The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-03-28

tlons. So please say for me that | never
| asked anything or had anything from any
body in my life, as most people know, but
[ ask now with all my heart that papers,
periodicals and all sorts of light reading
be sent, and at once, and often, to those
men in prison. And please say this also !:
They are not criminals; they are only
political prisoners, yet they are in stripes.
Even Russia does not do that.
"Lycurgus, a friend of Robert Louis
Stevenson and widely travelled man, who
knows Russia well, told me every time
saw him that there was nothing in all
Russia nearly SO vile in all ways as is this
prison where those hundreds of men are
shut up in stripes on such food and with
only three hours of air out of the twenty
four. Of course could not be allowed to
measure the size of the tanks or observe
too closely the food, but the facts of detail
are from Lycurgus, and l believe will not
be contradicted.
when was being shown through the
prison the first time / suddenly saw two
faces pressed against and four eyes peer
ing through the bars as we descended a
stairway that looked like death-heads.
The thin lips were parted and the men
were gasping, gasping for air. as fish gasp
when taken out of the water. These cells
had only little iron gratings above the
doors, where two bottles of water are set,
through which to get air. The average
temperature is about 80.
''Those not convicted by court martial
are not in stripes. But they suffer all the
same. When the young brother of Colonel
Ashford got out and was driven to my cot
| tage by his wife, so that he might saw a
word for his poor brother who is in stripes
in the penitentiary, he was so CHASTITY that
he looked like corpse. He had been lib
Grated on signing a paper, they We're
afraid he would die. He could not get a
copy of the paper for me- Four men
| spies-followed him and his wife and
| stopped at my gate. When they drove
away these four men followed them. He
sailed next day and is in California or
| Canada, guess, but would soon have been
| in his grave if he had stayed in that fearful
tank. He, with lots of others, signed all
they were asked to sign and got out as best
they could.
II tell you truly that the blood of poor
ex-Attorney-Gene Peterson is on the
hands of Mr.. Dole and his desperate follow
| ing, for he was too weak to take care of
| himself when turned out OF that Black Hole
| of Calcutta. He died, as dozens of other
poor exhausted political prisoners in Hon
olulu will die if this persecution goes on.
But some stronger men, like LycurguS, re-
fused to sign and still refuse.
please, please send them something to
divert their minds. They may go mad.
II went there the day left. I only got
are growing weak as their bodies They
look like ghosts. Ashford is so weak he
can only shuttle along in his slippers by
holding on to the wall. He is a Canadian
gentleman of the best. His mother lives
near Niagara Falls. He served four years
ln'the Union army and was commander OF
the Grand Army post in Honolulu-the
only one at the time outside of the United
States. He was for four years Attorney
| General to the late King. The present en-
terprising Acknowledgement at one time
had two of his predecessors in the peniten-
tiary. He is a stanch pillar of the fash
] ionable church and is of the missionary
contingent and, by the way, let me cor
rect a popular error. There are and were
missionaries and missionaries. The real
| ones were all right. 1t is the contingent
the camp-followers of the missionaries, that
have been wanting and have gotten the
earth down there; the pedagogues, the
doctors, the demagogues, the butchers, the
bakers and the candlestick-
But you like Dole, and took sides with
him?"
| President Dole attracts you, then re-
pels. He is, perhaps the noblest-looking
man to be found at the head of any gov
eminent. only wish was only half as
good as he looks. But how he can go to
church regularly as he does. walking under
| the green trees and breathing the fresh