The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-08-27
TESTIMONY
 CONFLICTING Hospital Investigation Is Continued. FORMER NURSES ON STAND One Man Swears He Will Sue the
 Institution.
 ~ piametrical stories Are Told By Pa- tients And Empioyes Of The States Home For The
 Insane.
FORMER NURSES ON STAND
BY WILL T. STEPHAN.

4 The State commission to investigate the charges against the Bryce Hospital for the Insane sat through hot Au- gust day and heard cross fire testimony on conditions that existed at the hos pital According to the conflicting testimony the nurses were never cruel or they were always cruel. The food was always good or 1t was never good. The nurses never attacked the patients or they were always attacking pa- tients
 The testimony of Miss Crump at Birmingham that she had seen a wo- man beaten to death was flatIy denied by Mrs. Price who was charged in the testimony with being present. Mrs. Price is a discharged nurse and she has no love for the hospital or its management. But she swore that any statement that a woman was killed while she was at the hospital was un- true. She releated two incidents in which she declared nurses had beaten women patients over the heads with their slippers.
 A former patient swore that nurse told him. T have got me man today. He is up in the cross hall" The wit ness said he went up there and found a man dead with bruises on his stom- ache but the witness was indefinite as to the names and places
 Striking Nurses Testify.
 A procession of ex-nurses followed each other to the stand at the after noon session. They were the men who had been discharged from the hospital because they had banded together and gone out on strike. Notwithstanding orable to the hospital management. They testified to one or two acts of violence by the nurses but these nurses were instantiy discharged by the naanagement. One nurse was dis-i charged because he spoke insuitingly to patient
 The ex-nurses who testified at the afternoon session were J. T. Norris, Will Springer. A. B. Ward, c. c. Glass, John Wilson and W. A. Shep- herd. In one instance a patient had been kicked in the side and on an- other occasion a nurse had subdued patient by choking him with towel But nurses who did such things were quickly discharged.
 Will May, Robert BricknelI and c D. Hicks who had been patients at the hospital declared that there were fre- quent instances of cruelty on the part of nurses Hicks said that all the nurses beat up the patients
 They broke dozen broom sticks over my head and I am going to sue the institution" said Hicks.
 The commission will sit at the hos pital tomorrow and will examine pa- tfents of the institution.
 Hearing in Court House.
 The public hearing, the first held in Tuscaloosa, was in the old fashioned court house of Tuscaloosa county one of the oldest in the State. In a queer old court room, dating back to a period before the war. the commission as- I sembled to hear the statements of some twenty-five witnesses who had been summoned from various sections of the State.
 The names of the witnesses had come into the possession of the Commission through voluntary letters in which the Commission was told that certain peo- pie could tell of the cruelty of the nurses. The Commission when 1t as- sembled for business sat about the tables within the bar railing. The wit nesses sat on the regular witness stand of the court room and told their story to the Commission.
  sion were present and Pat McGauley, the Commissions stenographer. was in attendance. The Hospital management was represented by Judge J. M. Chill ton. of Montgomery. and Judge J. J. MayfieId. of Tuscaloosa. Two cases of cruelty which fell un- der his eye were testified to by A. J. Bridges, former nurse, who is now engaged in farming at Carrollton. l The alleged cruelties were perpetrated during November. One of the victims | was Bennie Greil, a Montgomery pa tient. Bridges said that the patients | were in the field picking up potatoes. Greil grew tired and said he was not | going to work any more. Bridges said | that nurse named Mckinney siezed | him and choked him until he agreed to | go to work again. About the same time. while the pa- tients were wheeling fertilizer to the | farm. one of the patients refused to | run his wheelbarrow over a muddy | place. One of the nurses. named Free man. the witness swore, knocked him l down with the handle of a shovel Was the nurse discharged. who | choked Greil2'' asked Senator Reese.
 Yes. sir" replied the witness. They discharged him as soon as they heard of it."
 The witness said that he had fre- quently heard patients say that they had been beaten and choked. but the two instances he recounted were the only ones which fell under his per sonal observation.
 why did you leave the hospitalT' asked Judge Mayfeld.
 q was discharged" said the witness. | "Why?"
 "oh. some of the nurses charged me with drinking some whiskey,' replied the witness while the crowd laughed. But the witness said all the nurses drank. He could not. however. be pin ned down to specific names and per- sons The witness declared that Su- pervisor McDuff. was fine man." notwithstanding the fact that he had discharged the witness.
 Stirring Testimony.
 Some stirring testimony was given by R. M Cornelius. an ex-nurse. al- though 1t dated back to 1898. While he was Q nurse in the hospital P. D.