The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1888-12-07
BILL ME- IN JAIL.
He Gives q Descriptions CT Ludlow
Street Prison.



New York world.
syo1 enter Ludlow street jail the
door is carefully closed after you and
locked BY means OF an iron lock about
the size Of a pictorial family Bible
You then remsin on the inside tor
cutie 4 sue.l. You do not hear the
prattie OF spelled children any more
All the glad sunlight and stepch-eon..
deasing payements and dank-haired
children OF Rivingtoa street are heard
no more, and the heavy iron storm
door shuts out the wall OF the combat
from the aIley near BIZ. Ludlow street
Jail may be surrounded by very
miserable and dirty quarter OF the
city. but when you get inside al Is
changed. !,
You register first. There is a good
pen there that you can write with, ana
the clerk does not chew tolu and read
a sporting paper while YOU wait Tor .
room. He is there to attend TO bust
ness, and he attends 10 il. He does
not seem TO care whether you have
any baggage or not You can stay
here for days, even II you don't have
any baggage. All you need is kind
word and q mittimus from the court
One enters this sanitarium either as
a boarder or felCn. Ii he decides 10
come in as boarder he pays the war
den SIS week for the privilege OF sit
ting at his table and eating the iuxu-
ries of the market You also get .
better room than at many hotels. and
you have good strong door with q
paddock on it which enables you 10
prevent the sudden and unlooEed-ior
entrance of the chambermaid. After
few weeks at the seaside at SIS per
day | think the room in which L am
writing is not unreasonable at 81.
Still. OF course, we miss the sea
breeze here.
You can pay $50 to 500 per week
here If you wish, and get your money s
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 a good-sized room,
with wonderful amount of seclusion,
a 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 mosqui-
toes out, and at night the rooms are
brilliantly lighted by incandescent
lights of one-candle power each. Neat
shutters. consisting of the thumb and
forefinger polished on the hair, are to
be found in each occupied room.
Bread is served to the freshmen and
juniors in rectangular wads. 1t is
such bread as convicts' tears have
moistened many thousand years. In
that way it gets quite moist. aS'
The most painful feature about life
in Ludlow-street Jail is the eonine-
nent. One cannot avoid feeling of
being constantly hampered. and
hemmed in. .s& s&
One more disagreeable thing is the
great social distinction here. The poor
man who sleeps in stone niche near
the roof, and is constantly elbowed and
hustled out Of his bed by earnest and
restless vermin with a tendency toward
insomnia, is harassed by meeting in
the courtyard and corridors the pay
ing boarders who wear good clothes,
live well, have their cigars, brandy and
Kentucky Sec all the time.
The McAllister crowd here is just as
exclusive as it is on the outside.
But, great Scott, what comfort it is
to a man like me who has been nearly
killed by a cyclone to feel the firm, Sc
cure walls and solid time-lock when he
goes TO bed at night Even if can
not belong to the 400 here, am almost
happy.
We retire at 7:30 O'Clock at night
and arise at 6 80 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 $50.
We dress by the gaudy light of the
candle, and while We do so we remem-
Der far away at home our wife and the
little boy asleep in Der arms. They do
not get up at $50. 1t is at this hour
we remember the fragrant drawer in
the dresser at home where our clean
shirts and collars and cuffs and socks
and handkerchiefs are put every week
by our wife. We also recall as We go
about our stone den, with its odor OF
farmer-corned beef and the ghost of
some bloody-handed predecessor 5
snore 5 ill moaning in the walls, the
picture OF green grass by our own
doorway and the apples that were just
ripening when the bench warrant
came.
The time from $50 to breakfast is
taken up by the average of non-paying
inmates by doing the chambework and
tidying up his stateroom. do not
knew how others feel about it, but |
dislike chamberwork most heartily, es-
pecially when | am in jail. Nothing
has done more to keep me out of jail,
guess, than the fact that when there |
have to make up my bed and dust the
piano.
We go down to the sink to wash our
faces and hands. 1t is a pleasant
sight, and reminds me of herd oil
red-legged geese in mud hole.
Breakfast is generally table d'hote.
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 Limbureer cheese in your pocket
YOU can with that remove the taste OF
the coffee.
Dinner is served at II O'Clock, and
consists OF more bread. with soup.
This soup has everything in it except
nourishment. The bead on this soup
is noticeable for quite a di>tanse. Ii
is disagreeable. There is everything
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 get the soup first and
the bread afterwards In this way the
bread is saved
Three days in the week at dinner
each man gets potato with n thous-
ani-legged worm in it. At 6 O'Clock
comes supper with toasts and re-
sponses. 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
at Ludlow street Jail is indeed irk-
some.
s. me Tribes for Christmas.
New York World.