The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-08-19
OLD PRISON DEMOLISHED.
Passing Of the Historical Newgate
Recalls Old Memories.

Newgate prison, England's famous dun
geOn, Is being demolished to make room
Tor more modern structure Every
reader Of English fiction, every reader of
English history. almost every reader Of
English has read of Newgate. 1t was
from Newgate that Jack Sheppard made
a famous escape, and it was in Newgate
that piOuS William Penn, the founder of
Pennsylvania, was imprisoned for refus-
ing TO take an oath in court. DefOe, the
author of Robinson CTuSOe,'' was i'm
priSOned there, and did some of his
literary work within its walls.
The structure which is being demoI-
ished was built in 1880 The one that
stood on the site before was so small
and crowded that it became a regular
pesthOle, morally and physically. Not
Jail fever" but the infection reached
out from the prison to the court room
and pulled the judges from the bench.
One year two judges, the lord mayor,
sons, visitors to the court as witnesses
or spectators, died of the fever with
which the Jail reeked. So they tore dOW
the old prison and built the one they are
pulling down now.
The most notorious part of the old
prison was the Press Yard" where GER
tain prisoners were literally pressed to
death. While we are holding up our
hands in holy horror at the fiendish m
genuity of the gentle "Chink" in the
manner of disposing of his prisoners, it
would be well to remember-Or forget,
pOssibly-the custom of pressing to
death which so edited our ancestors of a
few generations ago. A man convicted Of
a felony who, in order to save his prop
erty to his family, refused to plead when
arraigned, was taken to the press yard
and "pegged out" on the stone floor. The
victim limbs We're stretched out TO the
breaking point and then heavy weights
were placed all over his body until the
life was pressed out of him.
q s4rir, irlq al
court of England, is attached to New
gate prison. or the Newgate prison is at
tached to the court and the whole 'Ou;-
fit is frequently spoken of as the Old
Bailey Public executions in front of the
Old Bailey began in 1888, and were not
abolished until 1863. The last man hanged
in front of the building was a Fenian,
Michael Barrett Great crowds used to
go to SCI executions.
When = murderers, named Holloway
and Hast y, were hanged In 1907 there
were 10000 people assembled TO see them
climb the gallOWS, and the crush was so
TO death. On occasions when some par
ticularly notorious person was to be
hanged fashionable people used to hire
windows overlooking the scene of the
execution and invite their friends to have
wine and luncheon with them while
viewing II last moments of the victims.
Forgery, Ip 10 as late as 1887, was a
capital Offense in England and whole
patches of forgers used to be swung off
together in front of Newgate The
records show that twelve, fifteen and
sometimes twenty people were executed
together there for that crime.
A day in the year 1860, the year of the
restoration to the throne of his fathers
of that noble and august rnonarch the
Merry Charles. saw in front OF the Old
Bailey an execution of British justice
which was as well attended by the
fashionable world of London as if it had
been the hanging of a wife murderer. The
heretical and seditiOus works of one
John Milton, pestilential writer of the
day, were burned by the common hang
man.
1t would have been a much more enjoy
able affair had the common hangman
been able to operate upon Milton himself,
but as from the great height of his wis
dom and glory the august Charles had
| been pleased graciously to sign an act
of amnesty the operations of which per-
mitted Milton to live. the court end of
the town had to be satisfied with seeing
the scribbler's writings burned. And the
running IRE of wit which passed between
the gallants with their plumes and curls,
high-heeled shoes and dangling swords
and the ladies in patches and powder was
as bright and warm as the fire which
consumed Paradise Lost" and The
Mask of COmus"
Having seen Milton done for and quite
obiterated, the noble company went back
! to court and his grace of buckingham
wore his diamond buttons so loosely
fastened that night that they fell on the
floor in a glittering shower when ne
| Joined the dance. All voted his grace OF
| buckingham the success of the day
As for M1ltoh-why. il had been but q
tame affair after all-the burning OF those
beoks-and they quite forgot the fellow
| several fine ladies vOwing with a lisp thai
| they would not make the Journey to New
J gate again unless there We're TO be al
/ least twenty felons executed at once.