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I again asked for light to know my duty, and concluded to report to the Doctor myself.

I accordingly did so, when Dr. Tenny came to my room. I have found by observation, that Dr. Tenny possesses a heart. He has not permitted the generous, tender sympathies of his heart to ossify as Dr. McFarland has done, by turning a deaf ear to the claims upon his sympathy, which his suffering patients demanded of him. We can go to Dr. Tenny, feeling that his ear is not deaf to the dictates of reason and humanity. We find he has a heart to pity, and feel that he will do what, in reason, he can for us.

The prompt, vigorous response he made to my appeal, shows him to be still alive, and not "dead in trespasses and sins." After patiently listening, and giving me opportunity to un-burden my heart to him, by telling the particulars of the case, as Miss Tryon related them to me, he sought the Doctor's office with a quick step, and there related the affair as I had told him, accompanying it with such enthusiasm and indigna-tion, that it seemed to arouse the intellect of Dr. McFarland.

He saw that unless he did something, others would.

He accordingly summoned Bridget and Miss Tryon to his presence, and the latter was called on to relate the story her-self.

She did so, and Bridget did not deny it.

The Doctor then summoned Bridget to his office, and gave her a discharge.

CHAPTER XLVII.
Mrs. Olsen's Fifth Ward Experiences.

As the reader is now introduced into the Fifth ward, I will here add a chapter from Mrs. Olsen's experience there. She was consigned to this ward because she ventured to expostulate with Mrs. McFarland upon her refusing to grant her request for permission to write to her friends, instead of accepting the denial with unanswering submission.

"If the inhabitants of the Twentieth century should ever have the real condition of this terrible prison described as it now exists, and be informed of the purposes to which it is ap-plied, they will regard this prison with the same feeling as we now do the Spanish Inquisition and its abettors and apologists.

As, under the guidance of the ill-fated Dr. Tenny, I descend-ed the three long flights of stairs leading to this charnel house of human woe, I felt a dizzy heart-sickness which almost de-prived me of the power of articulation. Was it a prescience of those "coming events," which "cast their shadows before," that affected me thus?

I could not tell, but was only conscious of a faintness and weakness which nearly deprived me of the power of locomotion.

I asked Dr. Tenny to give me a formal introduction to the attendant, having never seen her. He complied, and though her countenance had an expression of stern repulsiveness, I determined, if there was any goodness in her, to find it out. I would, by the patience and assiduous kindness of my own de-portment, awaken and develop all of goodness and humanity that might possibly be found smouldering beneath the icy sur-face of her heart. Perceiving that she was Irish, I remarked:

"Oh, you are an Irish lady; I love the Irish dearly; many of them have shown me much kindness. I know your people are kind-hearted. Well, you may be sure that I shall give you no trouble. I always obey the rules, and try to help my attendants; indeed, Miss Bonner, I think you must have much work to do here, with so many to take care of, and perhaps I may be able to assist you some in your labor."

I thus attempted to conciliate, and enlist her kind feelings. But slander and hatred had taken fearfully the start of me. She replied, as I had said I should give her no trouble:

"Indeed yee'd better not make me any trouble, it won't be well fur ye if ye do."

I confess I was "taken back a few miles!"

She continued, "yee's no better'n the rest on em; yee'r all jist alike here, un ye needn't ixpict iny better treatment un the rest on um git. Now ye jist set down (pointing to a hard stationary bench) un mind yer business. Yer the wust un, the crazyest on em all in the hull Institution; yees a nuisance."

After this most amiable delivery, she stopped to take breath, and fearing she might again start on a fresh "heat," I immediately obeyed her, by sitting down in silence on the bench she had assigned me.

I began to doubt my power over the insane. Here indeed I saw the insane without mistake, but I then thought, and never afterwards changed my opinion, that Lizzy Bonner was more insane than any one in her care! I did not fear them, with all their fury; but I confess I did fear her, with her much wilder fury!

I had always some expedient by which I could easily disarm her very wildest maniacs, but I never could disarm or tame their far more ferocious keeper!

Beside me, sitting, or rather crouching on the same bench, were a few silent and very filthy women, with their one garment indecently torn, and a puddle of unfragrant water on the floor under their feet.

Some, in more remote parts of the hall, were screaming fearfully, at which I did not wonder. If I had been a screamer, or at all nervous, I should doubtless have swelled the concert, so full was this pandemonium of every imaginable horror!