Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1890-09-11
A TERRIBLE PRISON.
THE LOATHSOME TORTURE
HOUSE OF MACEDONIA.

Pitiable Aspect of the Unfortunate
Convicts-Chained to a Pillar and
Tortured by Huge Red Ants-A
CharneI House.
Very reluctantly, and with many mis-
givings, the Mushir of Uskub in Mace
donia, Ahmed Ayoub Pasha, gave a cor
respondent of the London Daily News a
letter of introduction to the chief of the
gendarmery, who alone could give per-
mission to inspect the large prisons. The
Mushir inquired over and over again of
the dragoman whether the correspondent
had evinced friendly feelings toward the
Turks, or whether he was an enemy.
''The dragoman's ingenious replies" " says
the correspondent, ''at last inspired him
with sufficient confidence to allow him to
grant my request. l went through the
badly-paved and filthy streets of the
town, and reached the residence of the
commander of the gendarmery of the
Province of Uskub. He was quite as
surprised as the Mushir when he heard
that I wished to visit the prisons, declar-
ing that since he had been in Office no
European had ever seen them, and that
in the rare cases when a Consul repre-
senting foreign power had wished to
see them he had always given twenty
four hours notice.
"Before entering | had to swear that
| was not Consul, and that l was what
the dragoman had described me to be
a European hunting for antiquities. The
fact that | was not a Consul, however,
impressed the Turk more than anything,
and he politely invited me to take coffee
and to smoke narghileh. While | was
enjoying his hospitality he sent numbu
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 smok-
ing for nearly an hour and half. At
last my host rose and invited me to fol-
low.
"We soon entered the largest prison
of the province, which is called 'Kursch-
umla, or the House of Lead. 1t rises
out of the River Warda, not far from the
fortress, and occupies vast area
Soldiers, presenting arms, formed two
lines, which reached to the interior
courtyard, where a number of prison
officials were awaiting us. The courtyard
is square, and surrounded on all sides by
the building, which has three stories.
A loggia, or covered balcony, runs all
round on each story. The commander
first showed me great number of red
inscriptions on the walls, which are sup
posed to have been made by Genoese or
Venetian merchants in the seventeenth
century, who, perhaps, erected the build
ing as a warehouse for the Oriental goods
which they sent to Europe OF course,
l affected great interest in these inscrip-
tions to keep up my character as an an
tiquarian, and ! 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, which
filled the air with pestilential odor.
SIN the so-called Office | was shown
the books, according to wh'ch the Kur.
schamla contains 149 prison cells and
1911 prisoners. Those on the first and
second floors are sentenced for slight of
fenses and the time of detention varies
from one to ten years. | do not believe
that any prisoner has ever outlived the
fifth year of Imprisonment in those loath-
some 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 certain
ly not larger than two and a half yards S
square, and of about the same height,
between fifteen and twenty prisoners arc
confined. All they can do by being
friendly and making room for each othei
is to stand up and lie down again, and
they are allowed half an hours walk in
the courtyard once in the day.
'But how shall describe the pitiabe
aspect of these poor creatures! With
hollow checks, the pallor of death upon
their faces, and terrible protruding eyes,
they writhe in continual agony on the
floor, not only painting for air, but suf
ferlng from want OF food. They receive
absolutely nothing but bread and water,
even II their sentence be for life. If theil
friends send them money, they are al
lowed to buy meat twicea a week, but the
prison oihcials brutally cheat hem out o
three-1ourths OF what Is sent to them
mus exposed TO munger ana thirst, Il