Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1885-02-26
THE CALLEfS.
How Prisoners Were Formerly Tortured in
the French Galleys.

How Prisoners Were Formerly Tortured in
the French Galleys.
We suppose the 'Idudator tenaporis
acti' will never entirely disappear.
There will always be found those who
will maintain that the former days were
better than the present, and that the
affairs of this world do not move so
smoothly as in old times.
Undoubtedly there may be reason in
such assertions, as in some instances
our days show degeneration from
those of our forefathers; the belief in
the overruling providence and good
ness of God, the respect of youth to-
ward old age, the sentiment of ODE
dience to the commands of law, we fear
have lost somewhat of their influence
over the actual generation.
But without stopping to enumerate
the many points in which our own age
has made decided advance over those
that have preceded it, let us merely re-
fleet on the position of prisoners and
sailors of the present day as compared
with those when men were condemned
and not always for crimes committed
to the living death of the galleys:
Baras de la Peuve, who served forty
years as an officer in galley, thus
writes in 1918 of them:
"Those who enter a galley for the
first time are surprised to see so many
souls on board. There are, in fact, in
Europe an infnity of villages which
do not contain SO many inhabitants.
But that which cause still more aston
ishment is to find SO many men in so
small space. 1t is true that the
greater part have not the liberty to lie
down at full length. Seven men are
put on each bench; that is, in space
of about four feet wide by ten in length.
At the PROV are to be seen even thirty
sailors, who have no other lodging
place than the plans des rambades,
which are two spaces of two feet In
length by eighteen wide. From stern
to PROV one can see nothing but heads.
The captain and officers are hardly
any better lodged, their only refuge is
the poop, which, considering its size,
one is tempted sto compare with the
tub of Diogenes. When the pitiless wind
from Lydia, sweeping across the Ro-
man beaches, surprised the galleys On
the sea; when the impetuous Aquilon
assafled them, or the Gulf of Lyons de-
Ivered them to the humid wind of
SYRIA, the galleys must have been an
image Of hell itself. The mournful la
mentations and frightful cries of the
crew, the horrible howlings of the
chaln-gang. the grooming of the vessels
frame, mingled with the noise of chains
and the roaring of the tempest must
have produced sentiment of
terror in the most intrepid heart.
Rain, bail, lightning, the habitual
accompaniment of these violent
storms, the waves washing over the
decks. added to the horror of the situa-
ton. Although people are not gener-
ally very deyout in the galleys, some
would then be seen praying to God,
while others were offering vows to all
the saints. Some even, in spite of the
rocking of the vessel, would try to
make pilgrimages ON board! Much
better would it have been for them not
to forget God and his saints as soon as
the danger was past.
Calm weather itself has its inconven-
fences: Bad smells are then so offen-
sive that they can not be escaped from.
in spite of the snuff with which you
are Obliged to fill your nose from morn
ing to night. There are always on