Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1890-12-21
In GOTHAM.
HOW THE SING SING coNWcTs WILL
CELEBRATE CHRISTMAS.
Their Notes.-The Toughest Christ
mas-Tbc Girl Telegraph Operator

oil the world, or, rhtner, WHO DtlnB oliil
in the world are shut ont from its joys
and its hopes and its freedom, but not
from its cares and its misery. Are there
many such persons? Look at your own
county or State prison for the quickest
and most direct answer. Take glance
at one Of those cheerless communities OF
| convicted criminals. sullenly undergoing
the punishment against which they dare
not rebel, and then wonder If ray OF
even Christmas JOY can pass over those
| frowning walls and into those toIling
rooms or narrow cells? Nevertheless.
even convicts are waiting eagerly for
Christmas morning, as eagerly perhaps
as sinless children.
At Sing Sing, on the banks OF the
Hudson, stands the prison best known
throughout the civilized world as the
typical penal institution Of this coun-
try. If a British or continental novelist
has occasion to present in his story On
American prison it js pretty sure to be
Sing Sing. although OF late Joliet has
not entirely escaped foreign recognition.
in Sing Sing prison one day this week
there were ,533 convict inmates, and OF
that number very nearly 1,500 were
awaiting Christmas day with pleasurable
anticipatlons.
A BREAKFAST DINNER.
At 3 O'Clock on Christmas eve each
man will be locked in his cell and there
the Christmas dawn will find him. At
O'Clock on Christmas morning the prs
oners will be released from their cells
and taken 10 the Mushrooms to arrange
their simple toilet. Everything will he
done leisureIv that morning, the day
being a holiday, and conversation will
not be prohibited. Half past 8 o'clock
will find the men in the mess-room,
where 1,167 convicts can sit down at a
time. They will eat what is called
Christmas &" breskfast-dinner that IS,
the tables will be spread as for a dinner.
with chicken as the principal dish, ana
the conyicts will he permitted to eat as
heartily as they please They will not
hesitate TO avail themselves to the fullest
extent Of that permission. for plenty OF
roast chicken and requisite side-dlshes,
after long subsistence daily on prison
fare. is not TO be espisedorpeckedat deli
cately. The dessert will consist OF mlnce-
pie. Long before noon the menare III their
cells again, locked mp for the rest OF the
dnv. Their celebration OF the day, how
ever. is by no means over. Christmas
| boxes from convicts' relatives have been
received by the hundreds in the outer
Office bv State Detective James Jackson.
who. when not hunting down runaway
prisoners. has SPECIAL Office duties to at
| tend TO. including the reception OF vlsi-
| tors and of gifts for the prisoners. The
goods thus received are hastily examined
TO see that no attempt has been made TO
smug0le in contraband articles, such as
whiskey or weapons OF any kind, and
then the presents for each prisoner are
placed in a separate box and sent to the
proper cell. Well filed some o' these
great wooden boxes are. Fruit of all
kinds in profusion can be seen in almost
all of them, and for the Weather prison
| ers you will often see a box OF expensive
! cigars. while convicts with poorer rela-
tives get smoking-tobacco and pipes.
THE TOBACCO ITEM.
The tobacco item figures in almost
every Christmas box received at Sing
Sing. Sometimes it is the only item,
many a poor woman in New York city
or elsewhere in the State, deprived
through no fault Of her own of
one who should have been her
pride aud her support. spending
her last cent TO purchase q lit
tie tobacco for convict hus-
band or grown-up scamp Of q son, be-
cause he had said that prison life would
be more endurable with it. Tobacco cut
and packed by Banker Pell and his ssso-
ciate is furnished free in limited qusnti-
ties TO all the convicts who want II; but
most of them find prison tobacco little
strong and prefer to get what they can
from home. They are permitted to SEQ
relatives and receive presents once every
two months, but Christmas Is an extra
day. 10 which so far as presents are con-
cerned the two months limit does not
apply.
Next. cigars are passed around-a gift
from Warden Brush or Principal-keeper
Connaughton-and merriment, actually
merrimert grows space. The men have
| found their voices now, and the uproar
is all but deafening. You see, it IS six
months since these stalwart, lusty fell
lows have had a chance to test their
lungs, and they are making the most of
their opportunity.
A sINGGSG FESTIVAL.
A rollicking chorus catches the fancy
of all the men in one corridor and every
one helps TO sing it. In another there
rises above the din q clear, tenor voice.
and soon all other voices are hushed
that that one voice may be heard. It
echoes through the corridor like the
sweetest. saddest notes of a Gagged bird.
Only, perhaps, one Of the melodramatic
sentimental ballads of the day, but
never WAS IL sung with more com
plete effect, for there are tears on the
checks of hardened criminals as they
press close to the bars Of their cell-doors
and strain their ears that they may miss
nothing OF the faintest notes. At the
close there is a roar of approval, and adj
miring comments are shouted ont from
every cell. The singer responds with
perhaps n similar ballad, or it may be
Moody and Sankey hymn, which, singu-
larry enough, never fails to win the sym
pathy of au audience of Gagged convicts
when sung-that is, well sung-by one
Of their own number.
And so the chatter and the shouting
and the singing goes on unchecked until
9 o'clock at night. Then lights out and
silence. Christmas in Sing Sing prison
Is at an end, and next morning the
dreary routine of prison life is taken up
again. No more shouting and singing
'sin Sing Sing until July 4, 1891.
AMOS ). cuMMrNas's HARDEST CHRISTMAS.
"About as tough Christmas as |
ever passed." said the Hon. Amos j.
Cummings, "was IN the Army of the
Potomac. II was near the banks of the
Rappahannock in 1862. There was a
very cold snap and several pickets were
frozen 10 death. had expected TO re-
ceive box from home filed with kill
kinick, plum-pudding, SOY, and other
delicacies. 1t did not come. Christmas
dav was cold and gloomy. Even the
leof rat;opc had pivaD ont and