Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-06-23
From the New York Hearth and Home.l
Torture by Authority.
BY FREDERIC 5. cozzENs.

object of punishment to inflict pain on
him who has committed crime, we are
returning to the horrible dungeons of
our fathers; we are prOclaiming anew
the principal that has prevailed up to the
present time, that punishment is a social
TeCeRge. M. BELTRANI SCALA.
The present InspectOr-General of
the prisons of Italy, the Marquis of
Scala, speaks the language of regen-
crate people when he utters the above
sentiment. Himself at one time
prisoner of State under the infamous
BOuTbOns of Naples, immured in
those horrible dungeons where the
incarcerated were kept together like
wild beasts, his own experience led
him afterward, when he became In
spector-General, to pity and improve
the condition of the prisons of all It
ally, so soon as Italy herself was free.
He says with great mOdesty of his
own sutferings: 81 likewise had to
undergo the imprisonment. | shall
not relate what | suffered then, for
my words might be considered as die
tated by a desire of revenge" Con-
cealing his personal experience, he
presents us with an elaborate and not
unpleasing account of prison life and
prison discipline as they now exist in
Italy, in some provinces of which our
own Auburn system has been intro
duced with benefit; in all of which
rigorous cruelties have been abolished
and most humane system success
fully established. The list of punish
ments in italian prisons is as follows:
Depriving the prisoner of the profit
of labor, exclusion from walk in pr:s-
Cn-cOurt, refusal of permission to re-
ceive food from without, or to pur-
chase it at a prison cellar, fasting on
bread and water in the punishment
cell, with or without the straight jack
ct, and the most refractory are put in
irons! These are all The directors are
permitted to impose upon their OIUH
responsibility. And with this mild
system of government, discipline is
maintained, and industry is promoted,
great public works are being executed,
and in spite of the unfitness of many
of the old prisons (monasterieS alter
ed for the purpose escapes are rare
| in some of them there has not been
one in a year. All the horrible modes
of torment which under Bourbon rule
formed part of the Italian system of
prison discipline have been totally
abolished, while in our Sing-Sing
Prison, the standing instruments of
torture daily suggest to the prisoners
revolt and liberty, at whatever cost or
risk. 1t is but few days ago March
I9th,) that the newspapers were full
of accounts of two revolts on the same
day at this dreadful moral pest-hOuse,
this contractors den of iufamy, in
both cases with loss of life; and the
newspaper that published the account
cody informs the public that, 1.-The
reason for the outbreak is said to be
the stringency lOith tUhich the Tegtt-
LdtiOns iOere enforced" And who
can blame them for the attempt-con-
victs though they are? If we make
wild beasts of our captive felons, are
we to be surprised if they attempt to
break out of the cage?
In Hogarth's picture of the trial of
cambridge for murder, by committee
of the House of Commons, in 1923,
we see that an acute sense of justice,
one of the noblest attributes of the
British heart, can pierce even the
walls of a prison and lay bare its hid
eous features to the open light of day.
What was Bambridge's offence that
twenty-nine members of the House of
Commons should sit in judgment up
on him in that terrible place, and that
the greatest moral teacher of the day,
the artist, HOgarth, who had painted
the four stages of cruelty as lesson
to mankind, should not hesitate to
add this as a fifth to that series.
cambridge, and his predecessor,
John Higgins, were both wardens of
the Fleet Prison, and their inhuman-
titles to the prisoners, by which several
lives were lost, caused them to be-
tried for murder. In this prison scene
as delineated by Hogarth, "you see"
saws Walpole, "in the cOuntenance of
the accused, villainy, fear, and con-
science his lips are contracted by
tremOr, his face advances to lie, while
his legs step back as thinking to make
his escape.n A prisoner is kneeling at
the foot of the judges, with an iron
yoke on his neck; other members are
examining an iron cap, another cum
ming instrument by which this wretch
tormented his fellow-creatures; and a
huge pair of iron pincers are in the
hands of a third-evidently part of
the same set of DEVILS machinery.
With trial, and the benevolent labors
of John Howard, indicative punish
ments gradually ceased in England;
and the present system is becoming
more and more humane and refOrma-
tory. Let us turn from this picture
of ancient times to one of more mod
ern date. One of our Sing-Sing war
dens, a keeper by the name of Boards
lev, who was in Office from 1857 to
1862, diversified the entertainments of
that charming place by sort of up
right rack called the pulley, which is
thus described by one of the prison
chaplains:
sOn nv return, found Mr.. Beardsley
at the head of the prison, ana in place of
the iron cap, the instruments OF punish
ment were the shower-bath, the buck, the
crucifiX or iron yoke, and a hOrrid imple-
ment called the pulley and worthy of
the InquisitiOn, by which a mans arms
being tied behind his back, he was then
hauled up so as to stand on tiptoe, and
then as his head would naturally hang
down, the officer would strike his fore
head with a cane or club, telling him to
hold up his head. As this punishment
was inflicted in a room adjoining nv Of
board partition, heard the piercing and
unearthly groans which were often Occa-
stoned by it, and it seemed to me some
times as if the very life of the victim
was being wreEched out of him. ."-Testi-
mony of Rev. John Lucky, TiCeHty-See-
oHd Annual Report, 1867.
Another cruel instrument of torture
is blasphemously called the crucifix.
1t is a straight bar of iron six feet
long, three inches wide, and three
eights of an inch thick, and broaden
ed at each end to about four inches.
The eXtremities are pierced with
holes, through which the ends of a
stout iron shaekle, shaped like horse
shoe, are thrust and fastened by two
screw nuts. The holes are made to
accommodate the apparatus to the
length of the culprit's arms. His
hands being placed above the bar, the
the two iron yokes are then screwed
down tight over his wrists, his arms
being extended to their utmost width.
AS the bar weighs about fifty pounds
it cannot be held up by the wrists
alone; therefore a yoke, made of a
round bar of iron, bent in the form of
the wrist-yokes, is put around the
neck of the offender, and the ends of
the yoke fastened by screw-nuts to
the center of the bar. The whole
weight is then supported by the back
of the neck and breast of the culprit.
1t may be conceived what an intense
torture it is to support this mass of
iron for several hours. Sometimes
,,,af1bfc ora addad IN tho andS Of