Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-02-19

j as 6olScley .. the OutCoIH6 Va cSchts
in the Soudan is theme for hazard
Gus conjecture and dark foreboding.-
". Y. Sun.
COnfine ment in the Dark Cell.
i A gentleman, kindly humane gen.
ueman, too-who for nearly ten years
was the sole arbiter of the conditions oil
life of score of thousand men and
women, did me the honor yesterday to
take cigar and a glass of claret with
me, writes New York correspondent to
the st. Louis Chronicle. He is the ex-
/ governor of the largest of our state pris-
ons. The conversation naturally turn
ep upon the habits and punishments ol
convicts. In the course of it the ex-
governor said: II know, absolutely,
that seventy-five per cent of the in-
mates of our State lunatic asyIums
have been driven mad by confinement
in the dark cell!'' Such a statement
from one OF authority is appalling. 81
fell you," said my friend, that man
| never gets over the effect Of imprison-
ment in these black and silent dun
geons, where no ray oflight penetrates,
where no cot is placed upon which the
unhappy wretch may lie, where no
sound is heard, and which the keeper
visits for all instant only every day, to
thrust through an aperture the con-
| vict's food and to see whether he is still
alivem I asked him in view of his own
experience, to name a punishment th at
would axe the place of the dark cell.
"The lash!u he said. "The lash hurts.
but it does not destroy. It marks the
body; it does not impair the mind. It
answers all the purposes of punishment
because it humiliates and pains at the
| same time. The English experience is
the same and recently judges have sem
| fenced hardened criminals to be fog
ged."
Why, if you are SO directly opposed
| to the punishment of the dark cell did
you use it'' asked.
Simply because there was no other
to take its place. The rules of our
prison forbid the lash, but give unlin-
tied discretion as to the dark cell. /
will give you an instance of an incor-
rigible who had exhausted the patience
and ingenuity of previous governors,
and who had been punished by every
! means except the dark CELL He had
| bred revolution in the shoe shop, openly
| insnlted the wardens, refused to work,
used vile languages to his fellow con-
victs and generally made it hot for
everybody round him. Yet he had new
er been 'dark'd' for the reason that
those in authority had scruples about
| the use of that punishment upon a
| man in his peculiar state of health.
! One day after characteristic outbreak
cell and ordered the keeper to bring
out a man who had been confined in
it for three days. The poor wretch
| was brought forth, and the mo ment
the light fell upon him the incorrigible
gave yell of terror.
1.-The man who had been sdark'd' was
| not simply dazed; he was loony. He
| felt himself all over, with his eyes
closed; he tried to feel Surrounding OBJ
jects;his face was ashen pale and drawn
| in death-like lines; he had evidently
! lost all sense of dimension, or space, or
form, or color. ALI he could do was to
cry piteously, without the capacity to
shed a tear. His mind was gone. or
dered the doctor to attend to him, and
drew the incorrigible aside. Now /
said, do you want to behave yourself,
or suffer what that miserable creature
has suffered?' BY God!' said the incor-
rigible, I'll go to work. And he did.
For the rest of his term be made the
highest average in cutting out soles In
the shoe shop, whereas previously he
had defiantly stuck his knife in the
board and refused TO touch the leather"
aAnd what is your conclusion from
that?n asked.
"Simply this. The man who is con-
yicted of vulgar crimes is generally be-
low the average in intelligence. When
threatened with the punishment of a
dark cell. he is Indifferent. The domi-
nant thought in his mind is that If he
gets idark'd' he will have no work to
do. It is to late when he comes ou. for
him to appreciate the frightful effects
OF this inhuman punishment. for his
mind has gone. It is only by showing
q rebellious convict the result fo con-
finement in dark cell, as seen in the
case of one of his mates, that he can be
made to understand that to be dark ID
is infinitely worse than to be obliged
to work.
It seems to me that the statements OF
the ex-governor. who is ready to give
his name and prove his assertions at
any time before competent authority to
lexamine, should lead to an investiga-
tion. He declares explicitly to remem-
Der that seventy-five per cent. OF the
Inmates OF our State lunatic asylums
have been driven mad by confinement
J in dark cells!