The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-08-29
The TRANsGREssORS, HARD ROAD.

THE TRANSGRESSORS' HARD ROAD.
Experiences of the Unfortunates who
Find Their Way to BIackweIIs Island
| Rum the Principle Cause of Their Ruin
and Misfortunes. a,a5
| 'Let all who enter here leave hope
behind, " said melancholy specimen
| OF humanity accustomed to police
| courts, in rather q sarcastic tone to
some new arrivals in the lookup adj
| joining the, Jefferson Market Police
| Court a couple of days ago. He had
been arrested for drunkenness and was
awaiting hearing, and was already
discussing in his mind the certainty, as
he explained it, Of being ''sent upn for
one month or else six. His remark
had the effect-if it was not intended to
| do so--of making fewof the unfortr-
mates in the, gloomy, dirty prison pen
even more miserable. 80 .nsga3 Ies
EARLY MORNING SCENES. 81 ~
AS early as six a. m. daily from the
various station-houses prisoners begin
to wend their way in company of blue
| coated officers to Jefferson Market. a
doleful looking spectacle a majority Of
them present.. AS early as nine o'clock
the pen in the rear of the courtroom
was crowded, as it is nearly every seven
days of the week. The room is dirty
looking, dark concern, with an iron
| barred door. Two benches only are
provided, and for hours, owing to the
limited space, the foul place is crowd
L III -fo A1,+
| pacing to and fro if they can obtain
elbow room; some cursing, some cry
ing, signing or moaning; some laugh
ing, singing and making merry over
their misfortunes. Men we'll dressed;
men coatless and shoeless, some hat
less; some with bloody faces, black
eyes or bloody noses, victims of a fight
or policeman club; respectable men,
vagabonds, tramps, thieves, burglars,
| old criminals and new ones, also miser-
able specimens of fallen humanity,
whose rags and bodies are alive with
vermin, are here Tor hours daily hud-
died together like the dogs in the
| pound. .se
ba SINS PANDEMONIUM. ss2fsait
It's veritable pandemonium of sin,
wickedness and untold misery. Many
are the victims of honest misfortune;
some of revenge and spite; few have
been placed there by relatives, perhaps
a mother or a wife; but a majority can
attribute their arrest to the ruin they
have brought from, perhaps, some gid
ed saloon kept by some alderman, or
some OF the thousand pothouse poll
ticians who thrive on poor peoples
misery while doing out the drunkard' s
| poison in the bar-roonis of this great
Christian CD metropolis. ~ @0lt58
| But what a scene is exhibited in this
| prison pen at all hours!, Bacchanalian
songs are heard; vulgar stories are told;
the air is black with putrid oaths; timid
men are seen grooming and weeping
| over their disgrace; hardened sinners
are gloating over past misdeeds. A
| young thief is heard Boosting how he
| robbed drunken f'bloatp his clothes
and money and divided it with the
| "cop;'' another tells the uninitiated
about the lie one must lead on the
Stand; others curse the Judge and vow
vengeance, while more than one almost
give up in despair. 1t is a question for
1noralists to study and decide whether
the men who 90 up before our police
courts and are sent for the first time to
| the island ever become better citizens
or not. Many lose their self-respect
altogether. Many there learn for the
| first time the way of thieyery, and too
many end their days in prison or on
the galloWs On the walls of Jefferson
Market is written the name of the muir
derer McGloin. He wrote it there years
before he expiated his crime on the
| gallows. 1t would seem to be the es-
| pecial delight of some of these island
| birds to leave their autographs st all
| places they visit. asi TIL a..
PRISON FARE. "
The Justice sits about $50 a. M, and
the prisoners are arfaigned before him.
Many are held for a hearing before the
| Court of General Sessions or the Grim
inal courts. Some are bailed, some are
fiued. but majority are ever doomed
for the island. Balls and fines are not
always Forthcoming. These who are
not prepared in this emergency are
| quickly hustled into large room in the
prison to await their future doom.
The room is furnished with long wooden
benches, a row of raised plank or a
| platform, which serves as a bed for forty
or fifty; a closet, a hydrant and single
tin cup.
| Those who are so unfortunate as to be
detained here are furnished with tin
pan of rye water, called coffee Sugar
lessD, and piece of dry bread Occa-
sionally at dinner time mutton-sou) On
beeEsoup, or an excuse for it, is served
in asnan tin can. A spoon, but no
knife Or fork, is provided. The rison-
ers are always deprived of their poke :
knives for fear they may do mischief or
attempt suicide. q g slasilE
| LIFE ON THE ISLAND.
Every day except Sunday the prison
van carries prisoners to the foot of
Twenty-sixth street and ships them
thence to the workhouse. The van is
usually filled to its utmost capacity.
At the foot Of East Twenty-sixth street
q dozen men or more are compelled to
descend a ladder and enter the hold OF
the Fidelity or Bellevue, for Black
woods Island bound The hold will
not accommodate comfortably more
than half-a-dozen persons, yet a dozen
are crowded in it at once. They are
locked in amid filth and rats, and at
times confined there for hours. Should
the steamer Fidelity spring a leak no
doubt the prisoners would be drowned,
as there would be little hope of rescue.
Huge water rats move abouG boldly in
the bold of the vessel and play at the
/ feet Of the prisoners. In summer the
/ prisoners almost die while confined in
/ this hold of suffocation and thirst. In
the winter they are liable to freeze to
| death.
! Arriving at BlsckwelI's Island the