The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-27

veal, above the low cut prison slipper a
pair of thin purple silk socks He was
smoking a great black cigar which he
made a practice of coneealing from the
governor. He shook hands cordially with
the latter and held an animated conver-
sa ation on the weather and kindred sub
jects Ficalho, like all the other political
prisoners is allowed to have not only all
his clothing washed outside and sent in.
but his meals are prepared at a Lisbon
restaurant as well. The political prison.
ers many of whom are too poor to pay
for this concession. have dubbed together
and pay in a lump sum, the richer MAX
ing good the portion of the poorer.
The governor treated Ficelho in exactly
the same way as he treated the other
political prisoners: when they were OBJ
viously of the better class he treated
them as equals and when they were of
the lower class he touched his hat to
them in acknowledgment of their doffed
caps. In no case did | see any evidence
of the sulleness of resentment that one
could expect to find in harshly treated
prisoners. Indeed. Ficalho has been de-
because he has publicly declared that he
and the other political prisoners are
treated with the utmost consideration.
But if the penitentiary is model
prison, the same can't be said of Lemo-
Zero. do not hesitate to declare that
the keeping of criminals, and especially
of political prisoners, in this pestiferous
hole, is one of the most unfortunate
blots on Portuguese civilization today.
In justice to the republican government
1t must beremembered that it was in
herited from the monarchy which for
$50 years had used 1t for prison and
that from all accounts conditions were
much worse under the old regime I
formed the impression and told Major
Manuel Franco, the governor. that every
thing possible in the circumstances was
being done to make the place as habi-
table as possible. Major Franca assured
me that new prison would soon be
built and showed me the plans but in
view of the financial condition of the coun-
try have not much hope of the building
taking concrete form in the near future
In the fourteenth century Lemoieiro
was royal palace and some of the
passageways still show signs of the for
mer circumstances of the place As NAV
pe imagined, tnere are no cells for sOli-
tary confinement proper. the prisoners
being divided up among the various
rooms. The place is very much over
crowded. the men livAg, eating and
sleeping in the same rooms The beds
narrow and closely packed. fold up
against the walls. when not in use. In
TINS way 80 or even more prisoners are
accommodated In single rooms
The political prisoners in Lemoieiro are
housed in series of small rooms on the
top floor, the windows having a fine view
or the city of Lisbon and the Tagus
These rooms communicate on to a small
passageway so that the prisoners spend
much of their time in common They are
not compelled TO wear prison garb or cut
their hair One of the most prominent
political prisoners whom 7 interviewed
was the editor of Macao the former
Roman Catholic newspaper Of Lisbon,
who is undergoing sentence of one
year He dresses in pajamas he finds
them easy to keep clean and has his tiny
room arranged an editorial sanctum
When he showed it to me his desk was
strewn with the latest issues of the Port
uguese newspapers and he declared that
ne had no intention Of losing touch with
events during his enforced separation
from the outside world. He was in SPLEEN
did spirits and laughed and joked with
the governor during our stay in the polit-
ical section.
There are more than 900 prisoners in
Lemoeiro, Of which only 40 are political.
The latter are not called upon to asso-