The National tribune., 1897-06-17
,ersou. Now let him imagine what

persons Now let him imagine what
would be the result if that lot, instead OF
having upon it six persons, with every
appliance for keeping themselves clean
and for removing and concealing filth,
was the home of 10S men with none OF
these appliances.
That he may figure out these proper
tions for himself, | will repeat some of
the elements of the problem: We will
say that an average city lot is so feet
front by 100 deep. This is more than
most of them have, but we will be lib
eral. This gives US surface of 3,Ooo
square feet An acre contains 43,560
square feet. Upon 13 of these acres we
had 1S,454 men. After he has found
the number of square feet that each man
had for sleeping apartment dining-room,
kitchen, exercise grounds and outhouses,
and decided that nobody could live for
any length of time in such contracted
space, | will tell him that few weeks
later double that many men were crowded
upon that space-that over $4,000 were
packed upon those 12l or 13 acres.
But | will not anticipate. With the
warm weather the condition OF the
swamp in the center of the prison be-
came simply horrible. We hear SO
much nowadays of blood poisoning
from the effluvia of sinks and sewers,
that reading it, | wonder how a man in-
side the Stockade, and into whose nos
trils came breath of that noisomeness,
escaped being carried off by malig-
nant typhus In the Shiny ooze were
billions of white maggots. They would
crawl out by thousands on the warm
sand, and, lying there few minutes,
sprout wing or pair of them. With
these they would essay clumsy flight,
ending by dropping down upon some
exposed portion of mans body, and
singing him like gad-fy. Still worse,
they would drop into what be was cook
ing, and the utmost care could not pre-
vent mess of food from being contain
mated with them.
All the water that we had to use was
that in the creek which flowed through
this seething mass of corruption, and re-
ceived its sewerage. How pure the
water was when it came into the Stock
ade was question. We always believed
that it received the drainage from the
camps Of the guards, half-a-mile away.
A road was made across the swamp,
along the dead line at the west side,
where the creek entered the pen. Those
getting water would 60 to this spot, and
reach as far up the stream as possible,
to get the water that was least filthy.
As they could reach nearly to the dead
line this furnished an excuse TO such of
the guards as were murderously inclined
to fire upon them. / think / hazard
nothing in saying that for weeks at least
one man day was killed at this place.
The murders became monotonous there
was dreadful sameness to them. A
gun would crack; looking up We could
see, still smoking, the muzzle of the
musket of one of the guards on either
side of the creek. At the same instant
would rise piercing shrek from the
man struck, now foundering in the
creek in bis death agony Then thou
sands Of throats would yell out curses
and denunciations, and
40, give the Rebel l----
a furloughl"
1t was our belief that every guard
who killed Yankee was rewarded with
a 30-day furlough. Mr. Frederick Hol-
Tiger, now of Toledo, formerly a MEM
Der of the I'D Ohio, and captured at
Guntown, tells me, as his introduction
to Andersonyille life, that few hours
after bis entry he went to the brook to
get drink, reached out too far, and
was fired upon by the guard, who missed
him, but killed another man and
wounded a second. The other prisoners
standing near then attacked him, and
beat him nearly to death, for having
drawn the fire Of tie guard.
Nothing could be more inexcusable
than these murders. Whatever defense
there might be for the firing on men
who touched the dead line in other parts
of the prison, there could be none here.
The men had no intention of escaping
they had no designs upon the Stockade
they were not leading any party to as
sail it. They were in every instance
killed in the act of reaching out with
their cups to dip up little water.
fzo be continued