Library Collections: Document: Full Text
![]() |
Modern Persecution, or Insane Asylums Unveiled
|
Previous Page Next Page All Pages
![]() |
||
892 | This is but a specimen of the kind of testimony I have on hand, in sad abundance, and which, with my own eye and ear, witness testimony would make a ponderous volume. | |
893 | How would you like to see such facts as these in print? | |
894 | A lady of refinement -- of pure and virtuous character -- of kind and nobly generous sympathies and of a nature remarkably true to the instincts of a true woman, before being here thirty-six hours, was stripped of all her clothing, except a torn chemise, and laid upon her back on the floor, while Dr. Tenny sat astride her naked body to hold her down, while your attendants could strap their sister, under these circumstances, as if she were a tiger!! | |
895 | Must not a person possess an uncommon elasticity of temperament, ever to rise above the degrading influence of such an outrage upon her womanly nature! | |
896 | From whom is repentance and forgiveness demanded -- from you, her tormentor -- or from her, your innocent victim? | |
897 | Again, would you like to have it known, that this same lady was subjected to the torture of the straps one whole night, for simply insisting that the request of a dying woman should be granted, viz., that a cat should not be locked up in her room all night with her alone, lest she would gnaw her emaciated limbs before life was extinct? | |
898 | Because she saved the disgrace of having such a stigma brought upon the State, of a patient being eaten alive by a cat, she must be strapped as her punishment!! | |
899 | Another aggravation of your guilt is this -- that you put upon our merciful sex the credit of the inhumanity of your acts, and claim for yourself the humanity, by compelling them to do, what you, in your boasted humanity, in words, claim the privilege of undoing. They must be called to hear the disgrace of locking the straps, while you claim the credit of unlocking them, to show your humanity to your patients!! | |
900 | Dr. McFarland, your patients are too sane for you to shield your true character from them by such subterfuges. And, how can you expect, that a heart-searching God will not see through this covert of lies, and not bring you to justice? | |
901 | He does! -- He will! -- | |
902 | Dr. McFarland, Bell Norton is no more insane than Peter was, when he cursed and swore and denied his Master. Satan entered into him, tempted by the barbarity of the soldier's treatment of his loving Master. | |
903 | Satan enters Bell Norton, tempted by your barbarous treatment of her and her kindred associates. | |
904 | Did Christ, your pattern, torture Peter with straps to punish him, because he, true to the noble impulses of his generous, self-sacrificing impulsive nature, threatened and even tried to kill in self-defence of his own and others' rights? | |
905 | No. He "looked upon him," a look of compassion -- of pity. | |
906 | It subdued him. Straps never would have done it. Straps and torture of the most savage kind can never subdue Bell Norton. | |
907 | But sympathy will, and that alone. | |
908 | Yes, Bell has, through this influence alone, like Peter, wept bitterly, and she has with Peter, an equal claim to the Lord's forgiveness; for she has like him, manifested her repentance in the same manner which Peter did; and it is not for me to judge whether her repentance is not equal to Peter's in sincerity. | |
909 | How can you be so insane as to act as though you expected to make a new organization of Bell by torture? | |
910 | You may and have already done enough of this kind of business to kill or make insane for life, any ordinary individual. | |
911 | But she, I am satisfied, is proof against your demoniacal powers. God, himself, has fitted her to cope with this devil in human form, and she has, through his power alone, come off conqueror. Yes, the victor's crown awaits her, for she has won it. She has maintained her right to her own instinctive nature, inviolate, in spite of your vain attempts to wrest them from her. | |
912 | Yes, Bell is the same "woman of nature" which God made her to be, as a model for the age. You may yet vainly regret what you have made Bell suffer on your account, by seeing your lovely Hattie subjected to a similar process to make her organization like Bell Norton's. | |
913 | But Hattie's tormentors will find, like Bell's tormentors, that Hattie can only be the being God has made her, as Bell can be only Bell. | |
914 | But these, their tormentors, will find to their sorrow, that an indignant God is their adversary, for their trying to mar his image by striving to undo his own well done works. | |
915 | Why are you not willing that Bell should be just the true woman of nature which God has, for his own benevolent purpose sent to our world, at a time when a true woman is such an anomaly, that she is hardly recognized or owned as a sane person, so insane and perverted has the character of woman become? | |
916 | Dr. McFarland, if you see many more years on this earth, I fully believe that you would be proud to see your Hattie just such a simple, natural, true woman as Bell is. | |
917 | Dr. McFarland, my work for you is nearly done. I therefore, here present you my bill of five dollars, for services performed for your family, viz.: for twelve days' work of cutting, fitting and making dresses for your wife and daughters, at forty-two cents a day, I charge you five dollars as a just debt. I claim it as a debt of honor. If you do not choose to meet the claim on this ground, you may expect to see it presented as a legal claim -- such as will collect it. |