The times., 1899-09-17
CONVICTS' DUMB SHOW.
Powers OF Secret Communication
Possessed by JniIbirds
{From Cassall's Magazinl


| A former governor Of the jail at Arm
| ley near Leeds, once caused a well-con-
Quoted prisoner, but an old jailbird, to ex-
hibit his powers as weight gauger in the
| presence of the writer. The man gave to
minute fractions of an ounce the weights
! of various objects in the office that he
handled, and in regard to prison rations.
| Intentionally short in weight, that were
brought in, his judgment was simply
wonderful. The writer afterward indie
! pendently tried the powers of a man 'solt
on license and he was just as clever
in gauging weight where the provisions
were concerned.
None but those who have to deal regu-
| larly with old prison birds know what fine
pantomimists-using the word pantomime
In its better sense of dumb show''-are
TO be found among the class; indeed the
most modern and progressive or all our
prison governors declares that no class, not
! even the professional theatrical one. pos
sesses greater powers of dumb show than
does that consisting of regular jailbirds,
and he adds that all the accomplished
habitua1 thieves that he had met were ad-
mifaple actors. Long practice and the ne
cessities of the case have no doubt given
TINS power OF dumb show pretty generally
/ to old convicts, but there are many cases
IN which man cannot only convey to
another few sentences, but whole his
{, tories, given the time, by the minutest
signs, either during the church services
or working hours or at exercise and no
plan for preventing this has ever been
found
prison chaplain of vast experience. who
was consulted by the writer on this subject.
says: "Old jailbirds can defy the vigilance
of all the warders in Europe With mouths
half open, they can speak to companion
: hard by with absolute impunity, the Iips
and lower jaws never even being moved.
Ii the companion fails to hear he indicates
! the fact by putting his finger into one ear
as though 1t were itching. Their dumb al
| phabet is marvelously complete. A prison.
er wants TO say that someone is dead He
spells the name on his fingers then rests
his head upon his hands and stamps on the
ground; So-and-So is dead and buried
Some one is imprisoned for so many years.
and this is conveyed from one prisoner to
another by the former putting as many
fingers as correspond to the years across
his ear. The man has got, three ear for
months similar sign is made on the
mouth. Coughs and sneezes of different
kinds indicate all manner of distinct things
One weli-known cough means listen. The
prisoner who gives il has received a letter;
he looks at the palm of one hand and pre-
L
got newspaper-prsoners do receive such
things sometimes / can assure you-he pre-
tends to be reading the palm of the hand
very intently. He pretends to whip to in
dicate that he has been fogged he puts his
hand on his stomach to indicate short al
lowance he has written a letter, SO he
pretends to write on his hand and then 10
throw the words into the air." And thus it
goes on through the entire chapter, abso-
! lutely genuine dumb show where no code
has been agreed upon beforehand, telling
whole histories.
large bark from Liverpool. called the
! Diomed, was, in 1892, while trading
wrecked on one of the smaller islands of
the Pacific. A great number of savages,
who seemed quite friendly, surrounded the
| shipwrecked men; but none of the latter
knew scrap of language that the natives
could understand. But one of the crew, a
middle-aged man, known as Mac the Con-
/ vict''-he was a man who had turned over
a new leaf-intimated to the captain that
! he could make the natives understand
anything, and he actually succeeded in
making communication easy on every sub
| ject required, solely by means of signs and
acting. The captain of the Diomed was
| the writer's informant, and he gave sec
| ond similar instance that was told to him
| by another shipmaster.