Ten Days in a Mad-House | Page 7

up, and expressed surprise at seeing me still awake and
apparently as lively as a cricket. She was as sympathetic as ever. She
came to me and took my hands and tried her best to console me, and
asked me if I did not want to go home. She kept me up-stairs until
nearly everybody was out of the house, and then took me down to the
basement for coffee and a bun. After that, partaken in silence, I went
back to my room, where I sat down, moping. Mrs. Caine grew more
and more anxious. "What is to be done?" she kept exclaiming. "Where

are your friends?" "No," I answered, "I have no friends, but I have
some trunks. Where are they? I want them." The good woman tried to
pacify me, saying that they would be found in good time. She believed
that I was insane.
Yet I forgive her. It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how
little sympathy and kindness there are in the world. The women in the
Home who were not afraid of me had wanted to have some amusement
at my expense, and so they had bothered me with questions and
remarks that had I been insane would have been cruel and inhumane.
Only this one woman among the crowd, pretty and delicate Mrs. Caine,
displayed true womanly feeling. She compelled the others to cease
teasing me and took the bed of the woman who refused to sleep near
me. She protested against the suggestion to leave me alone and to have
me locked up for the night so that I could harm no one. She insisted on
remaining with me in order to administer aid should I need it. She
smoothed my hair and bathed my brow and talked as soothingly to me
as a mother would do to an ailing child. By every means she tried to
have me go to bed and rest, and when it drew toward morning she got
up and wrapped a blanket around me for fear I might get cold; then she
kissed me on the brow and whispered, compassionately:
"Poor child, poor child!"
How much I admired that little woman's courage and kindness. How I
longed to reassure her and whisper that I was not insane, and how I
hoped that, if any poor girl should ever be so unfortunate as to be what
I was pretending to be, she might meet with one who possessed the
same spirit of human kindness possessed by Mrs. Ruth Caine.

CHAPTER IV
JUDGE DUFFY AND THE POLICE.
BUT to return to my story. I kept up my role until the assistant matron,
Mrs. Stanard, came in. She tried to persuade me to be calm. I began to

see clearly that she wanted to get me out of the house at all hazards,
quietly if possible. This I did not want. I refused to move, but kept up
ever the refrain of my lost trunks. Finally some one suggested that an
officer be sent for. After awhile Mrs. Stanard put on her bonnet and
went out. Then I knew that I was making an advance toward the home
of the insane. Soon she returned, bringing with her two policemen--big,
strong men--who entered the room rather unceremoniously, evidently
expecting to meet with a person violently crazy. The name of one of
them was Tom Bockert.
When they entered I pretended not to see them. "I want you to take her
quietly," said Mrs. Stanard. "If she don't come along quietly,"
responded one of the men, "I will drag her through the streets." I still
took no notice of them, but certainly wished to avoid raising a scandal
outside. Fortunately Mrs. Caine came to my rescue. She told the
officers about my outcries for my lost trunks, and together they made
up a plan to get me to go along with them quietly by telling me they
would go with me to look for my lost effects. They asked me if I would
go. I said I was afraid to go alone. Mrs. Stanard then said she would
accompany me, and she arranged that the two policemen should follow
us at a respectful distance. She tied on my veil for me, and we left the
house by the basement and started across town, the two officers
following at some distance behind. We walked along very quietly and
finally came to the station house, which the good woman assured me
was the express office, and that there we should certainly find my
missing effects. I went inside with fear and trembling, for good reason.
A few days previous to this I had met Captain McCullagh at a meeting
held in Cooper Union. At that time I had asked him