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CHAPTER XLII.
Sick Patients Driven off from their Beds.

Mrs. Watts was most peremptorily ordered off her bed when sick, by Miss Smith, and this distressed woman was compelled to stand leaning against her bed all day, suffering severe pain.

She had no chair or seat of any kind in her room, and was not allowed to sit upon her bed, so she must stand all day or lie upon the cold uncarpeted floor, so that her bed need not be tumbled, lest company might pass through and thus prevent a good display of the house!

After listening to the quarrel from my room, I went to com-fort her, and found her as I have described. I expressed my tenderest sympathy, telling her that if it was in my power I would do anything in the world to relieve her, but that I was just as helpless as herself. I kissed and left her, saying:

"I will do all I can for you."

I then took Miss Bailey, the other attendant, into my room and with tears in my eyes, I plead her case and appealed to her compassion to take her part, and let her lie upon her bed, saying:

"It is your right to act independently when you see the patients are wronged."

She assented to all I said, but did nothing.

I then went to Mrs. Watts, and offered her my bed, assuring her I would protect her while there.

She positively declined doing this, saying:

"I guess I can bear it as the rest have to."

I left her leaning against her bed, hoping some one would come in to whom I could appeal for her. But no one came.

After dinner I found her sitting upon the cold floor. I then brought her my chair, and insisted that she should use it. This she was willing and glad to do. At night I took it back and told Miss Smith what I had done. She seemed impressed with a feeling of guilt and apologized for having done so, and gave me encouragement to hope she would not repeat the offense.

The next day I made a most earnest appeal to Dr. Tenny in behalf of the sick in our ward, to which he responded by saying:

"I do think they ought to be allowed to lie upon their beds when sick."

"Then do use your influence at headquarters, for we cannot get a chance to tell our grievances to the Superintendent; he will no more listen to a patient's complaint, than he would defend them from abuse!"

Miss Elizabeth Bonner, an Irish attendant in the lowest ward, thus caught one of her patients, Miss Mary Hodson, and ordered her most peremptorily to get off from her bed. Her tone and manner, in connection with the injustice of the act, very naturally aroused the indignant feeling of the insulted invalid, and she ventured a word in self-defence.

This is enough! She, Elizabeth Bonner, is not going to bear insulting language from her patients!

She seizes her roughly and drags her from her high bed upon the floor, with extreme violence. The patient thus aroused to a higher pitch of indignation, now tries to defend herself with the same kind of force she is called upon to resist.

A fight ensues. But alas! for the unfortunate victim!

The laws of the house allow Miss Bonner to summon any one in the house to her assistance; while the abused one is allowed no help, and if the patients volunteer their aid as their sympathies sometimes compel them to do, they are sure to find it to their own sorrow afterwards.

Mr. and Mrs. Coe, the cooks, being near, were called in at this juncture, where, according to their testimony given under oath to the Investigating Committee, they found Miss Bonner -- a large heavy woman -- resting her whole weight upon the body of this small, delicate invalid, with her knees upon her stomach, and thus confined she was using the patient's head as a hammer, and her hair as a handle, and thus pounding the floor with it with the greatest violence.

They exclaimed as they entered and saw this spectacle:

"Why, Lizzy, what are you doing? Are you killing her?"

"I am seeking satisfaction and I will have it! I will not be abused by a patient! You help me jacket her so I can have satisfaction upon her!"

They suggested, "Why not put her into a screen-room, where she can hurt no one and get quiet?"

"I will have satisfaction upon her! for she has got the devil in her and I mean to beat it out of her."

She then persisted in putting on the straight-jacket as well as she could, and then tied both her arms behind her back, and dragged her across the hall to the bars, where she tied each hand to the bars firmly, and tied each of her feet to the bars in the same manner, and she tied her knees together also. And thus having entirely disarmed her, she seized hold of the hair of her head again and commenced beating the back of her head against the sharp corners of the bars -- each blow inflicting a deep gash into her head -- so that every blow was followed with blood splashing in every direction, besmearing the floor and walls, our clothes, and a pie I had in my hand, with human gore. We again exclaimed:

"Lizzy, are you actually going to kill her?"

"No, but I will have satisfaction upon her and teach her that I will not take abuse from a patient."