Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-14

Penitentiary he is literally cut off from
all communication with the outside
world and during his 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 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" Notwithstanding all this,
the prisoner sentenced to SOLITARY
confinement, with hard labor" man
ages to keep himself as we'll posted at
least with the doings of his fellow-con-
victs and the general affairs of the in
stitution as any convict with more llber-
ties and as we'll as almost any ~oflicer..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 corri-
dor. During the past twenty years
various means have been devised 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 s'sending the NAL"
The convict who first introduced the
schema was not in sol tarY confinement
and was employed in the shoe factory.
He had occasion to send a communities
ton toIa solitary prisoner confined Mined
at work he contrived to manufacture q
square,, waterproof, leather box, in
which lie inclosed a message scratched
on q thin strip of leather. He then Sc
cured 3 quantity OF shoe-thread and
concealed the box and thread on his
person. That night he carefully lea
ured the width of his cell, and with this
information was able to calculate to an
inch the distance to his fellow-convict's
cell. ae then attached his thread to
the box and measuring off the exact
distance to his companions cell, fast
ened the other end to a knob and de-
posted the box in the 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 Delaware.
The communication contained a
well-tormed 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 Penitentiaries
and plans of some successful and many
unsuccessful schemes of escape have
been communicated from cell to cell in
this way. This system of communica-
ton, however. was fraught with many
dangers. and at best was slow and un-
certain and could not be extended be-
You'd 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 a physician. He afterward
learned the art of engraving and then
turned out as a professional counter
feiter. He has since reformed, after
exposing the c~rookedness of the Off
Gals of a New York Penitentiary and
thereby securing a pardon, and is now
earning an honest living under a differ
emit name in New York city.
While undergoing a sentence in the
Eastern Penitentiary he invented q
system of %telegraphy with a 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 long
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 a 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 a man In
another corridor his message passed
along from one cell or 'relay station
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 it's in
ventor to a prison inspector and Jhe
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 a
prisoner is discharged or a new convict