Evening journal., 1889-05-20
CRUELTY IN A MADHOUSE.
Richard Strang's Awful Story
of Persecution.
HIS LETTERS ARE INTERCEPTED.

lie Suffered rom Slight Chill, but Belle
vue Hospital Doctors Treat Him for
Insanity Becoming Desperate, He
Makes Dash for Liberty.
NEW YORK, May 20-Many queer tales Of
strange conduct on the part of Wards Island
and Bellevue hospital officials toward pa
tents in their care have lately been told and
authenticated, but the widest fancy Of the
sensation novelist never conceived more
startling story of hospital and madhouse
experience than that related by Richard
STang, Of Maspeth, l. l.
Last September he said to a reporter.
II suffered from malaria. On the 22d OF
that month | was walking down Third ave
nue. in New York when | was seized with a
chill. ! went to drug store at Twenty
fourth street and First avenue and asked for
medicine to relieve me. l was referred to
Bellevue hospital, and on entering the re-
ception room asked to see a doctor. No at
tention was paid to me, aud l waited about
an hour.
Attendants seized and Bound Him.
"Then a couple Of attendants came to me
and told me to stand up. On my doing so,
the attendants seized me, and told me they
intended to take me to DIR. Douglass insane
pavilion. They led me outside, when broke
away from thsm and managed to climb over
the Twenty-sixth street wall. The attand-
ants got out through the gate, caught me
and oyerpowered me They took mo to the
insane pavilion, where was placed in a cell
| was then made to got into a bath tub,
when they bundled my clothes up and
threatened to strap me down to a bed. had
made no outcry since l entered the cell, and
there was no occasion for such a threat
Il did not sleep that night, and when DR..
Douglass came in the next morning he asked
me if / wanted medical treatment or had
come to investigate the hospital | told the
doctor where lived and asked him TO notify
my wife, but he paid no attention to me
Applying Electricity.
"Soon after this was taken to the college
lecture room across Twenty-sixth street, and
was posed before an audience of students A
doctor questioned me as to my habits, and
then, while was seated in a chair German
attendant touched off an electric button and
caused a current to pass through me by
means Of a wire attached to the chair was
then taken back to Bellevue hospital, and on
the following Tuesday, Sept. 25, / was trans
ferred to Wards Island Insane asylum There
! was bathed, and thin suit Of clothes was
| given me to wear. The clothes were 50 thin
and miserable that / caught cold, from
which / am stin suffering.
Il was in the asylum three weeks before
my wife learned of my whereabouts. She
came TO me at once and brought some under
clothing, and gave me besides 81 in silver,
which I afterward gave to an attendant
Later this attendant advised my wife to get
me out Of the place, as / was not insane, but
would be # remained there much longer
strang Becomes Desperate.
81 became despondent, ami for nineteen
days could scarcely eat One day Keeper
Burke struck me twice on the head with an
immense key which he carried because / re-
fused some food that was offered me. / was
sent to hospital ward 2, where the stomach
pump was used on me twice
Later was transferred to ward II, where
DR.. Murray continually experimental upon
me. Then was sent back to ward .
Stealing His Money.
I'm the meantime my wife had sent several
letters to me, but l never received them
Soon after getting back to ward > my wife
called on me again, and brought me some
food and clothing and another dollar. put
tie money in handkerchief and went out
side in the corridor to bid my wife good-by.
While we were together an attendant stole
the money
"That night / found the bed damp, and
when objected to lying down on it the at
tendant struck me and knocked me down.
Next day l was taken to different room
where my wife visited me two or three time.
a week Finally she asked the doctors to dis
charge me, but they refused. They offered
to transfer me to the Flatbush asylum, but
she would not consent, so l remained on tht
island.
Zone Sunday in January an attendant
brought me my clothes and said was to bG
released. He kept the underclothes that my
wife had brought me- and when / asked fol
them he refused to give me them.
strangss Dash for Liberty.
1.-THE next morning l was taken back to
TwentY-sixth street. and then, instead oi
being released, was taken to the Office Of
Commissioner Blake at Eleventh street and
Third avenue
There / was kept waiting so long that
suspected they were only going to transfer
me to Fiatbush asylum determined theI
to escape, and, watching my opportunity
dashed out of the building and down ThirC
avenue A truck with quantity of blank
cts was paging. and jumped on it and
rolling blanket about me, rode to Houston
street, where / secured the services Of
friend and got home that night
"Ward 2 of Wards island is what is know
as a parlor ward Visitors are allowe,
there, and everything is kept clean an,
good. My food there was very fair indeed.
"Ward 9, however, is not a parlor ward
No visitors are allowed there, and the foo
and the accommodations for patients ar,
horrible
Arc Other Sane Patients in the DTadhouse
l "Such was my experience at Bellevue an
, Wards Island / called at the hospital 70
medicine to relieve a chill, and was railroade
to the madhouse. believe from what / SAL
and noNy know about those institutions tina
there are many unfortunates in both place
who are the victims of just such experience
as had, and who are no more insane tina
/ am
when l entered the asylum / was stron
and sturdy, but the people there broke m
health and am now physical wreck
Mr.. Strang is a tobacconist by occupation
: and lives at Maspeth with his wife and
= family of eight children His neighbors a
Q speak well of him, and pronounce his il
. voluntary incarceration in an insane asylul
as unnecessary and unwarranted.
Z Killed His 19-Year-oId wife.
d New York, May 20.-Charles Wilson shC
and instantly killed his wife Louise. aged
years, on the Boulevard at Eighty first stree