The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-11-23

worn out garments. II they want more
they must pay for them. When under
punishment extra garments are taken
away. Nothing but this thin bit Of
cloth kept their feet from the stone floor,
n their sufferings must have been Ia
mentable. How long do you keep men
here?" well Monsieur, the limit e
ninety days but there Is a was to keep
them longer. An examination Of their
offences can be put of from week to
week sc that they can really be kept
ninety days more II the director chooses.
Sometimes when he gets hold of a man
he does not like he keeps him that way.
At the end of six months few want any
more Of It."
More Prison Cruoities.
After a short conversation he hap
pened to mention the "ouhliettes."
asked to be shown them. Going down
a stone staircase of which I counted q
hundred and twenty-five steps. when I
began to suspect that the center of the
earth could not be very far away, we
arrived at a frightful dungeon. dug or
iginally for who can tell what nameless
cruelty by some lord of the chateau In
the brave days Of old. Deathly cold.
giving o the ~suffocating Odor of an
encased vault. black with Egyptian
darkness. we'll might the man think who
got there that he had left hope behind
Surely" said I, You never put men
here!" "Ah, oui Monsieur. sometimes
but not for long. Three or four days
generally exhausts them; ten days
would probably kill them. but we watch
against accident. No one was in the
dungeon at the moment but I could be-
lieve that an accident" might easily
happen In a good deal less than ten
days.
When we reached the upper world once
more the men We're filing from the va
rious shops to the refectories. In no
French p,i'on is there breakfast. dinner
or supper. The meal Is called ia
soGpe,' the soup, because nothing but
soup is supplied by the establishment,
the soup maigre" made without meat
or any of the ingredients which in our
minds go to make up what we under-
stand by the name.
France has an objection to providing
law-breakers with board free. What
will just keep a man from dying of star
walton Is given. anything more must
be paid for either by work or from the
prisoners own resources.
In the refectory l watched the long
lines as they walked rapidly in. taking
their places at long, narrow tables, each
row sitting behind another. Large
trays lay on the floor filled with edibles
from h canteen. With the name Of
prison we associate usually the idea
OF more or less ~privation and suffering.
but any one who visits the Gallon re-
fectory at meal time must modify fon
any such prejudice.
hesitate to write for publication
what l saw there. / expect to be told
that my imagination serves me for
facts, and yet l look down at the mo-
ment the articles l saw on the trays as
they were quickly distributed to the
Y nurnaro hon ~or---A
so many edibles. and I could not helm
thinking that the London board of
prison directors would go into convul-
sions had they been permitted to look
on.
Earning Good Wages.
How do you expect" I asked
M. Beaunier, that they will keep
out If you furnish them with
such accommodation within?" I'VE
do not expect It," he said,
we know that a certain class will
get into prison anyhow and we make
them pay for their living. The govern
ment will not feed them, but 1t sees no
reason why they should be starved or
why they should be the only ones from
whom no profit ought to be made. AS a
matter of fact the prisons are more
than self-supporting. The canteen SER
vice of the state yields a considerable
income. Scarcely anything Is sold at
less than a hundred per cent profit.
We will not allow wine or tobacco, but
the necessaries of life are furnished"
In answer to a question about the av-
erage earnings: You shall see ior YOUR
I SELF" he said. I'm q few minutes they
will return to the shops and then you
will be able to Judge" In one of the
work rooms where a hundred prisoners
We're chair making I spoke to n INTEL
ligent looking fellow and asked, How
much do you earn a day." About six
francs. sir" "Six francs!" I exclaimed,
why a workman outside could hardly
earn that much" THAT is very true,
sir, but here we work much longer
hours and we have no chance to 'faire
Ia noce'-go on a spree. How long is
your sentence?" Five years" And
you are obliged to save three francs q
day." Yes sir" Then at your re-
four hundred francs?" d" Yes, sir"
What will you do with it?" "Well
sir. you see l am a tailor and I shall
start a little business for myself"
Have you ever petitioned for release?'
oh. no, sir, l am very we'll here. Out
side I could only earn three francs a day
and would have to support myself. I
could not save a thousand francs in ten
years" Little wonder that France has
81 huIIuIcu tIouSdIlu pTlSOTeTS. MOI all,
however, are so well paid as this one,
but none leave after a five years resi-
dence without having a thousand francs
and upword for a new start in life.
Passing through the office of the Nom
seiur de Directeur IN my way to the
hospital I stopped a moment to look at
the library. Well as the body Is looked
after the wants of the mind get but
scant attention. No such collection Of
useless. worn out, half destroyed books
hadI ever seenin a junk store. What do
they want of books?" said the director;
what time have they for reading? On
Sunday they can read IL they please and
IL they wish for books they can buy
them; besides they have something
read to them in the refectory." / had
noticed a prisoner sitting In a sort OF a
pulpit reading aloud while the rest were
eating. The book was one Of those
sickly love novels with the broadcast
Of illusions which in America would
bring the Society of the Prevention Of
Vice down in fast metre on the seller,
but which in France attract no atten-
ton. and this was about the only lit
erature most OF them knew anything
about during their detention.
A Modest Dispensary. s.
At the entrance to the hospital I was
presented to the doctor who, 1 was in
formed, was a baron, NJ. lie Baron Ia
Crosse. l was afterward told what,
however, 1 soon found for myself, that
the doctor was in a small way a char
acter. The old gentleman was accom-
panied by his dog Toby, with whom he
was generally believed to consult in
difficult cases. However that may be,
the intimacy was so close that Toby's
name had peer conferred upon the doc
tor who was always spoken of as "le
vieux Toby old Toby. The hospital
was one of the dreariest of dreary hab-
itations. The ~dispensary looked as
though fifty cents would buy all the
medicines 1t contained. and the whole
establishment seemed to have the
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