Year: 1872

| tnat the man am telllnS YOU dDOut,
has not been sentenced to receive any
punishment at all, and is so punished,


whilst in the eye of the law he is in


noccnt. II believe, says Mr.. Dick


ems, that very few men arc capable


of estimating the immense amount of
torture and agony, which this dreadful
punishment, prolonged for years, in


flicts upon the sufferer; and in gues-


sing at it myself, and in reasoning from


what | have seen written upon their


faces, and what to my certain


knowledge they feel within, ] am only


the more convinced that there is a


depth of endurance in it, which none


but the sufferers themselves can faith


ON, and which no man has a right to


inflict upon hls fellow creature. |


hold this slow and daily tampering


with the mysteries of the brain to be


immcasurably worse than any torture


of the body; and because its CHASTITY


signs aud tokens aronot so palpable to


the eye and sense of touch as scars
upon the flesh; because its wounds


are not upon the surface, and it extorts


few cries that human ears can hear,


therefore | the more denounce it as


secret punishment, which slumbering
humanity is not reused up to stay, and


| solmenly declare that with no re-


wards or honors could | walk happy


man beneath the open sky by day, or


lay me down upon my bed at night,


with the consciousness that one hu-


man creature for any length of time,


no matter what, lay suffering in his


silent cell, and the cause, or | con-


senting to it in the least degree" "


Now those are my sentiments dear


brethren, and therefore, enter here


my solemn protest against the inhu-


manity that inficts this most horrible


of all known punishments upon one


whom the law has not sentenced to


receive any punishment at all. But


take another case in this same precious


Jail of ours. That Of a poor insane


white man, shut up for nine months


in one of the dens | have described.


Not even charged with crime at all,


not vicious, only occasionally insane,


shut up for nine long months in that


dark cell with crowd of naked ne
groes, his own clothes had rotted and


dropped off by piece meal, till he was


naked too, and there he wallowed in


darkness, stencil and vermin, with


those naked negroes. A gentle, pale


and mild eyed man as | ever saw
This is pretty hard place" said


to him. yes" said he, "a pretty


hard place for christian people to keep


man in who has never done harm to


any one in his life. Where did you


stay before you came here" II lived


with my brother, and | loved to play


with his little children" and the mild


eyes filled with tears as he thought Of


the little children that he loved to play


with And as he leaned against the


iron bars of his cell door, had just
light enough to read his pale sad face,


and as through binding tears, | gazcd


upon him there, these low whispered


words fell on my ear, as if voice was


speaking from the depths of that dark


cell. Il am stranger, sick, naked,


and in prison, and no man ministereth


unto me" Strange words to hear in


such place. Strange thought and


yet fearful fact, the Lord Christ, in


the person of his suffering servant has


been living in that dark den for nine


long months. Now let me ask you


brethren, is there anything in such a


prison that is calculated to humanize,


elevate and improve the prisoners. Is


this all that christianity can do for


them? Has the Church of Christ


been loving mother to these poor


outcasts? What has she done to keep


them out of prison, what is she doing
for them there? Has she taken any


pains to teach them right from wrong,


has she ever taught them to read God S


Holy Word? Is she not allowing
scores of children in this county and


in this town to grow up as they have,


in that brutal ignorance, which pre-
pares the man for the commission of
every crime, and does she not in this


way, become responsible for the crimes


they commit. But some one may say,


I've been through the Jail, and |


don't think it is quite so bad as you


represent. But let me tell you breth-


ren, that person casually visiting the
Jail, will get but slight glimpse of its


horrors. lie would say, as every one
who has ever been in it has said, that
it is vile place, a reproach TO christi
anity, and disgrace to humanity; but
unless he has studied the subject, he


would be very apt to fall into the error
of supposing that our Jail is no worse
than such institutions generally arc
but so far from this being the case,
am quite sure that if the newspapers
should take hold of this institution,
they might win for the Clarksville Jail
, an infamous reputation, second only
to that of the black hole of Calcutta
: have spoken of the darkness, the
stencil, the vermin; but there arc
other things which common dccency
forbids that | should mention here
but common decency does not prevent
, the existence of those things, aud It is
necessary that one should be familiar
with all the disgusting details of the
, case, before he can fully realize the
effects of long Imprisonment in that
! place of torture, Compare Il with
the penitentiary, which is place ol
, Ipunishmcnt, whilst this is not. There
, the vilest criminal has occupation, all
t and exercise through the day, and a
r clean we'll ventilated cell to himself
/ at night here the innocent and the
5 guilty, the young offender and the
: hardened criminal are crowded togeth'
! er and kept in darkness day and night
= 1t is very true that one man in oul
I jail has a cell to himself but is there
penitentiary IN any civilized country
! in the world that has a cell like that
e 1t is very true that in one penitentiary
4 the experiment of solitary conhnc'
= ment as punishment for crime war
= tried, and to that experiment the ex;
D tract from Dickens refers. But whai
+ was the result Of that experiment,
why it had to be abandoned, because