The Ogden standard. [volume], January 24, 1920, LAST EDITION - 4 P.M., Image 16

About The Ogden standard. [volume] (Ogden City, Utah) 1913-1920

Image provided by: University of Utah, Marriott Library

                
.The Poet John Boyle O'Reilly's
Daughter, Authoress and Traveler,
I Tells of the
. Sights and
, Scenes in the
Mad House
c and How
She' Escaped
I i ST AM convinced that this woman Id
. R perfectly sane and I therefore di-
Vect that she be discharged from
custody and allowed her freedom."
I Judge, Robert F. Wagner, sitting in the
J Supreme Court of New York City, deliv-
ered tllis decision the other day, and Miss
I Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly", daughter of the
famous Irish poet and patriot of Boston,
J the late John Boyle O'Reilly, stepped
I forth a free woman.
9 Miss O'Reilly had endured a year and a
I half of confinement in a private madhouse
a In Massachusetts. Finally she was able
! to make her escape and made her way to-
j New York City. Sho was pursued, ar-
I , rested and an effort made to lock her- up
j again in an asylum. After due considera-
l tion Judge Wagner decided that MiS3
1 O'Reilly was sane and should "
j! iot be restrained of her liberty.
woman of intellectual achieve
ment, a graduate of Radcliffo
College and an authoress of es
tablished standing. She wrote
"Heroic Spain" and is now en
gaged In writing a book on "The
Cathedrals' of Europo" soon to
he published. - Miss O'Reilly is
a sister-in-law -of Professor
Ernest Hocking, who holds a
chair of philosophy in Harvard
University, and she also has a
sister, Mary Boyle O'Reilly, who
lives in New York.
Anybody who has ever visited
an insane asylum or has seen
the faces at the window of
ji madhouse or has read Charles
I Read's powerful "novel "Hard Cash," deal
ing with the Insan'e, will wonder how a
sane person can be locked up for a year
and a half with lunatics and still retain
her balance of mind. But Elizabeth Boyle
O'Reilly has endured the ordeal and Is
still sane. Miss O'Reilly narrated her dis
tressing experiences in .an. interview as
follows:
"I had done waxwork abroad, and some
of my experiences seemed beyond belief
as I told them to tot friends In Boston.
who had never heard the sound of shot
and shell nor seen the miseries of a .field
hospital. Particularly, I think, some of
my experiences with German spies
aroused their Incredulity and the first
thing I knew I was in an automobile and
. on my way to a private asylum in a Mas
sachusetts town near Boston.
"For eighteen long, miserable months I
was confined in that private madhouse.
Fortunately, I had read Charles Read's
stirring novel of madhouse life, and as I
drove up to the square gray house I re
called his word3, 'Chained sane among
the insane! Who can paint the agonized
soul in a mental situation so ghastly?
Thinly of it, men and women. It may bo
your turn to-morrow.'
"I knew that I was sane, but that no
body would believe it. The very fact that
I was euteriug an asylum for diseased
minds W33 proof enough to doctors,
nurses, attendants, patients, visitors, to
everybody, of course, my mind was dis
eased, I realized that the slightest un
usual gesture, peculiarity of voice, inclina
tion of the head, glance of the eye, eccen
tricity of word or action would ho hailed
is the stigma of insanity.
"I determined that whatever befell me
I would never lose ray self-control. I
knew that if I did I would give my jailers
the opportunity to register me as violently
crazy. I made a vow as I entered, that
awful building that I would be cool, con
trolled, watchful. By keeping this vow I
saved my sanity and perhaps saved my
"I was led into a large hall where a big,
ferocious-looking woman mot me, not as
a gentlewoman should be met, "but as a
keeper of a dog kennel would meet a new
j dog. Glancing at the memorandum con-
.cerning my supposed delusion she looked
at me sharply and said, 'You thought vou
were being shadowed In Paris,' and then,
; with a sneer, added, 'I am as crazy against
i Boche spies as you are
! "A loud guffaw greeted this cruel Joke
' from a group of coarse-looking, ill-man-
! nered men and women. They were the at-
' tendants.
! "But while I realized what a contempt!-
j hie thing it was for the matron to take ad-
I vantage of a helpless and supposedly
- feeble-minded new arrival to make a joke
I -on the patient's supposed delusion, yet r
realized that here was my first test of my
I
: - N
an inch from her side she roared at mo
with the voice of a bull. She made my
days miserable by this close and coarse
association.
"And the nights wero worse. The enor
mous nurse slept in a small bed that
touched mine. And she snored horribly
The rasping sound from her open mouth
kept me awake. Twenty times a night I
would waken her. But she would shako
off my hand, fall off to sleep aain and Iho
raucous sounds continued..
"Imagine a woman accustomed to the
refinements of a good American home and
of a quiet scholar's life In Paris doomed
to this constant companionship of a coarse
creature who could not be shaken off.
With her I must sharo my meals, my room
and even my scant allotment of oxygen to
breath, Tor the windows were never al
lowed to be widely opened. If, wearied of
her perspiring bulk, I moved further away
from her on the veranda or on the narrow
path where we walked, she would scream
at me, 'Come back here hesido me or I'll
make you sorry for it '
"The arrival of a new patient was al
ways attended by silent mystery or some
dreadful outbreak. For instance, there
was the impressive-looking elderly man
who stepped majestically from the auto
mobile and walked beside a keeper up tho
steps to the veranda. He even paused to
admire the view.
" Is the gentleman In the gray suit a
physician?' I asked the nurse who brought
my dinner.
" 'No she answered. 'He is a New York
millionaire who has come up here for a lit
tle rest
"Yet tho second night after his arrival
frightful sounds issued from his room. He
had a back room across the hall from mine.
The sounds were as of a struggle of two
powerful persons. There were several
hoarse shouts. A sound as though someone
had been felled to the floor. Then silence.
I covered my head with the "bsd clothes and
lay there trembling.
7" )j "The Crazy Girl," by Jeanr:
vanished after. a week or two. Some of
Lhoso vho remained had nothing to recom
mend them save the fact that they wero
willing lo work in that purgatorial place
for $S a week. I am describing these jail
ors of ours that you may understand It
was an unusual case that cnused one of
them to turn nale. Yet one of them did
own sanity and self-control. 1
did' not stare- at her. I did not
resent the brutal jest. 1 made
no comment. I smile'! very
'aintly and bowed silently with
dignity, realizing the wicked
irony of the situation.
"For the first two months l
jived in a small room almost
like tho life cf one of the Siam
ese twins. Not for a moment
was I permitted to be alone. . I
am a small woman, weighing
scarcely 120 pounds, and they
picked ou'. for me as my keeper
a huge nurse who weighed mors
than 200. If I ventured to move
"She sprang up in the car and- flung her thin arms above her lnK ' ' '
!icnd. 'Uncle,' the shrieked. 'I must have my uncle! O my God I ShE? - Sx' pff
"The enr spun, swiftly nround'thc drivo and bach again to the ERlWy ' ".'jL 2 otlir
entrance. Still the girl stood up in the car and screamed, flsafc! ' 'SL S
"'Those people!' she cried. 'Those faces at the windows! toL V" ' ' ffifjrffill
"Twelve times the car drove around the buildings before the 'lw' ' JfjlfiNt
girl's fear tubsidad enough to pormit her to be taken into the WNvSeEtflf " 'Wjktj - V
villa at the back of the house in which I stayed." wr Mjfifa,
"Toward dawn tho
sounds were repeated,
but this time a man's
voice was raised In fear
and entreaty. . And
again there was the Im
pact of a falling body.
And again an awesome
silence. There was' a
week of this. Theso
sounds recurred by day
and by night from tho
room in which the New
York millionaire slept
Then I heard it no
more.
" 'I don't hear the
millionaire any more
I said to the nurse who
carried In my tray one
morning.
" 'No sho answered
with "a grin, ho's gone
to a quieter place
" 'You don't mean ho
is dead?' I asked.
"She shook her head.
The Worcester Insane
Asylum, I thought, and
.. J1 .1 ji
) f;
i 1 v-:::: -
T ri"' Miss Elizabeth Boyle O'Reilly,
n 4 yV''' Who Was Shut Up in a Pri-
" nsanc sylun
JggggEP SiN stood up in
Miss O'Reilly's Sister, Miss Marj reVed'
Boyle O'Reilly. -Thosepeople!'
auuuuuiuu,
"During my confinement the automobile
that brought patients from the Newtown
station swung down the drive ono after
noon. A slight young girl, fair-haired and
with exquisitely regular features, sac
wedged between a doctor and a nurse. I
shall, never forget tho look In her great
hrown eyes as she lifted them to tho -windows.
I was staring from the wlnOxw.
Every other patient must have been look
ing from his or her window at sound ol
the npproaching car. It was our habit.
The girl must have had a flash of under
standing. Sho sprang up in tho car and
flung her thin arms above her head.
"'Undo!' sho shrieked. T must have
my uncle! Oh, my God, call my uncle!'
"The car spun swiftly around the drive
and back again to the entrance. iStill tho
ir nvn Tntrntlnnal Feature Service. Inc.
she :rled. 'Those
faces at the windows! Oh. uncle, uncle!'
"Twelve times the car drove around tho
buildings before the girl's fear subsided
enough to permit her to 'be taken Into the
villa at the back of the house in which I
stayed. I never knew what became of
her, but I heard that she-had died in a
torturing paroxysm.
"Tho nurses were, for the most part,
coarse, unimpressionable- creatures. IC
one came to us who was not insensible
to tho horrors ahout her she was soon
eliminated. Steel-nerved, hard-hearted,
cold-eyed women vwero tho type that
chiefly survived the frequent changes In
tho institution. In the year and a half
that I was there 14S nurses passed through
tho funnel-like institution. The gentler,
kinder ones, who listened to our stories
when she told mo
whose sobbing it
was that came to
me if rom the room
that was separat
ed from mine by
a bathroom.
" 'Poor 1 i 1 1 1 o
thing!' said this
tend e r - hearted
nurse. 'She is a
little, old, white
haired mother.
Her son brought
her down here
from New Hamp
shire in his car.
Sho was heavily
drugged, and the
effect of the drug
is beginning to
wear off.'
"That neighbor,
invisible, was like
a lost soul pro
testing against
h e r Luciferean
fatp. Though lit
tip and weak her
voice seemed ab
normal, and it
had ' marvelous
ondurancc. Sho
8c reamed almost
continuously:
" 'What can I
do? Help me out
of here! Help
mp out of hero!'
"When she had
exhausted herself
and everyone else
v. i t h i n hearing
hpr voice would
trail away into a
piteous little
sories of moans.
Then would conifc
a hrjf quiet
"For five months
T had fo endure
this screaming
neighbor. Her
voico grew faint
er at the last.
Ono night after
sho had sobbed
herself into quiet
and I sat quiver
ing with terror
and sympathy I
heard heavy foot
steps in the hall.
Voices of several
ni on, muffled
though they were.
reached my ears. I heard doors open and
close and foot descending the stairs. 1
heard a door downstairs slam and heard
feet moving slowly across tho veranda. I
stared from my window. The night was
inkj'-black, but through the darkness I
saw something moving slowly and heard
tho faint crunching-of gravel as by wheels.
" 'The little mother was quiet last
night I remarked to the woman who
brought my breakfast next morning.
" 'She is gone she answered.
"'Where has she gone?' I Inquired.
" 'Never you mind. See that you don't
go whero she has, that's all. I never, got
any further Information about my un
happy neighbor.
"At the back on tho same floor with
mo they placed. a woman who literally
howled all night. She wore out a nurso
-a week. No nurse- could stand more than
seven days of her, but we, who were so
unfortunate as to be Imprisoned on the
same floor had to endure the sleep-breaking
howls for five months.
"She would nowl for a time and thea
there would be a short pause. From a
man across tho hall would come oaths
that seemed to be flung at heaven. From
tho larcer house at the rear came a shrill,
air-piercing treble. Then the voices wera
joined in a fearful symphony. I have
heard three vojecs, four, five united in tho '
fearful all-night din. I have never heard
anything that could be compared with it
The sounds were unnatural, animal
sounds, but pervading them was some- l
thing like devilish intent.
"Another of the patients, a younger fej'JJ,
used to delight in mimicking me. Being
of fight figure and nervous temperament II
I walk lightly and briskly. When I started JM
on my walks I would hear shrieks of
laughter from the attendants on the ver-
auda and the patients on tho grounds, : '
Looking behind me I would see this wc
man tormentor hurrying up the path after
me, walking with my gait, lifting her head '
as I lift mine. y
"Trivial means were resorted to appar 1
cntly to exasperate me. I was only per- :
mlttcd one napkin a week. If this were ?
soiled the first day of the week I had to I
use it the remaining six days. To'one'in
whom neatness is Inbred this Is an offense.
The nurses discovered this. One of the t
coarser kind contrived to spill cocoa on It '
the first morning of the week. I asked her
to be careful. After that she would fling
the door open, swagger Into my room, drop
the tray on tho table with a hang that
jostled the dishes and spilled more cocoa
and slam the door as she went out
"I realized there was no hope for Jjp
from my friends nor relatives. The lr"W
ters I wrote were never answered. Ho.
could I escape? I planned a long time. I g
burled a cloak under the Autumn leaves i jg
and weighted it down by branches. I hid , gjj
a muff in the same way, and a pair of ' S
overshoes and a hat. Then one aftornoon ' s3
I wandered out, gothered them all up, and , m
slipped into them in the gathering dusk. 9
I made my way , not to tho nearest, sta- m
tion, but the farthest one, knowing that S
was the last at which they would look foi B
me. Five minutes after I reached the sta- . m
tion 1 boarded a train to Boston. At the , m
station I passed the superintendent. He j K
was doing police duty there as a volunteci ,
while the police were on strike. Wrapped j ?!
In my two cloaks and wearing a heavy veil '
I passed him unrecognized. I took a train 1
to Providence and thence to New York. J i.
"I had been in New York but a short ,1 j.'
while and was putting the finishing '
touches on my book. 'The Cathedrals of
Europe.' which Harpers have accepted, M '.
when my sister, Mary Boyle O'Reilly, had iM ;k
me arrested as a lost person. My rela- M
tives assembled in court and asked my ',,B't3
commitment to the psychopathic ward of .M
Bellevue. My attorney, Mr. Foster, senior
member of the firm of Foster &. Cutler,
put his foot on the rail and said: T prote op'-H
Your Honor. If you will release her Into fc,
our custody wo will take her to our own il .
home.' JK
"Judgo Robert F. Wagntar permitted me h
to go on parole In my lawyer's custody, j j I.
Two months later ho released me finally, fl
convinced that I was sane. 1 am finishing jL- .
my book which I wrote while in durance
as a mad woman and am preparing for :
other literary work. ! t - i
"Before closing this awful chapter of f '
my life, let me say that I have related the i
chief incidents of my relatives horriblo S
mistake for tho benefit of others who j Ircj,
may bo threatened by u similar fate. if4ij
"The greatest' peril Is tho reiterated U
statement, 'You are insane.' The brain $ gf j
may reel before this suggestion. The rea- il ipdi
son may fall at last before it. I telleve
there should be legislation which would ,l;.-.27
require a public hearing of every person j l',t y,
charged with fusanitj-." iitK