ecommitment was
imminent, I should have fled to a neighboring State during the
preceding night. Fortunately, however, the right thing was done in the
right way at the right time. Though I had been the victim of a clever
stratagem, not for one moment thereafter, in any particular, was I
deceived. I was frankly told that several doctors had pronounced me
elated, and that for my own good I _must_ submit to treatment. I was
allowed to choose between a probate court commitment which would have
"admitted me" to the State Hospital, or a "voluntary commitment" which
would enable me to enter the large private hospital where I had
previously passed from depression to elation, and had later suffered
tortures. I naturally chose the more desirable of the two disguised
blessings, and agreed to start at once for the private hospital, the
one in which I had been when depression gave way to elation. It was not
that I feared again to enter the State Hospital. I simply wished to
avoid the publicity which necessarily would have followed, for at that
time the statutes of Connecticut did not provide for voluntary
commitment to the state hospitals. Then, too, there were certain
privileges which I knew I could not enjoy in a public institution.
Having re-established myself in society and business I did not wish to
forfeit that gain; and as the doctors believed that my period of
elation would be short, it would have been sheer folly to advertise the
fact that my mental health had again fallen under suspicion.

But before starting for the hospital I imposed certain conditions. One
was that the man with the authoritative trousers should walk behind at
such a distance that no friend or acquaintance who might see my brother
and myself would suspect that I was under guard; the other was that the
doctors at the institution should agree to grant my every request, no
matter how trivial, so long as doing so could in no way work to my own
injury. My privileges were to include that of reading and writing to my
heart's content, and the procuring of such books and supplies as my
fancy might dictate. All this was agreed to. In return I agreed to
submit to the surveillance of an attendant when I went outside the
hospital grounds. This I knew would contribute to the peace of mind of
my relatives, who naturally could not rid themselves of the fear that
one so nearly normal as myself might take it into his head to leave the
State and resist further attempts at c