The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1882-09-12 00:00:00

BATTLE WITH CONVICTS.

The following is from 63 eye... Gases :—Your convicts
were removed from Woking to Portland some time ago
on accouot of their bad behaviour at Woking; but as they
could not cure theca any more at the Isle of Stone than
near the City ed
_of the Dead, it wee order that they he
retiarned to Woking. Good reason there appears to be for
wiabing to get rid of them, since they were had Ina,lguset
men, stemming that they were lunatics. One had been
on ecrohat, and he could stand on his head in the c irner
of ti. CA: for half-as-hour it • stretch, and if ena one
aenturs•si to lAi through if.. tree in the cel.• or. Le
would dash lost intly ac.o a the floor with the quinines,
of • shot. arid dot the looker-10 a blow with his foot
through the aperture, his agility being so great that be
was able to lift up his foot t' that height. All this
time he eould he stark nake I. The were not
a lowed to toe any force with thee, fellows on account of
their being under treatment we lunatics. On Thursday
morning they were to start for Woking Prison, and left the
Itatablishment at the Grove in charge of Principal Warder
Curtis, and Aseiatant Words M sickly and Sutler;
they were conveyed in one of Mr. Thresher's vans to the
Railway Station; but on the rice&d began to get disoriterlY,
broke the side windows of the machine, and the offioers
had great difficulty in keeping them from getting out.
Their conduct woe noticed by aa officer, named Pound,
who was in chugs of a party in Grove-road, and he at
once went to the Prism and reported what he bed seen
to the Governor, who instructed him tu go to the Railway
Station and resist if required, 0 iing down to the station
the convicts shouted tirough the broken wind-weal the
people, and when they arrived with their snort at the
stet on they were kept in the van until the train bed
*hunted into the posiUon for etarting. A special carriage
bad been provided, so that no change should take place
between Portland and Woking; ibis was placed immedi-
ately on the opposite side of the platform from that where
the van was standing, when the prisoners were brought
out. They walked taut of the way acme, the platform,
when the act Alit with an oath said he was not going in
there, and immediately the other prisoners were iif the
iseme mind, and all four of them stru k out at thi officers.
Mr. Curtis s-'zed the ringleader and put him on his
beck, and P.S. Devenish, P.C. Stone, end Porter Miller
assisted to ho debts fellow, whilst Mr. Curtis went to the
assistance of healthy, who was engaged with another
prisoner, the rases' freely indulging his brutality by kick-
ing the officer ; ehilst Butler, who is infirmary nurse, bed
his work cut out by the other two prisoners. Soros f the
convicts laid on their backs en kleked, used their cb slued
bend* freely, and spit in the officers' faces, and one made
a wrong move for his own party by nulling off his shoe and
sending it at 'amps speed towards Constable Stone's head,
followed close behind by the titer shoe. This was Ot
course so much the better for the protectors of law and
order, tor the first thing they try to do with refractory
prisoners is to get their shoes off. Still, the excitement
at this time wee something t errible : there was a lanes
number of pamenger., and the children cried, the women
shrieked, the convicts were shouting and jumping about
with their mouths open, biting at people like mad
doge. One of the fellows gothold of the Principal War-
der's sword, aud got it out about a foot, when Maltby
went to the rescue, seised the sword, and drew it away
out of the fight, the flashing steel adding to the bril-
liancy of the scene. The female in charge of
Mrs. Mitchell's stall had to beat • hasty retreat—" not in
accordance with the traditions of the British Army"—and
part of the art-cles on the stall were used as projectiles try
the convicts—Mr. Acrobat proved that a lobster might fly
even after death, for on his impulse it went from the plat-
form right through the booking-room to the front door of
the station, against the serge face, bruising very
much the flesh Of the lobster!, and main( a kind of
mayonnaise dazing the sergeant's cheek. Two lobsters
ant • crab singularly enough made their exit, though
boiled, from the scene of the melee, and eight cakes went
to crumbs, at an expense of sa, to the Government. By
this time t h & entertal lament began to get wearisome, and**
audience having retired, thew t ',rethought It was "a waste
of time to proceed any further," like Saran( Blackburn. By
the united strength of the detachments from the Ooneict
Establiehment the police, the railway company. and aids
from Weymouth and Portland generally, the convicts were
forced into the c impartment. At this Intaresting mqmrnt
the reeerve came up, in the person of Warder Pound, with
his staff. The reint ornament wee too much for the co wage
of the rebels, who, without further reeistance, went off
toward. Woking. When they got into the train. one of
the beauties said—" 111 got bold of one of the cutlesees I
would have cut your head off." They are described as
having behaved themselves pretty well on the journey to
Woking, although the warders had rather an anxious
time going through Ridgway Tunnel in the dark.