River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1876-09-07

short time since | visited one Of
the largest presidios in Spain; it con.
tanned within - walls close upon
thousand inmates, convicts, nearly all
of the poorer classes, with sentences
varying from one to one hundred and
thirty years not that in the Peninsu.
Ia men live to the age Of Methuselah,
but that accumulated sentences are
general. Thus a man will have com.
mitted three murders, and be sen.
fenced to thirty years of chain for
each crime, in all ninety years-the
one sentence to commence at the ex.
piration of the other. OF the con
yicts, 2O4 were sentenced for offences
against property, and sol for offenses
against the person. All were men,
the women found guilty of grave of.
lenses being confined in a separate and
special presidio. Three hundred and
forty.eight were agricultural laborers,
two hundred and forty.six of the
mining class. One clergyman and
about twenty men of various learned
professions were among the prisoners,
therest all being journeymen of va
ior trades. with a small admixture
of master tradesmen. Six hundred of
them could read, the remaining knew
not even a letter. This proportion
shows the great stride at present be-
ing made by educa' m; fifty years
ago not one in thr hundred of the
Spanish poor could read or write!
As you near the huge, rambling
building, which perhaps has served in
its turn for convent, barrack, or mon.
astery, the prison atmosphere begins
to make itself felt; little troops of
men, in rusty brown jackets, broom in
hand, are being marched by wardens
home to the prison, another band sal
lying forth to take place; these are
the detachments who may be seen dali
ly sweeping and cleaning the streets,
repairing roads and the like: they are
chained but have sometimes an iron
ring round the ankle; here are two or
three with numbers on their caps
smoking their cigaretts with the sol
dierS outside the prison door They
are good-conduct men, and are permit
ted little more freedom than the 9TH
ers. The code Of honor among such
men is decidedly high; they would
not when on parole, escape, even sup.
posing escape were possible. Accom-.
panied by the comandante and one at.
tendant, who carefully always takes
care to be just behind his chief, but
who carries no arm save the sword
stick, which most private gentlemen
carry in this land, we pass into the
large quadrangle. Here, smoking,
sleeping, very few chatting, knitting
stockings, lie stretched upon their rugs
some four hundred of the prisoners
most of them wear their ordinary dress
some few having the brown prison
jacket and trousers, which is supplied
to prisoners once in two years.
They press round you. "Do. sir,
for the love of Christ, buy pair of
stockings, and God reward you with
long life forever" "Ah, see by your
face that You have children ; por amor
de Dois, buy a cap for your last born
baby Take this basket, only dol
lar, as a present to the Senorita."
Meanwhile the kindly Governor looks
on with smile, half amused, yet
forced to look a little stern the while.
Look well at these vacant faces some,
it is true, are bad, decidedly bad, of
the low, abandoned prison type but
the majority certainly not. They
have the vacant look of the Spanish
poor in the rural districts; the heavy,
wooden, mahogany-colored face, the
iinely-built, somewhat fleshy, frame of
the agricultural and mining population
faces that can light up at joke, and
would be a light, were the men edu.
dated, but these, who lie about here,
are the least educated body of prison.
ers, men who do the coarse work Of
the prison, the arsenal, the roads and
the streets who do not care to learn
a trade, or to learn to read and write
during their captivity. They are some.
what detected looking; but utter in.
difference and apathy is the feature of
character stamped upon most of their
faces vacant, hopeless is their gaze
Yet some, nay many, have kindly, hon
est faces nay, they even pass You a
word Of kindly greeting, or do some
little service as You pass along. Only
a few are sullen, and turn away mo.
rosely from your prOifered salute.
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