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"Mrs. Packard, I can assure you, that there is not a single individual in this house who believes you are an insane person; and as for Dr. McFarland he knows you are not?"

Another gentleman in Jacksonville, after having become personally acquainted with me, remarked to another, "that man who will call Mrs. Packard an insane person, is not fit to live."

It is a great satisfaction to me to believe that all who knew me personally in the Asylum, have entire confidence in my sanity, not even excepting Dr. McFarland. And I fully believe that Miss Mary Lynch, the supervisoress, expressed this heart-feeling of them all, when she said to me:

"Mrs. Packard, I believe you to be in the full exercise of all your mental faculties, with a sound mind, and no single act of yours have I ever known to contradict or invalidate this testimony."

In addition to this I will only add the testimony of Mrs. Hosmer, the sewing-room directress, as given to Rev. A. D. Eddy, D. D., in reply to his question:

"How is Mrs. Packard at times?

"You have seen Mrs. Packard once -- you have seen her always."

CHAPTER XVI.
The Attendant who Abused Me.

Mrs. De La Hay, wife of Dr. De La Hay, of Jacksonville, was the only one of all the employees at the Asylum whom the Doctor could influence to treat me like an insane person.

She has threatened me with the screen-room, and this threat has been accompanied with the flourish of the butcher knife over my head, for simply passing a piece of Johnny cake through a crevice under my door, to a hungry patient who was locked in her room to suffer starvation, as her discipline for her insanity.

Besides threatening me with the screen-room, she threatened to jacket me for speaking at the table.

I will here describe a screen-room and a straight-jacket. A screen-room is simply one of the ordinary sleeping rooms or cells, with an inside blind or screen, made of perforated tin, covering the window, which can be opened or closed by a key, to keep fractious patients from breaking it.

A straight-jacket is a strong closely fitting waist, with sleeves coming below the hand and sewed up, with a loop-hole through which can be passed a strong cord. Their arms are then crossed in front with their hands tied tightly behind them, thus depriving them of all use of their arms or hands.

One day, after she had been treating her patients with great injustice and cruelty, I addressed Mrs. McKonkey, who sat next to me at the table, and in an undertone remarked:

"I am thankful there is a recording angel present, noting what is going on in these wards."

When Mrs. De La Hay, overhearing my remark, exclaimed, in a very angry tone: "Mrs. Packard, stop your voice! if you speak another word at the table I shall put a straight-jacket on you!"

Mrs. Lovel, one of the prisoners, replied:

"Mrs. De La Hay, did you ever have a straight-jacket on yourself?"

"No, my position protects me! But I would as soon put one on Mrs. Packard as any other patient, 'recording angel' or no 'recording angel!' And Dr. McFarland will protect me in doing so, too."

On another occasion, hearing the sound of conflict in our ward, I opened my door, and saw Mrs. De La Hay seize Miss Mary Rollins, a patient, by her throat, and Mary pulled the hair of Mrs. De La Hay with as firm a grip as she held on to her victim's throat. I, fearing the result, rallied help and parted them, when I found poor Mary's throat bleeding from an opening Mrs. De La Hay had made in it with her finger nails.

I took a piece of my own linen, and bound it up, wet in cold water; and this cloth I still retain, red with the blood of this innocent girl, as proof of this kind of abuse in Jacksonville Insane Asylum.

It was my defence of the patients from Mrs. De La Hay's unreasonable abuse which led her to treat me as she did.

It was not long after this defence of Mary Rollins, that I heard loud screams and groans issuing from a dormitory, when I and my associates rushed into the room to see what was the matter. There we found one of the patients lying upon her back, with Mrs. De La Hay over her, trying to put on a straight-jacket.

The lady was screaming from physical agony, on account of an injury Mrs. De La Hay had inflicted upon her a few days before, when she burst a blood vessel on her lungs, by strangling her under the water. The plunging she had inflicted as her punishment for not obeying her when she told her to stop talking. And now this wounded spot on her lungs had become so inflamed, that the pressure of Mrs. De La Hay's hands upon it, together with the stricture of the straight-jacket, caused her to scream from agony. I inquired:

"What is the matter? Why are you putting the straight-jacket on that woman?"

Without answering my question, she exclaimed in a loud voice:

"Mrs. Packard, Leave this room!" I backed out over the threshold, still looking towards her victim and repeated my question:

"Why are you putting her into the straight-jacket? What has she done?"