The herald., 1898-08-02
Los ANGELES HERALD, TUESDAY MORNING. AUGUST T. 1898

contrary to their own expectations, thus
managed to escape and awful fate.
One who can tell also Of the horrors OF
foreign prisons under barbarous govern
ment is DIR. Wenyon, the well-known Yves
leyan medical missionary. Who that saw
him sitting calmly and placidly at the Wes-
leyan conference, held in Leeds some time
ago. would ever have suspected that the
minister with the thoughtful face ana
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
Turkish prison house, there to languish IN
utmost torture, physical and mental. until
his friends in England brought sufficient In
fiuence to bear upon the suitan's emssafies
to secure his releasey
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, Michael Davitt, than whom
there are few ordinary members of parlia-
ment more respected, both inside and cut
side the house, served long years In penal
servitude from being connected with Fen
ianism. How much II told on his physical
frame no one will ever be able to say. but
1t must have been inexpressibie torture 10
man of HIS susceptibility and high inteli,-
gence, and the fact OF 1t Is no credit to Eng
land.
Another member Of parliament, Mr. ].
r. X. O'Brien, 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 las traitor!' 1t IS, OF course, super
fiuous to say that this barbarous monstros-
ty of sentence was never carried out,
though before Mr.. O'Brien obtained his
perfect freedom he had had more acquaint-
ance with prisons and 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
at the worst can only be set down as a mis-
taken idea of colonial policy for 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 re-
moved so carefully, under medical care, at
ter fifteen months sojourn in her majesty's
prison at Holloway, compared with the
bronzed, wiry-lookng official Of the veldt
whom they had formerly known.
OF Sir John Willoughby and Major Gov
entry, sentenced for the same cause, but
for lesser time one may make similar re-
marks. Yet that men who have gained high
renown in fighting for Britain's sovereign
should be subjected to such degradation
as herding with convicts and felons seems
to suggest something wrong in the English
prison system.
The dowager duchess Of Sutherland was.
too, as many will recolect. some time in
prison for contempt of court" Holloway
also was, If we are correct her experience
In prison life. The lady had destroyed some
papers which she said were private to her
self from the late duke, and which the
court had ordered to be produced. She re-
fused to give them up. and many people
applauded her for doing so. The court, how
ever, decided that she had treated 1t with
contempt" and committed her to prison
Even as "first-class" misdemeanant her
experiences cannot have been very desira-
ble.-Pearson's Weekly.