The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-05-15
A QUESTION OF RATIONS.
PENITENTI4RY KEEPERS KICKING
ABOUT THEIR DAILY BREAD.

An Appeal for Better Dietary Arrange
ments VIII Be Made to the Freehold
rs-Description of MONDAY Meal
That Would Not Suit an Epicure.
The matter of the food supplied to the
keepers in the penitentiary will be brought
to the notice of the Board of Freeholders
tomorrow
The keepers of the PenitentiarY are in
almost open revolt at their treatment at
the hands of the managers, and claim that
the food which has been supplied
them has been getting worse,
day after day, until that fur
nished now is not fit for swine to eat. A
new ration system went into effect Sat
urday, which deprives them of tea and
coffee, and the cook is said to have
weighed the allowance of potatoes yester-
day ana taken two Off because the weight
was down.
They are very reticent about the matter.
Each one is afraid to talk to an outsider,
fearing dismissal for prating about the
shortcomings of the institution. Repeated
attempts to interview various keepers
failed to elicit any definite information
concerning an open kick, but | learned
that if the Board of Freeholders do not
remedy things at this meeting tomorrow
afternoon, the people of Hudson county
will be treated to a sensational story.
1t is assumed from this that an appeal
has already been made to them, though
l am told that such an appeal did not
arise from any concerted action. 1t is
alleged that various Freeholders have
bargained with the keepers for secresy.
Believing l might stumble upon some of
the facts | was looking for | accepted an
invitation extended by one of the keepers
to dine with him.
l passed through the keepers barber
shop. In it was barber's chair, covered
with greasy bed-ticking, which looked as
though it might have been badly abused
relic of Eye olden times" Other furniture
matched In the keepers dining room a
long table eXtendedit whole length, some
eighteen or twenty feet. A big dish of
greasy stew, made OF tough black
untasted with desert islands of sodden
dough protruding above the Shiny sur
face, occupied the middle of the table,
while dishes of half picked quartered
green tomatoes, and stacks of thickly
sliced bread about the color of faded
straw, embellisheq the remaining portion
of the tables centre.
The butter was of Herculean strength,
the dishes were cracked, the knives and
forks such as decent hOuSekeeper would
consign to the garbage pile.
"Pot-pie and corn beef" yelled the
waiter, as several keepers filed into the
room.
'That's not so terrible" thought. But
when tackled the corn beef and fancied
it tasted like mutton tallow and was so
tough that the first mouthful remained
between my teeth until the dinner ended,
murmured:-
"Hence this kick"
Several others filed in. They looked
aghast at the food before them.
'sWhat in IS this?" asked one dis
gusted fellow as he picked up side dish
of stewed tomatoes and raised it to his
nose. 1t looked like the yellow seeds left
in the vinegar of an unreplenished dish of
sliced tomatoes on a free lunch counter.
/ sat down and commenced to eat.
When the waiter, big, handsome fellow
in stripes, by the name of Dillon, removed
my plate with the pile of meat still lying
on it. to make room for a saucer of rice,
ne looked at me as much as to say
Don't shoot the waiter He is doing his
best'
The keepers are quite nice looking lot
of young fallowa, who parade the grounds
with rifles, and march the convicts in
close order to and from their various
places of toll in and about the quar-
ries There was not one who did not
screw up his face as he entered and
looked over the table, and / must confess
that did not wonder at their facial con-
fortinnc