The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-27

Rangoon, 1910.
HyHE biggest jail In the world is
! here at Rangoon. It has ca
i pacity of more than 4000 con- |
victs, and there are $500 incarcerated |
in it. The jail Is situated right in the
heart of this city of 100000. Its lilac
oolored brick walls are 20 feet high and
lthey inclose many acres. Upon their
corners are watch towers in which dark
bearded. brown faced East Indian SOL
diers, with great yellow turbans on
their black heads, stand day and night
ready to shoot down the prisoner who
attempts to escape There are other
watch houses midway between and 9TH
ers scattered throughout the vast in
closure, keeping prisoners under sur
| veillance both day and night. A squad
of soldiers was drilling in front of the
entrance when I drove up to 1t this
morning, and inside the jail l found
guards everywhere.
| I was able to visit the institution
through a note of introduction from
the lieutenant governor of Burma, and
| Captain Knapp, the superintendent, |
gave orders that I was to be shown
every part of 1t and allowed to max. !
such photographs as wished.
|
Burmese clerks of the main office, a
bright young fellow with yellow face,
brown eyes and black hair about which |
q pink turban was tied. He wore a
khaki jacket and below this silk skirt, |
wound tightly about the legs from
waist to ankles. He was known to
all the officials. and, at his word, all |
doors were opened and all cells. un-
locked. We walked together through
ward after ward and visited the worm
shops, where more than 1000 criminals
labor from in the morning until in
the afternoon. as they serve out the
sentence.
| Among the Incorrigib1es
| The first division we entered was the |
one devoted to the incorrigibles The
most of the prisoners. as I shall show
later, labor in companies, side by SIDE in
great shops of various kinds. In this
ward every man worked alone In his
cell, shut In by thick walls. He could
not see nor hear anything but the sor-
rowful shrek of the machinery which
himself and his fellows were operating,
and these noises sounded to me like the
walls of the damned. Imagine long
hall Is feet wide. upon which perhaps
| three score cells opened. Each cell is
about the size of a hall bed room, lighted
by a grated window up under the roof,
| so high that the man cannot see out.
|
| mont and Its only furniture is low
| bench about two feet wide and eight
inches high, with a coarse blanket upon
1t. This is the prisoners bed. His pill
low Is log of wood Of about the size of
a scent loaf of bread.
| Did I say the only furniture? I am
| wrong! There is also great crank in
the cell, attached to bar which ex-
| tends through the walls, and which, by
an arrangement of cog wheels turns q
mill in the hall outside. This mill con-
tafns raw peanuts, and the prisoner
within must grind them to OIL The
crank is such that 1t exercises the whole
upper part of the body. 1t Is turned
with both hands, and the man keeps it
moving throughout the day.
The mill I first inspected was that
of Pc Sa. Burmese, who had been
convicted OF an assault with intent TO
kill He was bare to the waist. ex-
cepting high iron collar about his
| neck. on which was metal tag giving
| his number. From waist downward he
wore only a breech cloth, and could
| see his muscles rise and fall as he
strained at the crank. He acted SO /
| thought ne WAS sfiarlnlng, and I asked
| the guards to let me try it myself.
| Thereupon the door was unlocked and [
| took his place. The crank moved easily
at first but after 100 revolutions every
cord in my arms and chest was sore,
|
| theless. this man was condemned to hard
labor for three months, and that to the
screcching OF the 90 other mills connected
| with the cells in this ward.
Twenty Thousands Convicts
With the other kinds of work car
ried on In such cells Is the making OF
| coir In this the prisoners sit fiat on
| the floor and pound upon cocoanut fiber
| to reduce 1t to the consistency needed
| for rope. They keep up their pounding
hour after hour and day after day. and
| IL they stop are urged on by the
guards. Such punishments are for men
sentenced to hard labor and solitary
confinement, of whom there are per-
haps 1000 in all Burma each year. l |
have before me a report OF the Jails. IL |
shows that there are now something
| like 1900 convicts in the various prisons, |
and that 10000 have been on their rolls
this year. or these $1,000 were sentenced |
| to rigorous Imprisonment and 1913 were
whipped in addition. asked my guide |
whether nogging was common. He re- |
piled, mo, but it Is done now and then |
to keep the convicts in order
Convfcts Kncel to Correspondent
| Leaving the solitary cells, I walked |
| on through Enclosure after Enclosure, |
containing workshops of various winds. |
The doors were opened by black-skinned |
jailers and the guards presented arms
as we passed The prisoners we met |
saluted US by dropping on their bare
knees or squatting on their heels and
| folding their hands like the little |
cherubs who look up aloft." At first l
thought they were praying to me. but |
| l afterward learned that they are re-
ouired to do this on the grounds of
good order. No one can jump at you
with q knife or knock you over IL he
keeps his hands folded, and while on |
the ground you have him at a disad-
vantage. It looked odd, this squatting |
down of hundreds Of men as we passed. |
In some cases they took tubs of water |
| from their heads. and in others laid
down their tools that they might clasp
their hands before US.
| Prison Labor
| During my stay I spent much time In
the workshops. They include almost every |
| industry known to the Burman and are
a living example of the skill of these peo-
pie. There is a large printing office with |
about 500 presses, and there are fully
that many convicts at work there and In
the type foundries and engraving estab- |
lishments nearby. Each printer has an
iron collar ON his neck and iron rings on
his ankles. and this is the case through
out the whole iail.
| Making Convict Goods
| Next to the printing establishment is
a large carpenter and cabnet-maling
shop, and farther on are rooms where the
criminals carve wood and weave wicker
Furniture This Work II varv artistic.