Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1917-02-28
RETREAT INVESTIGATION
TESTIMONY REVOLVING.
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up by the wrists one morning, after
which she lost consciousness and did
not come to her senses until night.
A brief clash between Mr.. Wilson
and attorney Gibson enlivened Satur-
day mornings session. Mr.. Wilson,
after testifying regarding the cruelty
of an attendant towards patient,
whom, he (Wilson) had taken to the
retreat, grew first restless, and then
angry, under the grilling cross-eX-
animation of Mr.. Gibson, and re-
turned sharp answers to some of the
attorneys questions. Senator Fair
child, chairman of the investigating
committee, interviewed and Mr.. Glib
son apologized to the committee and
to Mr.. Wilson for any undue severity
which he might have shown in his
! questioning.
What is conceded to be the most
| damaging evidence yet given against
| the Retreat was offered Monday, by
| Miss Marguerite Guyette and Foster
! R. Clement of Burlington and Charles
Batchelder, an attorney of Bethel.
While the evidence given by Mr..
Batchelder lacked the loathsomeness
of that of the other witnesses, it had
a tendency to show, if true, that the
| attendants at the institution are unfit
| to have charge of insane patients and
| that moral conditions among the at
| tendants are bad. Mr.. Batchelder
also made unfattering comments re-
garding the fare served to State pa
tents although he himself was a
voluntary private patient at the re-
| treat.
E. W. Gibson, attorney for the re-
treat, failed to shake the testimony OF
either witness in his cross-examlna-
ton. He attempted to show that Mrs.
| Clement had to be confined in a
sparsely furnished room because of
her tendency to destroy everything
around her, that she was profane and
vituperative and Of uncleanly habits.
In q conversation with newspaper men
Miss Guyette said that Mrs. Clement
was immaculate when at home and
that habits were engendered by con-
ditions at the retreat.
Mrs. Barrett, who was the first wit
ness on Friday, testified at great
length, but contributed little evidence
of Importance regarding conditions at
the retreat. Her husband, William
Barrett of ST. Johnsbury, who had for
some time BEEN patient at the re-
treat, died on July II, 1913. A
friend, Fred Taylor of st. Johns
bury, who testified before the COM
mittee, said that he had seen Barrett
on the afternoon of the Thursday
previous to his death and that he
appeared to be physically we'll
When his body arrived at ST. Johns
bury there was a mark extending
from his forehead across his nose
which might have been made by a
blow from club.
Attorney E. w. Gibson for the re-
treat, put in evidence letters from
DR.. S. E. Lawton, superintendent of
the retreat, to Mrs. Barrett, and also
one from Lawton to Charles A. Col
lingwood from ST. Johnsbury, friend
of Barrett, in which the physician
stated that Barrett was suffering
from melancholia and might die at
any time. A letter written by Mrs
Barrett to DR.. Lawton on July &C.
two weeks after Mr.. Barrett's DEATH
in which she thanked the doctor for
his kindness to Mr.. Barrett, was also
put in evidence. Mrs. Barrett stated
that the reason she did not take &C
ton against the retreat was because
her relatives and friends advised her
not to do so. The witness became
agitated during the hearing and wept
Judge J. C. Frye of ST. Johnsbury
testified that both Miss Gertrude
Graham and Mrs. Elizabeth Murray
of ST. Johnsbury, witnesses against
the retreat at the previous days
hearing, bore the regulations of being
morphine addicts. Miss Graham had
appeared better in the last year or so.
She lived with Mrs. Murray and the
two were always together
Representative A. Wilson stated
that on one occasion some three or
four years ago, he, as deputy sheriff
of Bennington county, had taken a
patient to the Brattleboro retreat,
who had been committed there by the
probate court. When he arrived at
the institution, his patient resisted
and chung to the sides of the carriage.
An attendant came out of the retreat,
asked Wilson to step aside, saying
that he could handle the patient, and
when the former did so, yanked the
insane man out of the carriage and
hurled him against the stone steps of
the retreat, cutting a cash in his
head, and rendering him unconscious
Wilson said that he demanded to see
DR.. Lawton, but was told that he was
in Boston, and he then threw his com
mitment papers on the office table
and told the attendant he 'would
never bring tom-cat to that place
again."