The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-02-21
WORDS OF PATRIOTS
A Rousing Meeting Held by the Irish
National Alliance.
AN ADDRESS BY Mr.. DONAHOE
The Speaker Refers to the Horri-
bic Treatment of Prisoners In
England. Where J. r. Eagan
Was Confined.

usual Ofuer OF business the alliance
was addressed by Mr.. Donahoe OF Hell
ena, who spoke in behalf of the Irish
American political prisoners who are
confined In the Portland convict prison.
England. Out of a dozen prisoners
charged with treason and felony and
sentenced to life Imprisonment he says
that there are five American citizens.
Three of these are stark mad and 9TH
ers are rapidly nearing that condition
because of the brutal treatment of
keepers and guards.
James r. Eagan, who was recently
pardoned through the efforts of friends,
is stirring up a movement to do some
thing for the amelioration of the polit
zeal prisoners.
The Americans confined there are
DIR. Thomas Gallagher, Albert George
Whitehead. Henry Hammond Wilson,
Timothy Featherstone and Harry Bur-
Ton.
Mr.. Donahoe took as his text the fol-
lowing tale of horror which is told by
Mr.. Eagan who is now in New York,
as published in the World of that city:
There is a big letter M over the cell
door of DR.. Thomas Gallagher said
Mr.. Eagan last night to a World re-
porter. DIR. Gallagher was a citizen of
Greenpoint, L. /. He was as fine a
specimen of manly development as /
ever saw when / left him in 1884. He
was a mental and physical wreck when
j left Portland prison. He has been a
hopeless lunatic since 1887. The letter
NJ over his cell door tells the visitor
that the inmate is mad. The poor doc
tor sits In his cell all day long. gibber-
ing and laughing the terrible laugh of
the maniac. Most of the time he Is in
a straight jacket, though he Is never
violent The prison officials take no
more notice of him than IL he were a
dog. They don't want to transfer him
to a lunatic asylum because he would
be more easily reached there. and the
government is chary of giving any sort
of publicity to the condition of the po-
litical prisoners. He is denied to all
visitors now.
There is another M over the cell door
of DR.. Albert George Whitehead, an
other American citizen, who has been
insane for years His insanity is of
violent form, and the most outrageous
courses are adopted by the warders to
keep him in restraint His sufferings
will soon be at an end, poor fellow, for
when 1 saw him last he was as thin as
a post and it was plain that the decline
of death was upon him.
THE case of Henry Hammond
Wilson, OF New Haven, Conn, is the
most sorrowful of all. Poor Wilson
was just entering the year of manhood
when he was convicted in London in
1885, and was sentenced to imprison-
ment for life on the charge of treason
felony. The dreaded NJ is over his cell
door too. But, worst of all, the ward
ers and governor of the prison refuse
to believe that he is insane, though the
prison doctor has pronounced him be-
yond the pale of reason. The result Is
that the unfortunate man is continu-
ally under punishment. The officials
order him chastised for the slightest
infraction of the rules of the prison.
He Is not In a condition to know any,
thing about rules, or even to know his
most intimate friends. So there is
scarcely a day passes without some sort
of vengeful indignity being heaped up
on this man, who has not a spark of
reason.
"All the political prisoners in Port
land prison are kept continuously In the
punishment cells. This is to make COM
munication between them and the 9TH
er prisoners or each other more diff
cult The food furnished in these cells
is inferior to that given out in the rest
of the prison IL is putrid on meat days
and filthy and insufficient at all times
1T makes me shudder to think of II even
now. Everything that can possibly add
TO the indignity or humiliation of the
condition OF the poplitical prisoners is
resorted to. Though they perform the
same class OF work as the other con-
victs. their tasks are made harder and
their punishment is more severe than
that of the desperate criminals who are
incarcerated with them.
ITO illustrate this / will tell you what
was done when l was in prison. We
worked at making those heavy canvas
mail bags that are used TO carry the
mails on the big steamships. The or
binary convicts, such as murderer5,
highwaymen, burglars, degraders of
,1 Ath %
with leather guards to protect the palm
of the hand from the big needle that
was forced through the canvas by an
iron shield fixed in this leather guard.
We were allowed no palm guards and
had to force our needles through as
best we could. You can imagine what
the result was when there were three
thicknesses of sail canvas to be sewed
and no thimbles or other implements
TO help us. My right hand was mass
of eruptions after two weeks OF this
work, but IL never worried our slave
driving warders, and my companions
and myself had to keep right along at
our work.
1T was point in the prison to select
as our gaffer or boss the most blood
thirsty criminal or degraded scoundrel
in the section These ruffians took the
most inhuman delight in making the
lives of the bloody Paddles as they
called us. as miserable as possible.
Jeers, oaths nicknames and insulting
remarks were constantly aimed at us
by these scoundrels. and the warders
and other officials looked on and en-
joyed ii all. as we bit our lips in silent
rage"
The Alliance was aroused by these
statements and IL is proposed TO lend a
hand IL possible to the move on foot in
behalf of these men whose crime con-
sists only of love of country, their Of
Tense being the effort in behalf Of Ire
land and Irish freedom.
Petting Improves Animals