Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-03-26

Abaseu In sac New York Aim ms-house- Bx-
traordihary Udrfuptioh and Dcbaucheryi
Ftidas's kew York Tyibs,scohtains long
account bf ihe gross iaisiiianOe eehent md
reckless expenditure, the corruption and
drunkenness the licentiousness and rioting,
practiced in the Alms-house of that city by
its officers, From the columns Of the Tribune
we make these extracts
'Instead of going to their work with a
will, in quiet committee, each member holds
Il TO be his right 10 visit the institutions
whenever be pleases whether btsiness calls
or not, ind to take along con ijahies Of HE
friends, sometimes twenty or thirty in num-
ber, in carriages, hired at the public expense
and to dine and wine them at the cost of the
city ordering The liqdots dild viands on his
individual responsibility, and directing the
Wardens in advance to prepHte the feast
Some of the Wardens have been Obliged to
prepare three or four large dinners day.
nearly every day in the week, and on Sum
days In particular, for the Governors and
their friends, whom they must wait upon and
serve like common lacqueys
On these occasions scenes of disorder occur
at which even the very convicts cry shame
Five Governors at time, in the penitentiary,
have drank themselves drunk, and then,
quarreling over their cups, they have called
each other common thieves and whoremas-
ters, and wound up by getting into fight
pelting each other with glasses and the rem
nants of their dinner, smashing the furniture,
and then hanging their hats upon the lamps,
they have rolled under the table TO sleep off
their debauch. 1t is by no means an uncom-
mon occurrence for the Governors and their
guests to be helped down to the river, and
lifted into the boats by the prisoners being
too grossly intoxicated to help themselves
Atsuch times the guardians Of our pauper
and penal ntitutions are wont to indulge in
Language and behavior lewd and digustingly
obscene. Well may convicts remark, as they
frequently have done to the Wardens, upon
witnessing such scenes "Mr. -, it's pretty
hard that should be sent up here for six
months for getting drunk on my oVn money,
and be put under the keeping of those who
qet drunk upon other people'sW
Governors, when making the tour of the in
stitutions with visitors, have often been
known to step into the quarry, and, taking
some striped stone-hewer by the hand, pub
licly recognize him as friend and political
crony, conversing and joking with him as an
equal, and commencing him as a id good
fellow in the presence of the Warden, guests
and prisoners. Such behavior, it must be
obvious, cannot fail to prove destructive to
the discipline which ought to be maintained
among the inmates of penitentiary. With
the female prisoners the Governors are equal
ly free, and in their maudlin moods some of
them converse with the women in strain of
revolving indecency. At their dinner parties
it was usual for the female prisoners to go
into the presence of the Governors and plead
for their liberty At such times, although
the Wardens might demonstrate, and remind
the Governors that these women had been
committed dozen times during the quarter,
and released by them only a few days before,
il did no good. snake out their discharge,
Mr.. Warden" was the usual reply. The eff
feet of all this lax discipline and familiarity
between prisoners and Governors may be
imagined.
Having eaten, drank, and pocketed as
much as they please, the Governors Com
pany again take the boats for Randalls
Island and race and shout all the way there.
At the Nursery the boys are brought out and
put through their evolutions, few of the
buildings are visited, including the school,
then more liquor and cigars, and then return.
By this time, as might be supposed, the Gov
ernors and their guests are not far from in
toxication.
1t often happens that the feasting at the
Penitentiary is prolonged far into the night,
and the paupers and prisoners in their cells
hears the oaths and shouts, and boisterous
mirth long after the hour OF retiring. After
that comes midnight sail around the islands
or a stretch to High Bridge and back by
moonlight.
The children on Randalls Island have beer
brought to the city, at the bidding Of Cover.
nors, and paraded with flying banners, and tc
the music of fife and drum, at all hours o.
the night, for the benefit of fire companies
religious and charitable societies, and fol
political purposes.