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I never told until I got out of the asylum in what the weight consisted!

The balance, accumulated after this date, which was the largest part of the whole, passed through the Doctor's fingers twice when in search of it, but he knew it not, as will be seen in its proper place.

CHAPTER XXI.
The Modern Mode of Subjugating Married Women.

Mrs. Sullivan, a sane woman, was put in here by her drunken husband, on the plea of insanity. She was brought handcuffed, and half of the hair pulled out of her head. Of course the husband's testimony must be credited, for who could desire more to protect a woman than he?

Yes, Mr. Sullivan, the warm-hearted Irishman, showed his regard for his wife in the same manner that Mr. Packard, and many other husbands do, by legally committing her to Dr. McFarland's protection, who, so far as my knowledge extends, has never yet been true to this sacred trust.

This quick-tempered Irishman had a quarrel with his wife, because she asserted her inalienable right to a pair of new shoes, and he being the stronger of the two in physical force, got her handcuffed, and pulled out the hair from half her head with his own hand, and forced her in here as soon as the "forms of law" could be gone through with. And what could Mrs. Sullivan do in self-defence?

All her representations would be listened to as the ravings of a maniac!

What is her testimony worth after the"forms of law" have been gone through with, proving her insanity?

Mrs. Sullivan is legally entered as an insane person, on legal testimony; and now the Doctor is shielded in doing what he pleases with her, for what is an insane person's testimony worth?

Nothing!

Thus shielded, he applies his instruments of torture to this oppressed, bleeding heart, for the benevolent purpose of making her willing to return to her husband, and yield unanswering obedience to this marital subjection!

Yes, his benevolent plan is at length achieved, and he soon succeeds in making her so much more wretched and forlorn than before, that her former woes and wrongs sink into oblivion in comparison, and she begins to cry and beg to go home.

"Oh, take me back to my children and husband, and I will bless you forever."

Now his patient is recovering! Oh, what an astonishing cure!

"How much that great Dr. McFarland knows more than any other man, the secret of curing the insane wife!"

But the cure must be sure and permanent, before her case is represented as fit for removal. She has not yet performed her share of unrequited labor for the State of Illinois, as its slave; and if she is a good and efficient workman, there may be weeks, months, years of imprisonment yet before her, ere her cure is complete!

Now the Doctor is the only competent one to report her case to her friends or husband. No attendant's report can be relied upon, much less the prisoner herself.

All communication is cut off, and the slave has naught to do but to work and suffer in silent, mute submission to her prison keepers. She dare not utter a complaint, lest the tortures be again resumed. Her children may sicken and die, but she must know nothing about them. Indeed, she must be dead as to earth life, until her share of slave toil is completed. And if very useful as a slave, she may possibly get the diploma of "hopelessly insane" attached to her name as an offset for these many years of slavery!

And then the friends solace themselves, that the very best means of cure have been used, since none so skillful as the learned Dr. McFarland can be found anywhere. And although they deplore the fate of an all-wise Providence, yet, to Dr. McFarland their heartfelt gratitude will be most signally due, for the kind, humane treatment he bestowed upon her, by having done all that human ingenuity could devise, to cure her!

A true and faithful picture of many a real case in this Asylum.

But how did Mrs. Sullivan's case come out?

After a time, the thought of her poor, defenceless, unprotected children, with none but a drunken father to care for them, pressed so fearfully upon her maternal sympathies, that she ventured to plead to go back to them again. But in vain!

No plea can compassionate the heart of her present protector. Her tears, her sighs, her entreaties, her arguments, fall unheeded and apparently unheard upon his ear, for he will not stop to hear a patient's story, however rational or consistent-yea, the more rational the more unheeded, apparently.

She is then sent to the wash-room or ironing-room, and sewing-room, and compelled to work to drown her sorrow or stifle its utterance.

But what if her children do need her services, more than the State?

What does Dr. McFarland care for her children, or for the fate of a mother who has been cast off by her husband?

Nothing!

He cares for his own selfish interests, and nothing else. If to his view his advantage is gained, he will send her home; if not, he will keep her at work for the State; for the laws of his own suggesting protect him from all harm, no matter how much he harms the prisoners.