Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-10-16
A MANSION OF SILENCE.
The Terrible Life Within the Walls of the
Albany Penitentiary.


A correspondent of the New York Sun I,
who visited the penitentiary at Albany, ID
writes as follows: In the shoe shops :,
the manufacture Of shoes, by contract, d
being the principal industry carried on :,
here-we find about FIVE hundred men S
at work. From one hundred to one !
hundred and fifty men are in each room,
under the constant supervision of vigi-
liant keeper. They do not have task
work, as in other prisons, but are ex- :
pected to labor steadily about ten hours
a day. Here we first begin to appreciate
the working of the system. These men
seem mere human machines, so thor
oughly have they been subjected to dis
cipline. Not one of them dares permit
himself even furtive glance at us as we
pass. Their eyes are bent downward
upon their work, their lips are closed,
their hands are busy. Even when the
pile of work ON convict's bench or
table has been complete he does not ven
ture to look up or ask for more, or
glance about him. He must fold his
arms before him on his bench and look |
downward In patient silence until the
foreman or instructor secs fit to give
him further employment. Whether he
has five minutes or three hours to wait,
! he must not in that time occupy himself
t with aught else than his wretched self
g communings. In the State prisons men
who have no employment are permitted
: to beguile their leisure by reading, the
. fabrication of some little knick- knacks
: that they may sell to visitors, or in over
work for the contractors, for which they
a receive pay. In the penitentiary moth
# ing of the kind is allowed. The prisoner
), must feel that during his incarceration
here he has no right to himself.
y The noon bell sounds. A long line of
y fifty or more convicts emerge from one
's of the shops and passes under charge Of
70 keepers along the smooth bitumen walks
- toward the door of the cell hall. They
! march at slow pace, with locked step,
in single file each mans left hand
against his breast, his right upon the
d, shoulder of the one in front, all in
er silence. The file leader leans backward
I'd against the one behind him, that close
contact may be communicated along the
of whole line, and he marks time with a
81 heavy stamp of his left foot every time
ln he puts it down. All the others must
40 =, stamp when he does. This line, thus
w. moving and SO compacted, crawls along
H. like an enormous centipede. At the
les door each convict in passing must turn
wo his face toward keeper stationed there
nd that he may be identified. One by one
80. the sad, sullen, or expressionless faces
ry, pass out of the sunlight. One by one
led they are swallowed up in the gloom.
en cells, the iron doors clanking and thu
,on bolts shooting into place after each. The,
eta are locked up to feed.
M Another and another of these ugl,
of centipedes crawls out, exactly as thi
at one has done, and like it falls to piece
5,- at the cell doors, until all the convict
the are supposed to be at dinner. They Wi
m have ON hour in which to swallow tina
INK cherries meal. Then the centipede
4Ve will reform and crawl back to the shops
.a in which silent labor will fill in the res
of the day until 4:30P. NJ, when the
of will march to their cells again to was
go, and get supper.
and One other industry is carried on hel
aid gaming and braiding chairs-but onl
de- one hundred men and women are el
l. ployed in it. Although in this depar
ment the convicts are nearly all pett
criminals, they are subjected to thesan
t,,o rigid discipline that prevails in the she
;no shops, and the perfection of its enforc
10 ment may be understood when it is sa
-;s, that even the women do not dare talk
49, look up at visitors. One woman her
.aS Kate Rush, is curiosity. She belon
n II Albany, and has served pretty near
-. all the time during the last past twent
=, five years in the penitentiary. She b
, - not been convicted of any other often
~ than drunkenness, and is not at liber
W. w. more than two or three days at tim
'S O~ Generally she is sent to the institute
~. on six months sentences, so that S
manages to have two sprees every yet
M Life on week days in the penitentia
is the same all the year round. On 81
70, - days there is a little change. Then t
a w. female prisoners are first marched
,riso to the chapel hall and slowed in
.,aot gallery, where they can neither see
49, male prisoners nor be seen by the
900 Afterward the centipedes form ag
, 49,, and march up into the body of the hi
49, =, Each man goes to his place in silen
~ ~. ~ and a,keeper's eye watchesthe moveme
~ 40 of every one during the service. Al
lo" , the service, convicts may read in til
an, ana cells, and happily the prison library
H. as very good one of about $500 volum
Twicea week there is an evening scht
~, -. under direction of the chaplain, for 81
- - of the prisoners as desire to attend,
"O-o' have merited that privilege by Il
Con So ~, oo 4,,o -
of the building, and some of them evi
in their adornment affair degree OF ia
The inmates are, however, generally
mt ~ low class, and are in on short senten
IL in 80 that they probably lack that sense
-, fixed residence enjoyed by the fen