Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-04-10

| Pen1teDtlary AmuseS Himself by Tor
| turing the Prisoners-The Story of an
| Ex-ConV1ct Told to Globe Reporter
| Years ago abuses were permitted to
take root in the Missouri penitentiary
which have grown with each succeeding ad-
mlnlstration. Under the sunshine of
executive favor they have come to be of
nonstrous proportions, and to-day no
penal institution exists in this country. at
the entrance to which hope, humanity and
the influences of charity are so per-
manently ignored as at that of the CAPITAL
| OF the Puke state. At intervals commit
tees of investigation have been appointed.
but they have invariably fallen by the way
slde' and the last stage of the diseases
complained of have been invariably worse
than the first. The treatment admins
tered to convicts has been so extreme in its
severity, as to precipitate revolts re-
peatedlY, and after the leaders have either
paid the penalty by instant death, or been
beaten to insensibility and subjected to
the torture of solitary confinement, the
event Is forgotten only to be revived ty
the happening of a similar occurrence.
On yesterday a GLOBE reporter met an
| ex-convict recently released, from whom he
received an account of some acts connected
with the discipline maintained there. which.
II true, render the atrocities of the Span
ish inquisition to the least degree humane
IN comparison. He was sent down from
st. Louis several years ago for manslaugh-
ter, made time by good conduct, and saws
ne never was subjected to the indignities
| the convlcts are hourly in terror of.
i made up my mind when I went
there" he said, ''to do square work. 1 did
square work, and by the interference of
influential friends, including such men as
Charley johnson, Con Mcguire and others.
escaped with light burdens. Bat if old
Bradbury had treated me as he daily treats
men IN the pen, I'd have killed him and
considered myself absolved from crime
because l acted from humane prin-
ciple.'
I'm what way has he acquired so unen-
vlable reputation for severity?''
For severity? For brutality you mean?
By every means that can suggest itself to
one of his ghoulish nature. He's brute
by instinct, association and education.
he began life as a niger driver and the
reputation of men who followed that loath
some occupation in slave times has been
forgotten by his conduct since he came to
be deputy warden
| You know that the class of men he has
to deal with are of character that NAV
necessitate these acts you complain of. In
what way does he transcend his powers ?"
| In every way. l know he has hard citi-
zens to control, but they are men all the
same and sensitive to compassion, to
which some of them are entitled"
| HE certainly don't treat all brutally as
you would lead me to infer; you are an ex-
| ception.'
Because I had money and friends.
Those who were without these used to get
1t whenever the spirit prompted the old
heather. Every night after supper he
| picks his teeth, orders half dozen down
to the bull pen," straps them to bench
and cuts them with a cow-hide until he's
exhausted. If one of them cries out with
pain he beats him to stop, and if one don't
| cry out, beats him till he does. This is his
| daily amusement, and he says its better
than the theater. Many a night I've been
| kept awake until 1 o'clock in the morning
by their shrieks for mercy, to which old
Bradbury replied with shouts of laugh
ter"
"Why is this permitted? Can't some
"Great God, no. His family are said to
be on intimate terms with the families of
the governor and other high officials, and
besldesyou know a convict won't be be-
lieved."
"You don't tell me that high state off
Gals in Missouri find their society in the
families of penitentiary officials? '
That's about the size of it, in this case
at least. There are more things in heaven
and earth than are dreamed of, even in the
philosophy of newspaper men,"
Were you in when the revolt occurred
there two months ago?''
Yes, and locked up with the rest of the |
prisoners to prevent their participation. !
The old hyena came up when it was prac-
tlcally over, nearly dead with fright, and |
began firing off his revolver promiscuously. |
He thinks no more of killing man than |
if hewas dog. When 10 Fore went crazy, |
ne shot him dead to keep his hand in, he |
said.''
Didn't the investigation set on foot by
the present legislature accomplish any
thing?'
Accomplish anything? No-Investi |
cations never result in accomplishing any
other result than to make the convict more |
helpless, more al object of vindictive spite |
and punishment
"What policy would you as an eliminate
suggest?''
"Oh, am a prejudiced Judge, and it
would hardly do for me to express an
opinion. And besides, what would sup-
gest would be considered impracticabie. |
utopian."
Nevertheless what would it be?n
"Well, as you will havei it, I would i'm
press upon convicts the fact that they were
in confinement for the violation of human
or statutory laws. 1 would also impress
them with the further fact that they we're
imprisoned that they might be improved,
and that in proportion as they observed
prison rules they were entitled to the con-
sideration due manhood"
Isn't this the case now?"
Not by a considerable distance. 1t
may be so in theory, but in fact is diamet-
really the opposite. The more man en-
beavers to avoid censure under Bradbury
the more effectively he fails. I hear he's
about to be removed. IF he isn't by order
of the executive, he will be sooner or later
by bullet and don't You forget it,n he
concluded as he svTuncr onto the stem IF n |