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Of course, her God-like nature instinctively revolted at this heaven-defying sacrilege -- this crushing of the divinity within her. This, added to the abuse which was inflicted upon her tender, sensitive frame, was too much for her powers of endurance.

Her nervous system, her aspiring feelings, her noble nature, could never rally, so long as this abuse continued; and it has continued for ten long successive years.

Rather than to live in this agony, she sought death; not that she made any attempts to commit suicide, but she often begged and prayed that they would kill her outright, rather than by this slow torturing process.

No! so long as she exhibited any natural feelings under this torture, she was subjected to the cruel rack. Her sound logic, her entreaties, her prayers, her just and holy resentment, each and all, only seemed alike an occasion for inflicting some new form of degradation.

Mrs. Bridgman was scrupulously neat in her habits; but regardless of this, she was forced into the water tub where several others had bathed, who were peculiarly filthy in their personal habits, so that the water was not only highly colored, but covered over the top with a thick scum of filth. Into this she was plunged, head and ears, to their heart's content, and held under the water!

Then, as her flesh was of an uncommonly fine texture, sensitive in the extreme, she was scrubbed with a corn broom, which had been first dipped into a dish of soft soap, to lather her entirely over from head to foot, and then washed off with the thick water already so soapy as to almost con-sume the skin. Here she was rubbed and scrubbed, as if her skin was a rhinoceros's, and then locked into her room, where the cold was so intense that her hair was often frozen to her pillow.

I inquired why she did not report the attendant's conduct to the Superintendent.

She said she did try to, but he would not credit her statements, since the attendants contradicted them, assuring him that they had not abused her. He regarded her truthful representations as the hallucinations of a diseased mind, and the attendants' conduct was tacitly approved, as judicious and correct.

Thus she found that all she had accomplished by reporting them truthfully, was to elicit an approval of their practice from the Superintendent, and a secret grudge against herself, which she would be sure to know of in her future aggravated and increased sorrows.

And now, since she has been made to become a mere wreck of her former self, as to her personal habits, and her refined manners and fashionable appearance, having become necessarily almost indifferent to the opinion of others, as a result of her loss of self-esteem, her earthly prospects seem to be entirely blighted, even in the meridian of life; and all the natural result of the rule of this wicked Institution.

That she did not become a maniac long ago, is one of the mysteries of God's providence. Since I have known her she has not been insane. She has been one of my most esteemed associates -- as an intelligent and capable woman -- as competent to attend, to the practical duties of life as ever, could she only be induced to make the effort.

But all her ambition and self-esteem being prostrated by the abuse she has experienced, her case seems almost hopeless -- her usefulness for this world destroyed, except so far as her case may be employed as a warning -- a living memorial of the barbarous influences of the present Insane Asylum system.

If it had not been for these institutions, she might have been, ere this, a useful and happy woman; and had she been cherished and cared for by her kindred, as their true hearts then prompted, instead of being consigned to the care of strangers, she might have recovered her health and spirits, and long have been a blessing to them and to the world.

But alas! this willing victim has been offered a living sacrifice to the Lunatic Asylum! and under the specious pretence that her good might be secured!

Several of her friends have died since she has been here, but she was not allowed to know anything of the event, until she chanced to see the notice of their death in the papers!

Oh, can this entombing of kindred while alive, be for their or our own good? Is it for our own good to cut off our afflicted friends, and so desert them, as to root out all traces of sympathy in them, or interest in their welfare? Is it for their good to put them where the affectionate yearnings of their fond hearts have no object to cling to, and no means allowed through which to exercise their emotions? Can a natural development of the faculties be secured by this most unnatural process?

No, no; those who have survived this machinery are the exceptions; those who are injured the almost universal rule.

Mrs. Bridgman never was a fit subject for the asylum, since she never was an insane person. She is diseased in her nervous system, and instead of being treated as a criminal, she needs unusual forbearance and kindness, to inspire her with self-confidence and thus draw out her self-reliant feelings and efforts. All depressing, debasing influences are death-like in their influence over her already weakened powers of resistance.