The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1879-10-29

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The Dead at Sing Sing.
When a convict is received into the
State prison IN Sing Sing IN entry is
made of the name under which he is
the CRIME of which he IS con
the name of the Judge that SEN
fenced him; also the age of the prisoner,
his birthplace, and other particulars. 1t
often happens that the man has been alb.
sent only a few months, and that whereas
his name was Jacob Schneider when he
went away, it is Patrick Houlihan when
he returns, and Houlihan Is not more I'M
like Schneider than Schneider is unlike
the name under which he was sent up
few years previously. But he remains
Houlihan until his sentence orhe expires,
and he is SO we'll known to the prison.
officers and so infinitely described in
their books that the name is wholly imma.
terial. He never tries to,,deceive the Of
1icers' as to his identity; his object is &C..
complished if he has deceived the Judge
and passed for a new offender instead of an
old one. He docs not always succeed in
doing that. Among the questions asked
him when he is booked at the prison Of
fee is whether he desires to mention the
name of some relative or friend to whom
word may be sent IN the event of his death
while in prison. A large percentage of the
prisoners decline to give any name, saying
that they do not care to'have any Of their
friends know what has become IF them: if
they die before getting out. 1t is pro-
bable that that these have gone by as
sumed names during the criminal ca
rcer that brought them to the prison,
that their kindred are ignorant Of their
whereabouts, 8 and that the prisoners
hope to " spare q their : parents or
their relatives the pain Of ever knowing
that they have committed a state prison
offence. In cases where a name with an
address is given in response to the usual
inquiry, the name is seldom that of the
prisoner. and the address is:not often the
prisoners address. For instance a man
who is sentenced under the name of Hen
ry Wilson Ito take a name that appears
to be a favorite one with criminals Ill
search of a new designatien), and who
claims to come from Troy, will request
that word he sent to John Brown of No.
--- street, New York, declining to say
whether the person named is a relative OF
his. The prison authorities naturally in
fer that the prisoners name is Brown,
and that the person named is his father,
brother OF some near relative-that is,
when they think 1t worth their while to
make al inference. u" r' ."a 1'
There are now IN Sing Sing prison be-
tween 1900 and 1900 prisoners. Less
than twenty Of them are living in cots in
the prison hospital-one to a hundred,
say. Last year seven convicts died. The
youngest was 10 years old, the oldest was
49,. The average age of the prisoners
last year was between 20 and rs years.
The death rate was less than one-nalf OF
n per cent. Nearly all the deaths &C.
cur from the same cause "a disease which
is called consumption, for short. The
prisoner has lived a life of excesses; often
he has contracted a blood disease that has
passed into a third stage, and is under
mining his constitution. He takes, cold
easily, and the cold in his system pro-
duces = waste that his impaired vitality
cannot endure. He goes into the hospi-
tai and dies when the leaves come out,
or fingers till the leaves tall. So
said Warden Davis the other day while
he and the writer were climbing the
ridge to the east of the prison. where the
dead convicts are buried. "These were
harvested last spring" he said pointing
to a row of five or six graves over which
the turf has not grown. Nv" shall not
be likely to lose any 'more-by natural
death-till the leaves fall; but. unless
there is some casualty and some. mar
is shot in a desperate attempt to escape,
there will be no more than one new
grave before the leaves fall" Since War:
den Davis took chargeIof the PRISON, nearly
two years ago, there has been but ono
death from an acute disease; The man
caught Geld, his lungs assumed the con-
dition Of the brain IN apoplexy, and he
was dead within a few hours. .an
All of the sick convicts lie in the same
DON in the @hospital-a large hall
with cots for perhaps sixty men.
The floor is kept clean, the walls
white, the roam lighted with oil
lamps. Occasionally, when a convict
is sick with a disease. that makes him Of
fensive to the others, he is removed to a
small room kept for the purpose elsewhere.
The sick are attended chiefly BY ~tconvicts,
most of whom, detailed for that purpose,
are themselves on the sick list: They SIT
by the side of the sick, attend to their
wants, give them medicine according to
the doctor instructions, and call the doc
tor when it seems to. be necessary. The
sick generally appear to be patient, and
they arc we'll taken care Of. Sometimes
in the nights nervous, sleecpless patient,
weary of the scene around him, and per-
'haps thinking Of the tender care he
had received from his mother r or OF a SIS
ter at home, viii draw a deep sigh and
gasp, "sOh,,I this Is a horrible place to be
SICK I'M" But they all have good atten-
ton, and even the most nervous cannot
say that the. condition Of the sick there, is
any more horrible than it is made by, the
necessities Of their situation There is no
officer Of the prison that does not tiptoe
through the room when he goes among
the sick, lest he should give them pain.
The duties of the prison physician, are