Ten Days in a Mad-House: A Story of the Intrepid Reporter

By Nellie Bly

At the age of 23, pioneering reporter Nellie Bly faked dementia in order to expose abuses of patients in Blackwell's Island Insane Asylum in New York City. Such investigative journalism was unusual in 1887 — almost as rare as women reporters. Bly's subsequent articles created a sensation, exposing the rampant psychological and physical mistreatment of inmates, many of whom were not mentally ill but simply recent immigrants and other impoverished individuals without social support. Her accounts led directly to significant increases in funding and improvements in asylum management.
Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran, Nellie Bly (1864–1922) reported on inequalities women faced in the workplace and in the legal system, and she served as a foreign correspondent in Mexico. Two years after her undercover work at Blackwell's Island Asylum, Bly circled the globe to test the feasibility of Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days — and beat the fictional record by eight days. This new edition of her groundbreaking reports from the asylum features 17 period illustrations from the original publication.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Sep 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780486843940

Nellie Bly

Nellie Bly (1864-1922) was an American investigative journalist. Born Elizabeth Jane Cochran in a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, she was raised in a family of Irish immigrants. In 1879, she attended Indiana Normal School for a year before returning to Pittsburgh, where she began writing anonymously for the Pittsburgh Dispatch. Impressed by her work, the newspaper’s editor offered her a full-time job. Writing under the pseudonym of Nellie Bly, she produced a series of groundbreaking investigative pieces on women factory workers before traveling to Mexico as a foreign correspondent, which led her to report on the arrest of a prominent Mexican journalist and dissident. Returning to America under threat of arrest, she soon left the Pittsburgh Dispatch to undertake a dangerous investigative assignment for Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World on the Women’s Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell’s Island. After feigning a bout of psychosis in order to get admitted, she spent ten days at the asylum witnessing widespread abuse and neglect. Her two-part series in the New York World later became the book Ten Days in a Mad-House (1887), earning Bly her reputation as a pioneering reporter and leading to widespread reform. The following year, Bly took an assignment aimed at recreating the journey described in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days (1873). Boarding a steamer in Hoboken, she began a seventy-two day trip around the globe, setting off a popular trend that would be emulated by countless adventurers over the next several decades. After publishing her book on the journey, Around the World in Seventy-Two Days (1890), Bly married manufacturer Robert Seaman, whose death in 1904 left Bly in charge of the Iron Clad Manufacturing Co. Despite Bly’s best efforts as a manager and inventor, her tenure ultimately resulted in the company’s bankruptcy. In the final years of her life, she continued working as a reporter covering World War I and the women’s suffrage movement, cementing her legacy as a groundbreaking and ambitious figure in American journalism.

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Bibliographical Note

This Dover edition, first published in 2019, is an unabridged republication of the work originally published by Ian L. Munro, New York, in 1887. The seventeen illustrations in this edition were drawn by Walt McDougall and appeared originally in the World as part of a two-part series on October 9 and 16, 1887.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bly, Nellie, 1864–1922, author.

Title: Ten days in a mad-house: A story of the intrepid reporter / Nellie Bly.

Other titles: 10 days in a mad-house

Description: Dover edition. | Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 2019. | Originally published: New York: Ian L. Munro, 1887.

Identifiers: LCCN 2019009090| ISBN 9780486835440 | ISBN 0486835448

Subjects: LCSH: Bly, Nellie, 1864–1922. | N.Y. City Lunatic Asylum. | Mentally ill—Commitment and detention—New York (State)—History—19th century. | Psychiatric hospitals—New York (State)—History—19th century. | Psychiatric hospital care—New York (State)—History—19th century. | Women—Mental health services—New York (State)—History—19th century. | Women patients—New York (State)—History—19th century.

Classification: LCC RC606 .C72 2019 | DDC 362.2/109747—dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019009090

Manufactured in the United States by LSC Communications

83544801

www.doverpublications.com

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2019

Contents

CHAPTER

List of Illustrations

Chapter I opener

Nellie Practices Insanity at Home

At the Temporary Home for Women

Nellie’s First Meal at the Home

In the Hands of the Police

Nellie Before Judge Duffy

An Insanity Expert at Work

Positively Demented

On Board the Island Boat

Chapter VIII opener

The Insane Asylum

The Front Hallway

The Reception-Room

Her Bedroom

An Insane Hall

Quiet Inmates Out for a Walk

Insane Hall No. 7

Introduction

Since my experiences in Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum were published in the World I have received hundreds of letters in regard to it. The edition containing my story long since ran out, and I have been prevailed upon to allow it to be published in book form, to satisfy the hundreds who are yet asking for copies.

I am happy to be able to state as a result of my visit to the asylum and the exposures consequent thereon, that the City of New York has appropriated $1,000,000 more per annum than ever before for the care of the insane. So I have at least the satisfaction of knowing that the poor unfortunates will be the better cared for because of my work.

CHAPTER I

A DELICATE MISSION

ON THE 22D of September I was asked by the World if I could have myself committed to one of the asylums for the insane in New York, with a view to writing a plain and unvarnished narrative of the treatment of the patients therein and the methods of management, etc. Did I think I had the courage to go through such an ordeal as the mission would demand? Could I assume the characteristics of insanity to such a degree that I could pass the doctors, live for a week among the insane without the authorities there finding out that I was only a chiel amang ’em takin’ notes? I said I believed I could. I had some faith in my own ability as an actress and thought I could assume insanity long enough to accomplish any mission intrusted to me. Could I pass a week in the insane ward at Blackwell’s Island? I said I could and I would. And I did.

My instructions were simply to go on with my work as soon as I felt that I was ready. I was to chronicle faithfully the experiences I underwent, and when once within the walls of the asylum to find out and describe its inside workings, which are always so effectually hidden by white-capped nurses, as well as by bolts and bars, from the knowledge of the public. We do not ask you to go there for the purpose of making sensational revelations. Write up things as you find them, good or bad; give praise or blame as you think best, and the truth all the time. But I am afraid of that chronic smile of yours, said the editor. I will smile no more, I said, and I went away to execute my delicate and, as I found out, difficult mission.

If I did get into the asylum, which I hardly hoped to do, I had no idea that my experiences would contain aught else than a simple tale of life in an asylum. That such an institution could be mismanaged, and that cruelties could exist ’neath its roof, I did not deem possible. I always had a desire to know asylum life more thoroughly—a desire to be convinced that the most helpless of God’s creatures, the insane, were cared for kindly and properly. The many stories I had read of abuses in such institutions I had regarded as wildly exaggerated or else romances, yet there was a latent desire to know positively.

I shuddered to think how completely the insane were in the power of their keepers, and how one could weep and plead for release, and all of no avail, if the keepers were so minded. Eagerly I accepted the mission to learn the inside workings of the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum.

How will you get me out, I asked my editor, after I once get in?

I do not know, he replied, but we will get you out if we have to tell who you are, and for what purpose you feigned insanity—only get in.

I had little belief in my ability to deceive the insanity experts, and I think my editor had less.

All the preliminary preparations for my ordeal were left to be planned by myself. Only one thing was decided upon, namely, that I should pass under the pseudonym of Nellie Brown, the initials of which would agree with my own name and my linen, so that there would be no difficulty in keeping track of my movements and assisting me out of any difficulties or dangers I might get into. There were ways of getting into the insane ward, but I did not know them. I might adopt one of two courses. Either I could feign insanity at the house of friends, and get myself committed on the decision of two competent physicians, or I could go to my goal by way of the police courts.

On reflection I thought it wiser not to inflict myself upon my friends or to get any good-natured doctors to assist me in my purpose. Besides, to get to Blackwell’s Island my friends would have had to feign poverty, and, unfortunately for the end I had in view, my acquaintance with the struggling poor, except my own self, was only very superficial. So I determined upon the plan which led me to the successful accomplishment of my mission. I succeeded in getting committed to the insane ward at Blackwell’s Island, where I spent ten days and nights and had an experience which I shall never forget. I took upon myself to enact the part of a poor, unfortunate crazy girl, and felt it my duty not to shirk any of the disagreeable results that should follow. I became one of the city’s insane wards for that length of time, experienced much, and saw and heard more of the treatment accorded to this helpless class of our population, and when I had seen and heard enough, my release was promptly secured. I left the insane ward with pleasure and regret—pleasure that I was once more able to enjoy the free breath of heaven; regret that I could not have brought with me some of the unfortunate women who lived and suffered with me, and who, I am convinced, are just as sane as I was and am now myself.

NELLIE PRACTICES INSANITY AT HOME

But here let me say one thing: From the moment I entered the insane ward on the Island, I made no attempt to keep up the assumed role of insanity. I talked and acted just as I do in ordinary life. Yet strange to say, the more sanely I talked and acted the crazier I was thought to be by all except one physician, whose

Reviews for Ten Days in a Mad-House

[amcheri-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Short but engaging and interesting. And sad. Glad I finally got around to reading it.

[micareads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

While this is a short book - it is a very important one. At the time of this writing, there were numerous reasons why women could be committed to places like Blackwells Island. Nellie Bly took on a dangerous mission in trying to find out how the mentally ill (and sometimes not mentally ill) of the Island were treated. What Nellie found was the abuse of those who needed the most help. Thanks to Nellie's bravery massive changes were made to the way the mentally ill were taken care of.

[jorgeousjotts · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Even all these years later Bly's testimony of her experience is horrifying and powerful. This sort of reporting is the purpose of journalism.

[violetbramble · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Nellie Bly was a young journalist in 1887 New York City when she was asked by World magazine to go undercover to expose conditions in the Blackwell's Island Asylum for the Insane. She fabricated a new identity, took a room in a women's residence, and slowly began to exhibit signs of mental illness. Within days she was a patient in the asylum. While there she witnessed the unsanitary conditions, the rotten food, the physical abuse, the lack of any medical treatment, and the lack of any recourse for those placed there under false pretenses. Her editors rescued her after ten days. After The World published her article she was asked to testify at a grand jury about all that she had witnessed. Her story resulted in the city granting $1,000,000. for mental health care.I have known the story of Nelly Bly for years, but I had never read her story. I live on Roosevelt Island -- formerly Blackwell's Island -- where the madhouse in the title was located. My friend Judy is the Island historian. She has shown me papers in the Island archives about Bly and the asylum for the Insane. Judy also dresses up as Nellie Bly and gives tours to tourists. In December i decided to participate in the NewYearWhoDis challenge at Litsy. You switch lists of your favorite books from 2019 with another member. The list I received included this book. I thought it was long past time that I read the story in Bly's own words.

[over.the.edge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ten Days In A Mad Houseby Nellie Bly2015Open Road4.0 / 5.0Nellie Bly was asked by WORLD magazine to have herself committed to one of the asylums for the insane in New York. Then, to write about it for their magazine. Feigning a mental illness, Nellie was admitted to Blackwell Island Insane Asylum, eventually, being taken to Bellevue. There, she saw patients being beaten and choked, refused water, and left to sit in the dark, punished for standing or moving. They were allowed to shower once a week. This was in 1887, and, unfortunately, many are still abused or denied basic needs to this day. It could explain why this book continues to be read, years after its first publication. Upon her release, she was summoned before a Grand Jury. Due to the case, $1,000,000 was given to the facility for improvements.Sad, hard to read, but very concise and honest. Quick but really deep read that tugged at my heart, for sure.

[chibitika-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Startling True Story of Institutionalized CrueltyJune 3, 2019Format: Kindle EditionVerified PurchaseThis book tells the stomach-turning true tale of deliberate cruelty and indifference to the maltreatment of helpless women, some who were mentally ill, some physically ill, and some just poor. What I found most disturbing was the willingness of all the doctors to ignore their patients' complaints of mistreatment.Well done, Nellie Bly.

[jreynolds1959 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Nellie Bly is a reporter and has been asked to do a story on the women's Insane Asylum on Bellevue Island in New York. She prepares herself to appear and seem crazy. When she enters the institution, it is dirty and the food is really bad, the treatment of patients is bad. She is released after a ten-day period, but leaves behind women that were going to be in the Asylum for the rest of their lives. Some of those women were not crazy, and Nellie understood that.Good essay on the bad things that can happen to good people.

[petroglyph_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well, this was a sobering read. It’s also really good, and it’s freely available online. Nellie Bly, an investigative journalist from the 1880s, had herself temporarily committed to an asylum for insane women in New York, in order to write a series of articles documenting the (mal)treatments that the inmates were subjected to. This book was a reissue of those articles to satisfy the high demand. Things start off amusingly, when Bly has to try and convince people to section her -- essentially, she shows up at a short-term lodging place for women and acts suspiciously, while pitying the kind people she is deceiving in the process. But once she is transported to the asylum, she puts on her journalist hat, acts completely normal, and records what is allowed to happen to her. It’s not pretty. The inmates are always cold (due to insufficient clothing, non-existent heating, and cold baths); the food is execrable; they are under constant threat of violence; and humiliations are frequent and issued with glee by the power-tripping staff. The maltreatment of the patients rises to the level of prison camp torture: they are deliberately and methodically kept in a state of sleep deprivation, malnourishment and under-stimulation. Worse: there is no way to prove their sanity, nor will the staff be even willing to listen. A diagnosis equals a sentence for life. Bly describes a typical day as she underwent them, which is a terrible enough ordeal, and adds other inmates’ stories and experiences -- which are worse (lifelong imprisonment for not speaking English? How xenophobic can your medical system get?). Bly uses no rhetorical flourishes; there is no need for jokes or cutesy asides: drily narrated reality is harsh and unforgiving and undermines trust in fellow human beings, if not in society at large. I knew 19th-century treatment of The Other was atrocious, but reading contemporary reports really drives home that message. The only good thing about Bly’s undercover stint is that, as a response to this exposé, the city of New York increased the funding (and, through increased inspections, the living standards) of its asylums. Finally: my edition of this book also contains two shorter articles, in which Bly goes undercover to secure a job as a maid, and works briefly as an inner-city factory girl. Those as well show off her on-point observational skills. Good stuff!

[marshapetry · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Short but inciteful. Not a lot of depth but who cares?! Interesting to see how investigative reporting was done in an earlier time.

[ionas_7 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This little book was written by a brave journalist in 1887 after having voluntarily become an inmate in a notorious institution for the insane in New York, Blackwell’s Island, in order to ascertain the conditions there.First, she has to pretend to be insane, which she did when staying in a “home for deserving women”. She tells the true names of all the persons, mostly women, she encounters both before being committed to the asylum and when inside the institution.Nellie assumes the name “Nellie Brown” and does not find it difficult to be declared insane and eventually be banished to Blackwell’s Island.The conditions there were indeed atrocious: the inmates froze in their thin dresses (it was Autumn, and cold, and the heat was not turned on), they received nauseating, inedible food, were forced to take cold baths despite being physically ill, and were often beaten.Many of the inmates were by no means insane, but had ended there simply due to their poverty.Most of the nurses were cruel and the doctors were inept and refused to examine the patients’ state of mind in order to determine whether or not they actually were insane. However, there were a few kind people employed there.Prior to her committal to the madhouse, the author had an agreement with her editor that he would get her out in some way or another after ten days, and luckily this duly occurred.Subsequently, after the author’s report to the authorities of the appalling conditions in the institution, a trip was made to the island to investigate the place. I found this to be a shocking, though not surprising, account of the state of affairs in this asylum. I’m afraid that there may still be similar institutions in present-day USA where the conditions are not much better.

[pepperwings · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This reporter was amazing, I'm awed by the things she went through to get a story, and to fight against the patriarchy just to be a journalist! In spite of that, I only rate this 4 stars, because the writing was not very engaging for me, and I suspect that's largely due to the era it was written in, but even still, it was difficult to get through. However, it was much better than the film adaptation, so I do recommend reading it over seeing the film!

[composingcomposer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an exciting and haunting narrative made even more so by the fact that it is true (at least mostly, it is possible that Nellie Bly exaggerated a few things, but given the fact that we now know how poorly the mentally ill were treated back then I would believe most of it.) As a side note, I would like to say that the Librivox reader of this book is very good, though I do wish there was an afterwards or something to explain how the asylum closed (because I know that it did.)It pissed me off though because here is David Daleidon doing the same thing; going undercover to report on the corruptions of a big medical facility/institution and nobody does anything to fix the corruptions that he saw and reported. But I probably won't post this last paragraph because people on the internet are mean and hateful and love to start political arguments even though they know that the last time anyone was persuaded by an argument on the internet was, well, never.

[aliceap-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ten Days in a Mad-House by Nellie Bly was a complete gamble. I saw it as a free download on my Kindle and I snatched it up on a whim. This is the true account of a young female reporter who lied her way into the Women's Lunatic Asylum on Blackwell's Island in New York. Originally published as a series of articles in 1887, Ten Days in a Mad-House is shocking in its stark depiction of how 'insane' women are treated. Nellie describes women who are no more mentally deficient than she herself is (and once inside she asserted again and again her sanity and acted no different than she would had she her freedom). The horrific conditions of the facilities and the demoralizing treatment heaped upon them by the staff at the asylum were startling to say the least (and absolutely disgusting). After reading this small book, I decided to do a little research into Bly and discovered that beyond being an advocate for women's rights she was also an inventor and an adventurer. (She traveled around the world in a record-breaking 72 days!) This was a short little book that packed a big punch due to its subject matter and the passion with which Bly clearly had for improving the situation of those deemed 'mentally insane'. In those days, you could get rid of the unwanted women in your life by simply dropping them off at the asylum and saying they were 'crazy'. The vetting process was nearly nonexistent and any attempt to assert your sanity was dismissed offhand. I recommend this for anyone in the mood for a fast nonfiction book from a voice that is both intelligent and impassioned. 8/10

[slug9000 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a very fast and engrossing read. It is the author's first-person account of her successful attempt to gain access to an insane asylum to see its inner workings. The original story was apparently published as a series of news articles in the late 1800s and then turned into a book. The book is highly readable and moves at a fast clip. It is a fascinating insight into both insane asylums and the prevailing attitude toward mental illness (and the relationship between mental illness and poverty) of the times. Nellie Bly is sympathetic toward the women incarcerated in the insane asylum and her descriptions of life inside are vivid, heartbreaking, and disturbing, but not altogether depressing, since Bly does find humor where she can. I have read historical accounts of hospitals where patients were locked up against their will, but this is probably one of the most accessible books on the subject. Despite the fact that the story is well over a century old, it is written in the clear and concise style of an unbiased journalist and does not feel dated.

[flippinpages-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Interesting read. I found the writing somewhat immature for a lady so well accomplished and respected. Would have liked more information at times, other than the doctor(s) asked me more questions and pronounced me insane. I felt the doctor's questions critical to the story. Easy read. Glad I read it. Hard to be critical of a piece of history we are lucky to have.

[heduanna · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is the book version of Nellie Bly's newspaper reporting from her 1887 experience in the Blackwell Island Insane Asylum in New York City. As a journalist for Pulitzer in the nineteenth century, it is a bit sensationalistic in parts (easy to forget that the medal for the best reporting today was funded by the sensationalism of yesteryear), but I had the curious feeling that the she was under-reporting the shocking bits. (She sensationalizes her preparations for getting herself admitted as insane, but only gives the highlights of her ten days in the asylum itself – in fact, more than half the book is just the getting there.) I was impressed by her tenacity and courage, and by her journalistic standards in not dramatizing her experiences further. Looking forward to reading the other book I have of hers: Around the World in 72 Days!

[bellafoxx · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was very easy to read. Nellie Bly has a very conversational way of writing, she also does not get bogged down in needless detail. In this book she tells how she got the assignment and how she prepared for it. After she is committed, which was a rather quick and easy process, she details how her first day went. She then states that all her days were like that and proceeds onto the treatment, mis-treatment, abuse, conditions at the asylum. Her belief that there were women there that were not insane substantiated by her reports of their actions and conversations.After the section on the asylum, there is another short article on the working conditions of women, she refers to it as ‘white slavery’. Also very well written. I recommend this book.

[srumzi_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Ummm, weird. Interesting and strange. Done in an afternoon. Not a hard book, just strange. Did I mention strange?