San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-11-07
AN EASTERN PRISON.
DARK CELLS OF DEATH AND TORT.
URE METHODS USED.

| Ont Their Time-The Prisoners Are
| Starved and Robbed.
Very reluctantly and with many mis-
! givings the Mushir of Uskub, in Mace
| donia, Ahmed Ayoub Pasha, gave a CORE
| spondent of The London Daily News a let
| ter of introduction to the chief of the gen.
| darmery, who alone could give permission
| to inspect the large prisons. The mushir
| inquired over and over again of the drago-
man whetherthe correspondent had evinced
| friendly feelings toward the Turks, or
\ whether he was an enemy. "The drago
| mans ingenious replies" says the CORE
| spondent, Fat last inspired him with suffi
cient confidence to allow him to grant my
request. went through the badly paved
and filthy streets of the town, and reached
the residence of the commander of the gen
darmery of the province of Uskub. He was
quite as surprised as the mushir when he
heard that l wished to visit the prisons,
declaring that since he had been in Office
no European had ever seen them, and that
in the rare cases when a consul represent
ing a foreign power had wished to see
them he had always given twenty-four
hours notice.
NO CoNSULs NEED APPLY.
Before entering / had to swear that |
was not consul, and that / was what the
dragoman had described me to be -
European hunting for antiquities The
fact that | was not a consul, however, i'm
pressed the Turk more than anything, and
he politely invited me to take coffee and to
smoke a narghileh. While l was enjoying
his hospitality he sent a number of men to
the prisons TO announce my visit and to
give some special orders, the execution of
which took some time, and | was kept
drinking coffee and smoking for nearly an
hour and half At last my host rose and
invited me to follow.
1--WE soon entered the largest prison of
the province, which is called 'Kurschumla,'
or the House of Lead. 1t rises out of the
River Warda, not far from the fortress,
and occupies a vast area. Soldiers pre-
senting arms formed two lines, which
reached to the interior courtyard, where a
number of prison officials were awaiting
u.s. The courtyard is square, and sur
rounded on all sides by the building, which
has three stories. A lOggia, or covered bal
cony, runs all around on each story. The
commander first showed me a great num-
Der of red inscriptions on the walls, which
are supposed to have been made by Geno-
csc or Venetian merchants in the Seven
tenth century, who perhaps erected the
building as warehouse for the Oriental
goods which they sent to Europe. Of
course l affected great interest in these in
scriptions to keep up my character as an
antiquarian, and l noticed that the COM
mander no longer distrusted me. After
this we assembled the staircase to inspect
the first story. There was scarcely room
to pass on the steps, so covered were they
with accumulatiOns of dirt and excre-
ments, which filled the air with pestilen-
tial Odor
'In the so called Office was shown the
books according to which the Kurschumla
contains l49 prison cells and 1,S1l prison
ers. Those on the first and second floors
are sentenced for slight offences, and the
time of detention varies from one to ten
years. do not believe that any prisoner
has ever outlived the fifth year of impris-
Onment in these lOathsome dark cells In
this respect the prison officials confirmed
my suspicious by saying that the mortality
was very great and that very few prisoners
lived to the end of their time. In cell
certainly not larger than two and one half
yards square and of about the same height
between fifteen and twenty prisoners are
confined. All they can do by being friendly
and making room for each other is to stand
up and lie down again, and they are al
lowed half an hours walk in the courtyard
once in the day.
POOR CREATURES, INDEED.
But how shall | describe the pitiable
aspect of these poor creatures? With hol-
low cheeks, the pallor of death upon their
faces and terrible protruding eyes, they
writhe in continual agony upon the floor,
not only painting for air, but suffering
from want of food. They receive absolute
ly nothing but bread and water, even if
their sentence be for life. If their friends
send them money they are allowed to buy
meat twice week, but the prison officials
brutality cheat them out of three-fourths
of what is sent to them. Thus exposed to
hunger and thirst, to the pestilence in the
atmosphere, confined in these black holes
without the possibility of moving about,
and kicked and outraged by the brutal
prison guards, no wonder that they sue
cumb to their misery The greater num-
Der of the prisoners are naked from head
to foot. with heavy iron rings and chains
on their wrists and ankles AS passed
some of the cells, after looking through
the loopholes in the doors, the prisoners
within pushed through a stick to which
little leather bag was attached. placed
franc piece in each, but | had my doubts
as to whether the prisoners would benefit
by my almsgiving. and thought it more
likely that the greedy guard would take
the money from them.
THE cells on the first and second floors
| are all alike. The degree of sickness and
misery of the inmates alone varies. The
cells in the underground prisons, where the
| worst offenders eNniafa their crimes are