Washington sentinel., 1898-08-06
Famous Men Who Know Prison I,ra
PsarSON S Weekly.

Il
PSaySOH'S Weeky.
IL seems strange to think of those
whom the world acknowledges as ts
Gus, ana whom 1t even respects, as
having been IN prison and suffered tor.
ture' doesn't il? ButIt' true, nevertbe.
less Probably the most striking case
IS that OF Lord Loeb, the late High
commissioned of the Cape.
Alter the Chinese war in the fort;es
ne had while attached to the British
Embassy there, the misfortune to be
captured by a band Of infuri ted and
ignor ntChInese. They we're savage at
the losses they had suffered, and were
ready for any brutal acts Of revenge ON
the hated English. They took Henry
Loch-as he then was-and his connan.
ION and put them both into narrow
cages lust like wild beasts in show.
ana they carried them up and down the
country, exhibiting them to the enraped
Chinese, who jeered them, mocked them
and tortured them in everv possib
way. Happily for the two unfortunates.
BRITISH soldiers were not long in coming
to the rescue when the news became
known, and they, quite contrary 20 their
own expectations, thus managed TO
escape an awful fate,
One who can tell also Of the horrors
OF foreign prisons under barbarous gov
ernment Is DR.. Wenyon, the well known
Wesleyan medical missionary. Who
that saw him sitting calmly and placldly
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 bv rude
Turkish officials while rravelhngain 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
Sultan's emissaries to secure his reIeases
The British parliament contains at
least two men who have wasted away
under the terrible regime OF English
prison life' and 10 whom, at that me,
life seemed utterly hopeless and lost.
One Of fthem, Mr.. Michael DavItt, than
whom there are few ordinary members
OF Parliament more respected both
inside and outside the House, served
long years of penal servitude from being
connected with Fenianism. How much
1t told on his physical frame no one will
ever be able to say: but il must have
been inexpressible torture to a man of
his Susceptibility and high intelligence,
and the fact OF tits no creditto England.
Another member OF Parliament, Mr.,
}. +. X. O'Brien can go still farther, and
boast OF what probably no other citizen
can-viz., that he was tried for high
treason, found guilty. and sentenced to
death as a traitor 1t is, OF course. su.
pertiuous that this barbarous mon-
strosity OF a sentence was never carried
out, though before Mr.. O'Brien obtained
his perfect freedom he had had more
acquaintance with prisons and prison
life than the average man is likely to
care for.
DIR. jameson, as everybody knows, can
boast OF an acquaintance with Holloway
Iail not inferior to that OF most men.
And, as everybody knows also, it was for
what at the worst can only be set down
as mistaken idea of colonial policy in
South Africa. 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 care
fully, under medical care, after fifteen
months sojourn in Fl. NJ. Prison at
Holloway, compared with the bronzed,
wiry looking official of the veldt whom
they had formerly known
OF Sir John WIlloughby and Major
Coventry sents need for the same cause,
but for a lesser time, one may make
similar remarks. Yet that men who
have gained high renown in fighting for
Britain's sovereign should be subjected
to such degradation as herfing with
convicts and ielons seems to suggest
something wrong in the English prison
system.
The Dowager Duchess Of sutherland
was, too, many will recollect, some
time IN prison for contempt OF court.
Holloway also was, # we are correct. her
experience ofprison hle, The lady had
destroyed some papers W ich she said
were private TO herself from the late
Duke, and which the court had ordered
to be produced. She refused to give
them up, and many people appIauded
her tor doing so. The court, however,
decided that she had treated it with
contempt, and committed her to prison.
Even as a FIRST class misdemeanant her
experiences cannot have been very
desirable.