Charlotte messenger. [volume] (Charlotte, Mecklenburg Co., N.C.) 1882-18??, 1886-07-17
A FAMOUS JAIL
QUEER SIGHTS IN A VISIT TO
NEWGATE PRISON.
Cells with Doors as Thick as Those
OF Large American 6afes-The
Prison Graveyard and Its
Unknown Dead.

When was in London short time
go, writes Alan Dale in the New York
Nail and Express, visited Newgatc Jail,
nto which but few sightseers penetrate,
nd an inspection Of which can only be
obtained by written order. The great,
olid-looking building, in the street
famed after it, stands just where busy
london commences, and seems to cast
;loom even on the foggy, smoke-be
,rimed quarter known to the postman as
london E. c. Newgate has stood in all
Is grim importance for more than six
centuries, and historians say that they
AVE read of King John commanding the
;heriffs of London to repair the Jail and
If King Henry I. imprisoning those as
ute officials for having allowed con-
J 7ict to escape. During the great fire of
london Newgate Jail was utterly de-
Itroyed. It was rebuilt in stronger
ashton, only to be again destroyed by
ire during the Gordon riots, when
crowd of desperadoes forced their way
INTO one of the keepers houses, deliber-
,tely piled up the furniture they found
here, lighted it and piled it against the
gates. The flames spread on all sides,
burning the chapel, fore-lodge and wards
with relentless indiscrimination. New
gate Jail, or Newgate, as it is called, with
familiarity that is not the result of af-
lection, was rebuilt with improvements,
and you will find some Londoners who
will tell you it is beautiful building.
Where the beauty comes in 1 can't
imagine. l don't consider the Tombs a
very grateful sight, but it is certainly
more pleasing than Newgate, which,
almost hidden by fog and smoke always,
looks to me to be the very acme of every
thing awful. The warden who greeted
me when the heavy entrance gates had
closed behind my puny person first
showed me the grim paraphernalia of the
prison, snch as handouts, chains, irons
md pinioning straps, all of which were
Kept in a small closet close to the en-
france. Jack Sheppard's irons were on
view, and how Harrison Ainsworth's hero
could escape from such massive custody
Is problem which my ingenuity cannot
solve. Some of the irons weighed from
twenty -eight to forty pounds, and were
so roughly made that they had 10 be
padded in order to prevent the flesh they
enclosed from being injured by their
pressure. In shelf above these little
souvenirs were two rows of plaster heads
representing about three dozen of Eng
i ,and's most notorious criminals, among
them Franz Muller, Jeffreys Mullins,
Elizabeth Brownrigg and Courvoisier, all
Of whom had been hanged at Newgate.
The warder took me through the little
chapel, bare, uninviting looking place,
without even the harmonium or piano
which in America is always used to ac-
company the hymns. One chair, covered
with black leather and apart from all the
others, was assigned to the prisoner con-
demned to die. He was thus conspicu-
ous figure at divine service. From the
chapel we passed into the exercising
yard, bare stone promenade, and thence
into the cells, which resemble those USED
in the Penitentiary on Blackwel's Island.
Each cell was provided with hammock
.luDg from side to side. three blankets, a
Bible and prayer-book. Underneath the
cells was a large carpenters room, which
had been unused for many years and in
which were six dark cells, only used in
ultra-rcfractory cases.
''Step in, said the warder playfully,
tand see how you like it."
did not feel particularly easy in my
mind but l did as he suggested. When
the warden had shut first one door, big
and massive as that of one of the i'm
proved modern safes, and then another
about yard distant from it, can't say
the sensation was delicious. 1t was pitch
lark. Not solitary ray of light pene-
trated the blackness. 1t was impossible
to hear a shout from the cell. Had
called at the top of my voice the warder
who was outside the second door could
not have heard me.
"Twenty-four hours of that" said the
warder humorously, as emerged, blink
ing, from the darkness, twas sufficient,
so am told, to reduce the most refrac-
! tory cases."
We next inspected the gallows, which
had been busted up that day, so the
warden told me- 1t was like most other
structures of that character. The drop"
was disclosed for my benefit, and also the
chair on which prisoners were hurried
into eternity, when in fainting condi
ton. In 1876 four murderers were exc.
cuted at the same time on this gallows.
-. A L Il