Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1869-11-10

I'll make skin and flesh fy-skin and flesh,
sir; that's my motto. There not man in
Carter Barracks can handle cat O. nine tail
with this child
All right then; go to work and give this
young gentleman taste of your quality
Donahue was tied to the triangles in a
half standing posture
There's bit Of lead for you,'' whisper
ed the fogger, as he was tying Donahue' .
hands. Take and put it between your
teeth, and keep chewing it while I'm fog
ging you. That Is ell | can do for you.
There, now, don't cry out, or the rest of the
prisoners will be laughing at you"
With these friendly admonitions the fog
ger stripped off his jacket, tucked up his
shirt sleeves, and commenced his bloody
work. The first stroke sent a stinging pain
through every nerve and muscle of Dick $
body. He did not cry out, but he writhed
like an excoriated eel, and bit and crunched
the lead between his teeth It was then he
felt the value of the hogger's friendly pre-
scription. The FIRST blow left great blue
blisters behind it, but did not draw blood.
The disci cipliued fogger, preparing for his
second, slowly and deliberately drew the cats
through his fingers to unite the thongs and
TO give the greater force ard pungeucy to his
blow, when again down came the cats like
drops of molten lead a secoLd time on his
flesh, leaving, like its predecessor, great blue
blistcrs behind it, This was what the fog
ger technically termed 'chalking the track p"
and on this track" the remaining forty
eight striTes were dealt with astonishing ex-
actitude, TIL the blood streamed like red hot
lava down his limbs, while not scratch was
made on the adjacent parts, it having been
the execu;ioner's standing boast that he
could fog a man to death on a space not lar
ger than 4 butter plate
The fifty lashes having been administered
at the rate of lash per minute, Donahue
was set loose. The medical officer of the
prison then walked up, felt his pulse, and
pronounced him fit for work.
Donahue had scarcely been united, when
three more of his fellow prisoners and ship
mates Iere marched into the yard, tied to
the triangles, and made to undergo similar
ordeal of fifty lashes each for being unable
to work-one of whom tainted under the
infictio ion-whsn the Doctor, after the usual
serio comic interlude of pulse feeling, order
ed them back to work. After these another
batch, and then another, AID so the horrd
work vent on TIL eighteen were fogged
W shout iatermission
Most of these men, It may be observed,
were brought up through sheer wantonness,
1t having been customary to subject newly
arrived convicts to the hash on the least pre-
tense of provocation, to give them lore
taste OF what they might expect in the event
Of their becoming refractory-in other words,
to punish them by anticipation.
1t will be easily imagined that these con
victs were now much less able to work than
they were before being hogged. Yet because
they refused to work, they were locked up,
the sore parts rubbed with salt and water.
and we're again brought out to work next
morning. Still unable to work, they were
again brought 70 the triangles, received 6ftS
more lashes and were again brought out 10
work
This is terrible life they're leading us,
Dick, observed Smith, Liverpool mags-
man, as he and Donahue crawled at the foot
of a tree, endeavoring, or rather pretending
to cut it down,
''Horriblel was the reioinder ''They
wont IN i'll nc ont Of tho xrau ,p1 ,bo coon
er they do 1t the better for US.
Though in terrible agony" said Smith,
Il don't feel as if | should die"
$50 much the worse. :" returned the other.
''The longer we live the more fogging vel
get"
They say, continued Smith, that pris-
oners sometimes cast lots as to which would
kill the other in order to get out Of pain
VIII you and | cast lots as to which of us
will sink his axe in the other skull? Who
ever does it will be hanged, and then the
two of us will be out of misery. What do
you say?''
.''Never'' replied Donahue, 81 never
killed man in my life, and / won't stand
IKE cali IN the stiai;IDIes auu let anOtner
man kill me, if can help ii.
We'll, returned the other, I'll get
some one else to do it,
Don't" demonstrated Donahue, while
there's life there's hope, and who knows but
we might live to take revenge on some of
these tyrants yet.
While Donahue was talking and pretend
ing to work, but in reality watching the SEN
tinel, Smith slipped from his side through
the neighboring thicket, proceeded to a
gang of three or four men who were work
ing close by. The next instant crash and
a groan were heard Smith had sunk his
axe into another convict's skull to earn the
happy privilege of being hanged
This is not an isolated instance of such
murderous desperation. Scores of similar
cases could be cited from the convict chron-
icles of New South Wales
Whether on account of his robust eonsti-
tuition, which seemed to defy all al tempts at
breaking it, or our hero's comely exterior or
the jauntiness of his department, Donahue
at any rate became obnoxious to his keepers,