Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-04-22

McMs.ters, in his History Of The People Of
tie United States, paints some tesriui pictures
Oae of them. aud the strongest in lite con-
trasts, is the following: at il pleasing 20 re-
feet that, while our countrymen have been
making such astonishing progress IN All that
sdninlste tiers to the comforts and conveniences
of life, they have at the same time grown |
charitable and humane. There lie, indeed, |
scarcely a scrap of informs alton bearing upon |
the subisct extsnt which does not go 10 prove !
beyond a question that the generation which |
witnessed the revolution was LEES merciiul
aud tender hearted than the generation which |
wi messed the civil war. Our ancestors, II IL |
true, put up Just cry OF horror AT the brutal
treatment OF their csptive counirymen IN The
prison ships and hulks. So great WAS their
ind ignation, that money 10 be
stamped with representations OF the siroei-
ties Of which they complained, that their de-
scendants to the remoiest generation might
hold in remembrance the cruelty OF the
British aud the suffering OF the patriots.
Ye: even then the face Of the land was dotted
with prisons where deeds OF cruelty were
done, in comparison with which the foulest
acts committed in the hulks sink TO con-
| temptible insigu6cance. For more than nifty
| years after the peace there WAS in CJnn.cii-
| cut an under ground prison, which surpassed
| in horrors the Black Hole OF Calcutta. This
den, known as the Newga,e prison, was 10
| an old worked-out copper mine in the hills
| near Cranky. The only entrance to il was
1 by means OF ladder down a shaft which i, d
| 10 the cAyerus underground. There, in LITE
pens Of wood, from thirty to 100 cuipriIs
we're immured, their feet made fast 10 iron
bars and their necks chained 10 beams 10 the
roof. The darkness was intense; the caves
reeked with filth; vermin sbounded; water
| trickled from the roof and ooZed from the
sides OF the caverns; huge masses Of cart
we're perpetually falling of. Ia The damp
ness and the filth the clothing OF the prison
ers grew moldy and ro.ted away
and their limbs became stiff with
rheumatism. The Newport prison
was perhaps the worst 10 the country, yet in
every county were ,ils such as would now
be thought unfit places OF habitation for the
vilest aud most losihsome OF beasts. Al
Northan pion the cells were scarce four feet
higb, and filed with the noxioas gases OF
the privy vaulir, through which they were
supposed to be ventilated. Light came in
from two chinks in the wall. A, the Wor-
| cester prison we're a number OF ike cells,
four feet high by eleven long, without win
| dow or a chimney, or even hole an the
wall. Not a ray Of light ever penetrated
them. In other jails in Massachusetts, the
| cells were so email tina; the prisoners were
| lodged in hammocks swung one over the
l Il
| cen feet by twenty feet, and go crowded that
at night each prisoner had space Of six
! feet BY two to lie down in. The
| misery of the unfortunate creatures cooped
| up in the cells, even Of the most humanity
' kept prisous, surpassed in horror anything
ever recorded in fiction. No attendance
was provided for the sick. No clothes were
distributed to the naked. Such thing as a
! bed was rarely seen, and this soon became 5o
Il g. IL hat len oa1
with it gladly. Many of the inmates Of the
prisons passed years without 80 much as
! washing themselves Their hair grew long
Their bodies were covered with scabs and
lice, and emitted q horrible STENCIL. Their
clothing rotted from their backs and ex-
posed their bodies tormen,ed with all man
ner OF skin diseases and yellow flesh crack
: ing open with filth. The death-rate often
stood as high as sixty in 1000. As if such
! torments were not hard enough to bear,
others were added by the hall. maddened
! the door OF a cell than a rush was made for
him BY the inmates, Who stripped BIN Of hts
, clothing, and let him stand stafk naked
till it was redeemed BY what 10 the
peculiar jsrgon of the place was
known as drink.money. Ii sometimes
happened that the prisoners were in posses.
sion Of a carefully-pr served blanket. Then
this ceremony, called gsi nishipg, was passed
over for the yet more brutal one of blanket
ing. In spile Of prayers and entire aties, the
miserable stranger was hound, thrown iuto
the blanket, and tossed till he wss half dead
and ready TO give his iormeptors every
| superfuous garment 10 sell for money
With the tolls thus exacted, liquor was
bought, isndish revel was held, and when
bad rum and bad tobacco had done their
! work, the few sober inmates OF The cell vie
= nessod such scenes would be Thought
shocking in the dance houses which cluster
. along the wharves of our great seaboard
{ ioNna.