The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in thepublic domain.
TEN YEARS AND TEN MONTHS
IN
LUNATIC ASYLUMS
IN DIFFERENT STATES.
BY
MOSES SWAN,
OF HOOSICK FALLS, RENSSELAER COUNTY, N. Y.
HOOSICK FALLS:
Printed for the Author.
1874.
AGENTS WANTED
To Canvass for this work. Specimen sheets furnished andfull information given on application.
Sells Rapidly. Liberal inducements offered.
Address MOSES SWAN,
Hoosick Falls, N. Y.
TRANSACTIONS OF A SINGLE DAY.
But oh! tongue cannot tell or pen describe what I suffered at thehands of the cruel and inhuman male attendant and the equally cruel andbarbarous female attendant, whose hearts were calloused and harder thanthe adamantine rock.
But to my story. I was standing alone in the back hall, having justfinished washing the breakfast dishes and sweeping the floor (workrequired of me), when the attendant came through the hall up to me witha pair of handcuffs, which I shall represent by A (see engraving). Brepresents the leather belt, with a large lock buckle attached to oneend. C represents the second strap, same as B. D is the feet straps orbands to bind the feet. E is the muff or great confine for the hands. Fis attached to B, D and D, when on a person. As I said, I was standingin the back hall when this male attendant came up to me and ordered meto put on the handcuffs A. I had done nothing to be punished for, andfor the first time refused to obey him, saying "I can't, I can't."He immediately struck me with the strap and lock buckle B, again andagain, making marks upon my left shoulder which I shall carry to mygrave; when at last tired of that, he drew his long arm, pounded[4] me in theface until the blood, running down from my face, stood in pools onthe floor. The female attendant, hearing the noise, rushed out of thecross hall with the muff, feet straps and strap C, heretofore spokenof. As she approached us I appealed to her, and kindly asked her totake him away. "Oh, no!" she said, much to my dismay, "I have come tohelp him." The male attendant now stepped back a little with his fistdrawn, ready at any moment to strike me again. The female attendant,a large, muscular woman, who could not have weighed less than twohundred pounds, stepped up and buckled the strap around me so tightthat I could scarcely breathe, then stepping behind me took off mycoat; she next took up my right foot and placed upon my ankle fetterD, after which she fastened another to my left ankle. (See engraving.)She then buckled strap F into B, which was around my body; she nexttook cuffs A and put them on my wrists; these have each a staple inone end and a button hole in the other sufficient to receive thestaple. She next put on th