The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-07-10
THE OLD PROVOST PRISON.
HISTORICAL ASSOCIATIONS OF
 HALL OF RECORDS,
Where Patriots Were Confined in the
 RevoIutt0n.

" 1+ 4>AAAN4A NAE5A4lEs I4A A%-~ the old Hall of Records recently un- earthed several bones which upon closer | inspection were pronounced by the in telligent janitor, James McGuinnes. to be those of the forearm of a human be- ing. The bones are now in his posses sion, and in order to prevent their es- cape by natural or supernatural means MT. McGuinnes has locked them up in one of the pigteonholes of his desk.
 The discovery of the bones at time when the city authorities have decided not to permit the destruction Of the building in the path of the rapid tran sit subway. but to let it stand as mu- scum of revolutionary relics after the registers office is transferred to the new Hall of Records, recalls the earlier his tory of the structure. which was built originally as a debtors prison. It Is also believed that when the workmeh of the rapid transit construction com pany begin to burrow under the build ing other like finds will be made.
 Jim" McGuinnes, the present care taker of the old edifice, was preceded py Patrick Kane, who is now stationed Tn the service of the city as the Janitor or the First district court. at Prince ana Wooster streets. Kane asserts that he has even more direct proof of the deaths of unfortunate inmates of the prison than their bones. He says that on certain nights when storm was brewing he used to hear low moans as from spirits moving about in the cav , ernous depths of the hall. Since the te- form administration has come into the possession of the city government the moans are said to have ceased, although neither Kane nor McGuinnes has been able to explain why.
 Both the bones and the alleged moans can easily be associated with the early history of the old building, when 1t was used as a military prison by the Eng. 1 fish. Originally built as deptors 1 prison, in or about the year l756' It was used by the British army as soon as 1t took possession of the city, in August, l 1776, for it's prisoners of war.
 The prison was placed in charge or the infamous Provost Marshal Cunning ham, and it was thereafter called the Provost prison. It became the princi- nal military prison, although because or the number of "rebel' prisoners. the old Bridewell, which was at that tune part ly completed and stood between the present City Hall and Broadway, the sugar houses, several churches, Colum- hia college and the abandoned half rotten hulks of ships of war in the pay were also pressed into service.
 "The Provost" with it's particular tortures, however, was reserved for tne most important prisoners of war. AL one time Ethan Allen was one Of the unfortunate men who were penned Tn behind it's grated windows. Aitnoush not exposed to the disease and pestl- Hence which prevailed in the holds or the prison ships in Wallabout bay, never theless the inmates of "the Provost" are said to have suffered worse things from the insolence and unmixed cruelty or their tyrant, Cunningham. Among
 some of the instruments Of torture
 which he utilized in breaking the wilis
 of the stubborn Yankees" were soaring
 irons, the sat-o -nine-tails and a
 "slow" gallows. In the basement Of the
 building at the present time a Vlsltor
 can see a low vaulted arch, where the
 slow" gallows hung. This instrument
 of death was distinguished from the or
 dinarv gallows by permitting the moose
 to tighten around the neck ot the Vic-
 tim slowly, and thus lengthen out the
 agony of strangulation.
 On overly side as one walks about Ill
 the basement of the building are signs
 of the past The space is divided OH
 into separate cells, the roofs or WHICH
 are arched, and the walls built or mas
 sive masonry. In cell at the north-
 east corner of the basement can De seen
 large excavation in the thick brlcK
 wall where some revolutionary prison
 CTS once attempted an escape. The uh-
 fortunates were discovered. however
 before they had burroWed through the
 mass of masonry, and they were all ex'
 ecuted by the "slow" gallows, and, It IS
 said were buried under the floor Of the
 dungeon. Reference to such deeds as
 this at the hands of the cruel cunning
 ham is to be found in the following
 which is said to have been his dyne
 confession. uttered at Tyburn, England
 shortly after his return to that country
 .J shudder to think of the murders have been accessory to- botn Wltn ant without orders from government, espec' iallv while in New York. during whlci
 lime there were more than two thou
 sand starved in the churches by stop : hing their rations, which sold. There l were also two hundred and seventy-fiv' t American prisoners executed, nuns without ceremony, and then buried o' l the Black Pioneer of the Provost.
 , Many English writers, however nav 3 contended that the so-called con1essloi 7 is a fabrication and insist that Gun ) ningham died peacefully many year y later in a country home.
 g The Provost prison of revolutionar' 5 times was considerably different Tn out . ward design from the present edince e It was surmounted by belfry, and tn |, grim, gray walls were bare Of the Dorl e pilasters of the present building. Tn r British strengthened the building D ,. the erection of barricades between tn e external and internal Hobbies, an
 grated doors were placed at the foot e the stairs, where sentinels were sta o toned day and night. On the right c q the main hall was the marshols room l, and opposite was the chamber or Ill s deputy, O'Keefe.
 d The northern half of the second t1oc y was ironically termed Congress Hall
 1,n In1 r.