Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-07-16

this way. This system of communities
ton, however. was fraught with many
dangers. and at best was slow and I'M
certain and could not be extended be-
yond one corridor. The credit of the
invention 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
if not in the world. He came from
South Carolina and was educated in
Paris as physician. He afterward
learned the art of engraving and then
turned out as professional counter
feter. He has since reformed, after
exposing the crookedness of the Off
cials of a New York Penitentiary and
thereby securing a pardon, and is now
earning an honest living under differ
ent name in New York city.
| While undergoing sentence in the
Eastern Penitent airy he invented a
system of telegraphy with system
similar 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 hong
sentence. 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 knuckles, an expert
Operator could easily and quickly
send a message to a fellow-prisoner
whose cell was not far distant. 1t he
wished to communicate with man IN
another corridor his message passed
to another until it reached its destina-
ton. Every convict of any note had
(and has) his ''call,'' the same as
operators along any telegraph line.
The system was divulged by. its in
ventor to prison inspector and The
convicts now find it difficult to send
any important message. as the prison
officials now understand the alphabet
as well as the operators themselves.
They are still able, however, to keep
each other posted on the movements
of noted criminals and the general
criminal topics of the day. When
prisoner is discharged or new convict
brought IN the fact is Immediately
telegraphed around. A new arrival.
if he is in the secret, wires" the news
of the outside world to the prisoners
on the inside, and when a man is dis
charged he generally takes with him
number of photographic messages to
outside friends of the.convicts.
Another means of communication
employed by the convicts was recently
discovered in Penitentiary IN neigh
boring State. Two men, sentenced to-
gether to solitary confinement, were
placed in adjoining cells. One of
them, by patient labor and the aid of
a piece of wire, picked the plaster out
between two stones in the wall be-
tween the cells. During the day
he replaced the mortar with
crumbs of bread. In the course of a
few weeks he bored hole through to
the adjoining cell and every night held
a conversation with his partner in
crime. The latter in turn bored a hole
through the next partition wall, and in
course of time all of the prisoners on
that corridor were in communication
with each other and a plan of escape
was Matched out, but frustrated just
before it was to be put in execution.
These are few of the more lngenio us
plans devised by convicts of commune
eating with each other. -PhstadelphiG
Times.