The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1843-08-08
Youths Department.
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hugo ugly building, with long narrow passages, dark
dismal dungeons, and total absence of air, lgt,an
cleanliness Thanks TO Providence and the excellent
Howard, some (not, alas! alp OF our places oil con-
fnement are widely different; spacious and lofty as
palaces, airy ventilation can make them' and VS.
tied by the freely the smiling world beyohd
them. But still there MASSEY bolts to be drawn
and huge keys be turned before one can even get
in; and there are treadms for the idle, solitary cells
for the hardened, and chapel all grated round that
lends awe and terror to the very blessed word OF lie
ITSELF Even to the innocent victim of suspicion, who
can look up earlessly to the Judge of all, and to the
oppressed debtor whose misfortune not his ault,hns
made him beggar there is absence of familiar faces
and privation of precious liberty; in Short with all the
ameliorations Christian benevoence shed around the
prison. it must be prison STILL and this felt on Wis
iting the principal Jail of -.
But of all the contrasts which this place of lin,en-
ded reformation presented with my former ideas, and
with the character of its inhabitants, the most touch
ing to a visitor the effort Orwell meant industry
which had converted small interior court, leading too
often ''from prison TO judgmeut,"b into gay and
trim parterre, blooming like any cottage garden with
roses and other flowers. "Prison roses!" CALCULATED
l. as for the first time gazed on buds thus nurtured
--watered ,!no doubt, with many bitter passing
tear and destined from their awful situation, directly
beneath the gateway used the place of execution,
TO receive the parting gaze of many wretch,
Looking on earth, and sun, and sky,
As what he ne re might again.
I could not help standing spcll-bound beside the
most fourishing of the bushes, which, in its
June luxurance, looked as if the bowers of Eden and
ho, haan tie
more appropriate cline. | ask permission of the
turnkey who accompanied us, to gather one from the
oituation in which 1t had grown 1T was but waste
unsighty bit of ground, ma'am,' said the jaor,
"when present porter came here; and as he had
been bred gardener, and had great deal of spare
time his hands, he asked leave to turn it into those
two f1ower-beds you Most folks say they are
out OF character here-und so, mayhap, they be; but
scarce think you'll say when tell You that rose
tree saved an innocent PERSONS life.' How so?"
asked !, with natural interest. 'It's long story
ma'am," said the officer hestatingIy, and my time
will hardly allow my telling it; but you go out, 'if
you'll please to rest in the porters lodge, you can't
make the old man happier THAI by asking him all
about ito
We followed the turkeys advice and prefacing
my request with some compliments to the old florist
on his choice collection of roses he at once Sgave
US the history of the one had been plundcring.
cts about five years, ma'nm, come next assizes
since poor woman confined here for being con-
cerned in robbing house ntrused to her care. She
had been the gentemans laundrass for several years,
and from his opinion of her honesty, was employed
by him to keep his house during the absence of the
family at the seaside. The poor creature watched
her trust faithfully day and night, till she heard of the
dangerous condition of a married daughter some
miles off, when, comnitng,as she said, her masters
property 10 the keeping Of Providence for night,
she could not resist setting off to her dying
child. Some villains, who lurking in the neigh
bohood, awaited themselves of the circumstance and
AIartha on returning from laying dead baby in
dead mothers arms, found her masters house rhed
OF everything valuable herself justly blamed for
criminal negligence, and next charged with being i'm
plicated in the robbery itself The thieves, unable
to dispose as quickly they wished of all the stolen
property, were obliged to hide Of it; and no
place appeared to them fit as poor old Martha's
garden where if discovered the blame would natural
ly fall upon her. The ground was soft and wet at
the time and much they had tried to conceal their
footsteps-murder, they say, will out, and so will
robbery While Martha, half distracted between
her daughters death and the loss of her character
was crying before the magistrates engaged in exam
lining the case, her premises had been as matter of
course, searched; and what was the poor creatures
CONSERVATION to hear that chests containing linen,
had been found in her garden Protestations
would hardly have availed her had she been able to
make them. Her going away-though but too nat
ural in mother-was suspicious, and the whole
matter SO much like connivance, that Jail she went
OF course, as an accomplish resetter at the very
least.
1T is at all times hardship, ma am, and no ono
knows it better than do, for a laboring person to
be shut up, deprived of all means of earning her
bread, and all her little affairs going, may be, to
ruin and confusion; but what it was to Martha, no
one can fully conceive. Her own honest calling was
knocked up and probably forever but it was for her
daughters orphans that her heart yearned most Bit
'terly. Their father far off at sea-and four lit
tie creatures, under seven had no one to look after
them but an elder sister of hardly ten
No sooner did this good child hear Of her granny's
depored case, than she left her brothers and sisters
with neighbor, and walked four miles to tho iaiI
She was quite ashamed to ring at so fine place and