The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1884-12-30 00:00:00

MR. DAVITT'S PRISON LIFE.

Tim offence for which Mr. D avid rmelved • wentenos of
15 pare penal eirvitude was uo: one whom •dities him
to srldditol. Wadi at Is linpands te rdtsais • mgr. t
that • in.. whom writine bears •ridenos of smiliry
tbroughoot, sod of such cod good scudo sows Olassm.
sem nave got himseit into th• bed compeny of
menacia. Mr. Deviled bah la &climbed to ' Jo.s.' • pet
blaokletrd winces. by the kindness of th• soveroor, the
primates. WY &Ingrid to limp wlwen Met at Pmtdo I: inf
' Joe ' forms tb• • sol.tary bulimia,' to shah Um various
tempters are euppodd to b• addressed in guise of
ledium But this pretoom of •pe•kiag to Mut bird in
• Kr' COIm.. ii dr nind ear, lb. istroauctory
pmagrapb: end rainy w• in wi how that •e'ee °
treated to Say Ivad.u• aloud o go• iucetwateono welch
in. up Mae mead volume. Udine§o. Ir•r• a very ;toils
foal Indeed he could koraly 11. v. cooccaled • dwienitisn
to Wm forty wanks while ha• coarlar wm pfopwilog in
wwwegin mama clink, gni airungiOn Of monopoly lo
land, teas suppramion of the Rode of Leeds, dm purging
of Ms • Callll4 Ring ' at Dublin, and Um inetitutios of an
Irish Naming Amesably. Tala mitigll volume is ooly
Gainsaid with in. first beams fib.. pleased tne asith.r
to solder th• two topetom he mamma lwriOng to thet
order of liforstare poodle'r to odious lruda newspapers
sad th• moral that the number of London pMkpaketa
might be diandoleed if the Nationalist proeirdain• won
sernsul out is one which Mr. D edtt. with nil his
Pewee el inductive inningingg, has not rendered sunoisatly
obvioue.
. . .

'll—nt—las Int vellum it highly intiesibley. bad it Ink
meta • woodier aa to bow the writes one have massed so
moth info:mattes about criminal& It is true that Ms
sad experiences exteaded over to.. more. 'Pont in toll-
sedosen gaol* mid eogiewt eetanbaitneale. and But he
wee donee most of hia term treated meally lik• otter
pessowerk Moping with %me and worrier with than.
Tee Indulges°. of the biackbOds mammy —• groat
favour—was ordy granted ea lie reabotou to Portiand.
a tee bootie' the madame of lue tatestholueeve to
1861 He mamma mainio to olio place that he wee
working us a sant at DenalOge . with six Loudon pick.
pockets sad • Yokel's.' tined named Pes.o. On mho.
ommons be sad ad kW Paciapalflobi burgiars. cracksosio,
and murderess; mod, se demb . by whopseed ceassencee
with these wretched men, aU eager for Ma, he email be
able to pick up • goad deal of stray Leath ; but the
facilities for long coaversadoos mot be mace greater in
convict establisamente than to c mintooly imeeined. slam
they have thabisd the writer to 5C44411111110051 ILO theight,
not only inti the antecedeeth Ma um the Ilemod ,
ceanthir of his associate& U. Maths by reviving the I
old chaus not 1:100•111111.4 ualoencled boon. old
againes the thassilloatioa id trimmers. Coovada are
clamed sad treated wording ti thus behaviour is ooa-
Moment. and eat ateeeding to their ortmee. To. worst
scoundrels an of ten the best beloved: sod bad marks
with eiher pusualuseets ars apt to fall most heavily cm
the who coadititheselly are least It to soda,
X. Deatrimer aTiat l give
yse who. ai as llt,esllos with •
warder, forgot the me of lila tomes and dealt, blow. fur
whirs\ its received two dome Maim with the mt. TIM.
however, was • [MAIN 11141110011 of • lawyer getting
lab o swat • maps. Another primmer speeding his halt
night is Newginte smith feuded \math to art hotel. sod
rowed ' waiter ' 5e4 bread: &ad wawa, till. °Miming no
he indignantly deamithed his bill ani threamed
to
lootwino. LIN dig." 61
to 11141 i Toll
U.
woe Maly . 501500
ril
ham • bad time before Ms release. Oi • highly accom•
pri•Oalle "MO disowned se Indiana, ins Da
raalenty Moat the is. art el thieving. MO. Devitt wile
tete pretty story. 11e Wet had declared there erm no
hate to robber/ • life was a mows ; tears were n•
homes ram, be *oath locky loth aad unlucky, an 1 is
.000 .0007 maa lab • right to whet he coal.' get. Tao
thitonst, who was Mr. Deaths 'labour Mom' disappeared
for them days. aad ea lila return lt wee meeriamcia that
be had been oa 'Moto; that la brood and weber aud
salami confinement fur punch's{ the bead of • fello•
prionner who had ads& 50000 01 ma broad. • Bat did you
not say thieving was as bermsrabb. pursuit? .1.4 yr.
Devitt. The thief schnitund that such WWI 0141 00111100.
but hie omplaist WM that the breed pilferer heel
samked into my cell ithe • miter end stole* when 1
was not time?
Loid Aberdare mot be • ”ry good•tuiturod man, fur
while he ma Kr. Brum eel Horne Smeary, • misdleir
presented himself at the Home Oflosi. desonbed himself
as • waiter from Willis's. and *toed that he was eent by
one of Yr. Brea. cieestituente. who. Mortar come up to
Imam, had saddeely rea shirt of mown. Could the
right honourable gentlerma oblige him srith SI I 11r.
Brom. meets to bays meths..% tie loan with the mod
Ohmic log good gnat and unsuemoiouthess. Soon after-
wards ths borrower obtained two dressing cm. worth
Alle from. shop in Piccadilly by representing himself aa
met by the Dues ot Argril. TM alacrity of Earliehmsn
in pouncing upon say bait offered to the. by a union-
ism, real or spurioua, to lammed in semend other awe-
dotes—one of than about • pseudo Dm de Illontinethumil.
This istsaloal perloo, ' allied to it. Bourbon-Orlem,'
family, qusrtd himself upon • too willing Leonel:lire
cotton spinner, was introdueed by this latter into go 4
Masse sod clubs, enrolled ea an heaorery member of •
VOIUZI,O.r Curtis, sod dealt he turned out to be • tailur's
assailant. A Count Bobrisk4 slim Oskoff tried to scrape
wqmintance with Kr, Devitt by enquiring where some
good moiety wea to be bad in Ireland °Made Dublin—
wisiab is too infested with the gagloh. His contmeed
object wine to visit the Sista Isle on thin expiry of hle
term, sad he was naturally hart that Kr. Devitt Month
ham declined to mist Mai in reeking the tour profitable,
i All the autlices SZpin•oo•S, however. were not so
aninalog as these. Among some most pitiful tales which
Is relates I. that of a moo whom he heard *alibi'
• through the wall of • ea, ' Do you think my Kay is
dead!' This primmer had come bome from his work one
night a lithe ' fresh, bat not drunk. nod Intlimg his
wife is Marelitheited that a man who lived &arose the
street bed Welled bee. The result of this was an
affray in which the inselm got killed, sad the heiband
was esatemod to omega yews' penal servitude. His
ILVat4llOll sppesnd to be one continual Farrow. bad he
could only moan and repeat, ' I'm sun Mary is deed—
oh, what will my children do? We mot truet that
Clod. I. mar mistake about be story of anothrr Convict,
wh, had • drunken wife, sad was sentenced to pe1.51
servitude for life for having murdered her. He asserted
thst he me innocent of this murder. Coining home from
his work and flailing his wife drunk he bad upbraided
her, and she, In (ea of hlin, had rua out of the, min, •nd,
stumbling down • staircase, bad broken her neck. Hut
the husband in an agony of conaternaile, happened to
exclaim, ' 06, I bay. 011I•3 my wife.' and th". 6°.x.rdi''s
, to his own account, wan aweigh to more hie cupric:boo.
Of the almost unqlencbable hopelaness of proration Yr.
Devitt gives an excepts in the story of • man who,
Mane been sentemsd to 9) years, anti sheep, p•rmaded
that be woe shoat to be let out. Aftor he bid been in
prom seven yams he warn q ilte aontident that hie boor of
db.""1" woe elnrombinet, sal equally so Om years
later when tEr. Darla met Min in soother pritha. Lea
sot of to this we ham the account of • niMsable woo
who, heving had real greands for expecting • release.
died heart-broken is a few days on limrog thee there
was no hope for hien. These anecdotes which we have
itnoted are but samples of [ll6O, more to bin lotted In Mr.
Devia's book, which will well rape/ perusal. tirsiett we
oor moot reject many of the auth a premiees about the
moms of aline and most of hie toncluslons a, to the
, moms tore ping with IL ,
For two mom the Claimant woes fella wiprironer of the :
aather's in D Attritive, and this notorioue convict became
tro lion of the Mee&
To fall into exercising Ile with hint oa &today wait •
eeteeesed an event to be talked of for • week afterwards by
the unfortunate convict who had, for o ~e In he life, rubbs I
hie shirt. "him one of Rowland'e peoud arid ivory. T.
settle an argument upon any topic—legal, political. or Ms-
ciplivary—reguired but the assertion at, It error richt, roes. s
go, salon Immediate acguteeoce in the s etclusiveness el the
feather opinion. advanced way the is i.emsenes. Is hoot, •ilr
Roger 5,'. became the recogoleed authority upon every
matter of OloWat, from tbo melte of the Wily to the evils
of trial by joy. or from parthuiehip of j ntime to the quo Ili
of the sitte-ul-beel soup; sad the acgoeiti io t i %hot
eschthed sad unlit. moiety of such a man wee pat town
amoog the list of greet evicts in the Watery of Detractor.
. . . . . Cobhe the ordinary logos arletocrat tar WWI'
serer Saba ids rink or ad :mad the patroiel .er limners
thst both outside so Well sob. prima tonally denote ask, the
parvenu and the impostor. Whatever toe man r. ally Is,
victim or fraud, Tichborne or C.t., lie exhibited will.
sada my oteormion •43 andiridmicy sod a b eying iii
marked exam& to the ordimry inclusion and tripinn.J•
with whom he was ameiced. I hos boo tofoni• i
thet when queetime I dark( his trial se to the insetting of
certain French worda eat partiandarly of atm, pouts In
the Catholic faith, whish the r.el Sir Roger. It Is slated.
would be shoat certain to how, lo ea. anab• to ...,..r
..rr•CII, in nit me, If told be cornet. rho C &slant le id
hove acquired a knowledge both of Preach and the °begr-
imes. • fib. mars in the Inter, .1 between his cinvicao. In
London and his ardent in D.rtmoor, • belief peel dot nioe
months. as he could both °inverse in "ranch and
Correctly follow the ceremony of the Catholic Church while
In thst prison. On the other hand. 111. quit* passible that
the.. parts Is the rule that me to be Kaye I my hair bees
studied during he sloe months' so) urn In Illlibank, at
Celt .llc bat. of devotio i sod • Preach grammar and
dictionary would he int:laded, if derired. among his ordinary
cll books. 81111, It Is but Just to rem vk that few indivi tsale
are to be found also,. convicts .00 amid make wich tiiii-
green in the Aut. of a language which, though it bs an
easy task to leafs to read, is eeldom so ••• ly roaster d a• t i
snake. a student to can”rse freely with a French,. a; .t the
coo .. of nine month,' soll-taithea. On the other hand,
ii begets intaleetua tmlning and Intact of general las ...-
ester as. ouid be gathered from his pillion coovefeadon,
a ared to we to be for too name for • roan that me
reputed to have received a good edam education, aud
who had. in addition, travelled en most and nand with so
many ma the wort I over, •11 who hod al, raa ~,i,,nut.
• I h ring peened his forty-afth year. Raring riot lent diy
loonl the mull of the general election of Iti7l, I
oommualcated to Roger the %demob of the Tort., a ,c 1
the het of IL.. Disraeli bee noting Prime Mother •. where-
upon he resharlitsl—• Then you we If he does no maket ake him-
self Fire& Lord of the Treasury el o.' Ile political ktiowledg•
appe wed to he exactly or a level with that of ths ordinary
niagsman.—Times.