The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-11-17
THE ARKANsAw TRAVELLER

into strips and made them into a rope
that ! might escape imprisonment and
descend to the grass, flowers, and SUM-
shine that covered the fields and gar
dens below.
My mind was 30 wild and muscles
SO strong for boy of eighteen that it
took half dozen attendants to over
power and strap me down to an iron
cot. In fact, smashed things fear
fully and tore off every garment from
my body in an imagined desperate
fight for liberty, the sweetest and
dearest thing to the human heart, and
especially to the insane mind. OF
course, a lot of rough and brutal
attendants overpowered my body, but
they did not convince my mind nor
quiet my voice against their terrible
tyranny. No! the soul within was
more defiant than ever and no physical
punishment could subdue the God
given mind or curb it's lofty flights.
was finally taken out Of the regu-
lar wards and put in q place called
Botany Bay, at the end of the lawn,
where the maddest msniacs were con-
signed to straight jackets, dungeon
chains, and the tortures of q living
hell. Wild, horrible, unearthly shrieks
sounded In my ears night and day, and
all the imps of pandemonium mar
tailed in an Internal battalion could
not have made more changer to my
mind. All was "like sweet bells
tangled out of tune" I was turned
into an open vault room to parade
with the rest of the wild animals, but
soon the doctors and attendants learn
ed that l was a royal Bengal tiger and
would not herd with common beasts.
| Immediately put to fight the big
gest of the drove and made them COVER
before my imagined superiority. A
big, burly attendant finally slipped
up behind me, felled me to the floor
and dragged me to dark room, where
l was chained to the wall, strapped to
a bare iron cot, punished and rebuked
for a poor, distorted mind that God
In His wisdom endowed me with.
l myself was not myself, but what
was left of my Independent self re-
VOTED at the ignorant and cruel treat
ment of men who knew not that soul
and liberty cannot be mastered, curbed,
or confined by brutal blows. You
may stripe, torture, and kill the frail
tenement Of clay, but no cruel ingen-
uity of man has yet devised the means
to harness the immortal mind. The
blow of the attendant rarkled more in
my mind than body. / determined to
be even with the ignorant brute who
struck me. One day, when I had gained
little liberty, / awaited the attend
ant behind the door of my cell, and as
he passed by I struck him with my
boot-heel, the only weapon had. II
came near killing the fellow, and was,
of course, disciplined again; but felt
in my heart that the blow I struck
the brute was only q partial punish
ment for the many secret injuries he
had inflicted on my fellow lunatics.
For weeks was confined in small
basement room, with an upper grated
window to admit light and air. My
door was bolted and food was poked
through an aperture, as wild beasts are
fed in circus cage.
AL was lonely and sad until made |
friends of two little mice and family
of gray spiders that sought my cell |
for safety. Part ofmy daily food was
set apart for the mice. At first they |
were shy at my impulsive movements
and shrieking voice and would dart
into their hole like q flash. But
finally kindness begot confidence, con-
fidence banished fear, and in a short
time they ate from my hand, played |
on the cot, or danced around the room |
to low musical trill that / whistled
for their amusement. The big dark |
spiders would come out of their web |
and eat the flies / caught for their |
meal. Sometimes they would fight |
for their food, but like metropolitan |
policeman came to the rescue when |
both were exhausted and separated |
them with straw. Like q WE'LL reg
ulated housekeeper, the wife would |
soon go to work weaving fine brown
garb around the innumerable eggs she
laid, while the "old man" would spin
long yarns up and down the wall,
scampering over his growing web
with the mathematical precision of q
scientific surveyor. He was perfect
10 all his gossamer lines, and the oc-
tagonal shapes that seemingly grew
out of his mouth and feet filled me
with nameless surprise. When the
mice or the spiders heard footsteps at |
my door they would Immediately stop |
play or work and run into their holes, |
seeming TO know that sane man was |
on his round of ignorance to minister
to the insane. But what cared for
the cruelty of man:
With spiders had friendship made,
And watched them In their sullen trade:
Had seen the nice by moonlight play,
And why should feel less than they?
We were ell inmates Of one place,
And the monarch Of each race.