Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-05-24

THE HORROR OF SOLITARY CONFINE-
MENT.-A correspondent of the st. Louis
Globe Democrat, describing Joliet, ILL.,,
State Penitentiary, says the system of soli-
tary confinement merits some description.
Ata point within the prison yard, at the
extremity of one of the great cell houses,
and far removed from the noise and hum
of the workshops, is a stone building, in
which are arranged in two galleries forty
solitary cells. Each is about 1OX16 feet in
dimensions and Is feet in the clear. A long
horizontal window, perhaps feet in width
by eight inches in height, located near the
top of the cell, admits light and air. 1t is
sunk in the heavy walls, and rarely do the
suns rays penetrate the interior of the tomb
like apartment. The floor Of the cell is of
stone, the ceiling is painted white, the walls
are a glaring white. The two bits of color
in the cell are the black irons of the inner
grating and the red wooden bucket in the
corner of the cell. That bucket is the only
piece of furniture. The prisoner to be pun
ished is led to one of these cells and hand
cuffed to the inner grating, his arms being
at natural elevation. A heavy wooden
door shuts off view of the corridor: He is
alone amidst a silence as profound as the
grave. His own voice, should he raise it in
protest at his fate, is thrown back to him
by the cold pitiless walls, and the echo
causes him to start. He looks around and
nothing meets his eyes but the glistening
white walls. At first he does not notice
this. Ere long his eyes, used to the moving
life of the workshop, begin to weary of this
monotonous, glistening, blank view. The
feeling, at first irksome, becomes painful.
He tries to look at the window above, but
he sees nothing but the flood of light. The
blue sky he remembers as thing OF beauty
never needed before. A glimpse of it now
would be boon inestimable. He tries to
ing, blank impression, but his disOrdered
nerves cause strange lights, and an annoy
ing phatasmagoria of grotesque and ever
changing figures to dance through his brain.
If he is of an acute nervous formation, this
soon becomes torture to him, and he fears
that he is losing his mind. Some Of the
most rebellious spirits have been quelled by
a brief retirement in these merciless white
cells.
COFFEE BEANS TO ORDER.-"Give me
your opinion Of these, young man." said the
east side grocer, as he spread before the re-
porter a handful of coffee beans. "Ehey
aren't very regular in size, are they? Now
YOU think are the better"
The grocer placed second handful along
side of the others. The two lots were of the
same dark brown color, and at a little dis
tance away presented no very marked diff
ference Closer inspection showed that
while the coffee beans first shown were not
all of the same size, the second handful were
of extraordinary regularity, the beans being
very plump and large.
"I know what you are going to tell me,
and at first glance any one would say SO.
Your opinion is that the last lot is the best,
isn't it? Well, the difference between the
you first are fair lot of coffee beans, while
the others aren't coffee at all, and never
grew on a coffee BUSH"
"What kind of bush did they grow On"''
"No bush at all. They are manufactured
article. You need not look as if you didn't
believe it, for it's q fact on which you may
safely risk your last dime. They are moth
ing more than limitations, made out OF
dough and Drowned up to resemble the true
coffee. Theyare made in moulds and baked
afterwards. Each one is almost perfect in
shape, and all are alike. You won't find
genuine coffee beans to have such regular
EtX;T X!:Thnr ,on,, al rinnt nn+ T. strikes mo
that no one would mistake the beverage
made from them for coffee"
"You are wrong again, young man. No
respectable grocer would be foolish enough
to give any customer who buys a pound OF
coffee pound of the imitation. They mix
it in the proportion of four or five pounds of
coffee to one of imitation. Nobody exam
ines each bean. You hear persons COM
planning of bad coffee all the time. Pm
sure 1 can't tell how it is says the house
keeper; L buy the coffee in the bean and
grind it myself. | am sure it is not adul-
terated.'
"You see the grocer can mix chicory with
ground coffee, but when coffee is bought in
the bean something's got to be done. Some
brilliant mind got over the difficulty by
making coffee beans to order"