Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-01-26

NM H6aA M set In the wall was
E$>Hs& %8@zx water closet. On the
WS&Mk seat at the inner end
%kU1yal-H was bucket of water
e.: e r +: $: 81: 2, T.; e :; Il" I; !:
49, bailif for william II.
'' Martini The fact that
one of the men in the cell knew me well prevented
me from taking an active part in the converse
ton which was at once started. Each captive was
anxious to know why the other was there. and
in few minutes mutual condolences had been
exchanged and joint maledictions had been
hurled at the heads of the police, who we're
adjudged in almost every instance to have been
the cause Of all the trouble. Their tyranny.
as evidenced in the separation of the boy and
his .'mouth-organ," was also commented upon
freely. and so much sympathy was expressed
for the boy that that youngster wept copiously.
Then the Maria" came back from her second
trip and this time she brought load for when
all were in the cell we numbered twenty.
More than half of us were colored and most of
MS were young. There was one aged excep-
tion-a veteran soldier, who had tried to dis
pose OF a quarters pension all in one night.
He bemoaned his fate, not loudly, but with n
depth and sincerity that could not be ques-
toned. The balance seemed to be almost to-
tally unconcerned with, perhaps, the exception
OF my drunken neighbor of the previous night;
he had. Inconsistency, he said. assaulted his
wife so seriously that she was unable to appear
against him. and as he became more sober the
possible consequences of his brutality COM
menced tn grow larger and more terrifying. The
man who knew me, and whom Twill call Walters
was not at all concerned about his sentence;
what worried him was the probability that his
name would appear in the newspapers in
connection with his arrest, and that was
to him far more serious affair
| than either his ofense or its punishment
Nearly all of the others in the cell were har-
| dened by crime to such an extent that their in
| generation was to them nothing more than re-
| union of kindred spirits. They chatted freely
| and more than one of them mapped out the
wrongs he would do as soon as he was once
more at liberty.
FROM BAD TO WORSE.
The latest arrivals had hardly been in the
| cell more than five minutes before there was a
decided change for the worse in the atmos-
phere. Each man brought with him his own
peculiar odor, and with it was combined the
| smell of tobacco and the fumes of cheap
whisky-the whole completing that mysterious
''funky" stencil which is the property of the
vagrant ali the world over The tin cup and
water bucket were in frequent use, and the
floor was wet with the wasted water. There
was a constant siamming Of the iron door
which was intended to shut out the
stencil of the water-closet. Every man
who chewed tobacco expectorated upon the
| floor for there were no spittoons), and every
man or boy who had pipe and tobacco or viii
famous cigar did his utmost to fill the rocking
| atmosphere with smoke. Occasionally some
one would relieve his whisky-burdened stom-
ach by throwing up its contents, and the sick
| ening additions to the impurities which al
| ready covered the concrete floor made the
place nauseating in the extreme. There was
no ventilation. Fresh air could only come in
when the front door was open, and the foul air
/ had no sufficient place through which to make
I its escape. The front door, with two or three
| momentary exceptions, remained closed all
| day.
| DEGRADED COMPREHENSIVE.
Gradually, as the prisoners became more in
innate, the conversation grew more and more
| disgusting, until at length it sounded the
| depths of degraded and lascivious speech.
| Then the place became a veritable he'll.
Language was used, in the hearing of the
| officer on duty in the corridor which would
| have been cause for instantaneous arrest any
where else, but as it was uttered almost in the
Police Court itself no attention was paid to it.
| Pencils, guided by INSCRIPTIONS fingers and
prompted by depraved imaginations disfg-
| ured the once whitewashed walls with disgust
ing Obscenities Of the vilest possible types. 1t
was a glance at the innermost blackness of
the beasts who walk this world in the form of
man. In several places the walls were stained
with blood; spots where the bandaged head of
some refractory scoundrel had rested while
waiting for the case to be called, and the his
tory OF some OF these stains was rehearsed
again and again with an accompaniment Of
blasphemy and profanity that could never be
surpassed.
As soon as the court was ready for business
the bailiff commenced to call the prisoners
out. Some came back soon, but the majority
Of them stayed upstairs for a considerable
| time. Some of them did not return to the
dungeon down stairs, but were liberated and
went out to enjoy the wealth of sunshine and
pure air that were almost everywhere save in
the cell at Police Court.
waited with good deal of impotence for
my turn to come. wanted breath of atmos-
phere that would not clog my lungs. did not
have to wait very long.
My name was yelled by the bailiff at the
head of the stairs and was repeated by the
officer in charge of the cell.
waded as cautiously as possible through the
liquid mass of filth which covered the foor
and when got out into the corridor stopped
for few seconds to get the Whit of better air
| which had been longing for. Then clam
bered slowly up the stairs and shambled awk-
wardly into the dock with my bandaged eve
toward the audience and holding my shocking
bad hat up against my chin SO as to further
conceal my features.
1 listened to Clerk Harper as he informed me,
| in the most technical terms at his command
| that l was charged with being "a vagrant
having no visible means of support"
"Are you guilty or not guilty?" he asked.
Guilty. replied, and then Judge Miller
glanced at me. A momentary survey of my
costume convinced him that had not misstated
the facts in my plea, and with nod of his
head was motioned to return to the place
from whence ] came. Bailiff Kendig seconded
this with vigorous Step back!'' and went
downstairs to the Washington edition of the
BLACK Hole of Calcutta" My return was not
unexpected and my seat had been reserved for
me. Everybody wanted to know how much l
got, but l had several reasons for not telling
| them, the principal one being that did not
know myself what my doom was to be- The
sentence was not powerful enough to reach
my ears.
The condition of the dungeon had not i'm
proved during my brief absence. The tobacco
| smoke was more dense than before, the obscen-
ity and profanity continued without let or him
drance, the stencil from the water-closet con-
tinued to issue forth because the door would
| not remain closed, the same water-bucket
with what remained Of the contaminated
and now poisonous water) was in the same
place, and the floor was more filthy than ever
SENT TO THE Farm"
It was nearly o'clock when the voice of
some unseen man yelled out the sentences Of
the occupants Of the ''black hole" and then
for the first time did know that had been
sent down to the "farm" for sixty DAVIS in de-.