The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-11-12
MANILA JAIL
DOORS open.
PROMPT LIBERATION OF PRISON.
ERS BY OUR FORCES.
Pitiful Cases OF Oppression and In
justice Revealed by Exam1natiOn
The War ON Women for Resist
ing the s.Army of Spainr-Capt.
Moffett's Work of Setting Free
Political Prdsoners-Many Pa
thetic StorieA Brought Out-Fhe
Prisons of the City and the Way
They We're Conducted. gu

A0Cy !" ere SOAOuCSCsls
In the ordinary course of the occupa-
ton of the city by our forces an investi-
cation of the character and the inmates
Of the Spanish prisons began, says Ma
nila letter to the New York sun So much
had been known before Of the way In
which Spaniards treat their prisoners that
there naturally was little delay. and as
soon AS Col Reeve WAS fairly settled IN
his office as chief of police he recon-
mended to Gen. Macarthur the appoint
ment. of Capt. w. P. Moffett, A company,
First North Dakota volunteers, as gen
eral superintendent of prisons. The ap-
pointment was made, and Capt. Moffett
at once began his work. 1t took very
short time to develop state Of atLalrs
which it will be difficult for Americans IN
their quiet homes under a free flag to
comprehend.
There are two principal prisons in Ma
nall used by the Spaniards for the in
generation of persons accused In the or
binary way, or of persons OF small I'M
portance. For those accused OF graver
offenses,e or those who had great wealth
or political Importance or possibilities, the
military prison of S1a t.ago was reserved,
with it's horrors, Which rival the dread
full black hole of Calcutta The two main
civil prisons, as they were called, al
though military and political prisoners
were 1nCdrCeTaCeu tAeie, dIe I1iO L hootoAO
and the Bilibid, or Carcel Publica de Ma
Mia. These are supplemented by the va
rious smaller prisons In the police sta-
tions and the different government build
ings each with its barred-windowed room
where victims SA<aoficial disfaVor might
be deprived of tight and air. -
The Spanish officials We're still IN
charge Of the Preside and .Bilibid pris-
ons-as in fact, they are yet, nomlnally
when Capt. Moffett took charge The
first work of the new superintendent, or
governor, was to call on the Spanish off,
cials and inform them very definitely
that he was the ruler Of the prisons from
that time forth, and that they must do
nothing without his knowledge and con-
sent It took some little time for that
idea to get clear through Spanish intelli-
gence, but it did at last. Capt. Moffett
is young man and not Of heroic stature
He was dressed in a well-worn, blue
trimmed linen uniform that most Of our
officers wear here. He had too much
work to do and too few uniforms to keep
them always in the spotless, faultless
condition Of the average indolent Span
. lard. Besides, he was only a captain;
whereas the governor Of the prison under
the benefcent and wen-bribed rule of AL.
gustin and Jaudenes was a command
ante, who had on his staff captain and
q temiente. The oommandante with his
gold braid and fine cap decorated with
plain little American captain by several!
grades and numbers, in his own est1ma-
ton, at least, and he was displeased at
being required thus to submit to the au-
thority of a subordinate. " ! (.
But the young man from North Dakota
soon Convinced his excellency, DON Com
mandante, that although he wore only a
captains shoulder straps he represented
in his official capacity and person the
sovereignty of 5000, 900 American free
IL. :. >l1I
need be, the powers of that great nation,
demonstrated for the Spaniard's unbelief
by the presence of $4,000 or $4,000 great
husky, hardy, rough-hewn fellows In
brown canvas, white canvas, yellow
khaki and blue flannel, parading, loaf1ng,
s1ouching, marching about the streets of
the conquered city. SO the don COM
mandante came down.
The first job Capt. Moffett: gave the
spaniard was the compilation of muster
roll of his prisoners In the presidio and
Biltbid prisons alone $500 persons were
confined, men, women, children and ba-
bies. Capt. Moffett required the roll to
show the name of each prisoner, the date
of Incarceration, the charge, and the court
which disposed of the case. Also he re-
Quired the original commitment papers in
each case The Spaniards are very handy
about keeping records. They write vol
umes about the most trivial matters and
file everything away in their archives.
Tons and tons of stuff have been thrown
away by the Americans to make room for
storehouses for the commissaries' and
uuartermas The records were so
desired by Capt. Moffett was simply a
question of time. That is a great factor
in any Spanish transaction. 1t took the
governor four days to meet the REQUIRE
ments of the young man from North
Dakota, but when the ron was finished
- TO %ho tom, ne he
American captain was so swift that it
astonished the Spaniard.
The first roll rendered was OF the per-
sons confined In the Bilibid prison, and it
Is with them that this story deals. There
were twenty-eight women and 300 men.
Inspection Of the Bilibid rather pleasantly
surprised Capt. Moffett. We have AN
heard so much of Spanish cruelty that he
expected to find a horde Of half-starved.
filthy, abject wretches, crowded into dark
damp, foul, ill-smelling holes and sub
jected to all manner of desperate treat
ment and torture, surrounded by armed
tassassfns called guards, eager to shoot
them down for the first suspicion of an. in
fraction Of the rules Well, ITO the credit
of the Spaniard, it was not SO.
The Bilibid prison Is a large, fairly
comfortable place.. The buildings are
something like the military barracks, and
there Us ample ground around them to
give the prisoners exercise a high, solid
stone wall, Undiscovered and dingy with
age and damp, surrounds a plot of perhaps
twelve acres. There rs big iron double
gate with guard posts, but there are nc
other sentry boxes outside the wall.
Ranged along the inside Of tine wall, near
its top, at wide intervals are a few bam-
bee scaffolds where the occasional senti-
nels used to walk back and forth.
There were two astonishing things
about the Bilibid prson-it was clean and
there was very little cruelty In the form
OF personal bodily violence Prisoners
were not beaten or shot. There were q
few guards and they were not armed with
rifles. There was plenty OF water and
the prisoners could battle frequently
and keep their clothes in good co ndition
They were well fed, also, that Is they go1
plenty Of food, such as it was. It was Of
about the same character that natives
have in their own homes, and as most
OF the prisoners were natives they sui
fered no particular hardship from change
of diet or scant food. They were fed BY
Chinese contractor, who got 121a cents 9
s day, silver, for each prisoner. The aver
age native Will get along on half that Il
he can spend It himself
The buildings of the prison are long
marrow structures of brick with tile
roofs. There are eight or nine all told
y inside the wall, most of them radiatine
from the main gate something like the
sticks OF an open fan. Across the ends
of fhes6 fan-sack buildings run two
4 Rthera and ia corner Of the wall t,,As,l
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