The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1888-12-28
GILL NYE IN JAIL.
He Gives Description Of Ludlow Street
Prison.

He Gives Description Of Ludlow Street
Prison.
rs you enter Ludlow Street Jail the door Is
carefully closed after you and locked by
means Of an iron lock about the si1e Of q
pictorial family Bible You then remain on
the inside for quite q spell. You do not hear
the prattle OF soiled children any more. All
the glad sunlight and stencil condensing
pavements and dank haired children of Riv-
tngton street are heard no more, and the
heavy iron storm door shuts out the wall of
the combat from the alley near BY Ludlow
Street Jail may be surrounded by very
miserable and dirty quarter Of the city, but
when you get inside all is changed.
You register first There is a good pen
there that you can write with, and the clerk
does not chew tolu and read sporting paper
while you wait for room. He is there to
attend to business, and he attends to it. He
does not seem to care whether you have any
baggage or not. You can stay here for days,
even if you don't have any baggage. All you
need is kind word and mittimus from the
court.
One enters this sanitarium either as
boarder or felon: Ii he decides to come in
as boarder he pays the warden $l5Ia week
for the privilege Of sitting at his table and
eating the luxuries of the market. You also
get a better room. than at many hotels, and
you have good strong door with paddock
Oh it which enables you to prevent the sudden
and unlocked for entrance OF the chamber
maid. After a few weeks at tho seaside at
SD per day, think the room in which am
WHITING is not unreasonable at So.
Sill, OF course we miss the sea breeze
here.
You can pay $50 to 500 per week here if
you wish, and get your moneys worth, too.
For the latter sum one may live in the bridal
chamber, SO to speak, and eat the very best
victuals all the time
A boarder gets good sized room, with a
wonderful amount Of eeclusion. plain bed,
table, chairs carpet and SO forth. From his
window one can see as far as the eye can
reach.
Heavy iron bars keep the mosquitoes out,
and at night the rooms are brilliantly lighted
by incandescent lights of one candle power
each. Neat snuffers, consisting of the thumb
aud forefnger polished on the hair, are to be
found in each occupied room.
Bread is served to the freshmen and juniors
in rectangular wads. It is such bread Us con-
victs' tears have moistened many thousand
years. In that way it gets quite moist.
AAAoSS
low street Jail is the confinement One can
not avoid feeling Of being constantly ham,
pered and hemmed in.
One more disagreeable thing is the great
social distinction here. The poor man who
sleeps in a stone niche near the roof and is
constantly elbowed and hustled out of his
bed by earnest and restless vermin with
tendency towards insomnia, is harassed by
meeting in the courtyard and corridors the
paying boarders who wear good clothes, live
we'll, have their cigars, brandy and Kentucky
Sec all the time.
The McAllister crowd hero is just Us ex-
elusive as it is on the outside.
But, great Scott, what a comfort it is to a
man like ME who has been nearly killed by
cyclone to feel the firm, secure walls and
solid time lock when he goes to bed at night!
Even if l cannot belong to the 400 here, anu
almost happy.
Weretire ut 1880 o'clock at night and arise
at $50 in the morning, so as to get an early
start. A man who has five or ten years to
serve in place like this naturally likes to
get at it as soon as possible each day. and so
he gets up at 6:3O.
We dress by the gaudy light of the candle,
and while we do so we remember far away
at home our wife and the little boy asleep in
her arms. They do not get up at G:3O. 1t
is at this hour remember the fra
grant drawer i'll the dresser at home whero
our clean shirts and collars and cuffs and
socks and handkerchiefs are put every week
by our wife We also recall rs we 60 about
our stone den, with its odor of farmer corncd
beef and the ghost of some bloody handed
predecessors s,lore still moaning in the walls,
the picture Of green grass by our own door
nd In ,-,,l., I,tty net ,ir
when the bench warrant came.
The time from G:30 to breakfast is taken
up by the average of non-payn, inmate by
doing the cha,nberwork and tidyiny up his
stateroom | do not know how others feel
about it, but dislike chamberwork most
heartily, especially when am in jail. Moth
ing has donc more to keep me out Of Jail,
guess, than the fact that while there have to
make up my bed and dust the piano.
We 90 down to tho sink to wash our faces
and hands 1t is pleasant sight, and re-
minds me of herd of red legged geese in
mud hole.
Breakfast is generally table d'hotc, and
consists of bread. A tin cup of coffee takes
the taste of the bread out of your mouth,
and then if you have some Limburger cheese
in your pocket you can with that remove the
taste of the coffee.
Dinner is served ut l2 O'Clock. and consists
Of more bread, with soup This soup has
everything in it except nourishment. The
bead OH this soup is noticeable for quite u
distance 1t is disagreeable There is every
thing in this soup, from shop worn rice up to
meats foot oil. Once | thought detected
cuisine in it.
The dinner menu is changed on Fridays,
Sundays and Thursdays, on which days you
~ lie,
In this way the bread is saved.
Three days in the week at dinner each man
gets . potato with thousand legged worm
in it. At + o'clock comes supper with toast
and responses. Bread is served at supper
time, together with a cup Of tea To those
who dislike bread and never eat soup, or do
not drink tea or Coffee life ut Ludlow Street
Jail is indeed irksome. Bill Nye in New York
World