Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-01
what my character was there. However, ]
will not insist If you do not wish me to.

what my character was there. However, I |
will not insist If you do not wish me to.
WARDEN cHAhBERLA1N's GENERAL STATE
MKNT IN HIS DEFENSE,
At this point General Chamberlain arose
from his seat and advancing to the rear of
the reporters table said:
If am permitted I will say this: That
when I went to the prison there was
great chance for improvement. With my
experience and knowledge of prison affairs
I suggested various things, which were
carried out to my remembrance. And
found that the very things that did for,
and know were for the improvement of
the prison, and that everyone would say
was for the Improvement If they saw them,
were brought against me. When went
there was shocked, I say shocked, and al
though was used to eeeing the dead
thrown everywhere and not buried at all,
and all that, was shocked by finding
dead man lying in the cellar among the
vegetables. His nose was eaten off by
rats, and rats scampered from his body
when went in.
Immediately fixed up another place
until could have morRue built. read
to day an extract from New Haven paper
charging that same atate of affairs as my
doings, and then they said put the re-
mains in pig pen. 1t was p,ggery, it Is
true, but what an Improvement over the
cellar until got the morgue built. Until
the morgue was built the body was put in
the piggery where there were no hogs, but
1t was nice comfortable place for the
body, free from rats, and with trestle to
rest the body on. recollect distinctly
some five or six years ago seeing an article
in New Haven paper about body being
in hog pen when there wasn't hog
within Fifty feet of it. It was piggery
but there were no pigs in 1t.
I recommended to the board of directors
at once to establish grave yard there. Mr..
Hewitt was on that committee. I remem-
Der when FIRST went there wanted some
dirt to fix the road near the prison and I
sent up dump cart to get some, and very
often they would bring down jaw bone or
something.
found the remains of convicts were
stuck everywhere and anywhere on the
prison premises outside. Now we have a
nice grave yard creditable to any place,
well erased and kept in good order and
with brick wall around It, and cannot
understand why these malicious attacks
are made:.upon me in the papers. Even the
little bit of respect showed to an old vet
ersn, whose remains are there yet, they
took up and even tried to turn the Grand
Army against me about that.
1t may be very pleasant for you gentle
men of the press, but I assure you it is
terrible for me. have done my duty
there, I have seen to the sick, and know
that the men in the hospital were not as
tonished at little kindness shown to them.
Then as to this mason that died there
1kh IA II &o1I b. L. L..
persuade him to go to the hospital, even
let him remain day longer in his cell to
think it over.
He finally went to the hospital, and the
very day he went there I furnished him
with jellies, and he had custards sent to
him, and then the papers had it that it was
almost by force that he received 1t.
I cannot understand why this clamor has
been brought to bear upon me for the i'm
provements have made. don't take the
credit for 1t myself, because have been
supported by the directors.
THE wARDEN's CLAIMS AS TO IMPROVEMENTS
MADE BY HIM
There have been more improvements In
the last eight years land can say 1t with
out egotism) than in the twenty years be-
fore that, in The library, bathroom, etc.,
on plans submitted to me by the directors,
and this after they had been trying for
years to do the same thing; and yet, after
all these improvements, from the Pacific
to the Penobscot I am looked upon
as brute. There ia no man that
has suffered himself that wants to zee
others suffer. I have suffered imprison-
ment compared to which imprisonment in
Wethersield would be Eden-would be
Paradise. know wha. suffering is, and !
have endeavored to make it my mission,
not only here, but in Massachusetts,. At
one time was sent to take charge Of war
prison at Annapolis, where I made greater
improvements than I did at Wethersfeld,
and received compliments from the author
tiles at Washington right through; and al
the same time I had to undergo the sans
thing l am undergoing here to day was
investigated.
Men reported that was using them as {
| target to practice on with a revolver.
did shoot some of them, but had to.
| We had in that camp some $4,000 Oh
10, 900 men, and we had among them nearly
| 1000 of the very worst men I ever saw
they were bounty jumpers and all that
sort Of thing. They were men called gal
vanized Yankees, and they hung six Of
| them at Andersonville. The night go
1 SA0A0 SASy AA1oA 61A AOA oAo IuIOH GuCA
down In we'll and covered them ovel
with cord wood. They were murdered
and they attacked me the next morning
and I shot them and I was justified in it
| speak of this to show that this prison
| life is not new thing to me. I under
| stand mankind and know how to handle
them. When I left Massachusetts out o.
| 900 men there were hardly nine punish
ments week; things went on smoothly
and respectfully. When I left Wethers
field things were working smoothly ant
respectfully as suppose they are to-day.
NOT CONTROLLED BY STRAWBERRIES AM
| ICE CREAM.
You cannot always control that clasa O
men with ice cream or strawberries ant
cream. The government furnishes tn
warden with spurs,a curb bit and snsfae
and if he is master of the position and o
the men under him, he is all right unde
the snafde. But if the time comes whel
they get uneasy and restless then use tn
spurs and curb the bit. There is NJ
trouble in the prison, If understand it
The law authorizes us to use force in
| prison, and the law gives us the officers t.
do 1t with. Five officers will put down
riot or any revolt in the world in a prison
| we are Rrmoo ana Gney are not, eXcep
with clubs or something like that A few
shots will settle the whole business, ant
that is humane, just and kind to the mel
that desire to and will obey the rules
| Gentlemen, my case Is before you.
TIE COMMITTEES FURTHER WORK.
Senator Jones then announced that tn
public hearings were closed, and that thi
would practically end the investigation.
| The committee then went into a sem
executive session and decided to visit on,
| or two of the leading state prisons mex
| week and see how they we're run.
JUDGE HAMERsLEY CONFIRMED.
The house end the senate by a nearl,
unanimous vote to-day confirmed thu
nomination of Judge Hamersley to thu
supreme court bench. His appointment Ii
for eight years from January IA, 1894
He will then succeed Judge Elisha Car
penter, rep, who retires on account of agt
Imitation, seventy years. Judge Carpen-
| ter will then become one of the state
referees at a salary of 81, 900 annually.
| When Judge Hamersley takes his seat or
the supreme bench in January the court
will become democratic in political com
plexion for the first time in over twenty
years. A court will then consist of Chief
Justice Charles B. Andrews of Litchfield
| and Justice David Torrance of Derby, re.
publicans, and Justices Augustus q. Fem
| of Winsted, Simeon E. Baldwin of New
Haven and William Hamersly of Hartford