The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1902-05-10
NEWFOUNDLAND
Crime Hardly Known Among Its
100000 Inhabitants

St. Johns On: F.. Dispatch to New York Sun
The criminal statistics of Newfoundland for
1901 have just been published. Probably. not
another community Of 100000 people fin the
world shows SO clean a. record.
lit is practically a ,crirneless country. The
calendar shows no murder. manslaughter, no
forgery, no burglary no barretry, no other
crime Of a>serious nature. The colonial peni-
Tertiary has had an average of only thirty
prisoners daily for the year, and only six
of these have had. Sentences exceeding half a
year. ,a,o.
There have been only three murders. in New
foundland: in thirty. years. In each case the
offender was hangedr One manslaughter case
occurred fifteen years ago, and the prisoner
got a life sentence. ~ - ~.
After serving three years he was set to
work one morning outside of the prison
grounds, and the warden went in to get his
breakfast. When he returned the, prisoner
was gone, and has never been recaptured.
The Observation-Disclosures are a curious COM
pound. They have all the Irish hatred of an
inforner and the same eagerness to thwart
the officers Of the law. Hence this fleeing
criminal was aided in every way until he
was put on board fishing vessel bound for
Boston, where he settled down. -
The next case of manslauchter shows the
reverse conditions. 1t was that of the mate
of q schooner convicted with the captain of
causing the death of sailor By brutality.
He was sentenced to five years. One dav he
ESCAPED. = -.#.
The Newfoundlanders felt that his punish
ment was deserved. and while none would
inform on him none would shelter him. He
was hunted down after a week, starving and
footsore, and hauled back to his cell. In both
these cases. a reward of $500 was offered for
information leading to the capture of the
fugitive :, but nobody sought it, although
\ 81 ty,r6 dc we in no nref
Almost all the prisoners in the penitentiary
last year were, as has been said, convicted
of petty offenses. The foreign sailors who
visit ST. Johns and, when intoxicated. try to
take charge Of the place, are responsible for
about one-third Of the convictions within the
city.
One of the most amusing incidents in the
history Of the prison occurred about five
years ago. It is not uncommon for people to
break cut CT jail. but this case was one Of
breaking in. A prisoner. recently released;
returned one night in a tinsy mooa. broke
through a window to carry whisky and tobac-
co to his old cellmate, and robbed the prison
larder to get supper for himself. ninety
days sentence was his ultimate reward
The island has tut one town. St. Johns;
population 10000 All the other communities
are fishing villages, some of 5000 people, 9TH
ers of 500 others of but fifty. In The larger
of these outports are magistrates and jails.
In one outaort the taller was wont to let
his prisoners out daily to till their gardens
or dry their fish, they returning at nightfa1l
to be locked up. But one dag a SCAMP be-
trayed his confidence and escaped and more.
stringent rule was enforced
Another odd circumstance in an outport Jail
was the case of a man without family or
friends, VINO, after being imprisoned for two
months for deserving from the fishery, liked
his prison quarters so well that when his
tenn expired he refused to leave, and the
police had to be called to eject him. He re-