Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1897-09-15

PRISONERS SIGNALS.

Ingenious Methods Which Convicts Have
of Communicating With Each Other.
The prisoners make every con.
ceivable effort to hold intercourse
of some kind with their fellow cul-
prits, if only to relieve the silence
and solicitude-intolerable to per
sons of their class, who have not
sufficient cultivation OF mind to sup
ply them with food for thought.
Knocking on the walls of separation
between the cells, scratching SEN
fences on the side of the baths or
the bottoms Of the tins used to con-
tain their Cruel and many other de-
vices of that inadequate nature are
instantly detected and stopped by
the officials.
The chapel is perhaps the most ia
vorable ground for enabling them to
let their presence at least be known
to acquaintance who have been in
carcerated at an earlier or later pc
Rod from themselves The male
and female prisoners are, of course,
rigidly separated during the serv
ices. A high and strong wooden
partition divides the portion of the
building they respectively occupy,
but they do not allow this serious
obstacle to deter them altogether
from the communications they spe-
cially desire to hold with the oppo-
site sex. In singing the hymns they
often try to introduce words of their
own or make very peculiar re-
sponses, which can be understood
over the wall. A male prisoner will
be afflicted with an extremely bad
cough, which, in measured attacks,
makes known to a lady friend on the
other side that he is in quod," but
he is seldom oppressed by this bron-
chial malady on more than one occa-
sion, since the governor informs him
that, as his cough is so distressing.
he is to remain in his cell and not
be exposed to the air of the chapel
until he lis better-a cure for his
complaint which is at once perfectly
complete
On the female side of the parti-
ton a woman permitted to take her
infant, born in prison, to chapel
with her, pinches the unfortunate
mite till its shrill yells reveal her
proximity to its father attentively
listening through the wall
Recently the governor of one of
our county prisons was greatly per
picked by the discovery that the fe-
male criminals in his charge man
aged in some mysterious manner to
ascertain the presence of every indi-
vidual man on the other side of the
impervious dividing barrier. One Of
the women inadvertently let drop
the fact that she had recognized her
husband, whose position there must,
according to the rules, have been
completely unknown to her. None
of the officers could account fer an
unpermitted knowledge which was
found to be shared by all the other
women. At last a very careful ex-
animation of the chapel gave an ex-
PLANTATION Of the mystery. Although
strictly divided, as we have said,
both the male and female prisoners
faced the altar in their seats, and
over it had been fixed a very large
brass cross against the wall, so
highly polished as to form a very
good mirror. In its clear surface the
women saw the reflection of every
man as he passed to his place and
had enjoyed the spectacle with i'm
punity till a wife, much interested
in the appearance of her spouse, had
made an imprudent remark to one
of the officers which revealed the
fact. The brass cross instantaneous.
ly Disappeared, and the blank wall
behind it no longer tells any secrets.
London Hospital