The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1891-04-11
A WONDERFUL TALE.
Anna Dickinson's Grave Charges
Against Her Sister.
moARoERATED WITHOUT CAUSE


Greed-Dr. Seward Asserts That
She Is Perfectly Sane.
New York, April 11.-Less than two
months ago the public was shocked by
the story that Miss Anna Dickinson,
the gifted and eloquent lecturer for the
Republican national committee, had
lost her reason and had been confined in
madhouse hopelessly insane. Miss
Dickinson. after escaping by chance
from imprisonment almost as dreadful
as living entombment, tells a story of
wrongs and sufferings which she has
undergone during the past few weeks,
and alleges that she is the victim of a
conspiracy deliberately planned and car
Fied ont by her own sister.
After Miss Dickinson's incarceration
many of her friends, who knew of the
circumstances of her family, whom she
has always supported, started subscrip-
tions to provide for the wants of her
sister, who is now the only one remain
ing. her father, mother and brother
having all died within the past three
years. When it was learned by Miss
Dickinson through the newspapers,
since her essape from Danville, that this
had been done, and that certain sums
oi money had been paid over to her sis
Ter Susan, she has sent word to those
who have been receiving these dona-
tlons to accept no more.
Miss Dickinson attributes her sisters
conduct towards her to hatred and jeal-
o;sy and grasping desire for money.
Dn.9ng the last year, she says, they had
beea:te reduced to very straitened cir
cnmstaices. and her sisters treatment
Oh her was harsh and unsympathetic.
Valuable Papers Altered.
As a further reason for Susan's con-
duct Miss Anna Dickinson makes the
following statement:
In the course OF my long public life have
rcceived n very large nu mber of letters from
prualinent man in national affairs. These
letters are simply invaluable to me; brlievo
that many OF them are of value to posterity.
hal them In boxes In til, Al tic of the Pitts
lou h1usD. In the arly days of February I
TOOK occasion to examine some of the letters
found to my intense surprise that they had
benn tamp3red with. Not only wli ths order
In which thsy ha bSen pat away disturbed.
and not only wete there plain m trks of dis
turbing hands In othe + ways, but the letters
Themselves hal bssn altered. Somebuly
with a cunning pea had been changing dates.
altering words. giving different sense to
significant phrases. l found at the same
time evidences on craps of paper around the
house that somsbody hal b,ea practiclng
feats OF expert penmanslip In the way of
Initiated signatures, and 50 on.
NOW II will seem odd to you that should
hdduco nny such story a. this as evidence in
ms defense, but whel tell you that many
OF these letters were of Significance and an
Importance which | cannot well overrate,
and shat the changes that vera made in
them were of a kind that would work to the
advantage of any one who hal Il scheme to
use them against me. you can understand
more clearly what | mean. Farther than
this cannot 90 at present, because it would
deal with matters which properly belong to
the sourts, and some things which are not
mine 70 reveal, anyway.
As soon as | discovered what had been
gong on | brought the boxes containing
these precious documents down to my room
and locked my door upIn them when went
out. for the purp ose of securing them. I
also spoke To my sister as to tho outrage
that la i been committed upon my property,
and sho resented what said.
Her First Suspicious.
s.Tfhe first attempt that was made against
me was on Feb. ~ They gIv1 ms "a cup of
hrugged coffee, which made me violently in,
Rnh which made ms aware that there wns on
foot plot to put mo out of the way. AT
thNt iiuHleni uttctminsl To come to New
YORK And SC my attorneys, Howe a. flum-
mel, about tbs oase and also about my suit
ngHinsl the Republican national committee,
but was prevented"
On Feb. 20 she says that while she was at
work In her room her door was burst open
and six men, inclu ling George Thompson, a
neighbor "A DIR. Hieman and n man namad
Eggiest IN, all friends of her sister, came in
and after a hard struggle overpowered and
bound her hand aud foot.
She says; They rushed upon me nm seized
my arms and pulled the window down. |
struggled until the skin was torn from nv
wrists, and until the light garments 1 wore
were ripped from me in rags and tatters
Then they got my hands down and tied them
together.
Il appealed to the men to respect a
woinan's dellcacy. They picked ms up and
like a bnle of goods they dragged and hustled
me down the stairs to the front door and
threw me int carriage Hileman and
Thompson jumped in to the ca rriage with me
and held me. The driver whipped up and
they hurried away to the West Plttston sta
tion and thence 20 tho Danvile asylum
II understand that a story has been given
out that made desperate break to escape
from tho train. NV desperate break con-
Bsted In standing up aud appealing To the
passengers for paper and pencil on which
To write a Dispatch. | had previously asked
the conductor four times and the brakeman
three times for this accommodation with
out receiving so much as look In answer,
which shows how completely the thing had
been arranged beforehand"
Subjected to Indignities.
Niles Dickinson graphically describes her
life at this asylum, and tells of many un- d.
successful efforts to communicate with her
friends. She says she was roughly treated
and subjected TO all sorts of indgnities.
The food was bad, and no medicine was
provided for her, although she was suffer-
Ing greatly from sickness all the time.
She spent flve weeks ut Danyille In con-
stant dread OF being sent to some private asy-
lum. where she feared that she would bo
buried completely. When she heard that
D.. Seward had come to take her away she
believed that the worst had come
Her fears were not realized, however for
she found In him an honest man and a friend.
who has been the means of restoring her to
freedom again. She says that she believed
her sister hal her removed to Goshen be-
cause she feared that the newspapers, which
had been calling attention to the fact that
Anna Dickinson was confined as q pauper
mi In nm. xbt