JUDGED INCURABLE, JULY 3, 1861--ROOMING WITH EBENEZER SCOTT.
The first attendant over me in the incurable house was a Dutchman
called Chris, I recognized him as a helper; when I was in the
main-house William Anderson told me Chris and his wife were patients,
now attendants; the first shaving day he called me into the hall, Sears
standing by, who was a patient also, and I was shaved by another
lunatic barber, in fear of my life, in a lunatic asylum.
I appeal to the committee of managers. Would either of you dare be
shaved by one of these? (I answer in the negative.) Then adopt the
golden rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."
The incurable house of the Marshall institution is situated upon Ida
Hill, between the main house and the pest-house, in an open field, on
either end of the house are high hills, making a lonely place. Beneath
is the Hollow road, and on the west beneath, is the great Hudson river
to be seen, passing between South and West Troy. Often have I seen, in
the time of the war, the great flag hoisted near the arsenal, and heard
the loud cannons roar, when locked up a prisoner in this house.
INCURABLE HOUSE.
July 3, 1862. Soon after I was in the room with Scott, in came Chris
and ordered me to take off the coat that was given me by the attendant
and Gibbs in the main house; time passed on, the hour for dinner came,
in came Chris and his wife with dinner, placing mine upon a small stand
and Scott's upon his bed, one plate each and a cup of water. Here we
slept, ate and done all we did do for many weeks, and I declare, it
was not a very sweet smelling place for a dining-room, in the month of
July. This room was on the second floor, the other rooms were occupied
by females. In the adjoining room there were two colored women. The old
Mrs. Jones that Chris struck when she came into my room at dinner time,
died before I left, the other referred to is Maria, who I have often
seen there since 1870, if I am not mistaken.
AFTER THE REIGN OF CHRIS.
Alfred, who I have described as the painter, was a very intemperate
man, English by birth; first saw him in the main house, in 1860-61; did
not see him bound there, heard he was, to a stationary chair. I went to
the incurable house July 3d, 1862; saw him there, he done some painting
in the house. After Chris was removed Alfred had the key to my room
and Scott's. Scott was a man about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years
of age. I soon learned he was a self-abused person and that he knew how
to abuse others. I think he was an impenitent, self-condemned madman;
he knew enough to work, he knew when he was called to dinner; most of
the time sullen and mute.
Some time in July John P. Bacon was brought from the main house to my
room and bound to a stationary chair. Now we numbered three in this
room of perfumery. J. P. Bacon was a resident of Lansingburgh, some
nineteen or twenty years old; had been taken to, and brought from,
Utica asylum previous to his coming to Ida Hill asylum.
In the fall of 1862 we were moved to the third floor, and I roomed
with Scott and others in the middle east room nights, being locked in
another through the daytime, with many maniacs. Upon this third floor I
staid until I got my liberty in 1870. Walked out a few times.
DOCTORS, ATTENDANTS AND PATIENTS IN THE INCURABLE HOUSE.
During my stay in this house I became acquainted with many different
attendants and patients whose names I here record, and shall speak of
some of them individually in subsequent pages.
NAMES OF ATTENDANTS AND DOCTORS IN THE INCURABLE HOUSE.
Second, Dr. Lomax and Dr. Gregory, first.
Names of male attendants: 1. Chris, 2. Alfred, Sears, patient; unknown,
gagged Barclay; Isabella, when Alfred was drunk, Thomas Haly, Ebenezer
Scott, patient; name unknown, robbed me of tobacco, Amos Knowles,
patient; William Anderson was attendant from 1867 to 1871 and is still
in 1874.
Names of female attendants: Mrs. Isabella Anderson, up to March 17,
1873, then hanged; Mary Wager, August 6th, 1873. Conversed with her.
NAMES OF THE MALE PATIENTS IN THE INCURABLE HOUSE.
Ebenezer Scott, John P. Bacon, Lansingburgh; Patrick Mealy, O'Conner,
Thomas Leonard, Dr. Klingstine, Berlin; Sherman S. Bristol, Troy;
Charles Barclay, from Utica Asylum; John Smalley, son did visit him;
Mr. Walis, wife and sons visit; John H. Ham, father and mother visit;
N. Buel, Troy, wife visited; Wm. B. Gibbs, Pittstown; Nelson West,
Pittstown; Kirk Hull, Berlin; Wm. Lewis, Berlin; Gen. Skyler, West
Troy; Sears, and Wm. Lawrence, Boint; Wm. Jefferson, Troy.
FEMALE PATIENTS IN THE INCURABLE HOUSE.
Miss Jones, colored; Mariah, colored; Miss Petre; Aunta (so called),
Miss Lawn, Miss Byron, one Indian woman, one called Betsy, Catharine
Morris, Bridget Hamilton, Ann Twogood, late from Pittstown, 1874.
Patients in the incurable house averaged from thirty to thirty-seven,
say about one-third males. Dead removed and live ones brought.
REIGN OF ALFRED.
After 1862 I roomed in the east middle room, roomed nights, for a
number of years with patients from England, Ireland, Scotland, Germany
and America, black and white, of many professions and different
beliefs, and truly it was a high school to an observing mind.
Be it known to the reader it was not a very desirable lodging room,
now and then awoke in dead of night by the groans of the dying in an
adjoining bed.
In this room were from four to five single beds of straw, some two feet
apart. At one time for many weeks lay a negro, Wm. Lawrence, bound to
his bed and handcuffed, singing and whistling, although he was bound
with an asylum harness such as I am exhibiting around the country in
public. I was afraid of my life; he was a wicked, self-abused young man.
Oh! what a set of school mates, thought I. But to these I made no
conversation. I have often seen Wm. Lawrence compelled to wash dishes
with hands bound; one morning Haly told me to hold up the darkey's
dirty pants so he could step into them. Attendant's word was law. I
raised them front side toward the darkey in presence of attendant. "Go
away," says he, supposing me to be green. I willingly left and had no
more darkeys to wait upon.
SCOTT.
After Lawrence left this bed, Scott was placed in it. Although I had
never spoken to Scott he had once kicked me severely when walking upon
the hall peaceably and quiet.
Again, one night, soon after we were all locked up in this room Scott
arose from his bed, placed his feet upon the floor, grabbed me by the
whiskers with both hands, throwing himself backward upon his bed, held
me fast. And I can truly say he is the first person I ever struck, and
I could not strike him very hard though in self-defense, for I was very
weak, and my antagonist was a strong young madman.
At this critical moment the door unlocked and in came Alfred, the
attendant, saying, "what is the matter?" though I did not practice
talking I told the truth.
The attendant placed upon Scott the Asylum harness and hurled him
out of the room; after a time he returned with Scott wet and nearly
fainting, then strapping him to the bed for the night. In this
transaction Scott learned a lesson by sad experience, that I learned by
observation.
ALFRED'S REIGN CONTINUED THOUGH UNDER ISABEL MAGDALENE.
It must be remembered that in Alfred's reign the hall on the second
floor, occupied by females, was accessible to the hall above, occupied
by male patients, as the stairs were not at the time cased up.
One day as I stood looking from the head of the stairs, I saw down at
the foot, a female lunatic bound in a straight jacket in a squabble
with Isabel the Magdalene attendant, then quickly passed by Alfred,
and down to the ward-hall, severely laying hold of the almost helpless
lunatic, crushing her to the floor upon her back, then jumping upon
her bowels, with both his knees and with all his heft pounced upon her,
like a ferocious animal upon his prey. It was a bloody battle, pray,
judge ye, how I felt seeing the blood standing in pools on the floor.
Yea, reader, drop a sympathizing tear for the unfortunate sufferers who
are locked in lunatic asylums with such brutal outcasts for attendants.
Union is strength, this the serpent-like know as well as the righteous.
And He who knows all hearts hath said, "Though the wicked go hand in
hand, they shall not go unpunished."
ALFRED'S REIGN CONTINUED.
In reviewing and comparing the former transaction with this
transaction, committed in the large room on the third floor, used as
a lock-up for many patients during the day-time, Alfred being the
key-master. In this room we done what we could not help doing, and upon
my honor it was not one of the finest perfumed rooms.
Among the many was a German man, much deformed and an object of pity
(his name I cannot recall), he would walk about the room, though
wearing a part of the asylum harness, discontented, uneasy and to all
appearance deluded and insane, acting upon first thought like many,
regardless of consequences.
One warm day as he was promenading about the room he drew his foot and
kicked the chamber-pail from the corner of the room to the center,
dumping its contents amongst the crew. In came Alfred and Isabel, the
male and female attendants, down with the poor deluded man, and whilst
Alfred was placing upon him the remainder of the accursed harness,
Isabel stood heavily upon his ankles with both feet, holding him in her
grasp.
And now for the bath-room, down stairs they went with their victim.
After a time he was returned to the room wet and weak, placed in a
chair with not strength to hold up his head, he soon fell prostrate to
the floor with his hands bound; soon after he died and was stretched
upon the dead board and carried out.
I have now already related two transactions wherein both the male and
female attendants were engaged in brutal acts against poor lunatic
persons, who should have had the sympathy of all and kind treatment by
attendants.
By this time the reader sees that these wicked attendants are in league
and go hand in hand in crimes of this kind.
The Devil is the father of the Cain family and the father of lies, and
almost all of the attendants of lunatic asylums are graduates or pupils
in that family, as near as I can judge by their works, "for by their
works ye shall know them."
ALFRED STILL HOLDS THE REIN OF GOVERNMENT.
I will relate another transaction wherein I, M. Swan, was a great
sufferer, and lest the reader may think me a trespasser, I will state
it was not for what I had done, but for what I could not do.
Early one morning J. P. Bacon, Scott, Fitzgerald, Clingstain and
others, six or eight in number, were brought in my room and seated on
a bench in a line, then Alfred began to clip their hair one by one,
giving them the State prison clip, so called. He then says to me, "sit
down." I knew most of them to be wicked men, and to sit down with them
and receive the mark, I could not, and disobeyed his command by saying,
"I can't."
I believe the spirit is the moving cause or mainspring of the mind, and
the mind is the man, or in other words, "that which suffers or enjoys."
Reader, can you rise from your seat until your mind is changed? Can
a mistaken person change his or her ways till the mind is changed?
Could the blind man whose eyes Jesus opened see until there was a
cure wrought by the Divine Redeemer? Could Saul of Tarsus, desist
in persecuting the church till his mind was changed, for he said he
"verily thought he was doing God service?" And so like Paul I labored
under the mistaken notion in my weakness, that I should be lost
forever, yet I was a firm believer in the truth; I believed others
could be saved. I was afraid to do anything wrong, and no person saw
me smile during my captivity for more than ten years.
But to my story. I said, "I can't," when he told me to sit down to have
my hair sheared. The attendant then removed all others from the room,
locking me in. Presently he returned with patient Sears. Sears was a
great, stout, robust-looking man, having in his hand two of the straps
BB, buckled together with a noose made in the same. They both rushed
toward me. I backed into the corner, and Sears tried to lasso me by
throwing the noose or running-knot over my head. In the meantime, I
raised my hands, warding off the noose. Sears being tired of this, then
tried to persuade me to be bound, asking me to put on cuffs A, which I
refused. He plead like the devil transformed into an angel of light,
saying, "put them on, they won't hurt you," and then tried to encourage
me by saying, he had had them on a hundred times. Oh, the devil let
loose in the person of Sears and attendant Alfred.
This moment a boy came along near the window. Attendant raised the
window and told him to send up a man from the other house to bind a man
(meaning me), and the cowards left, and cowards they were, for the boy,
not more than twelve years old, could have floored me at that time in a
moment.
I watched their return in fear and trembling. Presently the two
cowards, encouraged by David Hicks, a child of the devil Isabel, for
he often called her mother for the sake of gain. Hicks was a strong
person, of more than medium size. The three rushed up to me, Hicks
grabbed me around my body and arms, hurling me to the floor in a
moment, placing his heavy knee upon my left side. "Oh," said I, "You
will break my ribs." "It is of little consequence," says Hicks. Holding
me fast, whilst the two cowards bound me with the accursed harness. The
attendant then raised me upon my feet; the three ruffians then kicked
me into another room to a chair that was ironed to the floor, when
seated, my hands being bound as seen in the engraving; the attendant
ran strap B and B between my body and arms, on either side, then
below to the rounds of the chair; then drawing strap F, which was fast
to my feet, by cuff D and D, strap F was locked to the back round of
the chair. In this suffering condition, in pain from my wounded side
and ribs, all day long I sit, nothing to eat, not even a cup of cold
water. I was much fatigued and faint when the sun set in the west. But,
says the reader, as many others have said, who have listened to the
rehearsal of this transaction, did the attendant cut your hair off, he
did not, he loosed me in the evening, told me he would never bind me
again, and he kept his word as to that.
REMARKS.
I wore the accursed harness but twice in the asylum, and that too
against my will, not as a duty. But now in 1874 I am exhibiting a
similar one that I bought of a Mr. Hogan, as a duty, to let the people
know how patients are treated in lunatic asylums. Although I have
received maltreatment in asylums in New York and Vermont States, I
am not altogether opposed to these institutions, for there are insane
persons who have no homes, yet I protest against maltreatment. We are
received as insane, unfortunate beings, use us kind, and the good Lord
will reward you. Will lecture upon this subject, and exhibit the asylum
harness, when arrangements are made in proper places. Address M. Swan,
Hoosick Falls, Rensselaer county, N. Y.
A charge to keep, I have,
A God to glorify,
A never dying soul to save,
And fit it for the skies.
To serve the present age,
My calling to fulfill,
Oh, may it all my power engage
To do my master's will.
Although I may not have the gift of a poet, and may not have the gift
of prophecy, neither be as good as John the Baptist, yet I can truly
say, like Paul, I have been beaten for Christ's sake, when bound in the
Ida Hill Lunatic Asylum.
It is not a pleasant task for me to reveal the faults of others, more
particularly those of the dead, yet when I realize how many are robbed
of their liberty and lives, my soul is stirred within me, in behalf of
poor sufferers in these institutions.
If these great sins are the sins of ignorance or neglect on the part of
any one of the governors or inspectors, or government, it is not to be
winked at.
ALFRED THE INTEMPERATE ATTENDANT'S CRUELTY TO JOHN SMALLEY, A PATIENT.
J. Smalley came to the main house in 1860; removed to the incurable one
before the 3d of July, in 1862, where he died about 1864 or '65. He was
a man some seventy-five years old, weighing about seventy or eighty
pounds.
By what I gathered from him he had been an inn-keeper, and had become
an intemperate man. Alfred, the attendant, gave him liquor for
medicine, a share to himself. John Smalley lodged in the black or brown
floor room; I have often seen him bound to the window bars, from day to
day; often seen attendants carry him down stairs for washing; but what
was more cruel, I saw Alfred pounce upon him while he was lying upon
his back in bed, stamping him with both knees upon his bowels. The poor
old man had a son come to see him, but what of that, be ye clothed and
be ye fed does no more good than the priest's passing look did the man
who went from Jerusalem down to Jericho and fell among thieves.
I ask, could not the old man's son have acted the part of the good
Samaritan, and took the old man to an inn and bound up the wounds that
Alfred, the attendant, made by his cruel treatment.
MY WIFE VISITING ME IN THE INCURABLE HOUSE WITH BROTHER B. AND NEPHEW.
_Dr. Gregory, in the Reign of Alfred._
After my wife and brother B. and his son Livy had been received for the
first time into the incurable house, and seated in the south hall, I
was loosed from the large room where I was once bound, and taken to the
hall to meet my wife and brother for the first time in this hopeless
house. My wife and friends had been told by doctors there was no hope
of my being any better, I was incurable. This caused my visits to be
few and far between.
I was considered a worthless man, and a nuisance. I was asked by my
wife if I would like to go home with them, when I answered yes. Brother
spoke to Alfred in regard to my going, who says, "You must ask Dr.
Gregory." We took the parting hand and I remained a sufferer for years
to come.
TREATMENT OF J. H. HAM BY ALFRED.
J. H. Ham had a father and mother who visited him in the back hall.
Henry was a young man, not twenty years of age. Saw him bound day after
day with the whole of the asylum harness, fastened to a chair, with gag
in his mouth day after day for being noisy. He was often taken to the
bath tub and put into cold water so long that his feet were frozen. I
saw chilblains he said were caused by so doing. Young Ham, under this
treatment, grew pale and weak, and one leg became almost useless. I
saw his father come and take him away.
Rejoice with those that rejoice, and weep with those that weep.
FRIDAY MORNING, _June 18, 1874_.
Just returned from my daughter; saw her for the first time press her
first-born babe to her bosom with a smile. Who can know the joys of my
daughter's heart this morning but a mother.
Who knows the feeling of the Virgin Mary when she brought forth her
first-born Son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a
manger.
Who knows her feelings when she gazed upon the cross and saw her son
bleeding and dying.
Who can know that mother's grief when she stood by Joseph's tomb
inquiring of the angel for her risen Lord.
Who knows the feelings of Jesus when he was agonizing in the garden of
Gethsemane.
Who knows the feelings of Jesus but a Jesus, when he hung upon the
cross saying, "Father, forgive them, they know not what they do." 'Tis
easy for a mother to love her infant, but to love our enemies is more
than all burnt sacrifices. Try it.
Again, who can know the heartrending feelings of the author, when he
reviews the ten years of his asylum life, and thinks of the poor he
left in bonds, and exclaims, help, Lord, for the godly man ceaseth.
Help me to watch and pray,
And on Thyself rely,
Assured if I my trust betray
I shall forever die.
Arm me with zealous care,
As in thy sight to live,
And oh, thy servant, Lord, prepare,
A strict account to give.