Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-01-29

himself This latter portion IL again
sub-diyilcd, one half being put aside
for the day Of his liberation, II not in
|. generated Cor lifa, and the other de-
posted at Che cantccn for his private
use. His earnings never exceed two or
three cents day. In the evening, la
Dor ended, he dimes and goes to bed.
To The dreary silence Of the day sue
|, cceds the dreary silence Of darkness.
The rules Of the prison are such that
the convicts must replace their hooded
masks as soon as the doorsof their cells
open. They cannot expose their faces
even TO their wardcrs. II, perchancc,
face is seen by.a doctor, ii is paled by
the long, sunless shadow in which it
lives and the want Of bracing, blowing
air, for even the daily walk Of an hour
in the prisoa-yards is at best only ex-
ercise in crampcd passages between two
high walls, partly rooted, shut in by
iron gates, stretching out like the sticks
of gigantic fan, and where few stunt
cd plants soon wither and die. The
prisoners have that flaccid feshiness
which comes from absence Of move
ment and stimulating activity I;
yet in contradiction to the opin-
ion prevailing in France that no man
could stand solitary confinement for ten
years without succumbing or getting in
sane, il has been found not to be the
case at Louvain. Two Of the inmates
have dwelt there since 1864, the date Of
its foundation, being transferred to the
Central house after ten-years' i'm
prisonmcnt at Client. They had been
condemned TO death, but owing to the
virtual abolition of the penalty Of death
in Belgium the King had committed
their sentence to the perpetual cntomb-
ment Of their present abode. When
prisoners have deserved an alienation
Of their penalty by ten years Of unin-
terrupted good conduct they are sent to
Client, where the rules Of the prison
allow Of their working in common.
The secondary buildings contain the
infrmary, laundry, linen-rooms, bath
rooms, bakeries, and kitchens, all kept
with scrupulous cleanliness remark
able even in that land of unrivalled
cleanliness. Huge iron pots contained
an abundance Of excellent potatoes boil
ing for the evening meal, and the bread,
although brown, was sweet, crisp, and
of better quality than that rationed out
to the army.
None but isolated cases Of revolt have
ever taken place at Louvain. These
are punishable by incarceration in
subterranean dungeon containing no.
thing but single wooden bench, where
nearly total darkness prevails. The
time Of retention within its walls can
not exceed eight days, during which the
prisoner is kept on bread and water.
This mode of punishment is rarely re-
sorted to, as there is another which is
viewed with far greater dread-the pri-
walton of work For those silent re-
cluses this labor is the only link which
connects them ever so remotely with
the living world. 1t is more than an
occupation--it is favor, recreation,
almost pleasure, and the threat of
taking his tools from him rarely fails
to insure the submission of the rebel.
Whether or not the system of solitary
confinement has greater advantages for
the repression of crime and the security
of the community than the system of
labor in common now generally adopted
in penitentiaries, and which only hall
sequestrates the offender from his fell
low-creatures, is a question not easily
or lightly solved; but it is impos-
sible to leave the Maison Cen
trale of LOuvain, admirable as its
administration is in the minutest de-
tails, without a feeling Of almost super
stitious horror at the vision of those |
miserable beings cloistered in eternal
isolation, doomed to unbroken silence,
buried in their livery of infamy as in
shroud, the face of each remaining as
sealed to his 600 companions of crime
and shame, dropped into the same tomb
with himself, as if the lid Of coffin
had closed upon it and the hand of
death forever Obliterated its features.