The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-11-23
TODAY IS AN
OPEN DATE,

If what was testified to by witnesses
in the prison inquiry yesterday is true,
Nero has been playing a "con game"
en- that tickle goddess Fame; -s
| Caligulas reputation as an inventor
of intricate cruelties was built upon
the lies of gullible historians;
Wirz, of Andersonville fame, was but
| an artisan in inhumanity.
The real artist; the man who revels
in human cruelty; glories in the suffer
| ing of the individual; rejoices in the
manacle and the shackle; prides him
self on the unpleasantness of his di-
Vertisements; the artist in the refine
ment of modern cruelty bears no clas-
sic Roman cognomen.
! A tender-hearted guard, sickened by
| the plaintive appeals of captive hang
! ing on the barred door of the solitary,
is startled, he says by the deputy war
| den's confession that he enjoys those
! things.
! A humble convict; the erring scion
| of a race that has never risen to great
( heights; a comparatively untutored
black, tells a pathetic story of an as
sault on a consumptive prisoner, not
with the fists, but with the foot, soon
after which, if not as a result Of which,
the patient is subjected to a dangerous
! surgical operation, and
The hospital records show that this
man, whether his malady was the re-
suit of his own sin through the direct
workings Of natures laws, or through
the governmental intervention of penal
authorities and relentless executors,
| died in a few months in hospital out
side the prison walls
1t is esteemed cruel to maltreat those
who are within ones power, even
though they be physically worthy foes;
but when frailty is imposed upon hu-
man nature generally reVolts
The information ELECTED by the pris-
on Investigating commission in its seS-
sion at Minneapolis yesterday was
drawn from three widely separate
walks in life.
The first witness was negro, a con-
vict, committed 20 prison, for desert
ing from the United States army when
| he found patriotism more than a sentl-
ment; a man employed now as menial.
But there Shone through his testi-
mony, as far as it related to personal
matters, at least, the light of truth,
| for he had been the trusted messenger
of the deputy warden, who is generally
credited with being the heart and soul
| of the offending, if such there has been,
at the state prison.
The second witness was an eX-guard
"a young man of grit, of strong likes
! and dislikes, according to his own ad-
mission; prejudiced perhaps as to per-
sonal issues, but definite as to circum-
! stances, and with a vast fund of in
| formation.
The third witness was found in the
! professional ranks, young physician,
| Just recently graduated with honor
from the medical department of the
| states own university.
From these variant sources was the
testimony drawn which indicated that:
Kicking frenzied and consumptive
convicts;
Denying water to manacled prisoners
! undergoing punishment;
Dragging a rheumatic invalid down
flights of stairs;
Beating aged convicts over the head
with clubs
Are a few of the pastimes, if such
they may be called, in which one at
least of the officials of the Minnesota
penitentiary finds enjoyment.
From the above general premises it
may be gathered that the first day of
the second week of the Minnesota
! prison inquiry was not dull, nor fiat,
nor stale. The profit perhaps may be
| better weighed when all the testimony
| that may tend to support or to con-
| trOvert the testimony Of yesterday
shall be in: when all the motives of
! witnesses shall have been weighed,
and the things similar and things dis
similar arranged in order by those who
are familiar with all that the inquiry
may elicit
| Briefly summarized the results of
! Yesterday NAV thus be summed uD.
The negro convict narrated a story
apparently free from personal preju-
dice, definite as to incident. and hazy
as to dates on which the witness as
| sumed no eXpertness.
The ex-guard betrayed an enthu-
siasm that those whom it hurt, wheth-
er rightly or not, considered enmity
he admitted an animus that was ap-
parent, but maintained the essentials
OF a story that was really tragic.
The physician, an unwilling witness,
for personal reasons, reluctantly testi-
fed only in response to diligent in
uuiry to facts that indicated, infer
entially at least, brutalities deeper
and darker than those he revealed.
He, too, admitted some slight personal
animus, but was practically mistaken
as to actual facts or incidents.
Today the commission will rest and
tomorrow the inquiry will be resumed,
again in Minneapolis.
TESTIMONY OF THE DAY.