Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1886-05-18
SECRETS OF AN ASYLUM.
Patients Dragged by the Hair and
Their Lives Made Burdensome.

From the Neto York Tribune.
PIrTsBURG, May 13.-Mrs. Annie Ag-
new, of Main street, LawrenceViIle, has
written book entitled "From Under
Cloud" the manuscript OF which she has
just placed in the hands of publishers.
The volume records the observations of
the seven years life OF a patient, Mrs.
Agnew herself, in an asylum for the in
sane, patient who was supposed to be
hopelessly insane, but who Unexpectedly
recovered, and with her recovery de-
veloped wonderful memory for details.
Mrs. Agnew says insanity came on her
like flash of lightning and the chief fea-
ture of 1t was desire to take her own
life. This was in her younger days. She
married and settled in Cincinnati. After
the birth of my third child, in the spring
of 1876" she adds, ~ was attacked with
nervous prOstratiOn and awakened one
morning insane. L knew it. For three
years | was at home insane; the ruling
passion all 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 it and
an hour afterward an impulse l could not
govern would lead me to it. The fear be-
came so terrible that at last l threw
it in a well one dav and then l was
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to rid myself of life, but they failed. The
next step in the disease was the desire to
take the lite of my children. l watched
for opportunities, and my great hope was
to be able to kill them and then myself.
feared | had cursed them with insanity,
and the best | could do would be to take
them out OfeXistence. l gave the young
est poison one day, and then with the
vaccillatiOn Of insanity l told my hus-
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dies were applied, and the child's life was
saved. But l was sent to the asylum for
the insane at Indianapolis. This was in
1879, and l was there for nearly seven
years.
my case was considered hopeless. The
superintendent were Invariably kind
but the doings in the wards were secrets
sealed from them. 1 secured the i'll will
OF the assistant uperintendent, and he
made my life perfect hell. He placed
me in an epileptic ward, and when 1 was
taken out of that ward at the end of a
year had on the same calico dress. The
sleeves were worn away, the shoulder
blades had worn through and it hung in
tatters. The popularity of my disease
was that l could not find words in which
to express myself. l could think, but the
only talking could do was to swear in a
horrible manner. An impulse would seize
me, and l had to do something.
l would pick up a chair
and break it to pieces. l would
run my hand through panes of glass.
When that assistant superintendent died
l expressed my joy by cutting of my hair.
o, but he was hated. l heard one night
when the windows we're raised away over
in another part of the building a woman
swearing and shouting with joy because
he was dead. But the ward attendants
were the worst. They were mostly mex
perienced Young girls. They would heap
all kinds Of indignities upon the patients.
There was one lady there from the South
VINO thought she was the wife of Presi-
dent Hayes. l have seen the attendants
drag her by the hair to the bath room and
make her wash their stockings, telling
her that the State of Indiana paid them
for making her do such things. / have
often been dragged by the hair to the
dining-room."