"If Bertha escapes here it will be the test of vigilance as opposed
to locks and steel bars," is the summing up of the situation by Dr.
Zeller. Bertha is not wholly satisfied where she is. The food is not
all she desires. She refers to her ward and its environment as "the
dump." Yet her particular "dump" is decorated in pale blue--part of
the color scheme of the asylum management,--the color scheme of her
ward being adapted to her particular temperamental degree of insanity.
But while Bertha has been gnawing diamonds from tie pins, one of her
fraternity in ward classification has a record of gnawing the woodwork
from at least a dozen other insane wards in as many institutions for
the insane.
How subtly conscious of her position "Fainting Bertha" may be on
occasion was demonstrated the other day when it was arranged with Dr.
Zeller that she should go with two nurses and the staff member in
Peoria in order that her picture might be taken in a local gallery.