The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-09-26
SPORTS OF CRIMINALS.
Cruelty Characteristic of Their Play.
Dangerous Games in Italian
Prisons.

Prisons.
From the New York Sun.
Mario Carara, a disciple of Cesare
LombToso, the Italian expert in criminal
anthology, has made a special study Of
the sports that criminals engage IN
Southey in his fine ballad of the Inch
cape Rock seems to have anticipated
the principle involved in Carara's discov-
cries. Southey says of Sir Ralph, the pI-
rate, that his heart was mirthful to ex-
cess, but the rover's mirth was wicked
ness" 1t is so with the sports of crimi-
nails. The innocent games of childhood
in the case of criminals, are tinctured
with cruelty and sometimes accompanied
by homicide. Criminals skip the rope, but
part of the game is to trip up the jumper
and let him fall heavily upon the stone
pavement. Criminals play leap frog bur
part of the game is that he who makes
the back" shall rise suddenly and vio-
lently just as the frog mounts, and throw
him to the ground. The criminals play
blindman's buff, but the man with the
bandaged eyes carries a handkerchief,
bearing in one corner a Jagged stone a
piece of hard sharpened wood, or a bit of
iron. With this weapon he strikes those
whom he pursues. Another form of this
game is for the blinded one to be struck
by one or another of his companions If he
fails to name the one that strikes him.
The penalty is not the innocent one of
that physician has often to be called In
after the game is over.
Ii has been found in those Italian re-
formatories where prisoners are not kept
in solitary confinement that prisoners
games are often accompanied with blood
shed, and that it Is almost impossible to
prevent cruelties. This is especially true
where prisoners work together for they,
secrete tools and use them as weapons
IN brutal sports. In one Of these games
the player has in each hand stick, haV-
ing fixed in the end keen metallic point
lie interweaVes his arms revolving the
sticks with rapidly, and the game
his head between the arms ana
endeavor to follow the revo-
lutions of the sticks without being wound
fifteen or sixteen wounds, and comes out
with a bleeding head The victim in
another game has his eyes bandaged. and
places his palm upon a table, with fin
gers spread fan-lke Another criminal
then repeatedly strikes between the fin
gers with pointed instrument. II he
wounds finger, then the two change
places, and woe to the man who refuses
the exchanged The game is dangerous
although the criminals assert that the
wounds to the fingers are not deep or Sc
we're, because, as they say the metallic
points are short and do not penetrate far
The sports of criminals is accompanied
by characteristic craft. This is especially
shown in the methods in which the new
conner is initiated into prison life. The
newcomer is conducted into an impTovised
court chamber where the judges are mis-
fellow prisoners. He is placed upon a
stand and gravely tried upon a pretended
charge, and he has barely been condemn
ed when the stand is suddenly drawn
away so that he is thrown violently to the
earth.
Many games necessarily imply resist
ance to pain as an absolute condition OF
success. or example, there is the game OF
needles" One of the players places his
closed fists upon the table, holding strong
points being slightly exposed. 1t is the
game then for a companion to strike with
his own fists those of the other. 1t is a
question of endurance between the one VINO
is prfcked with the needles and The one
whose fists are beaten by the Others
knuckles. There are games in which the
the sears are an honorable distinction
The Characteristic feature of all these
games, which are the recreation exclu-
SiVey OF animals in prison. is the love or
combat If, as is held by experts sports
are the means of. working off the SUPER
fuous activity, in the case of prisoners, Is
especially powerful 1t has been noted In
the case of prisoners that there is a pre-
valence of great agility and lithenesa
which Prof. Lombroso considers as mega
tive evidence of mental weakness since
ii testifies to a greater development of the
motorial centers at the expense of the
other cerebral centers. But usually this
physical energy is not properly used in the
ordinary life of the criminal and finds OUT
let and enjoyment in sports.
Another characteristic of the games or
criminals IL the admiration shown for
physical force, manifested in the docilitv
with which the vanquished in such sports
submit to the brutality of the victors, a
thing observed among savages Finally.
the insensibility to pain exhibited In
sports Of criminals proves that such men
are less acute in their physical senses as
well as less sensitive to the pains of
others; since what seems to others use
lessly cruel is only the usual thing with
criminals. As the drunkard his taste
hardened by alcohol. has need of a slim
ulant constantly stronger so in the case
of the criminal the nervous system de-
ordinary individual, they would be actuai-
ly painful.