The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1905-06-23
WORLDS BIGGEST PRISON
ASSISTANT WARDEN IN MANILA
PENITENTlARY HERE.
TELLS OF CONDITIONS THERE
Mortimer Stewart, Formerly Of Nor.
folk, While Visiting in This coun.
try, Stops at Norfolk for a Short
Time-Bilibit, the Monster Pen.
IFrom sntnrday,s nallv |

vacation from behind the walls of
bit, the penitentiary of the Philippine
islands located at Manila, Mortimer
Stewart, formerly a prominent Ne
braskan with residence at Lincoln and
Norfolk, arrived in this city enroute
to New York and in an interview gave
some rather astonishing details con
cerning the new dominion of the
United States in the far east, and
particularly regarding the immense
prison in which he is the first assist.
ant warden.
Five thousand, three hundred men
and women-all of them men except
ing 100 wayward feminine creatures,
occupy this prison in Manila which
is under control of the United States
None of the prisoners is in for less
than two years, as those who are
sent up for crimes that punish by less
terms than that, are confined in the
village jails Bilibit is the only pen
itentiary in all the islands. 1t occu
pies a space of sixteen acres, and con-
sists of thirty-three one-story build
ings, erected on the plan of the local
cottage system for insane asylums
There are no cells such as we have
in America, as the prisoners in each
building all sleep together in one
room. They are counted each morn
ing and night, Just as in America, and
they wear stripes during a portion
of their service, just as here The
hunks or beds of the prison are like
those in circus car for employees
made in tiers up the sides of the
wall, and of bamboo
Few Americans In.
OF the entire $500 prisoners, there
are only 12O Americans serving time.
These are in, mostly, for pure vag-
rancy, which is considered a serious
crime. The sentences under the Span
ish code, which is still in operation
throughout the islands, are more Sc
we're than they are here in America.
Murder is punished according to the
aggravation, the worst form paying
the penalty of death There were six
teen murderers to swing to their doom
in the Bilibit prison yard last year.
While BigelOw. the banker here, has
just been sent to prison for ten years
on a charge of embezZling more than
a million and half dollars, the light
est penalty in Manila for embezzle-
ment, and only a few dollars need be
taken, is twelve years, while the more
serious cases get twenty years behind
the bars.
All of the prisoners are made to
work and learn trades. They are put
at working on American machinery,
too, and every day they are made to
learn the names for American articles.
going through a school of instruction
in regard to the terms, so that they
fast get to call every wheel or bolt
or belt by the right American term.
They make furniture, wagons, cloth
ing, robes and the like and their
shop English" is very superior.
They learn English more readily, it is
said, than do the English learn their
language. English is taught in all of
the schools in the islands.
The prisoners eat a vast amount of
food, as the following consumption
per day shows: $4,000 loaves of
bread daily; $500 pounds of beef
daily; 6,O00 pounds of potatoes. They
drink no coffee, preferring ginger tea,
made from the native ginger root.
They are given enough of church SER
vices to make them good, there being
two chaplains in the prison, and sew
vices every Sunday.
Prisoners Enjoy Good Health.
The healthful conditions of the
prison are remarkably good when it
is considered that in the five years
that Mr.. Stewart has been in the pris-
on not one single American, used to
a strange climate, has died.
The cost of running the prison, per
capita, is less than that of any other
prison in the world. The cost is 16 2-3
cents per day, while in many states
of this country it amounts to fifty
cents. The proceeds from the manu-
tactured goods go TO the government.
Each prisoner gets seventy-two cigar
cites each week-three packages con-
tanning twenty-fOur each.
The prison was formerly a Spanish
institution and is made of stone walls.
with iron bars. There are guards
with guns patrolling the walls at all
hours-part of the guards being Amer
A system of striped clothing that is
leans and the others natives.
unique has been adopted for the pris-
oners. There are three classes Of
these people. The first class is the
best, and these do not wear stripes.
and get better treatment The sec
ond class, in which a man is placed
for six months at entrance, wears
stripes and is given better treatment
than the third, which is made up of
the bad ones.
A New System.
\ new system OF imprisonment has
been adopted on the island in the ma.
tuTp of a colony IN which the nani-