Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1912-06-28
ESCALZ4 GZREET, Ez4zNkZA

u0IQOQ Oh treating anu caring IOI IuC
prisoners within it's confines has done
more to demonstrate that the Ameri-
can people are a humane race than
all other means.
Bilibid has daily routine much like
other prisons. The prisoners are
reused in the morning by the call of
the bugle at 5: As Breakfast follows a
certain amount Of exercise, and after
that the prisoners go to the workshops
until the noon hour. Then comes
light lunch, siesta for an hour, more
work until $50 p. M, then dinner,
and they are locked up for the night.
Twice a week the inmates are COM
PEELED to battle, and twice a week
they are given clean clothes, not al
ways secured by many of them while
On the outside.
There are four classes of rations
issued to the prisoners, depending on
their nationality The Americans re-
ceive the ration of the regular army,
which costs about Is cents; the Euro
peans receive food at the rate of
SS"SS
| to the amount of cents.
Death Rate Low.
The employment of the prisoners
consists Of laundering, manufacturing
bamboo furniture, weaving baskets,
curtains screens and hammocks, ma
king rope engraving on wood, horn,
shell and silver, making fancy and use
full articles from horn and shell, and
wrapping coach whips, and there are
also carpenters, wood turner's, black
smiths, stone masons, bricklayers and
tailors, and occasionally an artist or
two is found among the number and
| given a canvas.
The articles thus manufactured are
placed on sale, and from the revenue
thus derived the prison often accumu
lates a surplus for the year. The av'
erage amount of receipts from this
means Is about $12 1000 year.
One of the greatest testimonials to
the conduct of Bilibid is the low death
rate since the beginning of the Amer
lean administration. Under the Span
ish rule it sometimes reached as high
as one In five, while under the Amer1
can direction it has never gone above
one in sixty.
Bilibid has seen many exciting days
and, under the Spanish rule, has had
it's walls so crammed at times that il
seemed as If no more could be forced
in. Yet they were. It's capacity was
originally designed to accommodate
1000, but the records of its days wheT
revolutions existed against the Span
ish government show that as many as
$500 prisoners were confined there
at one time.
The prison was, in fact, designed FOL
this purpose more than a. hundred
years ago, and political prisoners have
outnumbered the criminals each yea
since, according to the captured rec
ords of the prison. When Gen. F. A
Hughes took charge of the prison fo
the United States government in DC
tober 1898, he found over 1000 pris
oners confined there against whom
no formal charges had been recorded
"a great many of them" he said
!. | were uSdNlly u uCii
ironed For instance, there would b.
a man chained to the wall of ston'
cell in which there was no light excep
through two loop holes high up am
about two inches wide and a foot long
We also found some with bars of irol
about three feet long to which wer
, attached two iron hoops that wer
, fastened around their ankles, and the.
had to carry these bars every ste]
, they made. The flesh around thei
j ankles was worn altogether to tn
, bone in many cases."
I In his report of that inspection Gen
| eral Hughes also said that two hour
/ after the prison had been turned owe
to the American authorities the iron
which had been knocked off the pris
, one-s were piled up, and the resulting
accu mutation measured more than
, cord and half in size.