Evening star., 1923-07-01

/ tenn of the prison was ingeniously
and, to my mind, devillishly con-
| structed to keep each prisoner, ex-
cept a favored few. in perpetual soli-
| tude. Once put into one Of those
little white cells. down one of the
long white corridors, and a man
would never see or talk with fellow
mortal again until his term OF penal
! servitude expired, never again, II he
had life sentence. There were
men IN that place who had already
served ten, or fifteen, or twenty
years. Through a hole in the door
! they received their food or their
days ration OF work. To exercise
them. trap was opened at the end
/ of their cell, so that they could walk
out, like a captive beast, into a little
str,, of courtyard, divided by high
walls from the strip on either sue
I'D above was the open sky, ana the
sunlight fell aslant upon the WnitS-
! coated walls, but 1t was crampeo
and barren space for mans podS
and soul. Perhaps 1t was no worse
! than other European prisons, possi-
bly much better. But 1t struck me
with a cold horror, because OF ali
those living beings isolated, in me-
long silence, entombed.
One corridor was set apart for the
political prisoners, and when sa"
them they were allowed to have their
cell doors open, and to converse with
each other for a short time. Other
ytise they, too, were locked In their
/ seuarate cells. / spoke with num-
! Der of them, all men OF high-sound-
/ ing names and titles, but melan-
! choly. pale, miserable-looking crowd.
! whose spirits seemed quite hroken
/ by their long captivity. They Were
mostly young men, and among them
was the Count of Almeida, who had
! led the counter Evolutionary rising
and had been captured by the re-
publican troops.
They had one grievance, of which
! they all spoke passionately. The re-
public might have shot them as
! royalists. At least that would have
enabled them to die like gentlemen.
But 1t had treated them like common
| criminals and convicts and had even
! forced them to wear convict garb, to
have their heads shaved, and to wear
the hood with only eyeholes, which
was part of the dress-horrible in. IT'S
cruelty-of all long g-sentence men.
Ny conversation with most of them
was in French. but two young broth
cellent English. They seemed to re-
gard my visit as kind OF miEacle,
Nand 1t revived hopes in them which
made me pitiful, because I had no
great expectation of gaining their
release When went away from
them, they returned to their cells,
and the steel doors clanked upon
| them.
x* X
TN THE prison called the limoero
i there were different conditions Of
/ life, enormously preferable,
! thought, to the penetenciaria, in
spite of its filth and dirt and disease.
There was so solitary confinement
| here, but crowds of men and women
| living lin a. hugger-mugger way, with
free intercourse between their rooms
| They were allowed to receive visitors
at stated times. and when I was there
| the wives of many of the prisoners
| had come with their babies and par
! cells of food. The babies were crawl
4 ing on the floor, the food was being
| cooked on oil stoves, and there was
| a fearful stencil Of unwashed bodies,
friend onions, tobacco smoke, and
/ other strong odors.
| The Fleet prison, as described by
Charles Dickens, must have closely
resembled this place in its general
system Of accommodation and social
life, and I saw in many faces there
| the misery, the haggard lines, the
1 despair which he depicts among those
who have been long suffering inmates
Of that debtors Jail.
/ Many of the men here were OF the
| aristocratic and intellectual classes.
| among them editors and correspond
ents of royalist papers, poets, novel.
lists and university professors. They
had not been charged with any crime,
| they had not been brought up for
trial, they had no idea how long
their captivity would last-a few
months, a few years. or until death
released, them. But at least in equal
proportion to the royalists-I think
in majority-were men Of poorer
! class-mechanics, printers tailors.
| fshoemakers, artisans Of all kinds.
The 700, were political prisoners,
i having been socialsts. synaiealists.
q + j.