Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1883-03-31
A CENTURY AGO.
A Picture Of the Good Old Times -
We Read About.

From McMaster's History of the People of the
United States.
1t is pleasing to reflect that, while our coun-
trymcn have been making such astonishing pro-
gress in all that administers to the comforts
and conveniences Of lite, they have at the same
time grown charitable and humane. There is
indeed scarcely scrap OF information bearing
upon the subject extant which does not 90 to
prove beyond question that the generation
which witnessed the revolution was less merc-
full and tender-hearted than the generation
it is true, put up just cry OF horror at the
brutal treatment OF their captive country
men in the prison ships and hulks So
great was their Indignation that money
was to be stamped with representations of the
atrocities of which they complained. that their
descendants to the remOtest generation might
hold in remembrance the cruelty of the British
and the suffering of the patriots. Yet even then
the face Of the land was dotted with prisons
where deeds Of cruelty were.dOne. in cOmpar-
son with which the toulest acts committed in
the hulks sink to contemplate insgnificance
For more than fifty years after the peace there
was in Connecticut an underground prison
which surpassed in horrors the Black Hole of
Calcutta. This den, known as the Newgate
prison, was in an old wOrked-out copper mine
in the hills near CRANKY. The only entrance to
it was by means of ladder down shaft which
led to the caverns under ground. There in
little pens of wood. from 80 to 100 culprits were
immured. their feet made fast to iron bars, and
their necks chained to beams in the roof. The
darkness was intense; the caves reeked with
hlth Vermin abOunded; water trickled from the
roof and 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 mOuldy and rOtted away
| and their limbs became stiff with rheumatism.
The Newport prison was perhaps the worst in the
country, yet in every county were jajls such as
would now be thought unfit places of habitatiOn
for the vilest and most lOathsOme of beasts. At
Northampton the cells were scarce four feet
high, and filed with the noxiOus gases of the
privy vaults through which they were supposed
to be .yentilated. Light came in from two chinks
in the wall. At the Worcester prison were a
number of like cells, four feet high by eleven
long, without window or a chimney, or even a
hole in the wall. Not ray of light ever
penetrated them, In other jails in Massachu-
sets the cells were so small that the prisoners
were lodged in hammocks swung one over the
other. In Philadelphia the keeps were eighteen
feet by twenty feet. and so crowded that at
night each prisoner had space six feet by two
to lie down in.
"The misery of the unfortunate creatures
cOOped up in the cells, even of the most hu-
namely kept persons, surpasses in horror any,
thing ever recorded in fiction. No attendance
was provided for the sick. No clothes were dis
tributed to the naked. Such thing as a bed
was rarely seen, and this soon became so foul
with insects that the owner dispensed with it
gladly. Many of the inmates of the prisons
passed years without so much as washing them
selves. Their hair grew long. Their bodies
were covered with scabs and lice, and emitted a
horrible stencil Their clothing rOtted from
their backs and exposed their bodies, tormented
with all manner of skin diseases and yellow
flesh cracking open with filth. The death-rate
often stood as high as sixty in thousand AS
ii such torments were not hard enough to bear
others were added by the half-madded prison
ers No sooner did new conner enter the door
of cell than rush was made for him by the in
mates. who stripped him of his clothing, and let
him stand stark naked till it was redeemed by
what In the peculiar jargon OF the place was
known as drink-mOney. It sometimes happened
that the prisoners were in possession of a care
fully preserved blanket. Then this ceremony
called garnishing, was passed over for the yet
more brutal one of blanketing. In spite of pray
ers and entreaties the miserable stranger was
bound, thrown into the blanket and tossed till
he was half dead and ready to give his torment
0rs every superfluous garment to sell for money
With the tolls thus exacted, liquor was bought,
| fiendish revel was held, and, when bad rum
and bad tobacco had done their work, the few
sober inmates of the cell witnessed such scenes
as would be thought shocking in the dance
houses which cluster along the wharves of our
great seabOard towns.