Chapters (39)
- Feature
- Preface
- Part I
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Part II
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Part III
- Chapter 1
- Chapter 2
- Chapter 3
- Chapter 4
- Chapter 5
- Chapter 6
- Chapter 7
- Chapter 8
- Chapter 9
- Chapter 10
- Chapter 11
- Chapter 12
- Chapter 13
- Chapter 14
- Chapter 15
- Chapter 16
- Chapter 17
- Chapter 18
- Chapter 19
- Chapter 20
- Chapter 21
- Chapter 22
- Chapter 23
- Chapter 24
- Chapter 25
- Chapter 26
- Chapter 27
- You are reading a Deluxe Edition:
- Copyright
At this Mr. Whittaker came to the door and told us not to dare to speak, or he would put the brace and bit in our mouths and the straitjacket on our bodies. We were so terrified we kept very still. Mrs. Lewis was not unconscious; she was only stunned. But Mrs. Cosu was desperately ill as the night wore on. She had a bad heart attack and was then vomiting. We called and called. We asked them1to send our own doctor, because we thought she was dying . . . . They [the guards paid no attention. A cold wind blew in on us from the outside, and we three lay there shivering and only half conscious until morning.
"One at a time, come out," we heard some one call at the barred door early in the morning. I went first. I bade them both good- by. I didn't know where I was going or whether I would ever see them again. They took me to Mr. Whittaker's office, where he called my name.
"You're Mrs. Mary Nolan," said Whittaker.
"You're posted," said I.
"Are you willing to put on prison dress and go to the workroom?" said he.
I said, "No."
"Don't you know now that I am Mr. Whittaker, the superintendent?" he asked.
"Is there any age limit to your workhouse?" I said. "Would a woman of seventy-three or a child of two be sent here?"
I think I made him think. He motioned to the guard.
"Get a doctor to examine her," he said.
In the hospital cottage I was met by Mrs. Herndon and taken to a little room with two white beds and a hospital table.
"You can lie down if you want to," she said.
I took off my coat and hat. I just lay down on the bed and fell into a kind of stupor. It was nearly noon and I had had no food offered me since the sandwiches our friends brought us in the courtroom at noon the day before.
The doctor came and examined my heart. Then he examined my lame foot. It had a long blue bruise above the ankle, where they had knocked me as they took me across the night before. He asked me what caused' the bruise. I said, "Those fiends when they dragged me to the cell last night." It was paining me. He asked if I wanted liniment and I said only hot water. They brought that, and I noticed they did not lock the door. A negro trusty was there. I fell back again into the same stupor.