To the Madhouse

Agnes Richter, a patient in a mental asylum in austria in the 1890's, spent her days embroidering text on to the jacket of her hospital uniform in attempts to record her life story.

"What she has told us all a hundred times – That old, unwanted women can again Be hunted down, accused of pointless crimes And burned in the public square; that it is vain To plead – or prove – one's innocence; that men With solemn looks will come into the house, And say, fearing a scene, `You'll feel no pain;' `It's for your good;' `We're not ungenerous;' What she foretold, when we dismissed her fear Saying `You dreamed such things' – it now comes true: The door is open, and the men are here. Calmly they question her, and with a new Smiling indifference drag her from the room And through the streets to the expected doom." - Edward Lowbury