River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1883-05-17
THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
A sketch of Prisoners Ia America a
Hundred Years Ago.
McMaster's History Of the People Of the
limited STATES y

Tt is pleasing to reflect that. while our
countrymen have been making such as
tonishing progress in all that admins
tiers to the comforts and eonyenlences
of life, they have at The same time
grown charitable and humane. There
is indeed SARGE scrap of information
bearing upon tle subject extant winch
does not go to prove beyond question
that the generation which witnessed the
revolution was less mereiful and tender
hearted than the generation which wit
messed the civil war. Our ancestors, 1t
is true, put up just cry ofhorror at the
brutal treatment Of their captive coun-
trymen in the prison ships and hulks.
So great and bitter was their indigna-
ton that money was to
be stamped with represent
tations of the atrocities of which they
complained. that their descendants TO
the remotest generations might hold IN
remembrance the cruelty Of the British
and the suffering of the patriots. 1et
even then the face OF the land was dot
ted with prisons where deeds OF cruelty
were done in comparison with which the
foulest acts committed IN tile hunks SINK
to q contemplate insi2nliicance. For
more than fifty years alter the peace
there was in Connecticut an under
ground prison which surpassed IN lur-
Tors the Black Hole of Calcutta. This
den. known as the Newgate prison, was
in an old worked-out copper mime IN the
hills near CRANKY. The only entrance
to it was by means of a ladder down a
shaft which led to the caverns under
ground There, in little pens of wood,
from thirty to one hundred culprlts
were immured, their feet made fast to
iron bars and neeks chained
to beams in the roofs. The
darkness, was intense; the caves wrecked
with filth; vermin abounded; water
trickled from the roofs aud oozed from
the sides of the caverns; huge masses OF
earth were perpetually falling oil In
the dampness and the filth the clothing
Of the prisoners grew moldy and rotted
away. and their limbs became stiff with
rheumatism. The Newgate prison was
perhaps the worst in the country, yet IN
every country were jails such as would
now be thought unfit places OF lablta-
ton for the vilest and most loathsome OF
beasts. At Northampton the cells were
scarce four feet high, and filled with the
noxiou5 gases of the prlvy vaults,
through which they were supposed TO
be ventilated. Light came in from two
chinks in the walls. At Worcester prs
on was a number of like cells, four feet
high by eleven long, without window
or Il chimney, not even hole IN the
wall, Nota ray OF light ever penetrated
them. In other iails in Massachusetts
lie cells were so small that the prison
l., l.at gf.fyG n
one over the other. In Philadelphia
the keeps were eighteea feet by twenty
feet, and so crowded that at night each
prisoner had space six by two to lie
DOWN. III.
The misery Of the unfortunate Great
rres cooped up in the cells, even in the
most humanely kept prisons, surpasses
in horror anything ever recorded IN he
ton. No attendance was provided for
the sick. No clothes were distributed
to the naked. Snch thing as
bed was rarely seen, and this
soon became so foul with insects that
The owner dispensed with il gladly
MANY Of Tie inmates Of the prisons pass
cd years without so much as washing
themselves. Their hair grew long
Their bodies were covered with scabs
and lice. and emitted horrible stencil.
Their clothing rotted from their backs
and exposed their bodies, tormented
with all manner Of skin diseases, and a
yellow flesh cracking open with filth
The death rate often stood as high as
sixty in the thousand. As If such tor
mpnts were not hard enough to bear,
others were added by the lialfmaddened
prisoners. No sooner did a new conner
enter the door of cell than rush was
made for him by the inmates, who strip
ned him of his clothing, and let tEm
stand stark naked till it was redeemed
by what, in the peculiar iargon Of the
place, was known as drink money. II
sometimes happened that the prisoners
were in possession of careiully-pre-
served blanket. Then this ceremony,
called garnishing, was passed over for
fhe vet more brutal one of blanketing-
Ia spite of prayers and entreaties, the
miserable stranger was bound, thrown
into the blanket, and tossed until ile
was half dead and ready to give his tor.
mentors every superiiuous garment &c
sell for money. With the tolls thus ex.
acted LIQUOR was bought. a & ndish reve
was held. and, when bad rum and bad
tobacco had done their work, the few
sober inmates Of the cell witnessed sncL
scenes as would be thought shocking IN
the dance houses which cluster along
the wharyes of our great sea-Doard
towns.