The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-11-21

ually it became the practice to send the
worst of military convicts to this far-off
spired terrors to the offender. Botany Bay
was no more dreaded in its time. The
bounty jumpers, the deSerterS, those con-
victed of infamous crimes by military
courts, were given terms on Dry Tortugas
Many of them never came back. Under
ordinary conditions stay in the classmates
had a way of crossing over from Cuba.
When it got a foothold OF these little
islands it ran its full course. Prisoners
took dangerous chances of escape. They
stole small boats and put out into the open
gulf, trusting to treacherouS currents and
TO more treacherouS squalls. Boats d1Sap-
peared. Names were unanswered at the
next roll call. That was the end. The
missing prisoners were never heard Of.
Sentence to Dry TOrtugaS was as near as
the United States ever came to transpOrta-
ton a punishment for crime. 1t meant,
practically Punishment 1t implied no Wis
It's from friends and infrequent communi-
cation with the rest of the world. The con-
Wet sent to Dry TortuRas felt that he had
been given the worst form of Imprisonment
within the power of the tribunal to inf1ict.
He realized that he was going where he
would be forgotten and where the chances
of the always-hoped-for clemency were re-
duced to minimum. About the close of
the war the penal colony reached between
700 and 800 persons. That was its maxi
mum. 1t dwindled gradually The sentences
to Dry TortugaS became less frequent. The
idea of sending even a convict to a place
where he would feel that he was a man
without a country seemed to be repugnant
to Americans. PardonS were granted from
time to time. The yellow fever cut into
the population. About 1878 the usefulness
of Fort Jefferson as a prison came to an an
maintaining a Gibraltar on the Dry Tor
tugas. Congress ceased to make appro-
priations for improvements. The garrison
a ruin the dream which Jefferson Davis
coupled with his service as senator and
a secretary of war.
NOTABLE PRISONERS.
The most notable prisoners Fort Jefferson
ever knew were those accessory to the as
sassination of Lincoln. Over the door to
one of the cells intact on the lower case
mate is rudely painted in black letters:
''They who enter here leave hope behind"
The cell is the one in which the Mary
lander DR.. Mudd was confined, and in the
local traditions the misquotation is attrib-
uted to him. While Booth was fleeing
through Maryland, he stopped at DR..
Mudds and called upon him TO set the leg
broken in the leap from the box in which
the President was shot to the stage at
Ford's Theater. The doctor asked no ques-
lions and always claimed that no informal
Of the patient, whom he saw only
long enough to give the necessary
surgical attention. When all of the
movements of the assassin were traced,
DIR. Mudd was arrested and charged with
being accessory after the fact His defense
was that he did not know whom ne had
treated and that he had acted in a purely
professional manner Public sentiment was
too strongly af1ame to be satisfied with an
ethical defense. pr M9dd was Sent i19rs 70 the
did not think he deserved such severe pun
ishment Twice he tried to escape. Once he
was almost successful He got on board
steamer which had touched at the fort, and
concealed himself in a coal bunker, with
the connivance of the engineer. Just be
4, orf1r
he was missing. An order from the COM
mandant detained the boat. Careful search
was made without success. At length one
of the searchers took pointed poker and
began to prod in the mass of coal. He
struck the concealed prisoner. Strangely
enough, the release of Dr. Mudd finally
came about through the devotion to the
theory of his professional duty which cost
him his liberty: One or the worst or the
vellOw-feVer ViSitatiOnS carried Off the
prison physician early in its ravages: DR..
Mudd volunteered to take his place. There
"ner,s Ia bors in behalf of the stricken con-
y.cts and garrison took on the form of
heroisrn. SO zealously did he apply himself
that when the reports reached Washing
tnn the authorities were moved to grant an
unconditional pardon. Dr. Mudd returned
with honor from his term of service on Dry
Tortugas. ,. - .o,o.,o,,. ,,,,.,
the Booth conspiracy were sent to Dry
Tortugas. They were Spangler, Arnold and
O'Iaughlin. Spangler was the stage car
var+er He was, charged with having fixed
q sliding door which Booth pulled behind
him to hinder pursuit as he made his exit
T. was shown that Spangler was the man
whom Booth called TO the alley to hold his
horse when he went inside to shoot the
President. But the evidence to prove that
Snangler knew of the purpose of the as
sassn was wanting. O'Laughlin. in the
theory of the prosecution, was the person
selected by the conspirators to kill Grant
or Secretary Stanton, but the case against
him was weak. Arnold had been in the plot
during the earlier stages of the development
when the kidnapping of President Lincoln
was as far as the conspirators intended to
go But he had withdrawn left the city and
found employment in Virginia. Because
their connections with Booth and his plans
were not those of principals, Spangler,
O'Laughlin and Arnold were sent TO Dry
Tortugas instead of 10 the gallows
O'Laughlin died OF yellow fever. Arnold and