The Montgomery advertiser., 1907-09-04
CRUELTIES
 ARE DENIED Winters and Holman Are Examined. coRRoBoRATES THE TESTIMONY Witnesses Were in Charge of
 Violent Mad, Ex-solicitor Manly Foster Testifies Be- fore Commission That Former
 Nurse At Hospital Is An Ex-Conyict.
BY WILL T. sHEEHAN.


 Tuscaloosa, Sept S.-(special. Win ters and Holman. two red-headed young men from the hills of Tuscaloosa coun- ty, today took the stand before the commissioners to investigate charges against the Bryce Hospital and de- med separately and in detail the sensa- tionaI allegations made by patients in Ward 9.
 The testimony of the young men dealt in detail with the deaths of John T. Hines, of Lauderdale county, Rich ard Johnson. of Chambers county, and Rev. J. w. Paulk, of Lauderdale coun- ty Hospital patients had sworn that they had heard that these men had been murdered. Winters and Holman have figured largely in the testimony of the witnesses who swore that they had seen acts of violence in the hos pitaL They are not bad looking men. Both are red of hair and red or face, fair types of the red-haired country boys whose appearance In the war won for the Alabama troops the nickname of yellow hammers" They were in charge of Ward g, the noisest. the most violent and the most dangerous ward in the hospital. If there is a bedlam in the hospital, it is Ward 9. On the first days inspection of the hospital one member of the legislative commits sion was trying to identify 1t to an- other this noisy and violent ward
 "Oh, you remember that ward, that is the ward that looks like the House of Representatives looked the afternoon after the big banquet" said the mem- ber
 From this ward, from it's violent in- mates have come most of the charges of cruelty, for all charges of cruelty have colue from patients who were vio- lent while they were in the hospital. Each of the charges were taken up in detail today and each charge was de- nied both by Winters and Holman. They swore that they had never struck q patient. nor had they ever seen q patient abused, Winters testified par- ticularly to che death of Johnson. He had died slowly and naturally with the doctors in attendance upon him. When asked if hal had been violent towards Johnson, Winters said:
 How could I? The man was so weak he could hardly raise his head"
 Holman gave particular evidence on the death of Hines and his testimony coincided with that of Nurse Curry. who swore that Hines was killed by a fall on a bench. Holman denied that he had kicked Hines. as one wit ness had testified, as he lay on the floor. He said thata he helped to lead Hines to the cross hail. and there Hines stopped down, united his shoes and helped the nurses undress h!m. A lit tie later he became very sick and the doctors were notified.
 Dr.. Taylor Testified.
 This testimony was corroborated in part by pr. G. L. Taylor formerly physician at the hospital, but now practicing at Tuskegee Dr. Taylor said that he found Hines desperately i'll, and he died in a few hours. Dr. Tay- Tor held a post -mortem and found that there was only one external brufse. It was located near the center of the stomach.
 The>lnterior of the stomach had been torn apart. The injury could have been caused by the fall on the bench as the nurses testified. pr. Taylor was also questioned as to the system and man. agement of the hospital. Under the system. he said. it would have been irn- possible for any such cruelties to have been practiced as were testified to by some of the witnesses,
 Winters said he was discharged from the hospital because he came in one night with a load he had gotten from the dispensary Holman said he had been discharged because the doctors said he had carried patient too rough ly up the stairs.
 Hon J. Manly Foster testified to Winters being convicted while a mere boy of killing man in a fight. Mir. Foster was solicitor at the time and he was in doutb as to whether the boy should have been convicted. On his recommendation Governor Johnston pardoned Winters.
 MT. Foster is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Hospital. He ex- plained the sytem of inspection by the members of the Board and said that with the increased cost of living the present appropriation for the mainten- snce was too small
 J. C. Thomas. a former nurse but now keeper of the poor house, swore he saw a patient named Berger killed through mistreatment over four years ago while Berger with a gang of working patients was working a road. He escaped and ran down the road and he was recaptured by two nurses, Crook and Lindsay. The witness swore that the two nurses made Berger do more work than any other two of the pa tients for running away although 1t was a very hot afternoon. That night Berger died of sunstroke.
 In his cross examination of this wit ness, Judge Chiffon was almost fierce.
 The last testimony of the day was given by J. l.. Mckinley. an ex-nurse, who like the other witnesses had never seen patients beaten or mistreated.
 The commission may finish with the testimony tomorrow night
 CrOas-E X animation.
 The testimony of the ex-nurses in the cross-examination was drawn out along certain definite lines. They were asked. first, as to the supervision of the nurses by the hospital authori- ties; second, as to the manner of hand ling patients, and third. as to the qual- ity of the food. On their direct exami- nation. the witness having been sum moned by the hospital management they were closely questioned as to what they had seen in the hospital walls And they were asked to compare the Alabama Hospital with the institutions of other States. where these nurses had been employed for practically all of them had served as nurses in other State institutions.
 The witnesses had not seen part of the cruelty which had been sworn to by some of the insane witnesses. They described the way in which the violent