Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1893-01-14
BEHIND PRISON BARS.
WHAT MAY BE SEEN IN ANY GREAT
HOME OF CRIMINALS.

Strength 10 Visible Government.
A prison interior has strange, NOR
bid fascination for the average freeman.
There is such general atmosphere Of
weird unreality about it all, accentuated
by the sternest realities of an iron disci-
pline. From the burly, hard faced
guard, who leans upon his shining Win
chester in the sentry box on the walls,
to the pale eonsumptive murderer, whose
hacking cough is the only sound that
breaks the stiffness Of the prison hos
pital, everybody and thing is strangely
different from tho outer world. Hun
dreds Of silent, striped suited cenvicts
bending over their workbenches, walk
ing about the yard with arms folded or
marching in lockstep with eyes averted,
surround the visitor on every side.
There is peculiar odor born both by
the prison apartments and by tho prison
inmates which is rs marked and dis.
tinctive as the odor of the hospital or Of
the steerage. 1t tells of life of torpid
ity, barren of sunshine and of change.
1t tells of utensils and cells made stale
and foul with constant usage in spite OF
endless scrubbing and rinsing. The
prison is one great hive Of yellow, close
cropped, hangdog looking humanity,
speaking to their keepers or to their
companion laborers at rare intervals and
in subdued tones, but possessed of some
secret freemasonry and means Of COM
munication with one another and with
the outside world that battles the most
rigid discipline and searching inquisi.
tion.
The thing that strikes the visitor from
the outer world most is the apparent
weakness of the governing power. A
hundred convicts armed with knives two
feet long and sharp rs razors are cutting
out great piles of clothing in q room
guarded by half a dozen apparently un.
armed keepers. Another company of
surly malefactors are plying the hammer
and chisel in stone yard, mingling with
handful Of guards whose skulls could
be split in five seconds after the giving of
a preconcerted signal. 1t is the vast bnt
unseen slumberinx power of the state
that holds them; the knowledge Of the
keen sighted, iron nerved markslnen on
the outer walls. whose repeating rifles
carry seventeen lives apiece. and the
hopelessness Of flight to world where
every mans hand would be against them,
and even temporary SUCCESS could only
end in death or heightened punishment.
Principal Keeper Connsughton. of Sing
Sing prison. has spent seventeen years Of
his life among convicts and never cur.
ried pistol. Dozens Of times he has
been assaulted BY desperate convicts, but
his brawny arm and heavy stick have
carried him through safely.
What was the narrowest escape you
ever had" d wondering visitor asked him
once.
when fellow jumped on me with a
knife as was sitting in my Office" said
the keeper.
What did You dos"
''Sent him to the hospital when fin.
ished," was the laconic but expressive
answer. .-.-.-
They have no heart" continued this
steely eyed convict driver with the
square. massive jaw. sin the days
when we worked them in the auarries |
have seen three hundred of them break
away in n body and go running down
through the yard to the railway track.
Only two guards with Winchesters
stood between this rushing mob and
freedom. The frst three shots dropped
the first three convicts, and the rest
turned and ran for their lives back to
quarters"
Among the curiosities of every prison
are the famous convicts, notorious mu..
derers, fallen bank presidents, clever
swiudlers and romantic desperadoes of
every type. The Oldest prisoner is also
trotted out for inspection by the spe-
cially favored; some old, white haired.
pale faced man, who for twoscore years
perhaps has not looked beyond the
prison walls. stands blinking before the
visitors. When he left the world the
civil war was unfought, France was an
empire, Germany mass of disorgan.
lied states. Outside the shining river
still draws its water from the purple
hill, and busy life flows on, but all is
dead to him.
AS tho visitor stands in the little
green courtyard at sundown and sees
company after company Of sickly look.
ing prisoners issue from shops and store.
rooms and wind around the walks liks
so many huge centipsds, with the un-
dulations Of the lockstep, each man
with slop pail ON his.arm and n loaf of
bread in his hand; as he views them dis.
appearing into the cryptliko dining
room. whose floor is wet with the slops
from Thousand tin coffee cups, or
watches them filing into the tier after
tier Of galleries that lead to their mar.
row, stuffy little cells where the night
is passed under lock and key; as he
comes through the low arched entrance
ON his way to freedom aud catches a
glimpse of the waiting room, where a
prisoner stands with look of agony in
Lis duh face beside the sob shaken form
OF visiting sister or mother; as he
hefrs the great iron gate shut with a
harsh, jangling sound behind him and
slowly shakes of tho horror and dis.
grace that steep tho very atmosphere Of
the place, he realizes as ho never did be-