Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1915-04-29

gushing that men who make overtime
and others who have money sent from
relatives and friends, supply them
selves with milk from a dairy near
the prison, do so at their own ex
pense rather than starVe to death.
ate very little of the prison diet while
confined there; whenever | did try
to partake of it the results were al
ways very bad. The food is cooked
BY steam from the same boiler thai
supplies steam for operating the shops
and the steam is full Of boiler com
pound; it gets into the food and leave.
a terrible burning sensation in the
stomach and often leaus 10 append |
tits and, under the present manage
lent, if you get very sick it is good |
aight" for you and the best thing C
order is the Undertaken, as tie prisonl
physician there is no goc-. and If he
irea.s you Tor lour stomach and you |
take his dope, the undertaken will
get you anyway.
l would just like to ask: How in the
name of Heaven does society expect
man to be reformed when, he is
starved in the prison and denied the
lood, not only to sustain lifes but to
sustain his right mind? It wiu pay
respectable society to look into condi-
tons inside the walls of the West Viz
ginia Penitentiary and, If you do so,
l would just like, to state: be careful
of Joe Bloyd and his ''Stool Pigeons"
He has convicts on his STAFF who are
well fed and who do not eat. prison
diet, and he keeps them in good shape
for the purpose Of refuting anything
another convict may state regarding
the conditions as they exist there.
To explain the duties Of 'S:ool
Pigeon we will refer to the Post OF
fee of the prison. They place one or
two Of their most trusted stool pigeons
in the post Office to read the mail in
coming and outgoing for the other
convicts confined there. They look
very close into all letters and for the
smallest things-say, sometimes, one
wrong word in letter, they will rush
to Mr.. Hill, the mail guard, and he
will, in turn, go to Joe Bloyd, who will
call the unlucky convict before him
and lecture him severely and take fu-
ture privileges from him, particularly
the sending Of mail or receipt Of mail.
was told by a convict that is willing
to verify my statement that there is
now two barrels of United States mail
first class held up in the prison
postofice, just to punish the convicts
to whom the mail is addressed. This
is only one of the petty rules.
i stated.
Joe Boyd don't dare deny this fact,
as / can prove every word have
stated. .-
The treatment accorded the prison
ers was objected to by all the Federal
conyicts confined there. and they pre-
pared a petition addressed to the De-
i partment Of Justice of the United
States at Washington, D. c., and they
asked the Department. to have them
removed to another prison. Warden
White got hold of the petition, through
one of Joe Bloyd's stool pigeons, and
called each convict that had signed
his name to the petition into his pres
ence and he and Joe Bloyd lectured
them severely, then took away from
them for thirty days all their privi-
leges, locked them In their cells, re
moved some from their regular cells
to more unsanttary cells and fed them
on. bread and water, and otherwise
mistreated them. He punished them
just because they were men enough tc
! stand up for their rights. They de-
Iprived them Of their mail, had it held
up in the prison postofhce, and some
OF it, l. am told, is still there. think
he over-stepped his authority by in
terfering with United States mail.
| The evils that / have enumerated
there are small in comparison to those
THAT prevail under the supervision Of
Joseph Bloyd. the Simon Legree Of
modern times; he is the one great
evil there; remove him, and really
believe conditions there would i'm
prove. I shall take it upon myself to
lay the facts about Joe Bloyd before
Governor Hatfield, and then if he does
not rid the prison Of Bloyd and his
brutalism shall lose faith in him as
being "the very best Governor West
Virginia has ever had" He stated at
different times that he is for all that
Is just and right, that his heart is for
suffering manhood. and / shall con.
tinue to believe in him and his prin-
ciples until he fails in this his most
important duty.
II HH