The Houston daily post. [volume] (Houston, Tex.) 1886-1903, 1898-04-17

Tgy rope to shreds
| We sowed the sncks. we brofeY
We turned the dusty drill;
| we banged the tins, and drawlad thu hymna.
! And sweated on the mill;
But IN the heart OF every man
Terror was lying still.
SO still 1t lay that every day
Srawled like q. weed clogged wAvet
And we forgot the bitter lot
That waits for fool or knave.
TIL once. as We tranped In from work
we passed an open grave
The lines in the second stanxa Of the fore
II reads: =
We tore the larry rope to shreds
With blunt and bleeding nails
This undoubtedly refers 10 the picking of
oakum, one Of the prison tasks. The prisoners
are given daily four pounds OF old discarded
snips ropes. These have been tarred and
often retarred, ind, by the long action of
the sea water, are rendered almost as hard
as rock With no tools whatever the pris-
oners are required TO pick these ropes to
pieces In strands as fine almost rs hair; in
fact. to reduce the ropes to the state In which
the hemp or fax was before IL was made into
rope. The only way this can be done is by
softenng the tar of the ropes by friction The
prisoner first beats the rope for some time
on tho cell floor to loosen the several smaller
ropes of which big rope is composed, then
he has to take the small rope and rub ii
with the palm of his hands until by friction
he has so warmed the tar MS to be pliable,
and then with the fingers and nails he has TO
reduce the rope to each separate strand. This
is rough on the hands, even to one who Is
mead t,tx
are horny and ''corned." 1t is much more
so TO one who. like Oscar Wilde, has hands as
soft as velvet. To such when picking oakum
the nails are soon worn down to the quick
and useless and the hands are soon sore and
lacerated Prisoners are expected TO pick
four pounds OF oakum in the day To do
this he must be an expert and industrious.
For time the prisoner is excused If he does
not complete his task or pick 1t fine enough,
but after that time allowance, II he does not
do it be may be put In a dark cell ana fed
on bread and water. The treEdmill is the
hardest of all prison tasks and after that is
oakum picking Indeed oakum, in some
measures, is the worse. The man at the
treadmill is employed with mary. others in
what is known as the wheel house.
whereas the oakum picker works in his cell
and is therefore mere in close confnmenet
Oakum, when 1t is properly prepared, is used
for the caulking of ships.
The "open grave" referred to in the last
StltNllOu WAS thdb lUI tue muir
derer The custom In England is different
to what prevails here Vixen n man is exc
cuteo for murder his body is not, under any
circumstances given to friends or relatives
1t is buried in the precincts OF the prison
upon n bed OF quicklime, then the body is
covered with Quickline and the whole is
thoroughly saturated with water before the
grave Is filled in with earth. The body is
speedily destroyed by the lime and all chance
of rosuscitating the man Is gone.
During the banging, which always occurs
at n. m. on the date named, aud until noon
the prisoners are confined to their cells. In
the afternoon they at their various duties
again, and the grave filled In shows them
thai the prisoner has paid the penalty of his
crime.
That right is one of terror to the prisoners
who are naturally towards and fearful OF
death. The awful fate of their comrade strikes
terror to their souls, and even the poet lett
It, and he thus describes the forms OF fear
and evil that haunted him. but he oynically
says:
"Oho," they cried ''tie world is wids.
{SAySut fottpred limbs go tame