Library Collections: Document: Full Text


Astounding Disclosures! Three Years In A Mad House

Creator: Isaac H. Hunt (author)
Date: 1851
Publisher: Isaac H. Hunt
Source: Patricia Deegan Collection
Figures From This Artifact: Figure 2  Figure 3

Previous Page   Next Page   All Pages 


Page 31:

235  

There are some other trifling abuses perpetrated by Dr. Bates besides those of the poor patients, viz: He has abused, insulted, and trampled upon the family of Dea. Turner, the Steward, and there was no communion or friendly salutation between the two families, any further than they ate at the same table without speaking to each other; and after the investigation was over, and no charges whatever had been preferred against the steward by myself, or any other witness, then Mr. Turner finding that Dr Bates was retained, gave in his resignation to the Trustees, because he would not submit to have his family insulted and domineered over any more, and the trustees rather than dispense with his services as steward, raised his salary from five to seven hundred dollars, and permitted him to remove his family to his own house.

236  

I have been told, also, that the celebrated Dr. Ray used to insult and abuse Dea. Turner, and he was once heard to say to him, that he could not put any confidence in him; but what it was about is more than I know, but probably because he would not sanction his abuse of the poor patients.

237  

There was an old man brought to the hospital in a few months before I left, who had spun out his three score years and ten, and had some years previous been there for six months; and his case, I think was not a solitary one of that description in the United States, according to his own version of it; and I have since been told that it is the true one. He had several years previously given up all his property to his son, to the amount of some thousands, and for that consideration he was to support him during life, and assist his father to descend calmly and peacefully to his grave in his old age; thus relieving him of the burden and cares of life for the rest of his declining days upon the earth. He soon found that he was no more than a dog in his own former house, and he began to worry, and pick the flesh from his hands, and chew paper continually, and when he could not get that, he would chew his garments; walking from place to place. While he was at the hospital it was his unceasing theme to tell of his former happiness and prosperity, and contrast it with his then miserable fate, shut up in the abode of darkness and woe. He would say to every one "I was an old fool, wasn't I, to leave my son's house, where they had every thing nice and good to eat, and a good nice feather bed to sleep upon, and come here where they live like swine, with nothing good to eat, and a matress bed; oh dear!" After a year or two his son took him out and paid his board at one of his neighbors, and he worried so much that they did not want the trouble of him, and his son told him that he should send him to the hospital again, and there he would remain as long as he lived, and it so affected the old man that he said he would never go there again, he would die first; and he took a rope and hung himself to his bed post to escape the more horrible fate of living in that mad-house, where he knew there were none to smooth his rugged and thorny path to the grave; where there were none to moisten his parched and dried mouth in his last struggles with the grim messenger of death, with even a drop of cold water. Oh, the horrors of death in that prison of woe and despair none can tell. I now earnestly beseech all old men and women, who have property, never to give it to their heirs except by will at their death, as in too many instances have people suffered severely in their old and declining years for having done so; and when the public see men and women of property sent to an Insane Hospital they had better look and see if it is not for the purpose of gaining possession of their purse-strings before their time; and, when that is the case, then the public authorities ought to interfere to prevent such inhumanity and robbery, and all should be protected from such abuse by the strongest Legislative enactments. When old people relinquish their property fully into the hands of heirs or assigns, under the promise of support, such persons should be considered insane, and all such contracts null and void, and neither should any heir or relative be allowed to become the guardian of the superannuated, where there is any chance of their robbing them of their liberty or property; for in too many instances, in this degenerate age of the world, have people forgotten the golden rule, to "Honor thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee." They forget that "the earth is the Lords, and the fullness thereof; and all the cattle upon a thousand hills." They do not consider that if they live a few more years they will soon be old like their parents, and in their turn be cast off by their children, as they have cast off theirs. They do not consider that they are accountable to God, and should return him thanks for all that they possess upon the earth.

238  

I have before alluded to Mr. Samuel L. Hovey, over whom a perfect system of espionage was held, and a determined resolution of Dr. Bates, to detain him for life, if in his power to do so, and for no purpose but because he was afraid that he would expose their iniquity if he should return to the world, as he had kept a journal of every thing that transpired under his eye or ear. Mr. Hovey's friends wished to take him away in the spring of 1849, but Dr. Bates made such false representations to the authorities, by whom he was detained, that they, upon these representations, refused to release him upon such terms as he would consent to leave. About two weeks before the investigation commenced last summer, his friends again wished to remove him. He was no more of a sane mind than he had been for three years, but Dr. Bates knowing that he would be called before the committee if he remained, consented to let him go, thinking that he would be at such a distance that he could not be called, and thus would not be present to testify against him, which was really the case; and I will only add that Mr. Hovey has since conducted himself like a perfectly sane and rational man, and like a gentleman, which he really is; and by so doing has given Dr. Bates the lie in regard to his opinions of his sanity.

Previous Page   Next Page

Pages:  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19  20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29  30  31  32  33  34  35  36  37  38  39  40  41  42  43  44  45  46  47  48  49  50    All Pages