Courier Democrat. (Langdon, N.D.) 1891-1920, 1899-02-09

..Not vet, though we have often
threatened to do 1t. Hitherto the threat
has proved sufficient"
/ was, next taken into the kitchen
and shown the food served out to the
prisoners. 1t seemed to me OF fair
quality, but I could imagine that it
would be q long time before men &C.
customed to luxury could bring them
selves to touch 1t, much less to eat It
with relish.
You would like to see the men at
work, wouldn't you4" asked my guide;
and on my saying that would, he
took me out of side door. at once
found myself in a passage some twenty
feet wide. the walls Of which were ut
least ten feet high. There was no
roof to this passage, the object OF
which I saw was to isolate the prls-
oners as they went to and from thelr
work, and prevent any chance OF es'
cape.
We went up this queer alley for per-
haps a quarter of mile, and then Won
Mitschka suddenly stopped. stopped,
also, and peered over his shou4oet.
This was what saw
In the bottom Of q natural houoW
fifty or sixty yards below me, We're
some twenty men, most OF them WesI-
ing chains, hard at work excavat1ng
the granite which formed the SUD-
stance Of the hill. Some were boring
holes for the blasting powder, others
were dragging with ropes at the huge
fragments which former explosion
had dislodged, others were W1eid1ng
the chisel and mallet. The labor-mas-
ter, as took him to be, was sitting on
a. rock in the middle OF the laborers, q
rifle laying at his side. And upon
knobs, from which the Whole area OF
the quarry could be commanded, sen
tries were posted. Each man had MS
bayonet fixed, and Il had no doubt) d
ball cartridge in his rifle. Not sound
of any kind except the faint, metaHlc
tap-tap-tap-of the mallets, feacheo
the ear. They were silent as SOUS IN
Durcatory toiling in expiration OF Chelr
sins.
For some time l stood watching the
terrible scene. To witness forced Ia
Dor is as painful as it is to witness any
other form of human suffering. 1t Is,
to a sensitive and generous mind, oas-
moor at their unending toll, and rne re-
Election that they have IN every, o.
very nearly every, case r1chly deserveu
their fate, does but little to lessen the
regret, and nothing to lessen the plty,
with which we regard them. But mere
were men who, according 70 uhe ac-
cented rules Of human conduct, were
innocent. No properly constutupeo trl.
bunal had condemned them. They ha0
but done their duty; and If, In some
cases they had done 1t in a harsh anu
offensive manner, this, surely, was e4-
cssiye punishment for such an oHense.
Looking up suddenly, 1 FOUND chas
NV companions eyes were hXed on NY
face. l could guess that he mad peen
reading my thoughts
"You must not imagine" he sald,
gravely, "that these men, many OF
whom are now engaged in honest coli
for tie first time in their lives, are all,
or nearly all, men of family and posi-
tion. such as your friend, the Prince.
Several of them are eX-turnkeys, con-
yicted of cruelty to the prisoners they
had in their charge. Some few are con-
yicted spies. And in our code OF ethlcs
the man who pays a spy is eXactly OIL
the same level as the spy himselt-ex-
cent that he generally has not got
tenth part Of the spy's brains. What
he does for another is quite the same
as if done for himself. We make no
distinction between the governor who
71ses these Infamous instruments and
the instruments themselves. There is
not a man there" cried Won Mltschka,
md
right hand toward the hollow, VINO
does not richly deserve, not the h1e OF
labor, merely, but death itself. Not II
man of them all who under a just sys-
TEN Of government, Wo'n0 not nave
forfeited his life A more splendid act
Of retribution, more just pun1shneht
Of guilty men who thought themselves
secure to work their own cruel Will OH
their helpless fellow creatures, mas
never been witnessed since the crea-
ton of the world"'
IF there was something theatrical in
the chiefs words and bearing, there
was, at the same time, something I'M
nressive in his boast; and was
forced to own to myself that, granting
that the facts were as he stated them,
there was a great deal to be said OF his
view of the case.
I said nothing, however, and Won
Mitcshka, making no further remark,
turned on his heel and led the way to
the prison.
Rnt he walked with downcast head,
and I felt tolerably certain that his
thoughts were still busy with the same
subject.
As we reached the prison he stopped
and looked me straight in the race,
Will, a defiant air, as IL had in some
way contradicted or opposed him, and
said:
"What is the difference between this
convict settlement and that OF any otn'
er in the world"
eWhy. for one thing, I suppose IN
other prisons the culprits have been
regularly tried and sentenced" re-
piled. y
"But not by a regularly eonstituted
tribunal"
What do you mean by regularly
constituted?' o,.
serhat question would take us back
to the origin Of human society, and
tho chief TOW.