Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1884-08-28
A MINUTE IN A DARK CELL,
The Experience Of a Lady VINO Recently
Visited NeWgates

The Experience Of a Lady VINO Recently
Visited NeWgate.
''And suppose a woman is unbearably
aggravating, kicks and shrieks, etc.
suppose you put her in a small. dark
cell?" 1 query, ''That we do after all all
other measures are tried in vain, replied
my host. well, please put me in one
and 60 away for five minutes" I request.
On this am led toward the cell ''most
politely" as is sung in Princess Ida.
please, Mr.. Jailer, L want new sensa-
ton; 1 want to struggle and be forced in,
and hear the key click in the lock with
spltefuI snap; else how can write of the
dark cell realistically"
On this proceed to throw my arms
about and behave otherwise in most re-
bellious manner. With a quiet smile
am humOred in my little "Crank," and In
a second L find my arms pinioned in a
firm grip, and am pushed into the dark
cell, hearing the key click in the lock,
and over the one wee bar at the top see
| ing the last Of the light. know it was
silly, but, overcome with terror, I was
sPeeChless for one brief second, and it
seemed to me as If an icy cold hand held
my temples in a cruel pressure. Then
/ from my dumb lips came a piercing
shrek, that echoed through those desert
ed halls with horrible distinctness. Five
minutes! 1t was hours before they re-
turned with the lanterns. ooh, dear, 4"
! 1 groaned, will be here always? Have
/ they forgotten which one am locked
/ in" I felt that much longer of solitary
confinement would turn my brain, and
L began to gasp for breath. At last they
! come: the CLEAN of light increases; the
steps sound more distinctly on my ear
returning to release me. I hear the jail
er's keys jingle with the joyful sound of
freedom from my self-impOsed torture,
and the door flies open. I can not speak,
and, wOmanhke, choke down a sob in
| stead.
At this my friend shows me his watch.
! Glow long have I been there?" falter-
| ed out. EXACTLY one minute" he replies.
! Sure enough, this is true; yet in that one
minute all my life seemed to come up be-
fore my mental vision, just as it is said
| ones life comes up to the drowning man
or woman.
1 am told that usually one dose of the
] dark cell sufhces the cuEprit and I can
not Danish the impression that it is
haunted with fendish spirits. know it
was silly Of me to be so unnerved, I, who
have gone about London slums, and
know no fear Ofliving thieves in LOndon's
streets, met at uncanny hours. Well, call
same, I sOlemnly assure you that I had
rather die on the instant, be shot down
in the tWinkling of an eye, than be lock
ed and bolted for one night in the dark
cell at Newgate, with no more tangible
terror than those born of my terror
stricken approximations.
1t is such a little place, only big enough
to sit ina little dark closet, in fact
| Some inhuman mothers shut up their
refractory children in a dark clothes
press as a punishment. At all times be-
lieVe the woman who strikes a child to
! be human monster. unfit to hold the
sacred Office Of "mother." After this I
shall still more loathe the woman who
shuts her mischievOus little child in a
closet for five minutes or even a minute,
as a punishment. for I know now by ex-
perience the awful fright entailed.
Oh, mothers! don't terrify the little
folks. Perhaps their Vexing little pranks
are only an overflow of animal spirits
Learn to curb your own temper, and be
gentle with the mites. Take the hot
fretful little girl in your arms, undo the
pinafOre and wee frOck, and, slipping
her out Of the burdensOme clothes, place
her in a warm bath daintily perfumed
and my word for it, the nervous little one
viii soon be splashing about the water
in merriment. Don't forget that children
have nerves as well as grown folks, and
that they have their troubles in child
land. But 1 implOre you, do not put
children in dark closets as punishment
If you can't control your own nerves, you
are unfit to quiet your children's nerves
and had best employ some woman tC
manage your offspring who is actuatee
by more lofty principles and more we'll
balanced nature than yourself