The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1869-03-13 00:00:00

PRISONERS' FRIENDS.

A writer in the D,ily News gives the fi illowing sketch
of one of the uiany mad pictures which are to be is:en
in London :

On certain mornings, and at regular hours, small groups
Of woe-begone tearfel girls and women may he seen in the
Old Bailey, exchanging whispers with each other, or thread-
ing their way silently through the throligof meat aalmmen,
City policemen, ticket porters, warehousemen, clerks, and
shopboys, with which the busy place is full. They are the
female friends at prisoners in Ne nate, are of all ages, and
beyond misery and shabbiness, have little in common. The
girls hark prematurely old arid worn, and fumy of them have
the unmistakeable expression all hunted manual. obtain;
while the older women may be divided into two classes—the
callous and the crushed. There is a world of misery behind
the defiant as well as the tortured faces one sees here. All
pause at the steps leading up to the half-door, behind which
the head and shoulders of a stalwart man in uniform are
seen; mei after a moment's parley they are admitted within.
The object of their journey is nearly I,4:omen/died now, for
they are about to he alMwed to see and converse with their
husbands or lovers, their brothers or sons. These last are
taking their prescribed amount of exercise in the prison
yards, and it is from behind one of the gratings looking in
these that they are permitted to gaze from a preset flied dis-
tance upon, and exchange words with, their visitors. Be
to cell the prisoners and their friends runs a passage of about
a yard wide, with another set of iron bars fencing it off from
the place where the women stand; so that between the
visitors and the visited. are two stout harriers and sufficient
space to preclude the possibility of articles lining handed
from one to the other. There are no seats. The prisoners
are told to break out of the line of march, and permitted to
advance to the grating of the yard in batches of three or
four. The women who have come to see them stand exactly
opposite, within the prison, and all have to press their faces
close to the bars to make hearing poasible. If a double set
of wild beast cages were planted in parallel lines, with the
ironwork of each facing the others, lent a yard or so apart; if
the lions wind tigers vole pushoig their noses eagerly at the
barriers, self trying to escape and if a keeper or two were
planted in the intervening spare to watch, a fair imitation
of Newgate gaol during visiting would be obtained.
The glimmy place has been vastly altered and improved
during the last few years. Those who only rementlier its
old dark walls with their long fine of oakum pickers at work
In the day time ; who raw the condenineni cell, say about
the time Palmer had occupied it or Boualield endeavoured to
commit suicide by throwing himself in Its fire, would he
amazed at the transformation effected in its interior. Light
iron staircases lead to airy galleries, out of which the vari-
ous cells open, and from the lower floor of whinth the exercise
grounds are gained. The condenmed cell differs little now
from that appropriated to ordinary prisoners, save that there
Is accommodation for the warders, whose duty it is to watch
the wretch sentenced to die, and who never leave him with
befalls from the gallows' drop.
But our present husiness IS with the exercise yards, and
the interviews held betseeen the bars. There is a ghastly
resemblance between thorn and the playgroutel of mom strict
school. Pacing regularly round, a fixed space being main-
tained between each man or hoy, and the rate of walking in
each case the same, proceed the prisoners. It is their wicked,
callous faces which make the school simile seem ghastly.
Daugerous beards fleeing restlessly to and fro In a vast cage
seems much nearer the mark. now that we are among them.
Sordid common villauy, theft, forgery, assault, burglary,
cutting and vroundieg, and passing bad money, make up the
bulk of offences with which the men before us stand charged.
A stout fiend-faced man, who looks like a country fanner,
and who is gestulating vindently through the bars to the
cowed aud crying little woman beyond them, is in a charge
of honse-stealing lie han been in priaon before, and indeed
was only out of it ten days when he was again apprehended.
A muscular powerful man, he looks as if he could carry
off a horse bodily, if necessary ; and one wonders what
the messages are he is impressing so earnestly on his wife.
Awarders standing near enough to the twain to overhear
their talk, but we are assured no effn in is made to eavesdrop;
the presence of a prison official being insisted on simply as a
precautionary measure. Next to the horsealealer is a well-
dreaaeni pi,nnmg clerk, whose alleged offence is embezzlement.
The elderly womait whose sobs reach as across the sant is his
mother. She seems to be plendiog earnestly, and lie to be
half sullen. half ashamed, hut finally to yield to her entreaties
whatever their purma-t may have been. The third i risoner
being visited is an older men, and the girl tatting to him
looks like his daughter. Their interview is far calmer than
the other two, and seems indeed of a business character ; for
some dean linens has been brought, and the man is actually
talking of the weather as we plots by—a proceeding which we
thought a feint, but which, as ire were reminded, was
natural enough. The threeataarters if an hour allotted to
each hit- rview is doulitless a very previous time. it can
only be had on particular days, and the strongest
wish of those concerned must be to empress as
many nieestione and answers into it as possible.
Fancy the painful excitement with which a man oh. ut to be
tried for some serious crime must look forward to fits pro-
mised talk with those whom he eau trust to act fm hint out-
side. The anxious thoughts, the theilits, the fears, the hopes
whichagitate him in the solitude of his cell are to all bear
fruit in the momentous . onversation lie is permitted to hold.
The chances of the impending trial, Ids fate if omen:tent. the
Means to be raised for Ids defence, and the r fleet upon thaw
dependent on him ot his present state, have to be eagerly
canvassed ; and it is all important that riot a moment should
be 10-t. But this very eagernem defeats itself. Just sail
often happens, that when people meet after a long absentee,
and for a limited time, they fail to rental half the WMon mi
which they are vitally interested, and en which they are
anxious to compare notes—so with the imprisoned men be-
fore us and their Mee's. In the other yarda we visited !nen
end women who were absolutely staring at each other
through the bars, in silence ; though the latter had come not
purpose to talk, and the former would be shut up again hi a
quarter of an hour. In some cases it nmy have been the
dumbness of despair which made them tongue•tied ; font
many seemed sin nem aunty anxil ins to express all they hail to
say that they were unable to arrange their ideas sufficieetly
to give them arthathiPs shape.
Some of the women treated the whole alt air lightly,
smirked at the warders, Mid looked I ioldly round ; hut these
were the exceptions. 'rhe rule both in those saaitieg and
those in eomn 1111 l bastion with their male triennia was abso-
lute dejection. Two other kinds id accommodation aro pro-
vided for special visitors, both similar In character. Thin-
first IS an enclosed closet in the centre of the principal
corridor, and is for the Mtn 111 l ies ; the second is for the pri-
soners who are Raman Cathelics, and who are visited by
their priest Both have glass sides and roof, and malls° "the
light closet 3," upon which Clarissa laid such st rem when de-
scribing the lodgings she had been entrapped into by
Lovelace. The advice to little children, 'tin be seen bet
not beard," is rigidly enforced upon all people inside these
two places. They lire for the time being literally in a
glass-house, and every movement can be seen from almost
my portion of the chamber or corridor in which they
stand. Both places are empty during our stay, the
only visitors being the W. 11.1 PreSgillg apainst the iron loins.
It Is easy to MI up their vacaney. however; sod all hut
inipossible not to realise the scenes which take place in the
attornie.' hots, as well as the priests% Tnere are nests here,
and a resting-place for papera. It is, Indeed, a entail office
under a glass .-ase, and swept and garnished for the next
tenant.. The futile attempts at deceit, the half confessions,
the miserable equivocations as to the extent and circum-
stances of guilt oil the one hand ; the calm liminess tone, the
remonstrances in the suicidal folly et concealmeit, the
penetrating miestions, the proutised art with which the
truth is wormed cot; and (ha astute assurances
of help from the professional advisers oil the other,
this place has heard! If glass walls have roes like their
neighbours of storm and brick, what strange stories could
this little cramped cage reveal!
There are more women in the porter's bulge, as we leave.
tearful and miserable as the rest, and awaiting their turn
tor interviews. rlley, too, will be conducted tin the iron
harriers, and utter their broken conversation across the
yard, 41 intervening space. The prison of Newgate is
so rdiviously well managed, and the comforts—we had almost
written the luxuries —of its Inmates are so carefully secured,
that its authorities have doubtless sufficient reason, for
the rules under which the visits of prisoners' triennia may be
paid and received. Still, a vast majority of the inmates are
"remand cases:" and as they are all sent elsewhere as soon
as p wsible after conviction, it is difficult to repress a wish
that some less refs rioted mode of conummication could be
allowed. Although many of the evil ia :es we saw marching
round were old prison hands, we presume that the law holds
them innocent of the particular offences they are charged
with, until it finds them guilty. Again, it must occasionally
happen that planless personn who hare been committed ter
trial are detained here, and there is something repulsive in
the absolutely penal character of the reception they have in
each case to give their friends.

happel
trial II