The Washington times., 1895-06-07
HUMANS TURNED TO HOGS
Forty-five Reeking, Filthy Pris-
0ners Fed in Police Court.
THEY ARE VICTIMS OF CHARITY
Steamed, and sweated in
Narrow Holes That Are w orse Than
the Infamous9nein in Calcutta Sick
ening Odors Arose While Food Was
Being Swallo Weds-Shouts for Air.


washington is perhaps the only place in
the world where fSe3 and women are de-
humanized by lawEa1d made what might
not inaphy be termed victims of charity
There were forty-fve ,feeking, filthy, con-
crete evidences of thatfact yesterday morn
ing at the police court where the wrecks OF
the previous night were carted like swine
on their way to the siambles driven down
a lane, and then turned into pens, where
they simmered and steamed and sweated
for an hour before they were called to the
bar of judgment.
There may have been cruelties practiced
in the Black Hole OF Calcutta, but there could
possibly have been nothing worse there
III the way OF a shock and insult TO human
sensibilitieS than was noted yesterday morn
ing at the cages in which forty-two me II and
women and three tender children were con-
fined and fed at the police court.
The cells are three in number, with a
parior Tor the women prisoners, the con-
spicuous piece of furniture i'll which is a
closet for certain uses. The cells are of
stone on three sides, with a high open
steel lattice door. In each there is a
bench, only on one side, which can accom-
modate five or six prisoners. In the wall
10 q SiOstis SIOSci DH an iron uOOf, ana In
another part OF the wall is q urinaI, on
the faucet of which hangs a cup, out OF
which those who please can drink water,
and that is about the first thing the
prisoners need when they are hustled
into the iron cages.
VAN FULL OF PRISNOERS.
At O'Clock yesterday morning the cells
were empty. The floors were clean, the
closets were closed, and the other equip
ments had not been used About Z 80 a
van full of prisoners rumbled up TO the
south entrance. There was locking and
unlocking of doors, and in an instant
dozen or more ill-clad greasy, lately
drunk, worn-out rags Of humanity came
rolling down the corridor and were
| ushered by Jailer Madigan into clean
vestibule, where they Were ranged till
the cell doors were unlocked and they
were Gagged
Five men were placed in one cell, four
in another, and two. the United States
Prisoners in the third 1t was not long
before the five in the first cell rlimmaged
around, got out pipes aud stumps of cigars
and filled the cage with the udor OF bad
tobacco and execra Bile cigars. So did
the four, and so did the two.
The criminals were disposed at first
To be facetious aud spoke OF the Hotel
Kimball and Miller, aud wanted to know
when they Were going TO set the table.
After a little the restalrateur, who was
To furnish the first official breakfast to
the prisoners, stepped up with the break
fast 1t consisted of very good coffee and
sandwich Of egg aud roll, each man an
egg and roll
The coffee aud the rest of the menu was
passed through the door and disappeared
in short order. This was all quiet and
good enough. The men appeared to be
n hn
were half dozen with splitting heads
and among them the some what celebrated
Emma Williams, tall, powerfully built
mulattu in a pink domin no, who was
marching ZIP and down the cell, preaching
sermon from the text that there wouldn't
be ST. many OF lis here only for the police
men"
EVIDENCES OF FILTH.
This cell was at no time crowded, and
the inmates had very jolly time over
their coffee and cigarettes, which one of
the ladies sent out and got. The only evil
dence of filth in this room was the flood
of expectorations which here and there
covered the floor.
They were forbidden, by the way, to
spit on the floor, to which Anarchist Will
liams replied that ladies never spat on the
floor.
After the arrival ofthe three other vans
there was a distinct olor of decaying hu-
manity in the other cells. In one OF them
had been packed fifteen men and boys, in
another ten men, and in another twelve
men. Coffee and sandwiches We're passed
into the animals as fast as they arrived,
and what with the growing heat of the
day and the steam from the warming
bodies, the smoke and the other things
Which can't be mentioned, even in ancient
Greek, the image of God began to smell
up to heaven fer vengeance.
Onlyfiye orSiX mencould be accommodated
on the benches. The rest either leaned up
against each other or lay down on the floor.
in the tobacco juice and the debris of
the eggs spilled coffee and other liQudss
which made their appearance intensely
visible to more senses than the eyesight
There were men in the cell OF fifteen who
Were diseased and cll were practically in
clothes that h ad not been washed since the
last rain. All had the sickening odOr of
human flesh on the way to dissolution
1t would be difficult to imagine d more
execrable symphony Of smells than issued
out of these temporary hells of only an
hours duration. At one time near the
close of the confinement The Times man
stood in front of one of the cells in which
the fifteen were reeking in filth.
A savage fellow shouted out. "For
Christ's sake stand from in front Of that
door and let the air come in and with that
he opened the water closet and dashed into
the half of his coffee He had not read
Chesterfield on prison courtesy, and left
the door of the damnabe cell ornament
wide open.
ASKED FOR WATER.
In another cell man asked for water
A fellow prisoner said why, you fool,
don't you see the refrigerator right under
your nose,' aud indicated the tin cup that
depended from the faucet of the urinal
This fellow was only recently become
brute. He was hog that wouldn't drink
the liquids of his own pen
There were three little boys, about six,
eight and ten years of age in this malodor-
GUS cell One of them was in for stealing
two bananas, another was i'll for vagrancy
and street begging, and q third had become
a vagrant who had been turned out on the
street by his father, as he said. Maybe they
were used to the awful environments, such
awful environments, for they were not
phased by the pesuferous place, but it was
all horrible, all nauseating, an a crime
against civilization.
There are some things impossible to de-
scribe because they are too revolving. One
thing is very certain, however, and thatis
that the most i'll smelling, atrocious Grim
inal1n the world would not act voluntarily
as they We're compelled to act in this in
famous bastile yesterday morning.
Some of them did not eat at all, but
passed the bread of charity around to the
neigh Dor whose stomach had not en-
tirely been annihilated by the surround
ings and sense of the indecencies OF the
situation. Enough has been told, how
ever, to indicate to any reader that every
feeling is outraged, whether OF a GRIM
inal or a spectator, when he is obliged to
see other human beings eating the break
fast OF charity in such an unseemly hole.