Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-07
NOW FOR THE REPORT.
The State Board of Charities Fin
ishes Taking Evidence in
0SBoURN'S REFORMATORY CASE.
Severe Treatment Neces ary to Keep Unruly
Spirits Cowed.
RECORDS OF PUNISHMENT DEFECTIVE

PHILADELPHIA, April 6.-At the Hun.
tingdon Reiormatory investigation this
morning before the State Board OF Chari-
ties, Deputy Superintendent Smith was re-
called by his counsel to testify concerning
the temperature of the chair factory, which
an inmate yesterday declared was always
cold. Smith said q rule of the institution
required the guard to keep the temperature
at 60. The witness visited the factory
daily in person and saw that the rule was
observed, but admitted that he did not
always look at the thermometer, and that
he was frequently absent on business for
the institution.
Smith was then subjected to rigid cross
examination on the subject of recording
punishments, during which he declared that
every conflict or alteration between him.
self and any prisoner was reported verbally
to Superintendent Patton, and that every
punishment was written in the record with
the exception Of the ball-and-chain method,
which was used six times in all. He said that
he had reported TO Patton when he struck
Jacob johnson with blackjack, but under
cross-ezamination said that he had not re-
ported that johnson was lying on the floor
when struck, and denied that the boy was
carried out in an unconscious condition.
About the Bs;I-and-Chain Remedy.
He had considered johnson dangerous,
and asked Patton two months before to have
him removed elsewhere. In all cases, ex-
cept those of johnson and Maginnis, who
was mentioned yesterday, the ball was de-
tached from the chain. A 20-pound ball
was placed on johnson, because the pris-
oner himself said that nothing else would
have any effec. on him. Smith could not
explain why the books showed no record of
this punishment or of the blows he had in
flicted on Edward Conlon and others with
his open hand.
Harry Anderson, who was called to testify
to cruelties on himself, shocked the men,
bers of the board by exhibiting a MANNED
foot. He had lost part of this member in
rolling mill before entering the Reforma-
tory. For fagrant misbehavior he was
placed in solitary confinement for 10 days,
chained by his hands in a standing position
rine hours a day. He declared that his
lame foot began to swell and he called the
doctors attention to it on the fifth day.
The latter gave him some liniment, which
he applied at night. 1t was not until the
nineteenth day that he was taken down,
and he then remained in the solitary cell for
nearly three months on bread and water.
He had torn up his clothes, not because he
was insane, but because be was three months
without decent clothes
Owned Up to Being Hard Case.
Or cross-examination Anderson admitted
that he had willfullysviolated the rules of
the institution, spoken insolently to the
officers and the moral instructor, objected to
associating with Protestants and using
Protestant Bible, and hoped by continual
infraction that he would finally be dis
charged. He testified to being in solitary
confinement many times only a por-
tion of which punishment was found
in the records Anderson was finally
sent TO Norristown and later to
Dixmont Insane Asylum, whence he was
discharged eight weeks ago. Senator Os-
bourn called attention to the omission in |
the Reformatory record Of the prisoners |
last punishment just before his discharge.
Patrick McCuen, who had proven a model |
prisoner, according to everybody's testi. |
mony, including his own, saw the conflict in
which John Ward, a prisoner, was struck by
Smith and by Keeper Butler with tack |
hammer. He also saw Con1on pulled out of
the line, and said that punishment was often |
inflicted through false reports from the |
monitors.
DIR. Miller Gives Medical Testimony.
Dr. Miller was questioned concerning his |
treatment Of nine patients who died in the |
institution and of nine others who were |
discharged when their cases were regarded |
as incurable. OF these Is cases II were |
consumptives, and concerning eight of them |
no information could be obtained as to anv
inherited taint. The witness did not con-
slider this large percentage, or that the iu-
nphaolthr The doaror do
MED that John McGinnis was in a sickly
condition when punished with the ball and
chain, and also denied Harry Anderson's
statement that he was chained in the "soli-
tary" cell 10 days, standing on his MANNED
foot When questioned AS to the effect of a
bread-ard-water diet for 20 days, the doctor
admitted that 'it might be little excess
sive," but he did not think it injurious.
When pushed more closely for his opinion,
he said he did not think it unreasonable.
The only nurses employed are boys selected
bv the Superintendent, who are under
supervision of the keepers.
Anderson was next recalled to repeat the
assertion that he had been chained, and
named Officer Blyne as the man who did
it. Superintendent Patton was recalled
and read from the records the punishme Mt
of various prisoners. These, he said, were
mostly imposed before he became Superin-
tendent.
The Evidence Now All In.
Chairman Scott then pressed the attor-
neys to bring the investigation to con-
clusion, but Mr.. Ryan, a member of the
board, declared himself dissatisfied with the
fiat contradiction by the management of
Anderson's statement that he had been
chained up 10 days. He desired to hear
the evidence of Officer Blaine, who had
charge of the prisoners. Mr.. Scott argued,
however, that the corroboration or contra
dlction of this witness would have but
slight weight in proportion to the great
mass of testimony already taken at the
previous hearings in Huntingdon, and the
Board thereupon declared the taking of
evidence at an end.
Counsel on both sides were willing to SUBJ
nit the case without argument, with the
exception of a statement from the defense
that the officers of the institution would not
admit that they had erred in Judgment
Senator Osbourn also suggested reform in
,bo treatment of inmates aS ollo,rr. That