The San Francisco call., 1897-06-06

!
man in the State; he feels doubly so now,
for is his next victim not 10 be The GRIM
inai of the century?
But it was nothing more sensational
! than the strike that constituted my mis-
! sion. 1t was the secondary consideration
the 1900 men who, though bound in
every way, confined by walls twenty feet
! in height and four or five feet in thickness.
with guards that paced back and forth
/ among them, with armed guards on the
walls and Calling guns manned above
/ them, awaiting only the slightest orders
from the captain.
! With the knowledge that every armed
man was an unerring shot, and that if the
! Calling guns from the hills were trained
on them not one could escape instant
death, these men rebelled. Nay, and
more. Knowing that every movement of
theirs-indeed, every thoug ght-would be
wrecked a dungeon.
1t was desperation, of course, and mere
brute force; but it was force.
Oae dare not pass the iron gates now,
not even to visit the wrecked and empty
dungeons. But we walked up in the dim
halt light 10 the crest of the hill and
looked down.
The scene was beautiful beyond de-
scription. The tide was slipping lazily
out to the sea beyond, Iaus ing lightly to
itself the while. Over. :he fair brown hills,
with their canyons OF deep dense green,
the evening stars brgh tened perceptibly.
The warm cir, laden with the breath of
| flowers, stole up all about Us. For
moment nature seemed appalling. Sud
]
below, one voice pealed forth, followed so
quickly by a thousand more, that the
very air shivered and shrank beneath the
! sound.
Come" said my companion quickly,
"come away, they have seen u.s." We
| turned back, but not in time to escape
! those below. They jeered and screamed
and shouted like madmen. Their voices
deep, or shrill, or clear, rang out around
that far place like a blight of sln-a
! cashing. blasting discord in the midst of
! the music of heaven. All at once they
shouted, in such wild tumble of words
that the horror of what they said was
| drowned in the dread of the noise, ana it
! was only when they screamed out in the
! pauses, a few at a time, that the mind
conceived the meaning of their words.
Even then they were so vile, so incon-
ceivably vile. that it was sickening to
realize that human lips could pronounce
or human minds conceive such filth.
But as We hurried away silenced
and dazed by what we had heard.
the men paused and We caught their
| laughter Then a shrek went up, such
as a company OF the lost might have
uttered. 1t was different from the o her
sounds, but that which followed was no
! less horrible; for the oaths and curses
and blasphemes fell from women's lips.
They howled exutantly like hyenas in
the dead of night and laughed with laugh
| ter that was only shrieking, and the
world seemed filled with demons.
Darkness had settled about US, yelling
natures fairness. And most fitting it
| was in that hour, when degradation was
| belching forth such filth.
| We passed down the walk and up to the
prison doors. We climbed the stairs of
the building and stood looking down
upon the prison court. bounded on one
side by the tanks whence came those
sounds born OF HELM fact, 1 fancy that
fend would shudder at them-on the
other by the women's wards.
Straight across al the far side were the
dining room, kitchen and the hospitals,
and beyond, standing tall and clear, the
building where the death cell and the