The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-12-09

great eaters as we are. and the whole
Japanese people could live fairly well
on what America wastes. The prisoners
rise q little after 4 o'clock, and they
have their breakfast before 5. At II they
eat their dinner. and at $50 they have
supper. They work ten hours and a
half, n go to bed at 3 o'clock. /
watched the men at their dinner. They
were fed in the workshops. and each
had his own table. in the shape OF a
board about two feet long and a foot
wide. This they rested OF low work
tables or placed on the floor, and squat
ted on their heels or on their knees be-
hind ii and ate. None OF the prisoners
had knives. and their only table in
struments were wooden chop-sticks. /
was especially struck with the cleanli-
ness Of both prisons and prisoners.
There was not a bad smell anywhere
except that of the dinner, and this 1
found very appetizing until after my
encounter with the horse e The
faces and the bodies OF the men were as
clean as those of freshly washed babies,
and the prisoners take hot baths about
three times a week. The baths are big
watts. in which twenty or thirty can soak
at a time, and in which they go in white
and come out as red as boiled Holsters.
They dress in terre Gotta gowns made
of cotton, and they go barefoot or wear
sandals of straw. Red is the prison garb
all over Japan, and everything con-
nected with the p~enitentiary is OF this
detested brick-dust hue. Their bed
clothes are dyed with 1t, and the wadded
comforters On which they lie are OF the
same color.
i was surprised at the work lone by
the prisoners. You find here in a nut
shell all kinds of Japanese industries,
and some OF these prisoners make the
finest of cloisonne vases. They paint
fans and china. and do most exquisite
wood carving. They are examined on
entrance as to their fitness for certain
kinds of work. and many of them learn
trades during their sentences. In one
place / saw them saving logs into
boards They did ii all by hand, and il
was the same with "a things that
we make by machinery. They manu-
facture paper by taking old scraps, tear
ing them into pieces and pounding the
pulp with a mallet. After IL is well
mashed the pulp is thrown into a vat
and stirred into a hin mush. which is
spread out OF a framework of bamboo
of the size of a sheet of newspaper. 1t
sticks together, and when dried it makes
very good paper. In another shop / saw
two or three hundred men making rope,
fish nets, and in another there Were two
hundred japanese making bricks by
hand-or, rather, by hand and foot. The
clay was mixed by the prisoners, who
stamped up and down upon Ii with their
bare feet, going over Ii so carefully that
every atom was pressed n ground up
Dy lQSIH. 1ney dItelhdIQ put TIE cay
into molds, and smoothed each brick
after it came out with a paddle until it
had a gloss like porcelain. They were
making brick for the great new peni-
tentiary, of which / will speak further
on, and 1 asked as to the cost. The su-
perintendent told me that they could
make and sell them for S. a thousand.
or so cents a hundred. Two hundred
men can make 900, 900 brick per month,
or an average Of fifty brick a day to
each, man. / don't know what such
brick would cost here. but 1 am sure
that a better article cannot be bought.
JAPANESE CHEAP LABOR.
The work done in this prison is per-
haps the cheapest in the world. The
prison is on the contract labor. system,
and the prisoners are let out to the con-
tractors at from / to Is cents a day.
They are paid a portion of their wages,
which is credited to y and given out
when they leave. IN told that some
saved as much as $50 :. ring their term.
and upon my replying that that was not
much, the superintendent said:
mo, it is not a great deal. but it will
| keep a Japanese mar for a year"
In one shop / saw men making straw
| sandals, which sell for / cent a pair, and
which are used by the poorer classes all
| over Japan. In another place two hun
| dred boys were making paper lanterns.
| The bamboo frames We're split by hand
| with what looked very much like kitten
en- knives, and If you will look at a Jap
| anese lantern YOU viii see that its
frames are made OF bamboo wires no
thicker han a darning needle, and that
these are wound about the lantern with
practically no support other than the
paper. The whole workmanship is by
hand, and it is the same with many
other things. The japanese use their
feet as we'll as their hands in their work.
and the cooDers hold the tubs between
their toes while they hoop them.
This is the old japanese pehitentiary.
Tokyo is now building one of the finest
prisons in the world. 1t is about five
miles outside of the capital. 1t is a
great brick structure, covering many
acres, and fitted out with all the latest
prison appliances. The work is being
lone by the japanese prisoners, and the
architect is a japanese. / saw the men
at their work. They had built a scaffold
from the ground up to the top of the
walls. and this, strange to say, was Of
poles tied together with ropes, and the
men carried the bricks VI or poles over
their shoulders. In one place / saw
them driving piles, and they had~made
a great ~scaffolding of poles which ran
fifty feet above the ground, and in the
center of this an immense beam was
L Hut Ia q Pei 49, - Nf~
bottom of this beam ropes were tied.
and a score of men stood on a platform
near the top of the s~caffoldiag. N by
these ropes raised the heavy beam high
in the air and then let ii fall down on
the pile which was being driven into
the earth. They sang a. they worked.
and al the end of each line the beam
was dropped.
The prisoners have built a large part
of this new Benitentiary, and. though
the penitentiary does not pay for it
self, it is run very cheaply. The super
intendent told me that ii cost 20 cents a
day in silver per prisoner 10 keep up the
establishment, or 10 cents a day in gold,
and that the actual expense of keeping
4 and boarding a prisoner was less than
5 cents per day per head.
HOW PRISONERS ARE PUNISHED.
Japan in the past had crueifixion and
all sorts of horrible punishments. but
these have long since passed way. The
superintendent told me there was no
such thing as corporal punishment
used, and that the only punishments
were the cutting down of the food and
solitary confinement. There was only
one dark cell. however. for these two
thousand convicts. and the most Of the