Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-06-07
SOME FAMOUS, PRISONERS.
Living Celebrities Who Have Know
Life Belsind the Bars

Life Belsind the Bars.
From Pearson's Weekly
1t seems strange to think of those whom
the world acknowledges as famous. and
whom it even respects as having been
In prison and suffered, torture, doesn't it?
But it's true, nevertheless. Probably the
most striking case is" that of Lord Loeb.
the late high commissioner of the Cape.
After the Chinese war, In the forties.
he had. While attached to the British en-
bassy there, the misfortune to be captured
by band of infatuated and ignorant Chi
nese They were savage at the losses they
mad suffered, and were ready for anv
brutal acts of revenge on the hated Eng
hsh- Ihey took Henry Loch-as he then
"aS-and his companions and put them
into narrow cages. just like wild beasts
IN show, and they carried them I'D and
down the country, exhibiting them TO the
enraged Chinese. who ieered them moclxe,i
them and tortured them in every possible
way. Happily for the two unfortunates
Brltish soldiers were 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 barbarous govern
ment is Dr. Wenyon the well-known Wes-
ieyan medical missionary. Who that saw
him sitting calmly and placidly at the Wes-
ieyan 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
travelling 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
ms friends In England brought sufficient
influence to bear upon the sultan's 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
parliament more respected,) both inside and
outside of the house. served long years of
penal serVitude from being connected with
Fenianism. How much it told on his phys
zeal frame no one will ever be able to say;
but 1t must have been nexpressible tor
ture to man of his susceptibility and
nigh intelligence. and the fact of it is no
credit to England
Announcer member of parliament, Mr.. F.
\. y Br1en. can go still further and boast
that he was tried for thigh treason" found
guilty and sentenced to death "as trail
tor! 1t Is, of course, superfuous to say
That this barbarous monstrosity of a SEN
tence was never carried out, though be-
fore Mr.. O'Brien obtained his perfect free
dom he had more acquaintance with prisons
and prison life than the average man Is
likely to care for
Dr. Jameson, as everybody knows. can
hoaSf or an acquaintance with Holloway
jail not inferior to that of most men, And
as everybody knows also. 1t was for what.
at the worst, can only be set down as
mistaken 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 mani wRo was removed SO
carefully after medical care. after fifteen
months sojourn in her majesty's prison
at Holloway, compared with the bronzed
wlry-looking ofticial, of the veldt whom they
had formerly known.
or Sir John Willoughby and Major Cow
entry, sentenced for the same cause, but
Tor lesser time, one may make similar
REMARKS Yet that men who have gained
hlsh renown In lighting for Britain's SOW
ereign should be subjected to such degra-
dation as herding with convicts and fell
ohs 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 eonterapt Of court" Holloway
also has, If We ara, correct, her experience
In prison life. Ehe 7iady had destroyed
some papers which, 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
applauded her for doing so. The court.
however. decided that she had treated 1t
with contempt and committed her to
prison. Even as a 'drst-class'' misde
meanant, her experience cannot have been
very desirable