Sells Rapidly. Liberal inducements offered.
Address MOSES SWAN,
Hoosick Falls , N. Y.
TRANSACTIONS OF A SINGLE DAY.
But oh! tongue cannot tell or pen describe what I suffered at the hands of the cruel and inhuman male attendant and the equally cruel and barbarous female attendant, whose hearts were calloused and harder than the adamantine rock.
But to my story. I was standing alone in the back hall, having just finished washing the breakfast dishes and sweeping the floor (work required of me), when the attendant came through the hall up to me with a pair of handcuffs, which I shall represent by A (see engraving). B represents the leather belt, with a large lock buckle attached to one end. C represents the second strap, same as B. D is the feet straps or bands to bind the feet. E is the muff or great confine for the hands. F is attached to B, D and D, when on a person. As I said, I was standing in the back hall when this male attendant came up to me and ordered me to put on the handcuffs A. I had done nothing to be punished for, and for the first time refused to obey him, saying "I can't, I can't." He immediately struck me with the strap and lock buckle B, again and again, making marks upon my left shoulder which I shall carry to my grave; when at last tired of that, he drew his long arm, pounded me in the face until the blood, running down from my face, stood in pools on the floor. The female attendant, hearing the noise, rushed out of the cross hall with the muff, feet straps and strap C, heretofore spoken of. As she approached us I appealed to her, and kindly asked her to take him away. "Oh, no!" she said, much to my dismay, "I have come to help him." The male attendant now stepped back a little with his fist drawn, ready at any moment to strike me again. The female attendant, a large, muscular woman, who could not have weighed less than two hundred pounds, stepped up and buckled the strap around me so tight that I could scarcely breathe, then stepping behind me took off my coat; she next took up my right foot and placed upon my ankle fetter D, after which she fastened another to my left ankle. (See engraving.) She then buckled strap F into B, which was around my body; she next took cuffs A and put them on my wrists; these have each a staple in one end and a button hole in the other sufficient to receive the staple. She next put on the great muff or hand confine E. It is made of heavy leather, and is some eighteen inches in length, and about fifteen inches in circumference; it opens on the front and at each end, and has a staple in the middle at one end, and a button hole on the other; also staples and button holes at both ends, as seen in the engraving. I did not resist, for I knew it would do no good, though I had been terribly beaten. She placed this last jacket upon me, drew all the straps tight, and I had on the whole of the accursed harness.
Immediately after this the female attendant proceeded to open the doors and lead the way down two flight of stairs to the bath room. The male attendant took me by the arm and hurried me along after her; there we were met by a patient by the name of E. Scott. I was there ordered into a bath tub of cold water, compelled to sit down, compelled to lie down, bound as I was hand and foot, and chilled through and through; my feet were pressed hard against the foot of the bath tub and my shoulders against the raised bottom of the tub. The water not being of sufficient depth over the raised part of the bottom to cover my head or keep it under water, the attendant took an old tin wash dish, and dipping the water from between my legs poured the dirty water into my mouth and down my throat, keeping my mouth pried open all the while. I begged for my life; I cried for mercy; they would not desist, but again and again filled the dish and poured it down my throat. I was almost strangled, but not yet content, they both grabbed my legs and raised them from the bottom of the tub, thereby drawing my head and shoulders into the deeper water. Then the attendant, by the aid of Scott, held my head under water until I was almost strangled. Whenever I was almost gone they would raise it a moment for me to revive, and then jam it down again under the water. Oh, fiend! can you tell how one feels in the act of drowning, with no one near to pity. But He, who is everywhere present, beholding the evil and the good, delivered me out of their hands, blessed be his holy name forever and forever. Amen.