The Shawnee News (Shawnee, Okla.), Vol. 16, No. 24, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 12, 1911 Page: 6 of 8
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'.'AI,I SOL
THE SHAWNEE DAILT NEWS, SHAWNEE, OKLAHOMA.- WEDNKSDAT, APRIL 12, 1 11.
LARGEST CIRCULATION.
By
CJARL£i
EDWARD RM$m
ALONG, high wall, dun and gloomy, J has penetrated for seventy-five years,
that seems the more sinister be- I And 500 men sleep in these caverns,
cause it is windowless; sentry What think you of that, my medical
boxes above* with maybe an armed man | friend? Does not that spell disease
• r two patroling; a huge gate, and, be- and death?
*ond it, one dissolving view of repulsive The other cell houses are somewhat j
'hapes, men with shaven heads and better—not much. None of them is fit
outlandish clothes: all this, doubtless, jt'or human beings to inhabit; and here,
you have glimpsed from your train, altogether are about 1,700 of such in-1
slipping easily through Columbus, or habitants, under the worst possible
ast Trenton, or quaint Ossining. and conditions; for many of the small
with a start you have recognized the black caves house two men each,
sudden intrusion of another world and Heavy must be the offenses against
another condition of men about which society that are expiated by life in
you know nothing. ' surroundings so terrible. We go at
The train runs on and you see jio;r,oon into the dining room to see the
more. Very likely you never see j feeding of these 1,700 malefactors on
were not $ble to sit down after thty
have been paddled and this is whyj
there was sometimes no place left ti
paddle" on the man.
They do not tell you these things:
they will glibly these things. Yet
I have here an affidavit from William
Labarge, an unfortwBte, a victim of
Columbus, telling mtffcrs likely to
make you hesitate abont the denials:
"Three weeks after I entered the
Ohio penitentiary there was a couple
of guards arguing about politics and
one of the convicts (at the dinner
hour) stuck his finger up for some
bread. The guards did not seem to
pay much attention to him so I passed
him some bread. I was reported in
the morning, sent to the cellar, and
the deputy gave me about twelve or
fourteen licks with a wet paddle and
sanded, and every time he hit me it
seemed to take the flesh right off, and
it bled so it went into my shoetops.
I had to use cotton for two or three
weeks in order that it would not stick
to my clothing, and I could hardly sit
down to eat, it pained so."
I have often heard good people but
shallow observers express wonder that
convicts turn desperately upon and at-
tack their guards, throwing away their
lives for one moment of revenge.
Another witness tells of a convict
these punishments most frequently
arose from complaints of failure or
refusal to complete the "tasks"—and
that foremen and outsiders, with only
a mercenary and exploiting interest
in the business, were the complainants
and potent witnesses.
We haven't used the humming bird
for many years now," said one of the
officers of the prison. "The apparatus
has been taken out and part of it is
now in the hospital, where it is used
in the treatment of rheumatism." But
it cannot be so very long ago, because
I have a statement from a man that
Water Cure.
Administering the
Bolt Shops Operated Under the Abom
inable Contract System
more, you never hear more. Few of
us ever acquire of this subject so
much as rudimentary knowledge. In
this country of ours are at all times
shut up in the weird prison world a
population exceeding the combined
populations of two Western states,
and the rest of us (except for a few
determined reformers) know naught
thereof.
This is about the mental picture (as
whom the State is taking vengeance.
ere they come, across the courtyard
from the shops, marching in com-
panies, each company shepherded by
a guard with a heavy stick. Every-
thing is slovenly and untidy. Some
of the guards are not in uniform and
some are manifestly unfit for their
work. The prisoners look dirty and
unkempt.
The dining hall is wonderfully dark,
evanescent and unrealized as the fly- amazingly dirty, with no ventilation
tag vision of the gloomy walls) that'to speak of, and reeking with un-
most of us have of the convicted | pleasant odors. Dirty sawdust covers
felon. The close-cropped head, the the floor. The 1,700 on whom we
broad stripes, the lock-step march, the are wreaking our vengeance file sul-
silcnt groups, and the ball and chain, lenly in, and take their places at long,
symbolize for us a pit of despair, a dirty pine tables. Not a word is
kind of living death, with days of | spoken by anyone in the room. With
black anguish and immitigable shame.! hands unwashed from their toil the
Once pass those great gates, we think 1,700 eat scanty food from suspicious
(not without adequate reason), and dishes: boiled potatoes and beans, a
a man had better be dead: there or slice of bread, a mug of water con-
elsewhere on earth he shall have noth- 'stitutes the repast. It i
ing but pain for his portion: privation \iting. More than one
and suffering within the walls and the an attempt on the mc<
world's hatred without. and, desisting after a moment,I
But as a matter of fact, what really and stares hopelessly at his plate. If
happens in that half-world of the con- one wishes more bread, he raises a
demned? And life among all these I dirty finger and a guard takes up a
j thousands of our isolated fellow- piece in his hand and tosses it upon
sttimblers—what is it really like? In- i the dirty table. If one wishes more
cidentally, what do we maintain these waler he raises his cup. Not a soul
institutions for? j breathes a word. The guards are all I
pert therein. Second, we are piling
up enormous costs in stolen property
and prison maintenance.
The total annual cost of mainten-
ance has been estimated at $25,000,000.
Besides, consider the huge cost of
police, magistrates, trial courts, de-
tectives, prosecuting officers. Alto-
gether, what a monstrous bill is
massed here! Clearly, if the prison
conducted on these lines does debase
and harden the convict, is *'a training
school for crime," does send forth its
not verv in- rnmatcs Wlt^ hearts °* bitterness
>n\ict makes an<* l'lc scnsc °* wron8. the system
doe
before him|uo" not pay' do" it? Pu,tinS a5'de
^it s j every suggestion of duty to our fel-
lows, every thought that the man that
errs is still our brother, that no error
can deprive him of the birthright of
brotherhood—sweeping all this aside as
sentiment and considering the matter
as dollars and cents, how can it pay
| us to maintain places like Colum-
We have in the United States (al | there, watching, listening.
though you are probably unaware of1 When he has tinished, each prisoner
the fact) two styles of penitentiaries,1 folds his arms with his cap in his right
conducted upon wholly different lines ! hand held upon his left shoulder. Thus
having wholly different purposes and j the 1,700 sit until the signal is given,
results. And al! the puzzling question j Company by company they file
of the prison and its management , through the doors and form two by
turns upon this difference, which we j two in silent ranks. The guard raps*
ought now to examine, because it ' wice upon the stone walk: the ob-
means much to us. jects of our vengeance fall into a
Here, then, is one, a type of the first *wift pace and away they march to
group, the Ohio State Penitentiary, in 1 'he shops. The brief noon intermis-
the city of ColumUis, a great hulking, v ion is over.
gloomy place; high walls about it, and Here is the chapel where every Sun-
behind them the sooty, belching chim-1 !ay the chaplain preaches to these our
neys that mark a nest of factories in victims. What about, in the name of
the far end of the inclosure. wonder? Forgiveness, very likely; or
We get a permit to examine thel-eace on earth, good will to men.
prison under the escort of a guide.; Nothing would seem incongruous in a
Low, ancient, and smoke-stained build- place so hideous. Here is the "Idle
ings irregularly surround a large,
rather handsome courtyard, heavily
turfed, set with trees in which the
free sparrows squawk with a joy
strangely depressing in a place con-
secrate to so melancholy a business.
The first buildings are cell houses.
Here is one built in 1834. It is a
frightful place, very dark, damp, and
to the senses pungently suggestive
: of long and odorous occupation. The
ventilation is so bad that even when
the tenants are gone forth the air is
Heavy and foul; what it must be when
the 500 cells are occupied with breath-
Ting and perspiring men is a sugges-
' tion to jostle complacency.
There is first the outer wall with
barred windows, few and narrow; then
a space of ten or twelve feet then the
cells in five tiers. At noon barely so
much light enters the corridor that
one may see one's way about. No
light enters the cells. Into these black
caves, where the chill of old stone
walls strikes one like a palpable thing,
and where the heavy air is stirless al-
ways, not one ray of natural light
House," where prisoners that have
nothing to do and new prisoners
awaiting assignment to the shops, sit
all day in a filthy room. Here is the
hospital, a bare and bleak place, where
one might easily get sick but could
hardly be expected to get well. Then
one after another the shops, all dirty,
all badly lighted, badly ventilated, and
at least one of them full of a suffo-
cating effluvia.
What of it? These men have done
wrong. If they wish not to suffer
hardship let them refrain from doing
wrong. You see how it is with us
that are free. We keep out of jail.
Therefore these bring their troubles
on themselves.
Especially, if to dirt and gloom and
neglect and all somber influences there
be added injustice and cruelty.
How about that?
These spoils-system guards, this ad- 1
ministration always protected, this ab
solute government,in a world remote1
and inaccessible, practically secure
against observation and review, what
do all these elements of evil mean for
the convict that happens to be friend-
less and helpless?
The Ohio State Penitentiary was
operated on the abominable contract
system.
That is to say, the convicts worked
in shops under the direction and con-
trol and practically it the mercy of
the contractors, who were irrespon-
sible to the State /r in this matter to
any other human Vuthority.
Each convict must each day pro-
duce a certain amount of work called
his "task." If he fell short the con-
tractor's foreman reported him to the
guard who forthwith took him to the
"cellar."
This was the place of judgment—
and of torture. The deputy warden
sat as the court; on the report of the
guard swift sentence was pronounced.
Usually the offender was condemned
to be paddled, sometimes to the bull
rings, sometimes to the water cure,
and in the cases of old offenders to all
three—one after another.
Punishment by the paddle is man-
Yes. But they also bring troubles! aged in this fashion: The prisoner is
on the rest of us. For instance, about seized, stripped and bent over the
fifty per cent, of the men once com- edge of a bathtub, his legs being
mitted to prison go forth to prey again ( manacled to the floor and his hands
upon society and repeat or vary their chained before him. A guard takes a
malefactions. That means for us two
conditions, both most grave. First,
we are exposed to the ravages of men
that have been gradusted from "a
training sohool of crime" and made ex-
flat instrument, ash, three and a half
feet long, two inches wide, fitted with
a handle. He soaks it in hot water.
Then he beats the prisoner with it a
prescribed number of times—four or
five according to the prison officers,
ten to thirty according to the pris-
oners
"Bull-rings" means that the prisoner
is strung up by the wrists in a dark
cell and thus left hanging, like a car-
cass of beef. Sufferers from this de-
vice and other witnesses have declared
that the chains are sometimes so ad-
usted that the delinquent's feet barely
touch the floor. This is denied by the
>rison officers. There is no reason
vhy it should not be true; the guards
re a law unto themselves. The cell
- perfectly dark except for what light
liters through a few narrow slits in
he door and is otherwise unventilated.
\t night the victim is usually lowered
md allowed to sleep on the floor—
usually, npt always.
The affidavit gives a pungent if
crude description of the "water cure."
Having been stripped, the delinquent
is manacled in the great bathtub. Al
the height of his neck in the sides of
the tub are grooves and in these play
great wooden clamps, carved to fit the
human body. These are screwed to-
gether so as to grip in a vise the
man's chest and arms. In front of
him is a faucet and a bit of hose,
throwing a smart stream of water.
First it is necessary to get the man's
mouth open by making him cry out
(which is usually done by frightening
him), whereupon the water streams
down his throat and strangles him.
By those that have suffered this treat-
ment the sensations are said to be in-
describably horrible. In spite of his
reason the victim feels that with the
most excruciting pains he is being tor-
tured to death.
"It brings them around, it brings
them around," said an old guard. "I
never seen but one of them that could
stand six minutes of it without caving,
arU he wasn't a man, he was a de-
mon."
Well, I should say so. I understand
that in nine cases in ten the man was
carried away insensible and sometimes
spent days in the hospital. If he died
I don't know how the facts would be
known. 'Tis but a man gone—and he
a convict.
The humming bird, to which the af-
fiant refers, was an electric instru-
ment of torture (once highly esteemed
in the institution) operated after the
following manner: Having been
stripped, the delinquent was fastened
on his back in a shallow metal tank
filled with water and connected with
one electrode from a dynamo: the
other electrode was a wet sponge.
Gloved in rubber, the operator took
the wet sponge and passed it slowly
up and down the prisoner's bare
limbs. As it went, his muscles corded
into knots and he shrieked aloud until
he fainted.
You may be interested la know that
within ten years has been connected
officially with the penitentiary, and
he says the thing was used in his
time, with all the other torture de-
As for the water cure, that is in-
disputable; it has not been taken out,
but still stands in the "cellar" ready
for use. I saw it and its construction
and workings were fully explained to
me. According to the prison officers
it has been used only twice in the last
four or five years. H'ml I do not
know, only things do not look quite
that way. When I visited the peni-
tentiary a prisoner that had made his
escape from his company was hiding
somewhere in the shops. One of the
prison officers said that when this
prisoner was caught he would get the
water cure and another said he would
get the bull rings. Possibly he got
both.
The paddle is not a very formidable
instrument to look at, but something
perfectly typical of the whole busi-
ness of prison punishment pertains
to it. That is to say, it is frankly
exhibited as a thing necessary to
maintain discipline but used sparingly
and inflicting more humiliation than
pain. You take it and belike slap
yourself on the hand with it or on
the leg. It does not seem to hurt.
But you are never told that in the
old days at least, after it had been
soaked in hot water it was dipped in
white sand, nor that with each blow
the operator gave it a slight pull
across the flesh so that each blow
broke the skin and brought blood.
This fact is not confided to you, nor
the other, that this If wh£ convicts
Where 1.700 Men On Whom a State Is
Taking I'engeance Eat In Silence.
crippled for life by the water cure, of
one made insane, and adds: "I went
over one morning (to the cellar) and
there were eighty-five men there (con-
victs accused by guards or foremen),
and thirty-two got the paddle."
Convicts, these. Oh, yes, no doubt
of that, and therefore of the class that
hitherto the world has agreed to ex-j
elude from its meccy or its belief.
To punish, to make them feel the
full revenge of the State, and to break
their spirits if they resented what was
allotted to them, were cardinal virtues
in prison methods. These men and
women had done wrong: whatever
added to their sufferings was meri-
torious because it furthered the re-
venge of the State and also it made
crime terrible and deterred others
from law-breaking. And all the time
there was the invariable experience of
mankind that crime has never been
suppressed nor discouraged by making
its penalty severe, but only by other
means that we have never yet attempt-
ed to use on any comprehensive scale.
Is there no bright side to all this?
you ask. Oh, my, yesl There is
"Bankers' Row," for instance. A
dozen or so bankers live in compara-
tive comfort in the Columbus peni-
tentiary. They have meals brought
from outside. They are treated much
like visitors. They are allowed to
use the telephones. With slight re-
strictions they may do as they please.
The employment given to them is
nominal. Some have portieres over
their cell doorways and special bed-
ding.
But now there apparently is the
beginning of a wholly new idea in our
prisons.
You will be astonished to learn how
far the change has already progressed
and very likely it will seem to you
that nothing else in our times really
means so much to us. Not merely
because a class of most unfortunate
brothers and sisters of ours may here-
after be treated with decency and jus-
tice, but because here is the surest of
all signs that we actually are pro-
gressing from the jungle, that kind-
ness and tolerance actually increase
upon us and that we may hope for a
time when both the gallows and the
prison itself will cease to reproach
our civilization.
Copyright, 1910, by Metropolitan News-
paper Syndicate,
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The Shawnee News (Shawnee, Okla.), Vol. 16, No. 24, Ed. 1 Wednesday, April 12, 1911, newspaper, April 12, 1911; Shawnee, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc138852/m1/6/: accessed May 2, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.