Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1859-10-11
Nortester 1ailp Spp.

The GALLEY SLAVES AT ToULoN-It is
not to be expected that one can speak of Tou-
lon without saying word of the galley slaves,
or torcdts. There are in the arsenal and yard
$500 who do all the heavy work. They drag
the materials about and some are employed
i'll saving timber. The worst are attached in
couples by heavy chains passed round the an
kles and waists, and linked together. The
better behaved are allowed to go sngly roned
in the same way, with the exception Of the
connecting chain. They are clothed in coarse
canvass trousers and shirts, branded with their
numbers, and wooden jacket. Those who are
condemned for life wear long green wooden
peakless cap, something like a night-cap with
the top cut off and made square. On the front
of the cap is tin plate with the number ofthe
wearer punched out The convicts who are
condemned for number of years are distn
guished from the others by red caps, and those
who have been more than once to the Bayne
by yellow sleeves to their jackets
Their faces close shaver, bronzed by expos
ure to the sun, and brutalized by crime, are
fearful to Dehold, and their repulsive appear
ance is heightened by their hair being nolched
short in lines running round the head, in order
to facilitate their recognition should they es
cape. AT night they lie down on inclined
lengths of banking, without mattress or COW
ering, in twenties or thrties, and an iron rod
run through the leg chains OF each, so that no
one can move without the rest. Their food
consists of brown bread, not all wheaton -four
soup, and hdrtcotS ct feUes, beans. No wine or
tobacco is allowed, but the convicts are per-
mitted to receive 10f. month from their
friends, with which they may purchase any
eatable they please. The greatest and most
degrading punishment, which must also be the
greatest obstacle to reformation is claiming the
men in couples. Youths over sixteen may be
seen chained to old men tainted with every
vice.
Walking or sleeping the companions de chains
are never separated until freedom or death re-
moves one of them. In spite of the hideous
costume and revolving appearance of the for
cats, there were some who still exhibited traces
of their former position, whose gentility so to
speak, pierced through their convict garb,
One in particular, standing nearly six feet
high, who intentionally watched the arrival of
wounded French soldiers from Italy, struck
me on account of the perfect ease and grace
with which he moved, bowling to the guardians
passing by, although his actions were accom-
panied by the horrid clanking of his chains
AT the time of my visit, ] was told that there
were then among the torcdtS Colonel de Cercy,
who commanded a regiment at the Marseilles
in 1851 who was charged with the execution
of the coup de'etat in this town, and who was
subsequently convicted of eScrobuerfe, Captain
Doineau Chief DIN bureau AraJ, convicted of
having conspired to murder an Arab chief;
Lieutenant de Mercy, convicted of having un.
fairly and with premediation slain another of
ficer when tipSy in duel the chief army ac-
countant (chjef cOmptaJIe) who was sent to the
Crimea, the two managers of the bank Of
Toulon, and six dbbeS land there are more who
manage to keep their former calling secret.)
An eminent painter is chained to distin-
gushed member of the Paris bar, and between
them they keep the accounts of one depart
ment of the prison, while of lawyers and nota-
ries there is no end. Among the jorcdtS are
men Of all nations, as OF all ranks in society.
We contribute our quota-one an Englishman,
who was arrested at Calais, with forged notes
in his possession, and who, there is every rea-
son to believe, was guitless Of any criminal
intention. He has recently been brought to
ToulOn from Rochefort, is consumptive, and
not allowed to wear flannel although permit
ted to do so in Rochefort. There is also
hazy rumor Of British peer of the realm be-
ing among the tofcats, but, as no one has ever
seen him it may be dismissed a myth To
the present government of France is due the
merit of endeayorng to deal with the great So
cial evil, the Bagnes, where vice stagnates,
and grows more hideous, to be again let loose
on society. Penal settlements have been
formed in Africa and French Guiana to which
some of the convicts have been removed.
Toulon is now the only bagne; those OF Roch-
fort and Brest have been abolished, but still
the work goes on very slowly.
Three cargoes of five hundred each have
been shipped off, yet their places are nearly
all filled by new arrivals. Moreover, it would
appear that the forcats cannot be legally com.
PEELED to go unless they choose. They were
condemned to hard labor in the dockyards and
arsenals OF the State, and not to transporta-
ton. To coax them to go abroad they are
DromiSed that on their arrival they shall he
released of their chains and allowed the free
use of their limbs. But so great is their dread
of Lambessa and Cayenne, and the craven
fear of death, that they prefer the horrors of
the bagne at Touon to comparative independ-
ence in the two French colonies.