The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1905-07-06
CONVICTS ARE
STRUNG TO WALL
Thirty Inmates of Utah State Peni-
tertiary Go on Strike.
PROMPT MEASURES USED
UNRULY ONES ARE HANDCUFFEO
IN STANDING POSITION.

- To them by the state of Titan
was wholly inadequate To their
needs. poorly cooked and indiherently
served. about thirty convicts at the
state prison went on strike yester-
day morning. BY midnight all but
twenty had surrendered Eighteen OF
the twenty are at present handcuffed
10 the walls of cells in the lower tier
of the south cell house and TWO others
are in the dark cells. The twenty are
sockless and deprived OF locomotive
powers, but they are not gagged
Their voices raised singly and in con-
cert. We're stnl abusing the fresh can
yon breeze a. midnight as they chortted
in demOniac glee or showered coarse
pleasantries and dire maledicuOns on
the warden and other officials OF the
prison
Disturbers Placed in Duress.
The trouble. which had been brew
ing for some weeks. broke out about
S O'Clock yesterday morning, just att
er the men had finished breakfast. The
insurrectos in the shop gangs refused
TO go to work and endeavored TO SOW
the seed of discomfort among the out
side gangs. but with Indifferent sue
cess However, over thirty refused
TO work Warden Arthur Pratt went
to the men individually, asked the
cause of the complaint and persuaded
all but twenty to submit The twenty
remained Obdurate- Gentle means did
not prove of avail and steTner meas
ureS were employed. The lower tier
o. cells on the north side of the south
cell house was cleaned out and the
disturbers were placed in these cells
They got noisy early. shouting to other
cOnVicJS TO join in the riot. BY beat
ing the doors and walls of their cells,
stamping on the floor with their shoes
and shrieking at the top of their
voices they succeeded in raising a ter
rible racket
The prison officials decided early in
the afternoon that heroic measures
! would be necessary.
Handcuffed and Kept Standing.
At $3.50 o'clock the twenty We're placed on
bread and waited diet. Each got two
slices of bread and some water AT that
hour Early in the evening their supply
of water was cut off. and about o'clock
force of guards, under the personal dl-
rectiOn Of the warden. entered the cell
house and proce ded to manacle the un-
ruly cOnVictS All the available handouts
from the police station and the SherliI $
office in Salt Lake had been secured,
and the men were irOned one By one
Each man was handcuffed ia a standing
posture at the rear of his cell with his
I hands securely fastened about level with
MS eyes The shoes were removed from
each man and his MISUNDERSTANDING capa-
city was. measureably lessened- although
by use Of their voices and by kicking
the iron walls of the, cells they managed
to make sleep impossible for anyone with
in the walls OF the peniteutiary.
They may keep us awake, but they Will
not sleep any said Warden Pratt shortly
before midnight And they viii all be at
work Come up in couple of days and
Wen show you the QuieteST and most in
duStriOuS lot of men YOU ever saw They
cannot run this place Iney were SEN
fenced to work. and they will work Don I
make any mistake about that
Lazy Because of Heat.
Warden Pratt does not believe the men
planned a break, but rather that they
hoped TO make so much trouble that they
would escape work during the warm
weather. No weapons were found on any
of them. Today their former cells Will be
carefully examined
In addition to the discomfort of being
handCuffed TO the wall and limited 10
bread ana water diet. the twenty men
Will lose all their copper or time De
Quoted for good behavior In some cases
this amounts to considerable period OF
time The warden has the power 10 re-
move il but not To restore IL. that au-
thority being vested in the board Of par
donS-
AT midnight the noise had grown much
less Shouting produces thirst and IN
conditional surrender is necessary To Sc
cure water before breakfast time this
morning Warden Pratt is determined Z"
quell the trouble and viii keep the men on
bread and water and in irons until they
give up their fight arid consent TO per
form the labor assigned to them.
Most of the men are recent arrivals at
the prison. one Of them having come with
in the past few days The fight is neceS-
Sarily losing one. and the older COnViCtS
had too much sense TO go into il. Most
of the insurgents are cOnVictS who have
recently been sentenced by Judge Arm
strong of S--lt Lake.
Warden -'raUt says that. judging from
talk overheard by himself and the guards.
the plot is nothing more serious than
effort on the part of the con- iCts 10 eS-
cape work during the warm weather The
prison officials have the situation in hand
and have had il thus from the start. II
Is simply an endurance contest now. and
the authorities will win it,
None Of the more noted cOnNlCtS We're
in the affair ShOckley and Majors. who
were unfortunate enough to he in the cell
house where the noisy strikers are
confined. are among the sixty or seventy
peaceabie cOnVicts who got no rest last
night because of the bowling and ham
mering Of the UnrUly men
Leaders in the Trouble
The principals Of the strike are, as fol-
lows.
Edward Hill housebreaker. sentenced
TO one year at ogden. Jan II. 1900
Carl Jennings. rObber- sentenced to one
year AT Salt Lake. June > 1895
William Murphy robber. sentenced TO
twenty years AT Salt Lake. Jan. :. 1893.
Daniel Higgins. burglar. sentenced to
four years al Ogden. Dec y. 1903
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