The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1892-03-24
49, water Mimi, Thursday, March 4,I892
Five Gents
Romance and Tragedy.

Romance and Tragedy.
Yesterday stood by the dead body of a
man whose life had been full of romance
and tragedy. Michael Dunn was known
and loved by hundreds of released prisoners
whom he had saved from paths of sin by
means of the Home of Industry in New
York. and by others he founded in Phil
adelphia, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco
and Brooklyn.
Born sixty five years ago of drunken par
entS in the Slums of Manchester England.
he was thief at seven, prisoner at eight
years, and for thirty five years was behind
prison bars in England. Australia, Van
Dieman's Land. Canada and this country.
He never learned his letters till twenty. five.
Ignorance, vice and cruelty wrought out
their natural results in cOrrupting and hard.
ening his heart. The brutality suffered in
prisons fifty years ago seems to us incredi-
BILE. He and other little boys the night be.
fore liberation, received. instead of loving
word and kind gift. the terrible torture of
the cat o. nine tails, 4S to SO lashes. till the
blood ran down the back. to frighten them
into all honest course of life. Michael said
that it was sometimes month before his
wounds allowed of his wearing his Jacket
He had to show his back to the others. This
only made him and them more revengeful
and desperate. have shuddered examining
the instruments of torture in Chinese
prisons, and the crosses on the execution
ground, and felt that the tender merces of
the heather were cruelty.
But how slow America and England have
been moving in the path of prison and
naval reform. The last victim of flogging
Mr. xuhn fbo pich
ment on the very day that Congress had
passed the bill prohibiting it. He attempted
to desert the North Carolina. a receiving
ship at Brooklyn Navy Yard. He knocked
down the sailor. who to crafty grudge
had turned tell tale and informed against
him. His feet were fastened to gun
carriage, his hands to hammock hooks. The
Commodore swOre awful Oaths to the boat.
swain. who at first seemed desrOus to be
merciful. The blows were then raned on
him till blood flowed in streams. He was
then ordered to wear double irons for nine
weeks. 'HOw do you like that?" asked
the Commodore as the bOatswain ended his
bloody business. Dunn's temper was up
and he answered with sneer that his
mothers dishclOth had given him more of
whipping than that. In Philadelphia he
was chained to the floor of dark cell for
nine days. and kept on bread and water for
an attempt to escape. In South Boston
jail he was allowed one ounce of bread and
three table spOOnfulS of water, being denied
bed or even a blanket and allowed only
cold. damp stones to sleep on. when under
discipline for ill temper. He was a mere
skeleton when liberated.
In Van Dieman's Land there was actual
ly rivalry between some prisoners as who
should bear without f1inching the greatest
number of lashes. If one got ahead others
were not satisfied till they equalled him.
Dunn knew of one who silently took 800
and was dead at the last blow. He men.
tions one who received terrible beating,
but from the first blow to the last sang the
song, Il am sitting on the stie, Mary"
Salt brine was put into the wounds and he
was directed to 60 into the hospital, but he
persisted in going to his work in the mines,
wheeling heavy barrow all day and did so.
He was the lion of the day among his
brutal mates and equally brutal masters.
When liberated from Sing Sing Mr.. Dunn
went to the Water Street Mission. March
Is, 1878, was led to the loving Savior and
at once showed the genuineness of his new
life by labOrs for others. In his poverty he
gathered six poor men to taste a Scanty
meal of soup, bread and tea with him, set
them at work making shawls. horse. hair
watch guards and overalls. He peddled the
articles. In Brooklyn, broom making is the
industry carried on, the details of which
Mr.. Dunn showed me few days before his
sudden death. He was stricken with
apoplexv while engaged in religious services :.
with his men. He has come out of great
tribulatiOn. His robes are white through
the blood of the Lamb. AS looked on his
thin face and hands and thought of his
tragic experiences and of the sweet repose
III to- r N~L
for this new evidence of the power of the
love of Christ to convert, enrich and redeem
a human life once so utterly lost to itself
and to the world.-Dr. e. P. Thwing, In
Our Paper.