Year: 1879

ant tmoodsorWiyh any of' 's that 81 baavado
with which they frequently receive sen
tence. Long imprisonment seems to
make something Of : philosopher out Of
almost every man. They learn to think
= great deal and say:littls; ana Co they
lie on their beds Of. sickness thinking
without speaking and they die as quiet.
~. The death Of fellow prisoner seems
to have very little effect on the sick
prisoners in the same room. They listen
to the breathing, is it grows more painrul,
day and night after day and night: and
when it ceases and the sheet; Is spread
over the dead mans face, one of them
turns and whispers to another, "Bobs
gone" and the answer is~brief. eyes, it's
stopped" or something of that kind.
Tho body is carried to the large room
above and prepared for burial. II the
man had lived to the end of his sentence,
the State would havogiven him suit of
civilians clothes, four cents a mile to
take him where he came from, and a
small sum Of money besides. The State
doesn't make anything out Of him now
that he is dead. He has the suit of
clothes just the same; he is sent to his
friends If they can be found. and thew
request it; and he receives his small extra
allowance in the shape of a plain stained
coffin. The news Of death spreads
quickly throughout the prison. The con-
victs see a coffin carried through to the
hospital. They know who was likely to
die, and they have their conjectures con-
tirmed in the way all news spreads
among convicts--from man to man in
the shops, and from cell to cell III the
prison, by means of the ventilated flues.
which are used as speaking tubes. :


When convict dies word IS sent to
the person mentioned in the prison re-
cords, to the address there given, if such
name and address were given by the pris-
oner at tho time of his admission, and on
receipt of a request to forward the BODY,
it is sent on at the States expense.
clothed and cofined. 1t no such address
are found in the records. the prisoner is
buried In the prison burying ground.
The body is taken to the large upper
room before mentioned, and orders are
given for the clothes and the coffin. The
latter is made In the prison "jobbing
shop, where the work Is done by con-
victs detailed tor jobbing purposes-se.
not hired out to contractors. At the
same time, small white slab of wood is
gotten out, and on 1t are painted the
Dame under which the convict was SEN
fenced, his age, and the date of his DEATH
After tire body is prepared for
burial it is taken to the hospital recep-
tion room, where brief service is held
by the chaplain. There are present the
hospital officers and such other prison
officers as choose to come in, the c0nvicts
who are acting as attendants in the hos
pltal, and detail of ten or twelve con-
victs from the prison yard. Some one Of
the prison officers IL chosen by the War.
den to take charge of the funeral. The
chaplain makes remarks on the DISPOSE
tion shown by the dead during his term
in the prison, and his conduct in the hos
pital, if there is anything in them that
he thinks would benefit the assembled
convicts. sometimes he refers to the
crime that brought the man to prison. A
prayer is made, and the coffin is borne to
the prison burying ground. There the
service Is very briet.


The old prison burying ground is on
the bluff to the east and north Of the
prison. It Is lot of some three or four
acres, and is surrounded on two sides by
an old picket fence. On the north side
there are remnants of what was once
fence OF q different construction. On the
cast the deep cut of the Hudson River
Railroad renders fence unnecessary. A
single tree Of fair size shades portion of
the east side, and there are few other
/ shrubs within the enclosure. Long ago
variety of pink was planted there, and
it has now spread all over the plot and
outside of it 1t grows in great protusion
among the other plants and weeds, and
yields sweet odor. There Is also q stalk
that bears small flowers of slckening fra
GRANGE. This growth Of plants and
| weeds is SO rank as to hide the
mounds of the graves and conceal near
ty all OF the slabs that mark the convicts'
| resting places. The first convict that
died in Sing Sing prison was buried here


Long ago the burying ground was filled
| SO that there was no room for more caves


When the railroad was built through the
place, some thirty years ago, many graves
were dug up, and the western portion of
the plot was destroyed. Then the bury
ing ground grew beyond the fences that
enclosed it, and many graves were made
on the side of the bluff toward the War
den's house, which is on tha extreme
southern end Of the prison. Three years
ago the prison authorities selected q new
place, further up on the side of the hill,
toward the east, and where the score or
less who have died since that time, and
have not been taken away by friends, are
| buried.


A few days ago one of the convicts, a
German, sent to the prison Office letter
addressed to Louis Miller, in New York.
The letter was written in German 1t
was translated by the prison authorities,
all letters of convicts being read before
they are sent to the mail. The convict
was Louis Miller's uncle, and it appeared
! from the letter that he had q faint idea
OF his surroundings, it indeed he was at
all aware that he was in prison. He said !:
81 am in Sing Sing. have good Job
working on shoes-pleaty to eat and a
good warm room tc sleep in" The letter
described the work IN the shop, and
closed by advising his nephew to come
and get job i'll the same shop. II was
not long before Louis Miller came up,
only committed and sentenced for a
State Prison offense. He was q
dense-witted German fellow, about
Is years old. Louis had not been in
prison long before he was taken sick.
He grew worse, and ON May II, 1878, he
died. Word was sent to his old mother
in New York, and she came to Sing Sing
in great haste to take away the body Of
her boy, so that "The doctors couldn't
cut aim up" The Warden had pro-
| V16o6 him ppith a o,,;k ~ o1oAl,o.