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I beheld this whole scene without daring to remonstrate, having been many times punished for trying to excite pity for the victims when under these modes of torture.

These injuries of Miss Hodson I think were incurable.

She never, while I remained, did any more work for the Institution, but would sit or lie on the floor of her own room mostly, brooding over her unrequited wrongs, in melancholy silence.

After the terrible scene I have related, she never was known to converse socially with any one. By swift degrees, she ap-peared to lose all hope ; at last she became a furious maniac.

I think they have made her an incurable, if, indeed, she is living.

I ought to add, that a few minutes after the perpetration of this outrage, the lost key was found in the shoe of a Mrs. McClay, a patient who had made several attempts to run away.

The attendants did not give Mrs. McClay the least punish-ment. I thought it was because they were too much fatigued in fighting Miss Hodson! Justice!!

I did not tell the Doctor of this scene. Why should I? I knew that he perfectly well knew that similar scenes were every day occurring in different parts of the Asylum! "

Here ends my extract from "Mrs. Olsen's Prison Life." My own narrative is resumed in the succeeding chapter.

CHAPTER LI.
I was Punished for Telling the Truth.

The power of truth is irresistible, and disturbs this hidden nest of iniquity. I make no side thrusts through fear of the "powers that be," knowing that they are wicked powers that cannot harm. me, because held in check by the Highest. And so long as I do not prove traitor to this Highest Power, I can claim protection under it.

But the first compromise with these hidden powers of evil cuts me off from all claims to the protection of the higher constitution.

They try to make themselves believe that it is slander which I utter when attacking the evils of this house; still they know them to be sad truths, which they would vainly deny, and re-proach me, the medium, as insane, hoping thus to render my testimony nugatory. Did they see I attacked only fancied evils, they would not he thus disturbed by my testimony. But since they know it is real, tangible truth, which I speak, their consciences accuse them, and in despair they are driven to seek this means of quieting them.

Could they only make me act as they have made Mrs. Farnside act, they would be relieved of an intolerable burden. Then they could tell of my own actions in support of their theory of my insanity, without telling in connection with them the great provocation which elicited such a mode of defensive action.

Mrs. Farnside was subjected to an ordeal which she could not sustain. She fell into a passion before this temptation, and under the influence of this temper, she lost her dignified self-possession. She descended from the plane of lady-like resentment, to their own low plane of brutality, and acted then like her tormentors.

Thus she put herself in their power, so that they can now gay of her that "they were afraid of her," just as she had had reason to say of them, that "she was afraid of them;" and for this very reason she had to defend herself from them. Although there is precisely the same reason for fear in both cases, yet, Mrs. Farnside bearing the brand of insanity, has to be represented as dangerous on that account, while their own insanity, although more marked, is entirely left out.

So in this hidden den of iniquity, the innocent do suffer for the guilty actions of their keepers.

Seeing at a glance the artful workings of this hidden mode of treatment, I determined to face the enemy in open opposi-tion to the "powers that be," assuming all the consequences to myself or others; therefore I became a staunch advocate and defender of truth and justice, being extremely careful however to be just to myself, while trying to be just to others. that is, I was careful not to put myself in their power, by coming on to their plane at all.

From this higher platform of principle, I could look down upon them on their lower plane of passion, policy, deception and brutality, and from this standpoint, command the moral courage to be their reprover, and their reporter to the world.

They envied my position and determined to take my fort by strategy, since open attacks had proved so unsuccessful. Their chagrin at their hitherto signal defeats had become exceedingly embarrassing, and as their machinery had hitherto proved successful in almost every other instance, they were very loth to abandon the siege.

It was for this reason I was kept so long, and made to feel the force of all the combined powers of this dark house of darkest deeds, before they would abandon the siege against this impregnable, invincible fortress of calm self-composure.

They feared me, not because I would fight them as Mrs. Farnside did, but because I would not fight!

It was for this reason Dr. McFarland wrote to my friends, in the heat of these battles:

"Mrs. Packard has become a dangerous patient, it will not be safe to have her in any private family!"