Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1885-07-22
CONVTCTS SIGNALS.

How Prisoners in Solitary Confinement
Communicate-Uuiqu System.
An impression prevails that when q
man is sentenced to a term Of years OF
solitary confinement in the Eastern
penitentiary he is literally cut off from
all communication with the outside
world and duringhis term OF imprison-
ment he knows nothing OF the move
ments of the uncaged contingent OF his
fraternity. To an extent this IS true.
He is only permitted to talk with the
warden, chaplain, and inspectors OF
prison, but he hears nothing of the
gossip Of the outside world through
them. Sometimes q 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 Notwith-
standing all this, the prisoner SEN
fenced to SOLITARY confinement, with
hard labor" manages to keep himself
as well posted at least with the doings
of his fellow-convicts and the general
affairs of the institution as any con-
vict with more liberties and as well as
almost any officer of the prison. This
only applies to old lawbreakers 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
corridor. During the past twenty
years various means have been de-
vised by which the convicts could
communicate with each other and
keep posted as to the movements OF
the criminal classes and their enemies.
The first and best known was that OF
essending the mail" The convict who
first introduced the scheme was not In
solitary confinement and was en-
ployed in the shoe factory. He had
occasion to send a. communication to
a SOLITARY" prisoner, confined IN
cell in the same corridor. While at
work he contrived to manufacture a
square, waterproof leather box, IN
which he inclosed q message scratched
on thin strip of leather. He then
secured a, quantity Of shoe-thread and
concealed the box and thread on his
person. That night he carefully
measured the width Of his cell, and
with this information was able to cal
culate to an inch the distance to his
fellow-convict's CELL He then at
tached his thread to the box and
measuring off the exact distance to his
companions cell, fastened the other
end to knob, and deposited the box
in a sewerage-pipe running through all
of the cells In the morning a stream
of water is turned on in this pipe in
order to flush it and this stream of
water carried the box to the limit of
the string, which brought it directly
under the trap in the convict's cell for
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 Della
ware.
The communication contained
weli-formed scheme Of escape, which
was attempted, but frustrated. The
secret of sending the mail' leaked
out, however, and after that and up
to the present day many such mail
bags have Travelled down the sewerage
pipes Of the Eastern and other peni-
tentiaries and plans of some success
full schemes OF escape have been COM
municated from cell to cell in this way.
This system of communication, how
ever, was fraught with many dangers,
and at best was slow and uncertain
and could not be extended beyond
one corridor The credit of the in
vention of the most perfect system Of
communication between prisoners
confined in one institution belongs to
Jack Canter, at one time the most ex-
pert counterfeiter in the United States
II not in the world. He came from
South Carolina and was educated in
Paris as a physician. He afterward
learned the art of engraving and then
turned out to be a professional coun-
terfeiter. He has since reformed, after
exposing the crookedness of the Off
Gals of New York penitentiary and
thereby securing g. pardon, and is now
earning an honest living under a differ
ent name in New York city.
While undergoing a sentence IN the
Eastern.Penitentiary heinvented sys-
tenn of biography with system SINH
lar to that of Morse. He found means
of teaching his alphabet to some OF his
fellow convicts, and IN the course OF a
few months it was known to almost
every convict undergoing a long SEN
tence. Those who were released taught
the system to criminals then on the
outside Of the walls, and in course of
time the upper strata of the criminal
fraternity became expert telegraphers.
The wires OF this novel telegraph line
consisted of the gas and water pipes
which pass through every cell in the
vast institution. They are excellent
conductors of sound, and by means of
sharp raps on the pipes with piece of
metal. or even the knuclles, an expert
Operator" could easily and quickly
send message to a fellow prisoner
whose cell was not far distant. If he
wished to communicate with a man in
another corridor his message passed
along from one cell Or Fsrelay station"