The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-12-04
FAMOUS PRISONERS.
Living Celebrities Who Have known
Life Behind the Bars.
Pearson's Weekly.


1t seems strange to think of those whom
the world acknowledges as famous. and
Wnom 1t even respects, as having been IN
it's true. nevertheless Probably the most
striking case is that of Lord Loeb, the late
nigh commissioner of the Cape
After the Chinese war in the forties he
had, while attached to the British embassy
there, the misfortune to be captured by
band of Infatuated and ignorant Chinese
Iney were savage at the losses they had
suffered, and We're ready for any brutal acts
Cf revenge on the hated English. They took
Henry Loch-as he then was-and his COM
panlon and put them both into narrow
cages, just like wild beasts in a show, and
they carried them up and down the coun
try.> exhibiting them to the enraged Chi
nese, who jeered them, Knocked them and
tortured them in every possible way. Hap
ply Tor the two unfortunates, British sol
ulefS We're not long in coming to the rescue
when the news became known, and they
quite contrary to their own expectations
thus managed to escape an awful fate.
One who can tell also of the horrors of
foreign prisons under the barbarous gov
eminent is DIR. Wenyon, the well-known
saw him sitting calmly and placidly at the
wesleyan Conference, held in Leeds some
time ago. would ever have suspected that
the minister with the thoughtful face and
sweet, kindly expression. had once been
seized by rude Turkish officials while trav
cling in the Euphrates district of Asia
MINOR and thrown into the awful cell OF a
Turkish prison house, there to languish in
utmost torture, physical and mental, until
his friends in England brought sufficient
influence to bear upon the Sultans ennis
saries to secure his release?
The British Parliament contains at least
two men who have wasted away under the
terrible regime of English prison life and to
Whom, at that time, life seemed utterly
hopeless and lost.
One of them Mr.. Michael Davitt, than
whom there are few ordinary members of
Pertinent more respected, both inside and
outside of the House, served long years OF
penal servituds from being connected with
FenianiSm. How much it told on his phys
ical frame no one will ever be able to say;
but it must have been ineXpressible torture
to a man of his susceptibility and high in
telligence, and the fact of it is no credit to
England
Another member of Parliament. Mr.. f.
x. OBrien, can go still further, and boast
of what probably no other citizen can, VIZ.
that he was tried for high treason, found
guilty, and sentenced to death, as
traitorp 1t is. of course, superf1uous to say
that this barbarous monstrosity of Il SEN
tence was never carried out, though before
Mr.. O'Bren obtained his perfect freedom he
had more acquaintance with prisons ana
prison life than the average man is likely
to care for.
Dr. Jameson. as. everybody knows, can
boast of an acquaintance with Holloway
jail not inferior to that of most men. And
as everybody knows also, it was for what
al the worst can only be set down as mis-
taken idea of colonial policy in South At
RIGA. Those who saw the doctor before his
trial, and those who saw him after, could
scarcely recognize the same individual IN the
feeble, wan-lOoking man who was removed
so carefully, after medical care, after fiji
prison at Holloway, compared with the
bronzed wiry-looking official of the veldt
whom they had formerly known.
OF Sir John Wioughby and Major Cow
entry, sentenced for the same cause but
for lesser time, one may make similar re-
marks Yet that men who have gained high
r6nown in lighting for Britain's sovereign
should be subjected to such degradation as
herding with convicts ana felons seems to
suggest something wrong in the English
prison system.
The dowager Duchess of Sutherland was.
too, as many will recollect, some time in
prison for contempt of court" Holloway
also was. if we are correct, her experience
of prison life. The lady had destroyed some
papers which she said were private TO her
self and the late duke, and which the court
had ordered to be produced. She refused to
give them up and many people applauded
her for doing so. The court, however, de-
cided that she had treated it with con
tempt" and committed her to prison. even
as a first class misdemeanant her expert
ence cannot have been very desirable.