she was going
to be examined by a crowd of men, and she
was shaking with fear. Although I had left her only
(15:25):
two weeks before, yet she looked as if she had
suffered a severe illness in that time, so changed was
her appearance. I asked her if she had taken any medicine,
and she answered in the affirmative. I then told her
that I wanted her to do was tell the jury
all we had done since I was brought with her
to the asylum, so they would be convinced that I
was sane. She only knew me as miss Nellie Brown,
(15:48):
and was wholly ignorant of my story. She was not sworn,
but her story must have convinced all heroes of the
truth of my statements. When Miss Brown and I were
brought here, the nurses were and the food was too
bad to eat. We did not have enough clothing, and
Miss Brown asked for more. All the time I thought
she was being very kind, for when a doctor promised
(16:11):
her some clothing, she said she would give it to me.
Strange to say.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Ever since Miss Brown has been taken away, everything is different.
The nurses are very kind, and we are given plenty
to wear. The doctors come to see us often, and
the food is greatly improved. Did we need more evidence?
The jurors then visited the kitchen. It was very clean,
and two barrels of salt stood conspicuously open near the door.
(16:37):
The bread on exhibition was beautifully white and wholly unlike
what was given us to eat. We found the halls
in the finest order. The beds were improved, and in
Hall seven the buckets in which we were compelled to
wash had been replaced by bright new basins. The institution
was on exhibition, and no fault could be found. But
(16:58):
the women I had spoken of, where were they? Not
one was to be found where I had left them.
If my assertions were not true in regard to these patients,
why should the latter be changed so to make me
unable to find them? Miss Neville complained before the jury
of being changed several times when we visited the hall. Later,
she was returned to her old place. Mary Hughes, of
(17:22):
whom I had spoken as appearing sane, was not to
be found. Some relatives had taken her away where they knew.
Not the fair woman I had spoken of, who had
been sent here because she was poor, they said, had
been transferred to another island. They denied all knowledge of
the Mexican woman and said there never had been such patient.
Missus Cotter had been discharged, and Bridget mc ginnis and
(17:45):
Rebecca Farren had been transferred to other quarters. The German
girl Margaret was not to be found, and Louise had
been sent elsewhere from Hall six. The frenchwoman Josephine, a
great healthy woman, they said, was dying of paralysis, and
we could not see her. If I was wrong in
my judgment of these patients sanity, why was all this done?
(18:05):
I saw Tilly mayered, and she had changed so.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Much for the worse that I shuddered when I looked
at her. I hardly expected the Grand Jury to sustain
me after they saw everything different from what it had
been while I was there. Yet they did, and their
report to the Court advises all the changes made that
I had proposed. I have one consolation for my work.
On the strength of my story, the Committee of Appropriation
(18:29):
provides one million dollars more than was ever given before,
for the benefit of the insane. End of Chapter seventeen,
end of ten Days in a Madhouse,
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 fifteen, Incidents
of asylum life. There is little in the wards to
(00:21):
help one pass the time. All the asylum clothing is
made by the patients, but sewing does not employ one's mind.
After several months confinement, the thoughts of the busy world
grow faint, and all the poor prisoners can do is
sit and ponder over their hopeless fate. In the upper halls,
a good view is obtained by the passing boats in
New York. Often I tried to picture to myself as
(00:44):
I looked out between the bars to the lights faintly
glimmering in the city, what my feelings would be if
I had no one to obtain my release. I have
watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they
in all likelihood, will never enter again. It means liberty
and life. It seems so near, and yet heaven is
not further from hell. Do the women pine for home?
(01:07):
Excepting the most violent cases, they are conscious that they
are confined in an asylum. An only desire that never
dies is the one for release, for home. One poor
girl used to tell me every morning, I dreamed of
my mother last night. I think she may come to
day and take me home. That one thought that longing
(01:30):
is always present, Yet she has been confined for some
four years. What a mysterious thing, madness is. I have
watched patience whose lips are forever sealed in perpetual silence.
They live, breathe, eat, The human form is there, But
that something which the body can live without, but which
(01:50):
cannot exist without the body, was missing. I have wondered
if behind those sealed lips there were dreams we can
not of, or if all was blank. Still as sad
are those cases when the patients are always conversing with
invisible parties. I have seen them wholly unconscious of their
surroundings and engrossed with an invisible being. Yet strange to
(02:13):
say that any command issued to them as always obeyed
in about the same a manner as a dog obeys
his master. One of the most pitiful delusions of any
of the patients was that of a blue eyed Irish
girl who believed she was forever damned because of one
act in her life. Her horrible cry morning and night,
I am damned for all eternity, would strike horror to
(02:37):
my soul. Her agony seemed like a glimpse of the inferno.
After being transferred to Hall seven, I was locked in
a room every night with six crazy women. Two of
them seemed never to sleep, but spent the night in raving.
One would get out of her bed and creep round
the room, searching for some one she wanted to kill.
(02:58):
I could not help but think how easy it would
be for her to attack any of the other patients
confined with her. It did not make the night more comfortable.
One middle aged woman who used to sit always in
the corner of the room was very strangely affected. She
had a piece of newspaper, and from it she continually
read the most wonderful things I ever heard. I often
(03:19):
sat close by her and listened. History and romance fell
equally well from her lips. I saw but one letter
given a patient while I was there. It awakened a
big interest. Every patient seemed thirsty for a word from
the world, and they crowded around the one who had
been so fortunate and asked hundreds of questions. Visitors make
(03:40):
but little interest and a great deal of mirth. Miss
Mattie Morgan in Hall seven played for the entertainment of
some visitors. One day. They were close about her until
one whispered that she was a patient crazy. They whispered
audibly as they fell back and left her alone. She
was amused as well as indignant over the episode. Miss Mattie,
(04:00):
assisted by several girls she had trained, makes the evenings
pass very pleasantly. In Hall seven, they sing and dance.
Often the doctors come up and dance with the patients.
One day, when we went down to dinner, we heard
a weak little cry in the basement. Everyone seemed to
notice it, and it was not long until we knew
there was a baby down there. Yes, a baby, think
(04:23):
of it, A little innocent babe born in such a
chamber of horrors. I can imagine nothing more terrible. A
visitor who came one day brought in her arms a babe.
A mother who had been separated from her five little children,
asked permission to hold it. When the visitor wanted to leave,
the woman's grief was uncontrollable as she begged to keep
(04:44):
the babe, which she imagined was her own. It excited
more patience than I had ever seen excited before at
one time. The only amusement, if it may be so called,
given the patience outside, is a ride once a week,
if the weather permits, on the merry go. It is
a change, and so they accept it with some show
of pleasure. A scrubbush factory, a mat factory, and the
(05:08):
laundry are where the mild patients work. They get no
recompense for it, but they get hungry over it. End
of chapter fifteen, Chapter sixteen, The Last Goodbye. The day
Pauline Moser was brought to the asylum, we heard the
most horrible screams, and an Irish girl only partly dressed,
(05:28):
came staggering like a drunken person up the hall, yelling.
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Hurrah, Hurrah, three chairs, I have killed the devil, Lucifer, Lucifer, Lusifer,
and so on over and over again.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
Then she would pull a handful of hair out while
she exultingly cried.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
How I deceived the Devil's They always said God made hell,
but he didn't.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Pauline helped the girl to make the place hideous by
singing the most horrible songs. After the Irish girl had
been there an hour or so, Dent came in, and
as he walked down the hall, Miss Group whispered to
the demented girl, here is the devil coming, so go
for him. Surprised that she would give a mad woman
such instructions, I fully expected to see the frenzied creature
(06:14):
rush at the doctor. Luckily she did not, but continued
to repeat her refrain of oh lucifar. After the doctor left,
Miss Group again tried to excite the woman by saying
the pictured minstrel on the wall was the devil, and
the poor creature began to scream, you devil, I'll give
it to you, so that two nurses had to sit
(06:36):
on her to keep her down. The attendants seemed to
find amusement and pleasure in exciting the violent patients to
do their worst. I always made a point of telling
the doctors I was sane and asking to be released.
But the more I endeavored to insure them of my sanity,
the more they doubted it. What are you doctors here for?
I asked one whose name I cannot recall, to take
(07:00):
care of patience and to test their sanity, He replied
very well. I said, there are sixteen doctors on this island,
and excepting two, I have never seen them pay any
attention to the patients. How could a doctor judge a
woman's sanity by merely bidding her a good morning and
refusing to hear her please for release? Even the sick
(07:20):
ones know it is useless to say anything, for the
answer will be that it is their imagination. Try every
test on me, I have urged others, and tell me
am I sane or insane? Try my pulse, my heart,
my eyes. Asked me to stretch out my arm to
work my fingers, as doctor Field did at Bellevue, and
(07:40):
then tell me if I am sane. They would not
heed me, for they thought I raved. Again, I said
to one, you have no right to keep sane people here.
I am sane and have always been so, and I
must insist on a thorough examination or be released. Several
of the women here are also sane. Why can't they
be free? They are insane? Was the reply, and suffering
(08:05):
from delusions. After a long talk with doctor Ingram, he said,
I will transfer you to acquired reward. An hour later,
Miss Gradie called me into the hall, and after calling
me all the vile and profane names a woman could
ever remember, she told me that it was a lucky
thing for my hide that I was transferred, or else
(08:25):
she would pay me for remembering so well to tell
doctor Ingram everything. You blank hussy, You forget all about yourself,
but you never forget anything to tell the doctor. After
calling Miss Neville, whom doctor Ingram also kindly transferred, Miss
Gratie took us to the hall above number seven. In
(08:46):
Hall seven there are missus Croner, Miss Fitzpatrick, Miss Finney,
and Miss Hart. I did not see as cruel treatment
as downstairs, but I heard them make ugly remarks and threats,
twist the fingers and slap the faces of the unruly patience.
The night nurse Conway I believe her name is, is
very cross in Hall seven. If any of the patients
(09:07):
possessed any modesty, they soon lost it. Every one was
compelled to undress in the hall before their own door,
and to fold their clothes and leave them there until morning.
I asked to undress in my room, but Miss Conway
told me if she ever caught me at such a trick,
she would give me cause not to want to repeat it.
The first doctor I saw here, Doctor Caldwell, chucked me
(09:28):
under the chin, and as I was tired refusing to
tell where my home was, I would only speak to
him in Spanish. Hall seven looks rather nice to a
casual visitor. It is hung with cheap pictures and has
a piano which is presided over by Miss Mattie Morgan,
who formerly was in a music store in this city.
She has been training several of the patients to sing,
with some show of success. The artist of the hall
(09:51):
is under pronounced Wanda, a Polish girl. She is a
gifted pianist. When she chooses to display her ability the
most difficult music, she read at a glance, and her
touch and expression are perfect. On Sunday, the quieter patients
whose names have been handed in by the attendants during
the week are allowed to go to church. A small
(10:12):
Catholic chapel is on the island, and other services are
also held. A commissioner came one day and made the
rounds with doctor Dent in the basement. They found half
the nurses gone to dinner, leaving the other half in
charge of us, as was always done. Immediately orders were
given to bring the nurses back to their duties until
after the patients had finished eating. Some of the patients
(10:34):
wanted to speak about their having no salt, but were prevented.
The insane asylum on Blackwell's Island is a human rat trap.
It is easy to get in, but once there it
is impossible to get out. I had intended to have
myself committed to the violent wards the lodge and retreat,
but when I got the testimony of two sane women
and could give it, I decided not to risk my
(10:56):
health and hair, so I did not get violent. I had,
toward the last been shut off from all visitors, and
so when the lawyer, Peter A. Hendrix came and told
me that friends of mine were willing to take charge
of me if I would rather be with them than
in the asylum, I was only too glad to give
my consent. I asked him to send me something to
(11:17):
eat immediately on his arrival in the city, and then
I waited anxiously for my release. It came sooner than
I had hoped. I was out in line taking a
walk and had just gotten interested in a poor woman
who had fainted away while the nurses were trying to
compel her to walk good bye. I am going home,
I called to Pauline Moser as she went past, with
(11:38):
the woman on either side of her. Sadly, I said
farewell to all I knew as I passed them on
my way to freedom in life, while they were left
behind to a fate worse than death. Arios, I murmured
to the Mexican woman. I kissed my fingers to her,
and so I left my companions of Hall seven. I
had looked forward so eagerly to leaving the horrible place.
(12:01):
Yet when my release came, and I knew that God's
sunlight was to be free from me again, there was
a certain pain in leaving. For ten days, I had
been one of them, foolishly enough. It seemed intensely selfish
to leave them to their sufferings. I felt a quixotic
desire to help them by sympathy and presence, but only
for a moment. The bars were down, and freedom was
(12:24):
sweeter to me than ever. Soon I was crossing the
river and nearing New York. Once again, I was a
free girl. After ten days in the madhouse on Blackwell's Island.
End of Chapter sixteen. Chapter seventeen the grand Jury investigation.
Soon after I had bidden farewell to Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum,
(12:48):
I was summoned to appear before the grand Jury. I
answered the summons with pleasure because I longed to help
those of God's most unfortunate children, whom I had left
prisoners behind me. If I could not bring them out
of that boon of all boons liberty, I hoped at
least to influence others to make life more bearable for them.
I found the jurors to be gentlemen, and that I
(13:10):
need not tremble before their twenty three August presences. I
swore to the truth of my story, and then I
related all from my start at the temporary home until
my release. Assistant District Attorney Vernon M. Davis conducted the examination.
The jurors then requested that I should accompany them on
a visit to the island. I was glad to consent.
(13:33):
No one was expected to know of the contemplated trip
to the island, yet we had not been there very
long before one of the commissioners of Charity and doctor
mac donald of Ward's Island were with us. One of
the jurors told me that in conversation with the man
about the asylum. He heard that they were notified of
our coming an hour before we reached the island. This
must have been done while the Grand Jury were examining
(13:54):
the insane pavilion at Bellevue. The trip to the island
was a vastly different to my first. This time we
went on a clean, new boat, while the one I
had traveled in, they said, was laid up for repairs.
Some of the nurses were examined by the jury and
made contradictory statements to one another as well as to
my story. They confessed that the jury's contemplated visit had
(14:17):
been talked over between them and the doctor. Doctor Dan
confessed that he had no means by which to tell
positively if the bath was cold, and of the number
of women put into the same water. He knew the
food was not what it should be, but said that
it was due to lack of funds. If nurses were
cruel to their patients. Had he any positive means of
ascertaining it, No, he had not. He said all the
(14:41):
doctors were not competent, which was also due to the
lack of means to secure a good medical men and
the conversation with me, he said, I am glad you
did this now, and had I known your purpose, I
would have aided you. We have no means of learning
the way things are going, except to do as you did.
Since your story was published, I found a nurse at
the retreat who had watches set for our approach, just
(15:03):
as you stated. She was dismissed. Miss Anne Neville was
brought down, and I went into the hall to meet her,
knowing that the sight of so many strange gentlemen would
excite her even if she was sane. It was as
I feared. The attendants had told her she was going
to be examined by a crowd of men, and she
was shaking with fear. Although I had left her only
(15:25):
two weeks before, yet she looked as if she had
suffered a severe illness in that time, so changed was
her appearance. I asked her if she had taken any medicine,
and she answered in the affirmative. I then told her
that I wanted her to do was tell the jury
all we had done since I was brought with her
to the asylum, so they would be convinced that I
was sane. She only knew me as miss Nellie Brown,
(15:48):
and was wholly ignorant of my story. She was not sworn,
but her story must have convinced all heroes of the
truth of my statements. When Miss Brown and I were
brought here, the nurses were and the food was too
bad to eat. We did not have enough clothing, and
Miss Brown asked for more. All the time I thought
she was being very kind, for when a doctor promised
(16:11):
her some clothing, she said she would give it to me.
Strange to say.
Speaker 2 (16:15):
Ever since Miss Brown has been taken away, everything is different.
The nurses are very kind, and we are given plenty
to wear. The doctors come to see us often, and
the food is greatly improved. Did we need more evidence?
The jurors then visited the kitchen. It was very clean,
and two barrels of salt stood conspicuously open near the door.
(16:37):
The bread on exhibition was beautifully white and wholly unlike
what was given us to eat. We found the halls
in the finest order. The beds were improved, and in
Hall seven the buckets in which we were compelled to
wash had been replaced by bright new basins. The institution
was on exhibition, and no fault could be found. But
(16:58):
the women I had spoken of, where were they? Not
one was to be found where I had left them.
If my assertions were not true in regard to these patients,
why should the latter be changed so to make me
unable to find them? Miss Neville complained before the jury
of being changed several times when we visited the hall. Later,
she was returned to her old place. Mary Hughes, of
(17:22):
whom I had spoken as appearing sane, was not to
be found. Some relatives had taken her away where they knew.
Not the fair woman I had spoken of, who had
been sent here because she was poor, they said, had
been transferred to another island. They denied all knowledge of
the Mexican woman and said there never had been such patient.
Missus Cotter had been discharged, and Bridget mc ginnis and
(17:45):
Rebecca Farren had been transferred to other quarters. The German
girl Margaret was not to be found, and Louise had
been sent elsewhere from Hall six. The frenchwoman Josephine, a
great healthy woman, they said, was dying of paralysis, and
we could not see her. If I was wrong in
my judgment of these patients sanity, why was all this done?
(18:05):
I saw Tilly mayered, and she had changed so.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
Much for the worse that I shuddered when I looked
at her. I hardly expected the Grand Jury to sustain
me after they saw everything different from what it had
been while I was there. Yet they did, and their
report to the Court advises all the changes made that
I had proposed. I have one consolation for my work.
On the strength of my story, the Committee of Appropriation
(18:29):
provides one million dollars more than was ever given before,
for the benefit of the insane. End of Chapter seventeen,
end of ten Days in a Madhouse,
Popular Podcasts
NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal
Gregg Rosenthal and a rotating crew of elite NFL Media co-hosts, including Patrick Claybon, Colleen Wolfe, Steve Wyche, Nick Shook and Jourdan Rodrigue of The Athletic get you caught up daily on all the NFL news and analysis you need to be smarter and funnier than your friends.
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com