“I tried to turn the gas up higher in hopes that it would raise my courage. I succeeded only partially, but I consoled myself with the thought that in a few nights more I would not be there, but locked up in a cell with a lot of lunatics.”
It isn’t exactly the kind of thing you’d expect to hear, but these are the words of Nellie Bly, one of history’s first investigative journalists, in her book “Ten Days In a Madhouse.” If a fictional character ever came to life, it would probably take the form of Bly; born in the late 1800s, her career first began when she wrote a counter-response to a newspaper article under the pseudonym “Lonely Orphan Girl.” The article alleged that women were mostly good for taking care of the home and having children. The newspaper was so moved by the enigmatic author’s response that they ran an advertisement requesting her identity, igniting Bly’s career. She wrote again under the name “Lonely Orphan Girl” until the editor chose the pen name she is best known for — Nellie Bly, a spin on the popular song “Nelly Bly.” During this time, she pushed to uncover issues which affected women and became known for some of the first investigative journalism work ever. Bly later abandoned the newspaper for greener pastures, moving on to work as a foreign correspondent in dictatorial Mexico (during which she was forced to flee the country after her six-month journey), and she made a famous voyage around the world that broke Jules Verne’s fictional record held by the character Phileas Fogg in “Around The World in Seventy Two Days.”
She and Laura Croft would have a lot to talk about.
However, Bly’s most respected — and hardcore — accomplishment came after a New York newspaper asked her to go undercover at an insane asylum. Hatching a plan to get herself committed, Bly joined a boarding house, then managed to convince the entire building of women that she was crazy in just over a day’s time.
Here’s an excerpt from her book “Ten Days in a Mad-House.”
“‘Would you like to be a nurse for children and wear a nice white cap and apron?’ she asked.
I put my handkerchief up to my face to hide a smile, and replied in a muffled tone, ‘I never worked; I don’t know how.’
‘But you must learn,’ she urged; ‘all these women here work.’
‘Do they?’ I said, in a low, thrilling whisper. ‘Why, they look horrible to me; just like crazy women. I am so afraid of them.’
‘They don’t look very nice,’ she answered, assentingly, ‘but they are good, honest working women. We do not keep crazy people here.’
I again used my handkerchief to hide a smile, as I thought that before morning she would at least think she had one crazy person among her flock.“
Once in front of a judge, the journalist successfully passed herself as crazy, though not without a few mishaps:
“‘Oh, don’t!’ said Mrs. Stanard, in evident alarm. ‘Don’t! She is a lady and it would kill her to be put on the Island.’
For once I felt like shaking the good woman. To think the Island was just the place I wanted to reach and here she was trying to keep me from going there! It was very kind of her, but rather provoking under the circumstances.” Before being moved to the insane asylum of her goal, Bly was taken to Bellevue, where she found a collection of women, many of who were truly as sane as her, forced to live under rough conditions. However, it was on “the Island” that the investigative journalist found herself in a truly nightmarish place: Blackwell’s Island, a terrible place which she was told she would never escape.
At Blackwell’s Island, Bly endured the abusive treatment of cruel nurses and living conditions that were dangerously unsafe. She also continued to discover multiple cases of women who were tricked into going to the asylum, and were perfectly mentally healthy, but unable to escape due to doctors’ carelessness and the maliciousness of the nurses. After her friends removed her from the asylum ten days later, she went on to write about the ordeal, sparking major attention nationwide and extensive changes at the institution she escaped.
Bly’s fierce spirit made a permanent mark on the world, and she went on to have many more fearless adventures. Her pioneering methods of obtaining the truth went on to be replicated by her fellow journalists in the field. Lois Lane, her famous fictional counterpart, is rumored to be inspired in part by Bly.
So who is Nellie Bly? She’s the kind of girl we all want for our best friend, and an ideal representation of women — not just for her accomplishments, but for her sharp wit, fiery attitude, and penchant for standing her ground.