The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1897-10-28

surfeited with luxuries. And We,
here and there one might detect 6
devil may care Irish grin or a look OF
scholarly refinement: for when degra
dation seizes a man it drags him into
! strange company. One and all were
filthy beyond description, with the
rags and hair OF caricatures, but toe
unconsciously real to provoke a
smile.
Within the washroom there were
| the fog and neat of squalor The fat
| keepers fat fingers were sticking to
the pages as he tried to spell out the
jaw breaking names. If ever there
was in word and deed an advocate of
the phonetic system, he was one that
day.
All the old boiled over odds and
ends of prison suits, all the soulless
and heelless fragments of prison
shoes, had been called into reuuisi-
tion, and were allotted by convict as
sistants with the grim humor of unfit
ness. Rag tag and bobta the army
entered; rag tag and bob-tail it re-
mained. 1t was late that night when
the last ones were pushed this way
and that up the dizzy stairs, along
the narrow gallery, and flung helter
skelter into the black holes in the
wall of the topmost tier, devoid of
everything except vermin. Then the
fat keeper, as if from the mire. emere
ed to drown in his beer the warden's
pointed aspersions on his alacrity.
And prison sleep, broken, unrestful,
and brutalizing, brought its scant
comfort to the men.
In but one respect did this civiliz
ed method of proting the peace bene
tit those who in a way sincerely be-
lieved that they had a grievance
against constituted authority : it rem
dered them for moment Indifferent
ly clean. For the ensuing sixty DAYS
they continued locked up, there in a
cell, save for daily hour of exercise,
without occupation or diversion and
with the sanitary appliances of pig
sty. Then, on discharge, they were
told to move on. A pretty remedy
for popular disorder, my M asters.
The average penetentiary physician
comes to diagnose symptoms of fakes
rather than of disease. There is some
excuse for this, for unappreciated de-
votion to duty can hardly be expected
for $500 year, and the insincere side
to the daily response to the doctors
call is the one most evident. Many
convicts, eager to escape work for
moment, march up to the dispensary,
well knowing that there is nothing
the matter with them. Sometimes a
man gets dose of crotion oil for his
pains; but what then? One learns 10
discard any such thing as taste in
prison.
Outside of the assuaging of pain,
for which he cares but little and has
as little hope, the really sick convict
yearns for one of two things; to be
placed on hospital rations, or, better
yet, to be ordered to the hospital.
Both OF these privileges ars constant
subjects OF prison intrigue When
man gains the former he. of course.
receives the food prepared for sick.
The difference lies mainly in having
butter with bread and milk with tea
or at least substances SO entitled and
at best is bnt an escape from the mo-
notony of one regimen to that of
another. But in this rnicrocosm, ss
well as in the outside world. what
ever only few can have is envied.
There is more than one distinction
in the latter privilege There is rest,
there IS idleness, and, if one be dan
gerously i'll, there is at least slight
consideration. Come, then, and see
the hospital ward, the convict's ha-
veD of delight. 1t is the second sto
ry OF the washrOom wing, broad and
high, with lofty windows, barred, of
! course, for even the dying might
break out and steal. In regular
rows the little white cots are arrang
ed. Why, it would be positive plea
sure to serve term in one of them,
and then go out and get sent back as
speedily as possible. Such, indeed.
seems to be the expression on the
livid face of each occupant.
Under one of the windows group
of convalescents are watching two of
their number at checker play, disput-
ing the while as to their relative
rights to remain longer in this eiysi
um. In one corner is a log table with
surgical instruments exposed. EvI-
IDENTIFY an operation will soon take
place, but that is too open and com
monplace an occurrence to excite any
interest In another corner, behind
screen, lies the star patient, an old
bank president, writhing under the
throes of an incurable disease while
he writes to MS devoted family the
oft repeated story of the wrongs ol
his case.
| On the last cot in the rear is 8
young man in the extremity of con
sumption. One would need glas.
to detect the faint futtering of hi,
breath. There are no signs of life il
the waxen lids, none in the rigid out
lines of the form, none anywhere
save in the incessant picking of tn,
skeleton fingers on the coveliid.
i To the left is the little room whicl
the hospital steward, by virtue of hi
Office, had all to himself This favo
rite convict, comely young counter
feiter, whose position seems bette
than freedom to the vast majority O
, the prisoners, is NATURAL both AFRO