I Had, Toward The Last, Been Shut Off From All Visitors, And So When The Lawyer, Peter A. Hendricks, Came And Told Me That Friends Of Mine Were Willing To Take Charge Of Me If I Would Rather Be With Them Than In The Asylum, I Was Only Too Glad To Give My Consent
On The Wagon Sped, And I, As Well As My Comrades, Gave A Despairing Farewell Glance At Freedom As We Came In Sight Of The Long Stone Buildings.
I Took Upon Myself To Enact The Part Of A Poor, Unfortunate Crazy Girl, And Felt It My Duty Not To Shirk Any Of The Disagreeable Results That Should Follow.
They Were Being Driven To A Prison, Through No Fault Of Their Own, In All Probability For Life. In Comparison, How Much Easier It Would Be To Walk To The Gallows Than To This Tomb Of Living Horrors!
I Had Looked Forward So Eagerly To Leaving The Horrible Place, Yet When My Release Came And I Knew That God's Sunlight Was To Be Free For Me Again, There Was A Certain Pain In Leaving
All The Asylum Clothing Is Made By The Patients, But Sewing Does Not Employ One's Mind. After Several Months' Confinement The Thoughts Of The Busy World Grow Faint, And All The Poor Prisoners Can Do Is To Sit And Ponder Over Their Hopeless Fate
I Had Never Been Near Insane Persons Before In My Life, And Had Not The Faintest Idea Of What Their Actions Were Like
In Our Short Walks We Passed The Kitchen Where Food Was Prepared For The Nurses And Doctors. There We Got Glimpses Of Melons And Grapes And All Kinds Of Fruits, Beautiful White Bread And Nice Meats, And The Hungry Feeling Would Be Increased Tenfold.
I Hardly Expected The Grand Jury To Sustain Me, After They Saw Everything Different From What It Had Been While I Was There. Yet They Did, And Their Report To The Court Advises All The Changes Made That I Had Proposed.
But Here Let Me Say One Thing: From The Moment I Entered The Insane Ward On The Island, I Made No Attempt To Keep Up The Assumed Role Of Insanity.
I Have Watched Patients Stand And Gaze Longingly Toward The City They In All Likelihood Will Never Enter Again. It Means Liberty And Life; It Seems So Near, And Yet Heaven Is Not Further From Hell
