Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-12-15

oi0oo olVhCf luttt pOOf
manage 10 at least exist for a few years
on only one kind Of bread. We
thought the dining room bad enough.
and the fare worse, but the climax Of
disgusting sights was witnessed when
we reached
THE KITCHEN.
The first thing that attracted our
attention on entering the room was
the extreme flthiness OF everything,
aud the unpleasant odor which rose
from the cooking. Several large loaves
Of corn bread, which, | suppose, had
just been cooked, were piled upsn a
shelf, and on top of this pile of bread
a huge cat was quietly sleeping. No
one made any effort to disturb the
cat. The bread, which was probably
warm, no doubt made a capital bed
for the cat, and the e%onviots seemed
to be too much accustomed TO filth in
the cooking department to mind a lit
tie thing like that. The turnips,
which had just been cooked, were
placed in large tubs. made by saving
barrels in two, and a dirty-looking
convict, equipped with a heavy shovel,
or rather a spade, was engaged in
MASKING them up. One of the con
victs, who seemed to be the head
cook, invited us to mount by a step
ladder to the top of the brick oven,
and see how the meat was prepared.
We did so, and saw what was seem
ingly a huge cauldron Of oap.grease
boilingly slowly over the FIRE. The
meat might have been good enough,
but the manner in which it was pre-
pared and the dirt on all sides were
more suggestive of a soap-iactory han
a cook-room, The entire room is too
filthy to prepare in it anything that q
human being is expected to eat. The
unfortunate inmate OF this prison must
indeed possess an iron constitution to
long withstand the dampness and i'm
pure air of his prison cell and the I'M
wholesome condition of his food.
THE woMEN's DEPARTMENT.
On leaving the kitchen we visited
that portion of the prison where the
women are confined. There we behold
a sight which was melancholy in the
extreme. These unfortunate women
are quartered in four small rooms, ii
yided by thin partitions, and all open
ing into each other. One Of these is
set apart for the white women, the
others being used by the negroes. In
all OF these rooms wild disorder reign
ed, and no attempt at cleanliness was
visible anywhere. Beds and bedding
were scattered on every side, and
soiled clothing hung in confusion
around the room. The white women
seemed just as degraded aud lost to
Telling Is the negroes, and upon every
countenance was stamped the woe be
gone and haggard lock Of utter help
lessness. Sunken, CLASSY eyes glared
at US, and cold, expressionless faces,
which had long since ceased to smile.
seemed TO mock us as we passed.
Woman, By nature, is the purest of all
created beings-in virtue rules the
world, but in SHINING she falls, and in
! falling she sinks lower than the brute
Nowhere a tnis tTd;l &c better j.
Illustrated than within the prison walls
of the Tennessee state %penitentlary,
where, living in Indebtedness aud
filth, with no one 70 encourage or to
cheer. she bids a long farewell to hope
and gives way to despair.
GENERAL CONDITION.
We learned that at the next session
Of the legislature Captain Lon Biz.
ard, the present warden, will submit
his report for the past two years. In
his report he will recommend thu
erection of new prison building, and
give it as his opinion that the building
now used is insecure, poorly vonti
lated, has insufficient hospital arrange
ments, and that the cells cannot be
properly heated. That the prison is
unhealthy there can be no kind Of
doubt, for no prisoner has ever lived
to serve out a twenty-years sentence
within its walls. The longest time
that any prisoner has ever lived in
this penitentiary is seventeen years
and some months, and the man who
survived during thst length Of time
was crazy during the last three years
Of his life. The %conyicts are now
leased to a company which pays the
state annually S7O,5OO. This amount.
which is a clear gain to the state.
should be appropriated to construct
new building upon modern principles
where the prisoners could at least b,
comfortable. CAPTAIN BLIZZARD recon
mends the erection Of a new prison
somewhere on the Cumberland river
and urges the necessity Of having tn,
work done at once.