The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1917-02-28
PUNISH PATIENTS
BY HAIR PULLING
AT ASylUMS
Witness Said Practice Is Common
In Vermont InStltut ons
RETREAT INVESTIGATION HEARING
Testimony Not So Narrowing Though
Tending to Show Attendants Were
Too Few.

| Montpelier, Feb. 27.-The testimony
of the six witnesses, who today testi-
| fed before the legislative committee,
which is conducting the investigation
of the Brattleboro Retreat lacked the
sensationalism and the narrowing de-
tails which have featured the previous
committee hearings. and was on the
whole much more favorable to the
retreat than any previously given.
Mr.. and Mrs. Edward d. Quinlan. for.
mer attendants at the retreat, who are
now at the Soldiers Home in Ben
nington, gave evidence which was In
every way favorable to the retreat,
and James Tully of West Haven, a
former police officer Of Fair Haven
who had taken patients there several
times, testified that so far as he knew
they were always we'll treated. The
committee adjourned the hearing at
four o'clock because of the failure OF
some witnesses to appear who had
been summoned for today's hearing.
The committee hope to have all the
evidence in by the end of this week.
The first witness. Mrs. Lena G.
Jones of Sheffield, who was an atten-
dant at the retreat in 1912, said that
patients who were supposed to have
private nurses were given the same
care as State patients. Mice, bedbugs
and cockroaches, were common COM
panions of the patients in the back
wards.
A common form OF punishment was
the pulling OF patients hair, which
the witness stated was also in vogue
at the State asylum at Waterbury,
where she had worked for year. She
told of one attendant getting wo-
man on the floor and bending her
across bed rail until thought her
back would be broken" She never
saw DR.. Lawton, superintendent of the
institution, visit any wards, but word
was passed around when the trustees
were coming and everything was
brushed up.
e. C. Jones of Sheffield proved a
most garrulous witness and did not
complete his testimony until after
noon.
There were not sufficient attend
ants to care for the patients, said Mr.
Jones. He also said that the food
was poorly cooked and served in an
unappetizing manner in discolored tin
dishes. There was plenty OF good
bread, but little meat, except picked
meat principally corn beef.
The testimony of Mr.. and Mrs. Ed.
.,.J - In crfn xxhn
were attendants at the institution
from July 5, 1915. until August 5, 1916
was favorable to the retreat. Both had
worked In various other institutions
and thought the Brattleboro retreat
compared favorably with the other
ones Neither had seen man or wo-
man patient abused. The menu as
given by Mrs. Quinlan, included meat
three times a day, plenty of veget-
ables with the noon meal, tea or cof-
fee, bread and butter, etc. The menu
as stated by Mr.. Quinlan was practi
oally the same except that he didn't
have meat for supper. The food was
said to be we'll cooked and plentiful.
Mr.. Quinlan was very indefinite in
recalling a conversation he had had
few days ago with DIR. G. W. Bartlett
of Bennington, and was unable to say
whether or not he had ever told Bart
lett that conditions at Brattleboro
were worse than stated in the news
papers; that patients there were treat
ed worse than at anywhere else he
had ever worked, or that he didn't
feel at liberty to talk freely because
he was still nurse. The witness re-
called having had conversation with
DR.. Bartlett. but that was all. al
though Mr.. Reirdon of the committee
pressed him hard on this point.