The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1906-06-17

In l773. three years before the Declara-
tion of Independence. other copper mines
that yielded better returns were discoV-
cred and the Gronbury workings were
abandoned. When the Revolution broke
out the Simsbury committee OF safety
saw that the abandoned SHAFT and gal
leries would make ideal prison. and
forthwith they built a building over tho
mouth OF the shaft and divided II and
the galleries up rudcy into cells.
Into the unspealtublc gloomy dungeons
thus created the SlmsbuTy committee of
safety threw SUCH Of their friends and
ncighbors az they suspected OF being
friendly to the Kings cause. 1t would
be hard 10 Imagine n more horrible place
for the confinement OF human beings.
Sunlight never could by any possibility
penetrate It's profound depths; OF Nenu-
lation there could be none; sanitation as
We understand II was positively out OF
the question.
The only methods OF reaching the work
ing levels of the old mine was by way
OF a perpendicular ladder set up in the
main shaft Any one attempting 10 get
away II was reasoned. would have 10
climb that ladder, and as the mouth OF
the shaft was easy TO watch II was be-
llcved that escapes would be practically
impossible. in fact that, seeing how Inn
possible they were. no prisoner would
have the nerve TO make the attempt.
a Sixty-Foot Fall to Death,
Yet many attempts to get away were
made by the prisoners In the old copper
mine, and there are legends and records
OF an attempted general delivery OF pris-
uncrs which all but succeeded, and in
volved an extensive shooting scrape the
| death of several prisoners and the injury
| OF some among the guards.
The most striking attempt TO get away
! from the prison In its whole history was
made by a prisoner who climbed a rope
! hand over hand almost 10 the top OF the
| shaft, Why he didn't climb the ladder
! Is not related. Perhaps the ladder was In
| sections. a section being removable at
/ the top. so that escape by the ladder
would bc impossible. even " the watch
| man at the mouth Of the SHAFT were to
| Any way. this libertv-loncIng prisoner
/ tried TO escape by the rope route, but,
/ unfortunately for him, II broke when he
was only ten feet from the end OF his
| hand over hand progress toward free
| according TO the old legends and rec
| ords there were plenty OF cogent reasons
! aside from the natural desire TO be free
! again why the prisoners In the Connecti-
| cut Newgate should desire TO get away
| from II.
Many OF those thrust into It's subtcr-
! raneau depths were sent there by the
| order OF General George Washington hlm-
! self because he thought that at liberty
! they would be likely 10 work Injury TO
/ the ColonistS' cause,
| And once locked In tho noIsome old
! coppcr mines depths. whether by Wash
! Ington's orders or without them, their
! lot was hidcously hopeless. Not Few
/ OF those thought To bc most dangerous
were chained 10 the. rock walls or moor
/ where for years, I'LL released by mercl-
] fu death. they were kent In clrcum-
| scr-ibed area, almost wallowinG In NTH.
! the iron which fcttcrcd them TO the
! rock eating into the flesh and causing
| hidcouS sores. They never saw bright
| cr light than that or "a ilarlng torCh or
| feeble talIow dip. and mover by any
| chance could they even get one single
| whlm Of air that was not rankly fctld
| and poisonous.
aF. satvH ~ u.
| ing OF black despair, unrelicrcd by any
! occupation whatever, harassed the pris-
I oncrg or this snmber new world New
| gate" and deaths were frcQuent-how
! many there were In the years II was
| used mainly as n political prison no one
! knows After the close Of the Revolu-
/ ton n was used as a State prison by
. Connecticut for TWENTY-FIVE years. Dur
ing that quarter of century It's conduct
wns much moro sane and civilized. hut
even then IL was horrible place. far
/ too horrible for tho imprisonmcnt or tho
worst criminals that might be Imagined,
Cy"n.
Some Interesting Prison Worker.
Some attempts had been made In the
old world 10 improve the condition OF
prisons and prisoners long before the
NnqI abandonment OF the Connecticut
s%cwcatc." but little or nothing OF that
sort was done IN this country TIL years
later
In the course N tho last century how
! ever prison building and the conduct OF
] prisons and prisoners underwent a rcyo-
lution-scveral revolutions, In fact. BY
1857 or 1865, when Charles Dickehs' VINO