The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1885-07-24
CCNVlCT'S SIGNALS.

How Prisoners in Solitary Confinement
Communicate Unique Telegraph Sys-
ems.
An impression prevails that when a
man is sentenced to term OF years of
solitary confinement in the Eastern
Pen.tentiary he is literally cut off from
all communication with 1.-THE outside
world and during term of impr SON
ment he knows moth ng of the move
mentS of the uncaged contingent of his
fratern ty. To an extent tn is true.
He is only permitted to talk with the
warden. chaplain, and inspectors of the
prison, but he hears none of the gossip
of the outside world through them.
Sometimes gang of his more fortunate
fellow-convicts file By and wake the
echoes of the dismal corridor with the
rhythm of the ''lOck-step march," but
they are not permitted to speak to the
SOLITAIRE" Notw thstanding all this,
the prisoner sentenced to solitary
confinement, with hard labor" man
ages to keep mself a. well posted at
least with the doings of his fellow-con-
victs and the general affairs of the in
stitution as any cow ct W tn more llber-
ties and as we'll as almost any Otficer.Of
the prison. This only applies 10 old
lawDreakers, as only such are sentenced
TO solitary confinement.
This communication is effected by
communicating with each other from
cell to cell and from corridor to corri-
dor. During the past twenty years
var Gus means have been dev sed BY
which the convictS could communicate
with each other and keep posted as to
the movements of the or m nal classes
and their eat mies. The first and best
known was that of sending the ma l."
The convict who first introduced the
scheme was not m sol tarr confinement
and was employed n the shoe factory.
he had occaS on to send cOmmun ca
ton to solitary prisoner. confined
in cell in the same corridor. While
at work he coatrived to manufacture a
square. waterproof. lea her EON, in
which he inclosed message scratched
on thin strip of leather. He then Sc
cured quantity OF shOe-thread and
concealed the box and thread on IS
person. That night he carefully meas
ured the width of his cell. and with this
nfOrmat on was able to calculate to an
inch the stance to his fellow-convict'
cell. He then attached his thread to
the box and meaSur NC off the exact
slance to his coDpan. on's cell, fast
ened the other end 10 a knob and de-
posted the ioX in the sewerage-p pc
running through all of the cells. In the
morning stream OF water is turned on
in this p pc in order to flush it and this
stream OF water carr Ell the box to the
Limit of the str,ny. VIII ch brought it
directly under the trap in the convict's
cell Tor whom it was designed. The
message was read and then thrown
back into the pipe. through which it
Travelled to the sewer and thence into
the Delaware.
The communication contained a
well-tormed scheme of escape which
was attempted but frustrated. The
secfet of sending the mali Leaked
out, however, and after that and up to
the present day many such ma;l-bags
have travelled down the sewerage pipes
OF the Eastern and other Penitentiaries
and plans OF some successful and many
unsuccessful schemes of escape have
bee1 communicated from cell to cell in