Evening star., 1934-10-28


full of traitor prisoners cut off from all
contact with their fellow men. They live, each
alone, in little Shacks avoided and deSpSed.
They never see new face, except when an
other traitor comes to join them. There is not
the remotest chance of their being able to
escape-escape the dream, the hope that keeps
alive the spirit of the other deportes
But compared to lie st. Joseph both Royale
and Diable are little heavens of joy and free
dom. On st. Joseph are the bear pits where the
evasionists are sent for punishment. Here are
the utter depths
I've seem my share of prisons, but I've never
seen anything barbarous as these bear pits.
They are built in a grim silent building that
is like nothing else in the world. 1t consists OF
three r0n-roofed sheds, each 200 feet long.
Inside each shed 80 cages are arranged in two
parallel lines. These cages are really window
less pits IL feet long, feet wide and IL feet
deep, of thick concrete Through shutter In
a solid door the food and buckets passed.
The pits have no roofs only grills of heavy bars.
A central wall 20 feet high reaching half way
to the shed roof and running the length of the
building, separates the two lines of cells. Along
the top of this wall is a rallied runway. Here
the guards walk their beats, back and forth.
looking down on either side through the bars
into each bear pit. and upon each OF the Gagged
animals. Nothing escapes the gaze of the pass
ing officer. Nothing can be hidden Inside each
cage there one wooden bench, two small
wooden buckets, one blanket and one man.
That is all.
High over everything arches the vast iron roof
that keeps out the sun and the rain. On very
bright days it is gloomy in the pits On dark
days, there is almost no light at all At night,
no lamps are lighted. and from twilight to dawn
it is completely black.
Escorted by guard, entered one of these
somber sheds. climbed the ladder of the central
wall and moved along the rallied walk Half
the men beneath this particular roof were mad.
For they go mad-never allowed to speak, TO
smoke, to escape the scrutinizing eye of the mil
itary lynx above; having to live month after
month in this STILL dark tomb And when their
minds do crack, they are simply moved from the
sane end to the insane end. The cells are all
alike; the treatment, the same.
DELOW me were the victims of this torment.
- 1t was hard to tell which were mad and
which were not, for almost all of them were
naked and unkempt. Some looked up apatheti.
cally as we passed; most did not even lift their
eyes, but lay on their benches staring straight
ahead, or paced the floor mechanically, like
beasts in cage. They endure for thousand
hours every day, waiting only to return to the
mainland, and run away again, and fail again.
and come back to suffer-
There is one escape-to get sick enough for
removal to the hospital of lie Royale. One
doesn't get sick easily. cut off from all infec-
ton. So the prisoners poison themselves.
As a matter of fact, the chance of emerging
alive from the lie Royale Hospital is very slight.
I served there while the doctors assistant.
so I know.
The hospital was built in 1870 and has con-
tinued, steadily, to fall down ever since. There
panes in the windows. The floor is being
carried of in pieces by the rats. There is no
running water and at night all the maladies
are locked in the wards.
The food is revolving the nurses are BAN
dts and murderers, who choose to nurse be-
cause it is easier than working. The doctor,
the one conscientious official I met on the
island, was hepelessly overworked.
In the beginning my services were of little
use, for the filth and agony made me sick. But
had to get used to it, and did. Every morn
ing I made the rounds with the doctor, and 1t
was mad race. We had hundred bed-rid-
den patients to visit in an hour. The first SO
got some suggestion of attention; but for the
second so there was no time left. We literally
ran past them. Unless patient was convulsed
with pains or unconscious We scarcely ever
looked at him.
The next day we began with the second So
If they hadn't died during the night.
All the deaths on the islands, however, are
not from disease. One day passed a convict
wearing long black beard. He was the guillo-
timer, and the beard his sign of office. The
other prisoners-hs prospective clents-do not
speak to him. He lives alone with his dog
in a shack by the sea.
Not being subject to the local etiquette,
made his acquaintance and asked him to show
me his beheading machine. He was immensely
proud of 1t.
1.-THE condemned man lies here" he explained,
pattng the iron sab His hands and feet
are fixed here-and here. pull up the knife
it weighs $50 kilograms-like this, along the
track meters high. And then tie the rope.