Baton Rouge tri-weekly gazette & comet. [volume] (Baton Rouge, La.) 1865-18??, 1865-08-05

connecting INK between the out
RACES Of the Inquisition and the in.
humanities of the slaye-pen, an insti.
tuition whose existence is a blot upon
the fair escutcheon Of our State,
which should be swept away by the
hesom Of an indignant public. The
prisoner who may be deemed sufii-
GENTLY refractory to need punish.
ment is stripped entirely naked and
placed upon seat which has a hole
in it; his feet are fastened in stocks
below, and his wrists secured above
a board, with half circle cut out,
fits at either side of the pen inclos-
ing his neck, and a basin, or scoop
like wire fitted to bis neck, rests i'm
movable, level with his mouth. Some
five or six feet above the seated man
is a tank filled with water, from the
bottom of which depends large
cylinder with perforated bottom, the
capacity of whose discharge is vol
luminous and terrible.
The man and the machine being
ready, the doctor stands by, and the
keeper or a fellow-convict pulls the
string. Down comes the water in
terrific volumes; there is no stop, no
let up; eyes and nose and ears are
full; breathing is impossible; the
scoop fills and the water floods in the
gasping mouth; still no let up; dis
cipline must be- maintained; every
nerve quivers, every fibre Of flesh
tingles, suffocation becomes immi-
nent, and, after another seconds de-
lay, the signal is given, and the
string let go; still the water comes
down, at first with the same dense
volume, then less and less till it
gradually terminates in a drizzle,
leaving the man nearly senseless. his
hair wet, water in his eyes, his
breathing a mere gasp, bis physique
PROSTATE. -o
His hands are secured so that he
cannot wipe the water from his face !;
he must sit and suffer while his
keeper sits and looks on. Let us be-
lieve the convict needed it; that he
was very, very bad, and his keeper
a Christian gentleman, who had
yielded reluctantly to the pressure of
duty; 3ven in this view it is terri
BILE. What would it be if the keeper
was bred, spitefuI, and did it out
Of malice, mischief, or revenge? And
how are we to know anything about
i'll Punishments are not public
affairs. They are done in private,
by men who are used to it, and who
cannot be expected to be sensitive
about it.
The system is wrong. It's posi-
bilities are enough to damn it in the
minds of all thinking men; and so
long as it is permitted, so long as
convicts are left literally and abso-
Iutely in the power of their keepers,
who are appointed mainly for po-
litical purposes, and cannot be ex-
pected to know or care much about
the duties of their sphere, as indi-
Gated from a high and Christian
point OF view, we must expect to
have barbarism flourish and terror
ism thrive at this and kindred places
Of public confinement. We pulled
the string and saw the water pour in
torrents down upon the board, and
determined by practical trial to esti-
mate the torture. This morning,
therefore, we tried the effect of
stream from an ordinary shower-bath,
whose volume was, perhaps, one
.enth of that of the prison bath. We
couldn't stand it ten seconds; suffo-
cation seemed inevitable, and after
rial of the briefest possible duration
We were glad to wipe with our free
hands the sitting water from the
ace. Who, then, can imagine the
sensations produced by great vol
lme Of water, long continued by
scoop full Of water ready to run in at
your mouth; by the enforced quiet
# heads, hands, and feet; by the ex-
,osure Of ones naked person, soused
n torrents, while the hated Judge
md executioner stand within n foot
# the suffering, gasping, tortured
orm? Such things should not be
lone and it's no defence of the sys-
EN- to say, "what would you substi-
ute in its place."
There are other punishments equal
y ill.iudged but less inhuman. One
) the iron bar. A long iron bar,
perhaps, fifty pounds, is |
astened at each end to the waist of
convict, so that when erect with |
lis hands out he resembles cross.
4