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"A stranger passing through here, knows nothing about the management of the house. When the friends visit, they are told by the employees, that their friends are well taken care of -- that they are contented and happy; and if the injured ones dare to contradict these statements, they are sure to be punished for it as soon as the friends are out of sight. Besides, these visitors are instructed not to heed anything the patients say, and an attendant is to keep her ear open to the conversation which her charge has with strangers, and is instructed to urge them on if they tarry to hear anything they wish them not to hear. The patients fearing to tell the truth, and denied an opportunity of doing so, the visitor leaves with a very false impression, and this dust which is thrown into his eyes, prevents his seeing anything for himself, just as is the case with you now."

"But the friends place them here, believing it is for their good."

"Yes, under this sophistical plea they take the first wrong step. The neglected and injured relative, finds a class of emotions germinating in his heart, which inevitably culminates in alienation, and irreconcilable enmity frequently ensues. The wrong doers make the first infringement upon the law of love by not doing as they would be done by. Every advanced step in the wrong direction leads them into deeper and deeper darkness, until at length they become so blinded and callous that they lose all traces of humanity, and thus become entirely perverted and fallen."

I could clearly discern in Mrs. Leonard, that she had become sadly indifferent to her mother's welfare. She had got rid of a burden by putting her off upon the care of others -- the laws approved of her course -- it was even regarded by perverted humanity as her duty thus to treat her -- the tender yearnings of her true nature were stifled, and she was left to moral judicial blindness.

I told her she would not like to be thus cast off, if incapable of taking care of herself; instead of this, she would claim that this was just the time she most needed her friends' care and assistance. When well, and able to care for herself, she had better be then abandoned, rather than in a defenceless condition.

If these charitable institutions would only show their real character openly, as Inquisitions and Penitentiaries, of the worst kind, the danger to humanity would be mitigated to the greatest extent; for few are so lost to a desire for the esteem of others, as to do such an outrageous act openly and professedly, for the purpose of torturing their afflicted friends by sending them to the Inquisition for that purpose.

But as it is, thousands are doing that very deed knowingly to themselves, but ignorantly to the world, through the specious plea of sending them to a hospital for "their good."

This morning Mrs. Leonard came to the bars, and seemed desirous of speaking to me. I left my work, which was cleaning my bedstead, went to the bars and talked a little more with her.

I told her the patients in this ward were treated like slaves and menials; that the attendants claimed to be their overseers, and ordered them to do the work which they were hired to do. This morning, Miss Smith has ordered them to wash their own bedsteads, and requires them to do it, whether they are willing or not. Some object, saying that they are not put here to work -- that they have not been used to such work, and the laws do not require it of them. Still she says they shall obey her, in all she chooses to require.

There is Mrs. Stanley, for instance, who has not been used to such work, having had hired help all her days, and she objects, but Miss Smith told her she should have no breakfast until she had done all she had required of her. She started for breakfast; Miss Smith ordered her back, repeating her threat. I did not tarry to see how the quarrel terminated. One fact is evident, she went without her breakfast, and seemed to feel like a much injured woman.

I told Mrs. Leonard that Mrs. Stanley was right in saying to Miss Smith that she had no right to speak so to her, and order her about in that style, for the laws forbid it -- Miss Smith being her servant, and the laws expressly forbid involuntary servitude.

Yet under our present system, we are regarded and treated as their slaves, or as convicts in a Penitentiary, condemned to work or risk the penalty of disobedience. I added:

"This is one of the greatest systems of oppression and cruelty to human beings, the world ever witnessed."

She listened, apparently, with the indifference of a stoic, and left me abruptly without making any remark.

I returned to my duties, feeling that I had done all my duty to her, to get her eyes open, to see what the rules of the house are. My hope was that the latent spark of filial feeling towards her afflicted mother might be revived, and she, under its natural promptings, be induced to take her home.

But all my efforts to enlighten her, seemed like water spilled upon the ground. She evidently seemed to regard all my talk as the representations of an insane person, whom she considered beneath her notice or attention, except to hold me up to scorn and ridicule. She plainly made light of it!