The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1875-08-05
Prison Life in France.

! suspected, it becomes necessary to sepa.
| rate them from the other prisoners and
1 saw a whole room full of them thus
| kept apart. A little hump-backed man
had lately asked to be employed as q
90 sheep" or spy in this infamous ser
vice he wished to get a few halfpence.
| Py means of the ''moutons plans OF
escape are sometimes revealed before
| they can be carried into execution, and
light is often thrown upon mysterious
| robberies which have baffied the inves-
| tigation of the police. The hiding
| places of stolen money, too, have been
| found out in this way.
The diet OF the prisoners at La Ro-
/ quette Is wholesome and abundant. 1t
| consists chiefly of harricot beans, bread
| and soup. They have meat on Thurs
days and Sundays. The prisoners are
/ in good care, and there is seldom any
illness among them. La Roquette is
! not a cellular prison, and therefore its
inmates are allowed to associate freely
together. They rise at five in summer
and six in winter. They have two hours
for recreation, and spend them chiefly
in talking and IoungiDg about. Cards
are forbidden, but games of hazard are
played IN secret. Ordinary offenses
by confinement in a cell on bread and
water diet. But if a prisoner becomes
violent and dangerous, a straight waist
coat is put upon him. ] entered one of
the cells in whicn prisoners are confined,
and saw cuiprit come out of another
of them. He did not seem much the
worse for his confinement, and began
protesting with a vehemence and vOlu-
bility which nearly got him sent back
again. The punishment cells at La
Roquette are not deprived of light or
air. They are furnished with a wooden
bench, so that a man may sit and think
there, or walk about and take exercise.
I inquired whether the more hardened
sort Of criminals really cared much for
the cells or the straight waistcoat and
one of the wardens explained that the
straight waistcoat is much dreaded by
experienced prisoners There are three
methods of using tit is merely buckled
round cUlprit to keep him quiet, and
he is then simply helpless. But if he
continues to be noisy and abusive, his
hands are placed In front of him, and
this position after a while becomes irk-
some. In extreme cases his hands are
placed behind his back, and the utmost
fortitude cannot long support that pun
lSIluCuLs 1uGlt dIt LO OlLlCI IlONlCb OA
chastising refractory prisoners in use at
La Roquette. The condemned cells of
this prison, which are only tenanted by
criminals sentenced to death, are three
lofty, welllighted rooms, cool and airy
in summer, and warmed by an ample
stove in tha winter time. They are fur
nished with iron bedsteads, on which
are placed two soft wooden mattresses,
one above the other, and bolster with
sufficient coverings. There are chairs
and tables, with other cOnveniences, and
the apartments have a singularly cheer
full aspect. Racquet, who murdered NJ.
ROcher, q commission merchant, was
the latest occupant of one of these cells.
He was the man who had terminated
his previous sentence only tweDty-four
hours before his re. arrest, and he was
such an admirable prisoner that the !
director of La ROquette was called as a
witness in his favor at the trial. Pris-
oners under sentence of death are not |
subjected to any particular restraints +; !
they are merely watched by two warders, !
and each of the condemned cells is fur |
nished with an alarm bell. There is a |
good library in the prison.
Most of the French criminals who are
die bravely some die joking. |
IIODDluduLV VIC NLOlSHdiC CAB
was an exception to this rule. He was
awfuIly frightened at the near prospect
of his doom. The dressing room, or
cha1,1bre de toilette where the director
of La Roquette delivers over his pris
oner to the executiOner, is a narrow
apartment like bit cut off a passage.
It is whitewashed as to the upper part
of its walls, and painted brown near
the floor three doors, all narrow, and
capable of being solidly bOlted, lead
out of it. Its furniture is an alma
nae, six registers, used to keep account
of the relicts and personal effects of
the prisoner about to suffer, two wooden
benches, one chair. The floor is un-
and uncovered it seemed to
me as though blurred and stained with
tears of blood. French executions are
still conducted in public, but a hedge
of mounted policemen prevents the
crowd from witnessing the last agonles
of the dying. Moreover, the guilotlne is
not now raised upon scatfOld as 1t was
formerly. A man going to have his
head cut off may dress as he pleases
and some indulgences are shown to him
if he bas any appetite for them, as he
has on the day proceeding
his execution, for attempts seem to be
his spirits up to the last. When the
order for his execution arrives he is dis
posed of with marvellous celebrity. At
6 30 A. NJ. the governor enters his cell
to warn him he is about to die; at $50
he has ceased to exist. The whole
business of preparing him for eternity
is concluded in just twenty minutes.
The terrible ceremony of the toilet
used to consist in cutting off the con-
demned mans hair now the hair of
culprits sentenced to death is always
kept closely cut before hand, and his
brief agony is not prolonged by any
formalities. The eXecu-
toner merely tears off his shirt-cOllar
by an adroit movement of the hand,
and then the criminals neck is ready
for the knife. NJ. Roch, the execu-
toner, is an hOnlBlG tres frOid, deeply
pitted with the small. pox, and he does
his duty in a cool, collected, very i'm
pressive manner. 1t is necessary TO
send him away privately in a closed |
carriage Immediately after each execu- !
ton or the mob might mOlest him.
writer's have pleaded against capital
punishment with such passionate
that power in France is evil
IDENTIFY beginning to get ashamed of
shedding blood and the human iDstru-
ment employed and paid to shed 1t is
very loathsome to the populace.-LOn-
don NGJUS.
The work of excavating the arena
of the coliseum at Rome, has been sus- |
pended since May, as it cannot be pro |
ceeded with until the discovery of the /
duct or canal used by the old Romans |
to drain off the water collecting from |
the adjacent slopes. The canal has been |
traced in its starting point near the /
ruins, and in its passage through the |
forum, leading into the Cloaca Maxima; |
but its intermediate course has yet to be |
unearthed, which operation, together |
With its proper cleaning and repairs, |
will be a Job of some difficulty, time and |
expense. In the meantime the eGcava-
tion in the coliseum already made, will
have to be kept dry, or as free from
water as possible, in order that the
of the building may not be
seriously damaged.
This is what a bank cashier wrote
to Washington when he wanted reg