The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936, 1886-09-09

The preside OF Cartagena is a stone
building. with two or three quad
rangles, not a stones throw from the
famous dockyard and arsenal. Pass
ing to it the stranger hears the cimk
of chains and the measured tread of
conyicts. The prisoners are chained
two and two. They wear a coarse
brown jacket and trousers of coarse
cloth. Each holds up his own share of
the chain by which they are manacled
around the ANGLE. For each offense an
extra fourteen pounds of iron is placed
on the chain, adding considerably to
their difficulty in walking and working.
There are constant quarrels and fights.
The contractor gives the poor wretches
only beans and hot water in lieu of
beans and oil or bacon. Hundreds die
or become semi-idiotic from this starva-
ton, as the body especially in Spain,
needs fatty matter. Another abuse al
most as great as the herding together,
the contract system, the absence of
books or papers, is the terrible power
put into the hands of the sergeants, or
ca6os de gGrr0. These are themselves
prisoners who are physically strong and
have behaved fairly well. They are
put in charge of the prisoners, superin-
tend their work, and have unlimited
authority. Each carries a stout ashen
cudgel and they beat their fellow pris-
oners in the most cruel MANNER, even
taking an Internal pleasure in the
sound of the blows they administer.
Two striking sights may now and then
be witnessed within the walls of a
Spanish preside. On feast days a
brass band of prisoners plays its way
into the inner courtyard and there
takes its stand. From workshop and
sleep and smoke the motley groups
come hurrying to catch this little CLEAN
of light in their dull and wearying
lives. They form an orderly semicir-
Gle, beat time, sing a little, and thor
oughly enjoy the blare and rattle of
their rough music.
The other spectacle is of a sadder
character. At night a prisoner under
sentence of death for the morrow is
pinioned and handcuffed, and a crucifix
is put between his bound hands. He is
led to the chapel seated in front of the
altar, a priest hears his confession, and
he then sits through the weary night
watches waiting for that sun to rise of
which his eyes may not behold the set
ting. Sentence is, however, even at
this last awful moment, often commut-
ed, through the Intervention of the
church, to that of c0denG perpetuG.
When the capital sentence is carried
out by the garrote the prisoner is pin
Toned in a chair in a waste spot outside
the city and is executed at sunrise. |
do not like to continue this subject. |
have been told enough about Spanish
prisons to enable me to take my read
ers from the lookup to the jail, from
jail to the convict establishment. We
could almost share the unhappy felon's
mess of pottage; see the prison chapels
unopened, the images dusty and rust
ing, the battles with knives within the
prison walls; the prisoners gambling
day and night until some have gam
bled away all their r~ations, and are
foodless for forty-eight hours; the aw-
full amount of crime committed within
the walls of some prisons; the utter
want of occupation within the jails;
the total absence of any private minis
trations of religion in the large convict
establishments. If anyone is curious
as to the sentences pronounced, [ can
but tell him that murder is punished
with from seventeen years four months
and n day to death. and robbery very
much in accordance to the value of the
article stolen. In proportion to the
population the number of convicts in
the various jaifs, prisons, and convict
establishments is enormous, but-and I
glad to say it-marvelously few wo- !
men are found in prison.