Truth. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1901-1908, 1906-11-17
THE RACK AND THUMB SCREW
NEXT.

iitiuiu VI VIC Vi
rectory" prisoners at the state prison
strongly suggest that the methods of
the dark ages have not yet passed
There were, according to the published
reports, fourteen convicts in the in
surrectory movement, each of whom
was confined in separate cell. The
Herald says the trouble was started
Monday evening by prisoners in soil.
tary confinement. The guards on Wis
iting the cells were greeted with abu-
sive language from the convicts who
resorted to jeering and yelling in the
effort to create a riot. Tuesday night,
the Herald continues, the trouble
reached serious proportions. The con-
victs leach in a separate iron GELD,
engaged in war dance, pounded on
the bars with tin bucket covers and
sent forth a chorus of blood curdling
yells." These acts seem to have con-
stituted the head and front of their Of
Tending, except that after being re-
monstrated with by the authorities of
the prison on the first occasion of
their offending they repeated the Chi
nese tom-tom performance including
the 'blood curdling yells."
From the effects of punishment for
those offenses, the report says, eigiSt
of the offenders on Wednesday night
"lay grooming on the bare floor with
tongues parched and joints wrecked
by pain" The torture which brought
this condition is reported as follows:
Eight of the most fragrant offend
ers were taken from their cells and
marched to a gloomy building called
The Tombs.' BY reason of executions
which have occurred there, the place
| is regarded by the prisoners with SUI
Iperstitious dread.
"The eight were trussed up in two
stone cells, and arms outstretched at
| full length and hands manacled to
rings in the wall. The punishment
continued for TWENTY-FIVE hours, with
a brief interval. Tuesday morning,
when the convicts were each given a
slice of dry bread and a cup of wa
ter.
Last evening they were taken down
and given another allowance of
bread and water. For fear of physical
collapse they We're not trussed up
again, but were thrust into absolutely
bare cells. Their punishment will be
resumed this morning and will be con-
tinued until they are in complete sub
lection The other six will then re-
ceive attention. All were in chasten-
ed mood last night and it is believed
the trouble is well in hand"
I, The Tribune and Herald both say
that this treatment" was approved by
the warden of the penitentiary the
governor of the state and the board
of corrections, and that the latter saw
the prisoners UNDERGOING the torture
The accounts published appear to be
n true statement of facts.
We don't lay any claims to being
versed in the ways of criminals of the
third class, as these are designated
or of any other class or the means
necessary to restrain them, but our
opinion is that the treatment of those
prisoners was brutal in the extreme
IT is on the Russian plan, to read 1t
and think of It heats ones blood and
begets strong resentment In the heat
of passion or in the contention for
victory in an open battle men may
slav and slay and receive no condem
nation, but even communication. hut
for a parcel of guards, armed to the
Il, eth. to take men, helpless and un
armed confined in separate iron cells
from which escape was impossible
and deliberately and cold bloodedly
subject them to tortures such as ap