Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1879-02-06

bars in the vault door. From that time on |
nothing occurred to mar his quiet watch, but |
in the morning he was rather glad to be re-
leased from his dull quarters. !
A TERRIBLE HISTORY.
: Port Huron (Mich.) Sunday Commercial.
The story published below is not intended as
newspaper sensation. It is plain recital,
made and published wholly in the interest of
the poor dependent inmates of the Michigan
asylum for the insane at Kalamazoo.
Inasmuch as the lady, part of whose expe-
rience there it is-and who was never violently.
insane-was resident of Port Huron before
shewas sent to the asylum, and has resided
here quietly with her son and daughter for six
years since her escape; as she has bought her
home and paid for it; has gone into the circuit
court and by virtue of her own mistaken testi-
mony, sustained and corroborated, reclaimed
property which q rascally husband had endeav-
ored to fitch from her: as she has demonstrated
her sanity in many ways; and because her story
now told is corroborated, in SO much as is at
present possible, by her daughter and by other
persons, and because by every rule of reason
ing and all forms of analogy,
IT WEARS THE AIR OF TRUTH,
and appeals to human reason and the human
heart, we feel called upon to publish it in our
columns. This is the account given by Mrs.
Henry Kewley, Of Port Huron, Mich, of her
FIVE YEARS INCARCERATION
in the Michigan insane asylum at Kalamazoo,
in answer to questions put by a reporter for
the Coistn,erciGl:
I was taken to the asylum about eleven years
ago. was really insane at the time, though
was improving, and probably never would have
been sent there if my husband had been loyal,
One cruel practice the attendants INDUCED in
was that of reaching down and jerking
patients feet from under them.
Sometimes the fall occasioned the patient
great pain: l will tell you my first experience
of that. About five weeks before went to
| the asylum 1 accidentally ran needle into
my right foot, and it remained there. 1t
often caused me pain, and was anxious to get
rid of it.
Some two or three months after entering the
asylum was standing looking out of q win
dow. 1t was the beginning of a very cold day,
and we were about to be called to breakfast.
As I stood there I felt the needle pain me, and
| the idea occurred to me that perhaps might
be able to force it out, SO I rasped my foot
against the base or mop-board two or three
times, with that object only in my mind; l
had not noticed that my glove-kid shoes had
made marks on the white Dashboard, but one
of the attendants-a grass widow, Lecty Ogden
by name-had.
"What are you doing, Mrs. Kewley?" she
said, and pointed to the marks on the wall.
and stopped a little to examine them when the
| attendant quickly jerked my feet from under
me, and struck fairly on my back. The shock
almost stunned me, and could not have got
| up Immediately if left alone. But Lecta called
| her sister Louise, and at the same time threw
| herself on my chest. The two put on the
ssleather muff' to secure my hands, and buck
led heavy belt around my waist, drawing it so
| tight as to interfere with my breathing. They
| then assisted me to rise, and, as gasped for
breath, they forced me to walk, pulling and
dragging me distance of about forty feet to a
| bedroom known as Mrs. Readers room.
| The room was known as Mrs. Readers room,
because she was kept in that room and strapped
| down to that bench in the day, and often to
! the bed at night, for two and half years.
Her hands became deformed from the constant
restraint. She was finally, removed to
Doctor Hurd, now of the Pontiac asylum,
! told me that she did regain her senses before
death. Once in while I loosened the belt
which confined her hands and let her work the
| muff off herself. I did not dare to be seen
| touching her. They did not feed her enough,
and she often asked me to bring some food
| from the table. did so several times, but was
put under the RESTRAINTS and ordered to de-
! sist. This was not done by the doctor, but by
Mrs. Ogden and Mrs Caffrey.
INoTE-The "muff'' is something like lady
muff in shape, but fastens the hands securely
posture near the open window. could mo, Z
my feet, but not my hands or body. A mixture
| of sleet and snow was falling, which blew in at
| the window and settled on my shoulders. l was
given my breakfast. I and was
given no chance to explain, and 1 was left there
until o'clock in the evening with
| out food. The snow on my
back, on the seat beside me, on the floor about
my feet, was more than half an inch thick
when was released. At six Mrs. Ogden came
| a1d offered me food, but would not release my
hands nor loosen the band around my waist.
I objected to eating out of her hand, and said
| that could not eat any way unless the belt
| around my waist was loosened. She refused to
| do either. l offered to clean the marks from
| the Dashboard if she would release me, but she
said she would show them to DR.. Palmer, and
! he would order me kept where was month.
then asked her to lower the window, and she
said I deserved what I was suffering; she
| would teach me not to do so again. When she
finally did release the belt around my waist at
P. NJ, the rush of blood that ensued caused
me to fall to the floor helpless, she grasped me
by the hair and dragged me out of the room.
take off my clothing. Their violent behavior
attracted the attention of another patient,
Mrs. Blakely, who never appeared insane. and
did lots of knitting and sewing. She grasped
a chair and struck them, saying: You have
frozen and starved her all day, and you must
longer" They then left ME, ierked her feet
from under her, jumped on her, pulled, mauled
and pummeled until they had subdued her.
They then put on the muff and the restraint
belt around her waist and jerked her into the
room. I was too weak to assist her, or should
have done so. She was left in the room and
WITH the restraints on all night. 1 afterward
asked her whether they kept her fastened or
the seat all night, but her answer has escaped
my memory
Every day the atrocious conduct of the vixen
ish attendants shocked my nerves. Probably
no day passed in which some act of tyranny o.
brutality was not pract ced which should never
be seen in tho treatment of criminals, much
less in an asylum for the insane.
1t was in the fall that I went to the asyl um
During the winter new hall was finished off
and in the spring was tra' sferred from No
Is to the new, or No. IA hall. Not many weeks
afterward saw horrible crime committed
Between 10 and IL o'clock one spring morning
was sewing on one side of the hall, 1t wa
Ihilly, and was on a bench near the steam,
coils, which ran alongside the wall. Beside
me sat patient, by name Mrs. Hamilton
This lady was very melancholy always, ano
had habit of chewing paper as gum. She wa.
dong so that morning. when an attendant
Familiarity known as Miss Emma, but whose
surname forget, noticed her and said:
Mrs. Hamilton, what are you chewing?"
"Paper.''
"Have not told you not to do that?" (box
ing her ears violently.
II don't know as it does any harm, and viii
chew it whenever I can get it, (rising an6
showing Miss Emma).
The latter jerked Mrs. HIS feet from under
her, and as she fell her head came in contact
with the iron steam-coils, making a noise that
seemed to me to sound as loud as the report OF
pistol. Mrs. 81. gave shrek of anguish, and
any woman deserving of place among human
kind would have had mercy: But Miss Emma
threw herself on the woman's chest and called
to another attendant, her sister, to bring the
restraints. Mrs. Hamilton struggled so fran.
tically that they desisted from their efforts to
put them on but the two ruthlessly dragged
her across the hall and dashed her into a bed.
room, slamming and locking the door.
I had struggled to maintain my composure
remembering from former experiences that
could do nothing but get into trouble myself
But 7 was cutting a dress for Mrs. Hamilton
and, after she had been in the room about ter
| minnfea I told Miss Emma that I wanted II