Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1878-11-29

stroke OF lightning, and my heart almost
leaped forth for joy when I read the heading
and saw that the terrible barbarities of that
Minnesota hell'' had come to light for once
l felt as if l should like to have 10000
copies of yesterdays GLOBE and distribute
them through the country, to let the people
| OF Minnesota know that they have some
thing in their State which for cruelty far
! surpasses the insane asylum.
| being an inmate of that Minnesota hell
myself, having just been released month
| ago, can vouch for the veracity of Pat COT
fey's statement in yesterdays GLOBE. l
know that his statement will be contradicted
by the officers of the prison (why should it
| not?) but for one know, and will solemnly
swear that three -fourths of his statement, as
far as I know, is true. And I will say he
| never went into details when he was telling
his story, for he, having been criminal, evil
IDENTIFY thought that his story would not be
believed, SO he gave but brief outline of
the state of affairs there. I actually could
sit here and write from morning until
night, and then only half tell of
the horrible manner in which the convicts
(some of them) are treated. worked with
Pat Coffey in the pail shop myself, and wit
messed some of the cruelty perpetrated upon
him. Pat Coffey is stranger to me, and 1
am under no obligations either to him nor
the prison officers, consequently would
have no object in lying about it. served
one year and half in that hell and although
am leading an upright, honorable life now,
it was not the Minnesota prison that re-
formed me by any means. have good
position now. and might possibly lose it if
it were known. But the truth must and will
come out sometime, and I would sacrifice
anything almost to let the people of Mime
sofa know the kintlo reformatory they
have.
FIXING UP FOR THE LEGISLATURE.
think our legislative inspections have al
ways been a mere farce and fraud. The
legislature visits the prison certain times a
year, and convict knows it two weeks be-
fore the inspection. The prison officials
have things arranged all in good shape, the
halls are whitewashed, the food is increased
little in quantity and quality. The poor
unfortunates are let out of the dungeons,
and everything is in readiness, SO that all the
inspectors have to do is to turn in their re-
port in favor of the old devil and his deputy,
in such commendable way as to reflect
credit on the officers. I have had the
legislators ask me, "Well, how do you
feed here?" l would step up like
little man aud relate to them the state of
affairs, but what good did it do? You are
aware that the word of convict is always
looked upon with suspicion, and If his state
ment is true, those who are accused cite the
fact that the word of felon should not have
any consideration.
For this very reason tbs men who come
out of there never have the facts published.
can name a dozen men who solennly
swore they would have revenge at any
cost. But when man is released
from that "Hell,'' daylight and lib
erty seem SO precious to him, that he
Immediately has his mind on something else.
[ know of one man who said he would mako
it public through the GLOBE, if it cost him
all he had in the world, but he not having
had anything to eat in there but bread md
acGter his passion naturally had tendency
to liquor, crime, ETC., and he was arrested in
st. Paul three days after he Yves released.
Look at the sheriff's books, of Minneapolis,
and you will see that in last February
and March there were eight or ten of the
released conyicts in Jail for various offences
burglary, larceny, forgery: etc. In St.
Paul jail there were four confined at one
time. Thus you will see the reformation in
there.
But 1 am going too far. I only wanted to
substantiate Pat Cofee's statement, for if I
was to go into details regarding myself it
would require a half dozen sheets of fools
cap. I, as we'll as the GLOBE, do not adhere
to the theory that because man has been a
criminal he is entitled to no consideration,
and that his word is to be arbitrarily disput-
ed. In fact, the only way that the every day
life in our public institutions can be ascer-
tanned, is from those who are practical in
mates. committee may spend few min
utes, or day, or even week, and ascertain
nothing, though cruelty, barbar1ty and muir
Ter may be practiced.
What caused the death of Pat Stack q few
weeks ago? Was it suicide or MURDER So
sure as there is an Almighty, they murdered
him. His several unsuccessful attempts at
cSCiPo you tAe Nditiel tloNtt OH AiL0, dtiu !
myself have heard the deputy say that
yet. But what of il? 1t was
only criminal W no died ,and "dead men tell
no tales SO that is all there is of it. Why
can it not be, or why was it not investigated?
Because the poor fellow had no influential
friends outside; he died like a dog.
It is the greatest wonder in the world that
Pat Coffey is alive to-day, for I heard one
guard, Packard, say to another: "That fellow
will go outof here in a pine ovsrcoat.' One
day was working with Co1fey, and the
guard gave him q task to dc. He finished in
the afternoon some time, and, because he
did his work we'll and fast, the guard came
to him and said the pals were not puttied
right (or he was puttying pails), so he threw
him in the dungeon, on bread and water for
six and half days, when he was put to
work again, and, before the seventh day was
over he was in again, and stayed four moro
days. Think of it, on the cold, damp
stones, no air, no daylight. Again,
he was shut up in his cell, everything
taken out, and laid on the cold iron, (for the
cell-foors are iron,) a blind door on his cell
for eighteen days. Whether he got anything
to eat or not Il cannot say. I know that Cot
fey came to me with tears in his eyes, telling
me how the Dep. "Hall'' poured croton oil
down his back, and he took me in the water
! closet and showed me the sore. 1t was sim
| ply horrible! You would not believe it if l
could describe it. Nobody but the poor I'M
fortunates themselves can tell you of it. /
used to 60 to the doctor and get medicine
| telling him that ] had a certain sickness,
which I had not, and gave the medicine tc
| Coffey and others.
Coffey, in his statement says, that some Of
them cried like children when Mr.. Hannigar