.MjEwNg.MjkzNzM

[page 6]

or more insane men and women in Maine. I have no personal end to gain- none under the sun. God is my witness, Sir, I have much to lose. I pressure before this matter is done I shall lose some friends whose friendship and love I prize very much. But, sir, my experience and observation during these three or four years have produced this conviction: that if I do not do what is now put in my had to do I shall carry a sorrowful heart to my dying day. And see, as it were, the hands of suffering stretched out in reproach towards me and hear their voiced reproaching me for not doing my duty. I have nothing personal to ask. I have a great deal to lose. I may be allowed to say that I presume every member of this Committee is aware of the fact that a member of my household is in that hospital. I have to ask of this Committee not to allow that to have a feathers-weight in this investigation, nor a feathers weight in anything that I shall have to say, not a word. I have no complaint at present in reference to that. That must be thrown out entirely. I believe that she is under the care of attendants that cannot be excelled for greatness,