The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-09-18
In a Macedonian Prison.

Very reluctantly. and with many mis-
ggivings, the Mushir of Uakub in Macedonia,
Ahmed Ayoub Pashi, gave correspondent
of the London Daily News letter of in
PRODUCTION to the chief of the gendarmery,
who alone could give permission to inspect
the large prisons. The Mushir inquired
over and over again of the dragoman
whether the correspondent had evinced
friendly feelings towards the Turks, or
whether he was an enemy. 1.-THE dragO-
mans ingenious replies" says the CORE
spondent, ''at last inspired him with suf-
fcient 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 Uakub. 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
lin the rare cases when council represent
ing foreign power had wished to see them
he had always given twenty.fOur hours no.
tice.
Before entering l had to swear that l
was not CONSUL and that was what the
dragoman had described me to be-a Euro
pean hunting for antiquities. The fact
that l was not consul. however, i'm
pressed the Turk more than anything, and
kindly invited me to take coffee and to
smoke nargileh. While 1 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 l 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 large prison of the
province. which is called 'Kirschamia,' or
the House of Lead 1t rises out of the
River Warda, not far from the fortress, and
occupies a vast area. Soldiers, presenting
arms. formed two lines, which reached the
interior courtyard, where number of
prison officials were awaiting us. The
courtyard is square. and surrounded on all
sides by the buildings. which were three
stories. A lOggia, or covered balcony, runs
all around on each story. The commander
first showed me great number of red in
scriptions on the walls. which are supposed
to have been made by GenOese or Venetian
merchants in the seventeenth century, who
perhaps. erected the buildings as a ware
house for the Oriental goods which they
sent to Europe. OF course, l affected great
interest in these inscriptions to keep up my
character as an antiquarian, and l noticed
that the commander no longer distrusted
me. After this we ascended the staircase
to inspect the first story. There was scarcely
room to pass on the steps. so covered were
they with accumulation of dirt and excre-
ments, which filled the air with pestilen-
tial OdOr.
I'm the so-called Office was shown the
hooks according to which tho Kircchamia
contains 159 prison cells and 1911 prisoners.
Those on the first and second floors are
sentenced for slight offenses, and the time
of detention varies from one to ten years. 1
do not believe that any prisoner has ever
Outlived the fifth year of Imprisonment in
these lOathes0me dark cells. In this re-