The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-06-04
Abducted to Madhouse, and
Kept in Horrible Cell Is Tes-
timony of Nurse in Charge
Mrs. Holman Says
Husband Was Cause
Sues for $4,000 Damages.
Two Prominent Physicians
Charged With Being Ac-
completes Are Defendants.
Plaintiff Club Member

Hartford. Conn, June s----More sen
,9ationaI disclosures Of the manner
whereby she was abducted to Yer
mont madhouse and Of her terrible ex'
4stence there tor three weeks develop
ed in the United States court here to-
day, when Mrs. Elizabeth Alden Curtis
Holman, wife of Frederick Ernest
Holman, of Watervtlle. Maine. head
of a. Boston news concern, materially
aided her case and was strongly
,corroboraied by an asylum nurse, III
her conspiracy suit for $4,000 dam.
aes against her divorced husband and
Doctors Oliver e. Smith and Pau
Waterman. both prominent HARTFORD
phystciars. The divorced, husband Ii
Rev. Cransfon Breaton, Of lonkers
n Y, from here he directs the So
csal service bureau Of the Episcopa.
Church I'm New York State, ane
formerly professor Of English liter
allure at Trinity college, this city, al
the time he secured q number o. votes
for suffragant 10 Bishop Chauncey Is
brewster Mrs Holman withstood
the searching cross examination well
When confronted with her book
THE Norsenam," a beautiful poetic
drama, which ran through private
issue Of two hundred copies she
quietly admitted the authorship. also
that the first letters of the verses IN
.ha introduction formed an arcostlc
rrrtft-rs- . MI loEa4
and she further acknowledged thai
Ernest was her present husband WAC
had not then bean divorced from MS
nrft wife.
Don't YOU think your husband was
Justified in ob3ecting - such work
.sNo. because Ne did not know any
thing about the hidden arcrost3o. and
tyrrsv1su- ~
tees had not been living with hin. as
his wife for sc me years, do no. sup
pose II was quite socially proper
After she was divorced she married
Holman, who was named In Brenton
cross bill Of divorce.
Nurse T~stffes.
Mrs Holman Was temporarily with
drawn from the witness stand 10 erahle
Miss Lucy Townsend. a nurse OF BaTra
Vermont, 10 testify and depart on .
nursing asst garment. Miss Townsenc,
who was special attendant on Mrs
Holman. testified that the Rrattleboro
madhouse was an old-fashioAsd insane
asylum for panper patients, who were
never quiet and some of whom had
suicidal and homioidal manIas. and
speaked into Mrs. Brentons room al
night. The dishes OF the tuherculaF pa
TENTS were washed with AL the other
dlshes Chairs and dishes were thrown
at meals, and Mira. Holman WAS struck.
Ehe lost weight so that finally the
nurses. who could not consult directly
with Superintendent $. IL, Lawton. IN
vifed her 10 their table, although they
spent most OF their wages buying food
outside. because they could not eat the
a = cell w "a
eheaply furnished with "a small Iron
bed. bars on the windows, no space
for a trunk, and no lights. All letters
were brought to the SUPERINTENDENT.
who permitted Mrs. Holman 10 write
only to her husband. and the defend
ant doctors She said Linden Lodge,
70 which she was later transferred.
was run by Mrs. Fitch sister of SUI
perintendent Lawton. ~ the asylum,
half a mile away. The nurse testi-
fed she always had Mrs. Holman under
restraint, that visits by Brenton and
Or. Waterman upset Mrs, Holman ter
rthly. and that Dir. Jawton told her
Mrs Holman was not insane.
Nuts, autumn leaves, and other
things picked up In the woods and
toys sent her little hoy. Jonathan. were
returned by Brenton
IT would do, or say. most anything
Tor them II Gnef Wouiu Only take IEe
away from here" sobbed Mrs, Holman
one day while walking with Miss Town
send.
Cell Was limit.
She declared Mrs. Holman's cell at
the asylum was = filthy little affair,
and that the one window could he
raised only seven inches behind the
barred grating Miss Townsend de-
c1ared photographs showed her by the
defense were much decorated, and in
timated the asylum interior had been
hxed up for the occasion as She had
never seen 1t SO orderly.
Judge Thomas excluded an adver-
Using circular because the nurse said
the pictures were not fair representa-
tons of the buildings. Though Mrs.
Holman's actions were not voluntary,
Eke was permitted to write in her
cell and produced .storette. THE
Bird Cage" until her paper was ex-
hausted
On cross examination this afternoon
Mrs, Holman said she was a member
Of the Authors club. of Boston. and
before her abduction was taking ste
biography lessons at her mothers ex,
pense in the hope that she would be
able to earn a livelihood in case she
left Brentnn. She explained affection
ate letters to her husband from Brat
tleboro by saying she thought playing
penitent part and being model pa
tient was the best way to placate her
prosecutors and thus shortening her
term Of imprisonment. She said. she
destroyed letters she received from
Brenton. and she had been unable to
secure other letters and papers from
Stiles Judson, her original counsel.
u who Ia III at Stratford.
N Had 70 Confess"
Sho remembered her husband wrote
her that no letters were To be given