Pike County press. (Milford, Pa.) 1895-1925, 1900-09-14
GREATEST OF PRISONS.
Years Ago II Held Thousands Of Con-
vlcts.

NA$Aos
Near the southwest corner Of the
continent of Australia nestles the little
coast town Of Fremantle, and half q
mile back Of 1t, surrounded by sand
dunes and malice scrub, is a famous
old convict -prison-the largest penal
institution in the world. And yet com
paratively few people, even in Aus
tralia, know of its existence. Western
Australia, the division in which Ere
mantle lies, was the last crown colony
of the Australasian group, and II was
not until twenty-five years ago that
the steady stream Of convict ships
ceased to touch its shores.
Old Botany Bay, near Sydney, on the
east coast, had been Britain's princi-
pal convict settlement for nearly half
century, but the rapid growth of
New South Wales and the force of
public opinion turned the place with
its grim history from a living hell to
one of the most beautiful little sub
urban cities on the continent It was
then that the town of Fremantle be-
gan to fill up rapidly, necessitatlng the
erection Of a stone Jail capable of hold
ing within its walls 28O0O convicts-
the majority Of them being probably
| the most hardened criminals of the
century. The building of this prison
was what is known as a crown job,
and, like most British public works of
that kind, was completed on honor.
Probably centuries will pass before its
solid seven-foot granite walls will
crumble or its battlements show signs
of decay.
/ Western Australia continued to
grow, and, after bearing for many
years the stigma of Convict settle
ment," was at last freed from the
stain, as her sister colony had been
| years before, the home government an,
nouncing that it would send no more OF
it's convict classes to the continent of
Australia. The day that this proclama.
tion reached Western Australia the
people began week of joyful demon
strations and fetes in celebration of
the decision And from that day, too,
they began to let the very existence OF
the place back back in the Fremantle
Hills die out of their memory.
The jailers in the prison, one to every
twenty-five convicts, were drawn ex-
clusively from the ranks of war vet
Grams. Old heroes of the Crimea and
the Indian mutiny, many of them with
their breasts covered. with clasps and
medals, went down the road to the
grave side by side with the men they
guarded. With the passing of the
years the hand of time began to lay
heavy on all alike. In 1885 there were
only about seventy veterans and four
hundred convicts left, and of these
nearly all were whlte-headed and tot
tering. Most of them hobbled slowly
round the enormous quadrangles, pot
tered about the gardens that latterly
they had been permitted to keep, and
fraternized and meditated together,
prisoners and keepers alike. Every
Saturday afternoon the veterans
dODned their threadbare and faded mill
itary uniforms, pinned on their med
ais, and, with their old flags carried
ahead, would march proudly but slow
ly down through the principal street
of the little town to the beach and
then back again "home." Cut off by
many years of absence from the old
ties and held close to their prison life
in the new colony, they had become
oblivious to everything but their old
war memories, the village paper, and
the prison.
The convicts were past all thought of
escape. Time and age had dried up
their criminal propensities, and they
were as harmless as little children, in
deed not unlike little children in many
ways. There were very few of them
that had not some black history of
shame and degradation as a prelude to
their convict life, but on the peaceful,
strange immensity of that almost
empty prison they wtre doing out their
few remaining years in pure and sim
pie living. Doll houses made from
shell, cunningly woven baskets, and
carved malice roots for sale to visitors
these things with their flower beds
took up all their time. Once, when
the Duke of Edinburgh visited Western
Australia, the guards went out in a
body to the Fremantle wharf to greet
him. leaving the prison gates open.
Half dozen of the convicts followed
the gay old fellows down to the water
and back again. All could have gone
, If they had liked, but they preferred
to stay "home" Fremantle Jail is
, probably the only penal institution in
the world where prisoners may wan.
, der in and out, bask in the sun in front
of the big frowning entrance and sill
and sleep with their backs propped up
against the outside of the walls. II
is an old mans home-without the
wrangling and diseord that usually ex,
list In those institutions.