Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1886-07-09
FROM UNDER A CLOUD.
Anna Agnew Tells What She Suf-
fered IN an Insane Asylum.
Reason and Memory Regained After Seven
Years Life In n Mad-House-A Thrill
ing Story of Crusltics Ptacticed
by Attendants.
[rittsbusg,, Cor. Phllade,phia Press !

Mrs. Anna Agnew, of Main street, Law
renceville, has written book entitled
"From Under Cloud" the manuscript OF
which she has just placed in the hanls of
publishers. The volume records the re-
membranes and observations of the seven
years. life of a patient-Mrs. Agnew her.
self-in an asylum for the insane. She
was supposed to be hopelessly insane, but
unexpectedly recovered, and with her re-
covery developed wonderful memory for
details.
Mrs. Agnew is q lady of middle age.
Her dark hair is mixed with gray and her
face bears the impress OF great sorrow,
yet the observer would never guess from
her appearance the wonderful burden she
has borne. In her book she gives truth
full narrative of her experiences at the
Asylum for the Insane at indianapolis.
Her chief object is to secure for the insane
letter treatment, and especially to keep
them from being made an object of inter-
est 70 curiosity seekers. The book will
undoubtedly arouse storm in the State of
Indiana.
Mrs. Agnew says insanity came on her
like a flash Of lightning, AMI its chief fca-
ture was the in7uI sc to tatSe her own life.
grew older she married and settled in
Cincinnati. She adds: "After the birth of
my third child in the spring of 1876, was
attacked with nervous prostration and
awakened one morning insane. 1 real
lied my condition, but for three years I
remained at home. My ruling passion
oil this time was to take my own life. /
used to have about my kitchen shoe
knife which was very sharp; that knife
haunted me. l would hide il. and an hour
afterward an impulse l conld not govern
would lead me 10 it. The fear became so
terrible that at la l threw it in a well
one day and then was unal le to get it
again. 1 tried other plans to rid my self of
life, Tut they failed. The next step
in the disease was the desire TO take
the life of my children. i watched
for opportunities, and my great hope was
to be able to kill them and then myself. /
feared 1 had cured them with insanity
and thought the best l could do would be
to take them out of existence. did give
the youngest poison one day, and then,
with the vacillation of insanity, l went
and told my husband what l had done.
The proper remedies were applied and the
child's life was saved. was then sent to
the Asylum for the Insane at Indianapolis
This was in 1879 and was there for near
ly seven years. My case was considered
hopeless.
''The superintehdents were invariably
kind, but the doings in the wards were se-
cretseeal from them. l secured the i'll.
will of the assistant superintendent, and
/ he made my life n perfect hen. He placed
me in an epileptic ward, and when I was
taken out of that ward at the end of a year
had on the same calico dres in which
| had entered. The sleeves were worn
away, the shoulder blades had worn
through, anl it hung in tatters. A
popularity of my disease" Mrs Agnew
continues, 'was that could find no words
in which to express myself. could think
lat the only talking / couli do was 10
swear in a most horrible manner. An i'm
pulse would seize me, and I had to do
something. | would pick up a chair and
break it to pieces; l would run my hand
/ through panes of glass or l would swear
in the most violent manner. When the
assistant superintendent died expressed
my joy by cutting off my hair. Oh, but he
was hated! l heard one night, whe the
windows were raised, away over in an
other part of the building, a woman
swearing md shouting with Joy
because he was dead. But the
ward attendants were the worst They
~ere mostly Inexperienced young girls.
They would heap all kinds of indignities
upon the patients. There was one lady
there from the South who thought she was
Mrs. President Hayes. / have seen the
attendants drag her by the hair to the
bathroom and make her wash their stock
ings, telling her that the State of Indiana
pail them for making her do such things.
l have often been dragged by my hair to
the dining ROOM"
Mrs. Agnew relates that the first time
she could speak nationally was in answer
TO the superintendent, who told her she
wanted to tell him something. She then
tol him about two attendants stealing
beer from one of the patients. Then she
was possess d with desire to sing. She
went TO the piano and sang "Then Your
! aemcm, e. Me.''
The lady adds: "One of the attendants
who had always treated mo kindly, came
running out OF her room, threw her arms
around me, burst into tears and said: oh,
| Mrs. Agnew, didn't know you could eing.
You'll get well right away After that ]
| sung every evening, anu maze up my mind
| to swear no more. l would sing for hours
/ at Time, and from that tina l grew bet.
ter till l was cured. But how politely the
attendants treated me when they found
out that l knew and remembered all their
indignities in thu past ~
| Mrs. Agnew's friends vouch for the truth
Of the story, and her book will give cor.
rect names and dates.