Indiana daily times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1914-1922, 1921-11-17

TToBART, TASMANIA, Australia
Tasmania generally is not proud
of the blot on it's scutcheon-the
fact that it was until 1880 the site Of
penal colonies for men and wonderland
mere children. toO-who were deemed no
longer fit to live in the mother country,
England and were sent thousands Of
miles across the seas to spend the re
mainder of their lives. In the best fami-
lies they do not like 10 talk of those
days. but Tasmania is not averse to
capitaliziug what remains Of the insti-
tutions of those times. It is something
like having a notorious criminal in the
family and being ashamed Of it but TAX
ing the money of those who are willing
TO pay TO hear him tell Of his exploits.
No doubt a great many readers Of
these articles have seen IN one OF
the ports Of our own country the con
vict-ship Success, n great, grewsome
hulk of dark. dank cells, Of chains and
leg-irons and other means of curbing
the unruly. For half 4 century she has
been travelling from port 10 port Of the
AorId. exhibiting her horrors 10 the NOR
id at small admission prices. The Sue
cess was just one Of the ships which
used to bring to Tasmania and New
South Wales the wretches who had been
sentenced to transportation.
HORRORS OF
CONVICT DAYS.
In Hobart books that puTpoTt to tell
the true stories of convict days IN Tas-
mania are on sale generally. They may
be absorbing reading for those who revei
in horrors, but to me the few extracts
I read were sickening. II a small por-
ton of the. things which they tell are
true, I am glad that the world has SO
far progressed that brutality no longer
IS considered the way to punish the wrong
doer. In justice to the men who ruled
those convict settlements it must be
pointed out that they were far from
home, they were in the midst Of des-
perate characters who would stop at
nothing to obtain their liberty, and dis
cipline had to be maintained.
Down where the peninsulas Of Tasman-
"a and Forester are Joined the connect
ing link OF land is called Eaglehawk
Neck. It is about a hundred and fifty
yards across at its narrowest point, the
waters on either side are infested by
sharks, and in these two things the
guards of the convicts saw a means Of
holding their miserable prisoners with
IN the confines to which they were re
stricted Across this neck Of land was
posted a line Of sentries, day and night.
and near by a line of fierce dogs, bull
and mastiff, so chained that each of
them could reach within six inches Of
his neighbor On either side. It was in
deed a hardy prisoner who would risk
the dogs, the sharks or the guards bull
let's in a wild endeavor to escape.
'AUNIsHMENT SEVERE IN
THE OLDEN DAYS.
At Port Arthur still stand the build
ings Of the penitentiaries which were
built by the convicts themselves out Of
great stones to become their own pris-
ons. A fee is charged to inspect them
now and in normal years thousands pass
through the great halls and little cells
and 'oh" and "ah" as the guides explain
ir detail the uses to which the various
buildings were put. But not even the
most vivid imagination can bring up
any stronger picture of penal days than
one can get from reading n few Of the
Official records of the punishments ad
ministered for the most trivial offenses.
Twenty to thirty lashes for stepping out
Of line or having 4 potato in his pos
session. six days in n dark underground
cell on bread and water for talking back
TO a guard or not eating all the food
placed on the table before him. month
at hard labor. in chains for talking after
being locked in n cell-these are but
samples Of the punishment given out. It
must have tortured those convicts to
build great churches of stone with theit
bare hands to the God which their guards
professed to worship AMI in whose name
they welded the whip and affixed the
chains.
TASMANIA ANIMALS
OF QUEER SPECIES.
derived no pleasure from. thoughts
Of those days which are now gone.
Rather was I more deeply interested In
the animals which are to be found no
where else in the world except in Tas-
mania It would seem as if Nature was
in a playful mood when she made the
animals that are native to the tight
little islands" Not even in fossil form,
thousands of years old. have the bones of
similar creatures been found in other
(S0 sd 49,, 81 ,.,.....
is the most weird mixture Of contradic-
tons This creature has been described
in an earlier article of this series. You
will remember that it looks somewhat
like a seal, but IL is webf0oted it has
a tail like a beaver and the bill of a
duck, and it lays eggs but suckles its
young. 1t has teeth but no ear on the
outside. yet its hearing is keen. Were
I depending upon facts from those
have met who have seen a platypus alive
/ am afraid I should be in the class of