The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1893-06-15
A Visit to Libby Prison.

Az DOlub Ou NuDtSll ANtnut,
between Fourteenth and Sixteen tia
streets, in the City of Chicago,
stands Libby Prison, than which
no other building in the Western
Hemisphere has "A sadder or more
remarkable history. One may
seriously question. indeed, if else
where on the face of the globe there
stands structure representative of
so much tragedy. about and within
whose walls cluster so dark and in
numberable n brood of dreadful
memories.
The twelve great rooms and four
dungeons of this huge building have
doubtless echoed more sighs of an
guish, heard more whispered agony.
and witnessed the pitiful death of Il
larger measure of human hope, than
ever fell to the lot of inclosing walls
of n similar size and character.
Here i'll these great gloomy spaces
10000 men, robbed of liberty, watch.
ed the ineXpressibly slow passage
of time, the days going like scarcely
moving tears, the nights like black
blots dying out of n dream of horror,
seemingly eternal in its duration
Here in Il single room the angel of
death kissed the starved lips of hun
dreds of men, and they ceased for
ever to whisper of sweetheart and
mother, ceased to murmur of food
and running water, ceased to pray
for sight of the blue sky and a
breath OF fresh air blowing over well
remembered fields. In this place
broods the very soul of tyranny,
and tragedy, q sense of the cruelty
of war for which the human mind
can shape no adequate metaphor, OF
which human speech can present no
imagery. To the thinker, to the man
of Imagination, and to him, who lay
within its historic walls or took
part in the herculean struggle OF
which it is the greatest memento at
present i'll the north, the building is
replete with indescribable fascina.
ton. Considered in the line of as
sociation, and with that which it at
present contains, it is n marvellous
relic i'll many respects the most i'm
pressive object the Worlds Fair
City presents.
The removal of this great war
feature from Richmond TO Chicago
is unequaled in the history of mu.
scum enterprise. The project had
birth i'll the mind of w. III. Gray, Il
well-known Chicago business man,
who III time associated with himself
several citizens Of the metropolis,
and i'll 1883 the work of moving the
famous prison was begun. AS the
building was taken apart, each board,
beam, timber and block of stone was
numbered and lettered, 1872 car loads
of material, and when it had arrived
in Chicago, was put together again,
leaving the structure precisely as it
stood on the banks of the James.
Aoout it in its new home was erected
a magnificent battlemented wall of
artesian stone, froin the towers of
which the stars and stripes now float,
upon the ramparts of which bronze
figures of soldiers stand guard, and
cannon open black lips only to emit
the silence of unbroken peace.
Passing through the arch in the
battlement wall, the massive old
house of horrors comes Mt once in
to view. There it stands exactly as
it stood III the capital of Confeder-
acy. What pictures and what mem
ories it engenders How it sweeps
the past forward Sad time of
blood and tears, throes of a sunder.
ed nation, wreck of human brother
hood, you are here Behind these
walls thousands of poor fellows, the
yeomanry of liberty, hungry and
ragged, lie upon the floors, suffering,
suffering, suffering About this ed
itice of death and pain stand the
armed guards, grim and merciless,
steeled to murder in the strength
of their fatal faith. Look look
there at window in the third story /!
A face appears at the iron bars lips
gasping for breath, eyes turned ap-
pealingly to tie blue sky. A flash
of fire from a musket in the hands
of guard, and the white face sinks
back, groan, and eternal silence
has settled in a human bosom.
Alas, inexpressible barbarism evolv-
ed OF differing human opinion |