The Irish standard., 1896-03-07
tincture of belladonna had been intro
duced into the medicine furnished to

With brutal OathS MIS- guard WOulu KICK
him on the head OF body until he
grasped his implement and went to work
again with the gang. The result was the
l.oss of the sight of one Of the prisoner S
eyes and the impairment Of the sight OF
the other. 1t was cruel inf1ictiOn for
Callaghan, for with the use of his eyes
or at least one of them he could vary
the monotony of his prison life with
outdoor work Now he sits in his cell
all day and night and mopes, and stares
| through his feeble eye at the iron bars of
the door.
"The uniformly bad treatment of the
brothers in misfortune of these men has
resulted in the gradual destruction of
| their reasoning powers and there is not
now in the English dungeons a solitary
one of those men who is not just a little
| bit queer or *downy,' as the keepers
call it.
"All the political prisoners in Portland
prison are kept constantly in the punish
! nlent cells This is to make commune
cation between them and the other pris-
| oners or each ether more difficult. The
food furnished in these cells is inferior to
! that given out in the rest of the prison.
1t is putrid ON meat days ar'd filthy and
| insufficient at all times. 1t makes me
shudder to think of it even now. Every
thing that can possibly add to the indig-
| nifty or humiliation of the condition Of
the political prisoners is resorted to. AL
| though they perform the same class Of
work as the other convicts. their tasks are
made harder and their punishment is
more severe than that OF the desperate
criminals who are Icarcerated with them
"To illustrate this I will tell you what
was done while was in the prison. We
worked at making those heavy canvas
mail bags that are used to carry the mails
ON the big steamships. The ordinary ccJl-
victs, such AS murderers, highWaymen,
burglars, degraders of wonanhood and
others, were served 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 cur needles
thro ough as best we could. You can imag
inc what the result was when there were
three thicknesses of sail canvas to be
sewed and no thimb]e Or other implement
to help us. My right hand was a mass Of
eFuptions after two weeks of this work,
+ but it never worried our s}aye~driving
warders, and my companions and myself
had to keep right along at our work,
| "It was point in the prison TO select
| as our gaffer or boss the most bloodthirsty
criminal Or degraded scoundrel In the Sec
| ton These ruffians took the most inhu
man delight n making the lives of the
bloody Paddles as they called us, as mis-
erable as possible. Jeers oaths, nick
names and insulting remarks were con-
s.antly aimed at us by these scoundre]s.
and the warders and other officials looked
on and enjoyed it all as we bit our lips in
silent rage.
1.-THE law governing English prisons
prescribe the use OF the cato '-ninetails
I for insuburdinate prisoners. A convict
who strikes.a a Jail official or pers:stently
! refuses to do the work allotted to him
may be flogged. Such punishment must
| be inflicted in the presence of a doctor
| and several witnesses and must be duly
recorded in the prison records. 1t is the
desire of the jail governor to avoid any
record of flogging appealing on the books.
| 1t is only this desire of the governor that
has saved the political priscners frcm hay
! ing been fogged to death long ago. But
! the officials overcome the obstacles in the
| way of corporal punishment very easily.
| They simply enter the cells of the pris-
| kick and choke the inmates at their leis-
ure.
cdr. Whitehead was "a. notable victim
of this style of British vengeance. One
day he committed a slight infraction Of
the rules. He was ordered to his cell.
As soon as he got there two warders en-
tered, and one of them held him by the
arms while the other seized him by the
winnpipe and tghtened his grip upon the
helpless prisoners throat. Give it to him,
Jim shouted the other warder Choke
his blooming irish loife out This scene
was witnessed by several of the prisoners.
They were afraid to tell half the brutality
they witnessed when the matter was be-
inb probed at a parliamentary inquiry.
The excuse given by the Jail officials this
time was that the warders thought DR..
Whitehead had bit of paper on which
was writing, concealed in his mouth, and
they wanted to force it from him. There
fore they choked him.
''The trouble with the Irish prisoners
in English dungeons IS that they are
placed there especially with view to
punishment and not with a desire for cor
rection. which Should be the underlying
principle OF all penal institutions. The
warders and officials in all these prisons
are former army and navy men, They
are intensely anti-Irish in sentiment, and
of course it naturally follows that nothing
is left 1lndone by them to Wreak vengeance
!! on the luckless Ir.shinan or Americans
placed in their charge.
tIt is disheartening in the face OF all
this to read in the World this morning
the cablegram from London announcing
that the Home Secretary has refused to-
grant amnesty to the prisoners. My mis-
sion, however, is to spur the movement
into active vigor on this side Of the water
and there is no doubt OF success soon if a
united front is presented to the enemy
These statements of Mr.. Egan are
amply verified by James McKevitt, Hem
| rv. Mccain and John Curtain Kent, who
have been recently discharged from Eng
lish prisons and who have experienced
some Of the treatm eIlt described by Mr.
Egan. s8 s
It is not surprising in view of these.
facts that Ifishmen in this city have been
stirred into action by the recital of these
| woes. It. is an extraordinary fact that
for the first time in many years the Irish
in. America have become united on, this
one platform OF justice to the polit ticaIs
pri isoners To any one conv versant with
the differences that have kept Irishmen
apart in America It will be little short@of
ennkinued .s.ons SC cond