The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-12-14
CRUEL IMPRISONMENT.
what Prisoners in Baden Have TO
Underground Even a Pinch of salt.
Karl Rlind in Cornl,iu Mapazina

What Prisoners in Baden Have TO
underground Even Pinch of salt.
Karl Blind in Cornhil Magazine.
When the cellular or Pennsylvania sys-
tenn of Imprisonment was first proposed In
Baden I happened to listen to the debates
in the House of Deputies on that subject
1t seemed to me, then, most cruelty in
human treatment even for the worst COM
mon criminals; and l wrote strongly
against it. Now I got a personal expert
ence of it for having fought in the cause
of German freedom and unity and Of the
elevation of the suffering masses to a bet
ter and nobler condition of life. The cell
1 was in at BruchsaI was but few feet
long and broad. Everything, certainly
quite clean. A strip of dimmed glass at
the top of the room formed the window,
so as to shut out the light OF heaven The
small mattress bed. in which one could not
turn, was screwed up against the wall
during the daytime from O'clock in the
morning. On the opposite wall there was
fixed a narrow board, serving as a table,
with a bench for a seat, This seat, i'm
movable like the board, was 50 placed
that the prisoner had 10 face the door
No chair. No possibility Of lying down
during the day No means of walking up
and down in this cramped room, except
at the risk of giddiness through incessant
turning. In the-door through a sliding
peep-window which could be opened only
from the outside the food was showed in
Any moment the captive could thus be in
spected. On the corridor there was mat
ting, insuring deathlilxe silence The
footsteps of the warders gliding over It
could not be heard. No sound whatever
penetrated the horrid stiffness. A demon,
>uot a human being, seemed to have in
vented this system.
Out of that little cell 1 was again not
allowed for single moment to go as long
as l was at Bruchsal. No exercise what
ever. No book; no occupa ion of any kind.
My sense of hearing had always been I'M
commonly keen, as 1t is still, even now. 1
fell the absence of all sound so painfully
that during seepless nights, or when 1
was lying half awake, the ear, craving
for some sound, became subject to a kind
OF hallucinaticn. In some nights, between
waking and seep, it was as il l heard
voices of men being strangle1. Probably
the foul air created in the narrow cell OPP
pressed the brain, and gave rise TO dis
turbing fancics. In vain did [ reason my
self out of these nocturnal horrors during
the day. Night af er night they came
back. In the underground but spacious
Casema.e of RastatI, with its holes in the
wall on one side, lis draughty door not
quite covering the upper part of the en-
brasure, ard the Mighty care ering of Ia s.,
had not had any such CHASTITY sensation.
Again, while at Bruchsal, ! could scarcely
take any food. You will die If you do
not eatp' Matt, the turnkey, kindly whis-
pered one day, through the peep-window
But l could not. The coarse dishes l got
were quite unsalted, IS II cunninsly made
to be indigestible and to bring about the
ruin of heal h. 1t was a perfect torture.
Though / had not undergone a judicial
trial yet, was, contrary to CUSTOM not
allowed anything that could have been
bought by way of relief f ON this torture,
with my own money, which had been taxi
en- away when we We're made prisoners.
1 had resolved upon bearing everything
without a word of complaint. My suffer-
ings, however, became so intense that at
last I asked for a little salt and a few
grapes after Matt himself had said that 1
would die if did not eat. But in spite of
all his sympathy he being himself
watched by fellow warders did not dare to
bring even a pinch. of salt. My request,
he said, was refused by the prison author
lilies. once during daytime, the peep-wn-
dow went up, and a Prussian officer looked
in, making some sneering remark. one
nlBht the uoor OF the SeH was HteallhAy
opened. ! then lay awake, as was 50
often the, case, though with eyes shut. A
warder stepped In with lantern, which
he suddenly held towards my face. The
fash of light was to scare me. Behind
him there came another figure, with a
hideous leer on his face. / scarcely trusted
my eyes at this latter. 1 looked closely
at the man. Yes, it was he--Massa, the
spy, who in February had betrayed us
into prison at Karlsruhe, at the very be-
ginning of the revolution. He only
glanced at me for few minutes with a
satanic expression, and then gllded silent
Iy away with the warder. This Nocturnal
apparition, theatrcally arranged, was
manifestly intended TO unhinge the mind
of a captive who was kept like a wild
beast in a cage, without bodily exercise,
and without any intellectual occupation.
So the horrible days and nights passed.