WOMAN IN PRISON.
BY
CAROLINE H. WOODS.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY KURD AND HOUGHTON.
1869.
Y/T
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
CAROLINE II. WOODS,
in the Clerk s Office of the District Court for the District of Massachusetts.
RIVERSIDE, CAMBRIDGE:
STEREOTYPED AND PRINTED Bt
H. 0. H00GHTON AND COMPANY.
we
WHY WRITTEN.
I WAS reading an evening paper. I glanced over
the advertisements. One attracted my attention, and
held it so strongly that I read it over and over, again
and again. There was nothing unusual in it to or
dinary observation. It read, " Wanted. At the
Penitentiary, a Matron. Inquire at the Institution."
I turned the paper over to read the general news;
but could not place my thoughts so as to compre
hend the meaning of the words before my sight.
Without the intention to do so, I looked again at the
advertisement. It became a study to me.
Said Thought If you were to answer that ad
vertisement, and obtain the situation, it would place
you upon missionary ground, and at the same time
give you employment which would afford you a sup
port while you are teaching the ignorant. You
would get knowledge in the position. A new phase
i v WHY wan TEN.
of life would be opened to your view. You would
have an opportunity to observe, practically, how
well the present system of prison discipline is
adapted to reform convicts, and repress crime. But
the cost is too much. I cannot become a Matron in
a Penitentiary.
I laid the paper down, without reading it, because
I could see nothing in it except that advertisement.
The next day I went in town, sat down in the
office of a friend, and took up a morning paper. No
sooner had I opened it than that advertisement
spread itself out before me. It changed the form
of its appeal ; left out what my selfishness might
gain, to enlist my compassion and aid, entirely, in
what I might accomplish for others. It called to
me, in piteous tones, to go work for the prisoner.
It was the echo of a voice that I long ago heard,
Come into our prisons, and help us, we beseech
you!
I cannot ! I have other things to do, and they
are as much for the benefit of humanity as anything
I may be able to accomplish for you. My spirit
darkened as I made the answer; a cloud of guilt
settled down upon it. I threw down the paper in
order to dissipate it, and to avoid the plea.
WHY WRITTEN. V
I turned and talked with my friend ; but ray
thoughts were not in what we were saying. That
advertisement followed them, and filled them to the
exclusion of every other subject.
In the abstraction which it caused the hour in
which I was to leave the city passed, and I missed
my train. I must remain and avail myself of an
other.
While I was waiting, that advertisement returned
to my reflections, and urged its cause imperatively
as a command. It was a call, to me, resistless as
the voice that awoke the young Israelitish Prophet
from his slumbers. In another moment the struggle
with my pride was over, and my spirit answered,
I will go, even to lust-besotted Sodom if thou lead-
est, Light of my path !
I seated myself in a street car, went to the prison,
applied for the place, and obtained it.
Day by day I wrote down what I saw and heard,
what I said and did. Why ? In obedience to the
same Voice that called me to the work.
The tale is before you.
May it touch the heart of every one who reads the
story, and melt it into a compassion which will labor
for the redemption of the prisoner ; into a pity which
WHY WRITTEN.
will echo around the cry Open the prison doors,
not to let the prisoner go free, but to let in, to him,
the light of moral knowledge, and the discipline of
Christian charity.
CONTENTS.
PAQK
WHY WRITTEN Jij
I. FIRST DAY IN PRISON 1
II. AT NIGHT 13
III. SECOND DAY IN PRISON 23
IV. A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE .... 34
V. THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES .... 48
VI. FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON .... 58
VII. THE MASTER AND THE RULES 75
VIII. MRS. HARDBACK 79
IX. A BREAD-AND-WATER BOARDER .... 87
X. AN ARRIVAL 93
XI. INSIDE MANAGEMENT 98
XII. SUNDAY 102
XIII. LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY HO
XIV. INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS . . 127
XV. A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS 138
XVI. A FRIGHT 151
XVII. VISITING DAY 156
XVIII. CALLAHAN AGAIN 163
XIX. DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. .... 178
FIRST DAY IN PRISON.
IT was Saturday morning that I became an in
mate of the Penitentiary.
I was conducted to the kkchen, where I was to
oversee the cooking for the prisoners, and to the
prison adjoining it, which I was to see kept in order,
by the Deputy Master of the institution, who gave
me my keys and installed me in my office of Prison
Matron.
When we first went in he called the six women
who do the work in the kitchen, and the three
"sweeps" who keep the prison clean, to him, and
presented their new mistress, in my person, to them.
They were convicts that surrounded me at his
call ; but they were human beings. Human faces
looked up to mine for sympathy and care. Some of
them were fine looking, even in their coarse uniform,
some were pretty as I picked them out one by one.
They all looked at me earnestly, for a few moments,
as though they were reading their sentence of harsh
ness or kindly treatment, under my rule, in my face ;
then, turned away to their work again.
They whispered as they stood together, and I saw
by their furtive glances that they were watching, and
1
2 WOMAN IN PRISON.
discussing me, as I walked around to take a survey
of my new field of labor. They were undoubtedly
commenting upon my personal appearance ; and
making their predictions as to my sharpness in de
tecting their impositions, and ability to control their
perverseness ; or, I imagined so.
The Deputy showed me the mush boiler, that
would cook two large tubs full of that farinaceous
edible at a time ; the potato steamer, that would
hold four barrels of that esculent vegetable at
a cooking ; the soup and coffee kettles, of still
larger dimensions ; and that comprised all of the ap
paratus required in preparing the mammoth meals
which were to serve above four hundred people.
These cooking utensils were kept in operation by
pipes conducting steam to them from a boiler sta
tioned in the middle of the room.
When he put the steam boiler under my direc
tion I shrank back in terror from the task of man
aging it. The huge culinary apparatus, which he
had been exhibiting, although outside the pale of
ordinary housekeeping, was still within the reach of
my understanding ; but I had no idea of the man
agement of steam ; it was not only a difficult, but
dangerous affair.
" The house will surely be blown up if you leave
the care of that upon me," I said to him.
" You must watch it very closely."
" I don t know how, and I have no aptness for
learning that kind of science."
FIRST DAY IN PRISON. 3
" One of the women will tend it." And he went
on with explanations that were all Greek to me.
" It is safe when you have on twenty pounds of
steam. There is your gauge," and he pointed to a
clock-like looking affair on the wall. " That hand
will move round and tell you how much steam you
have on. You must keep water enough in the
boiler or you will get blown up. If it runs from that
centre stopcock, on the side, it is safe. You notice
that glass tube in front. The water is just as high
in that as it is in the boiler. This faucet is to let the
water off if you get the boiler too full. Turn that
faucet when you let the water on," and he went along
and pointed to one in a pipe by the wall, " and that
pump is there in case of accident. You must have
it worked every day so as to keep it in order."
All knowledge is useful, I thought, and in time I
shall understand running a steam-engine. As the
O O
women have been trusted with the dangerous thing,
they may still continue to be, till I have leisure to
learn the science of steam as applied to cooking.
After I had taken a survey of the kitchen the
Deputy took me into the women s prison which led
out of it.
The centre of the hollow square, in which the dor
mitories are built, looked like a huge block of glit
tering ice, so white were the washed walls of brick
and stone. The black, grated doors of the cells, in
serted into them, like the teeth of grinning- demons,
were ranged along the sides about two feet apart,
tier after tier, five stories, one above another.
4 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The Deputy led me along past the iron doors. I
trembled and shrank back; but I had no idea of
receding from my undertaking. I " screwed my
courage to the sticking-point," and looked into the
narrow, stone rooms ; but it was many days before I
could force myself to enter one.
I grew heart-sick, and faint with apprehension of
unknown terrors at their cheerless aspect.
" What lodgings for human beings ! " I exclaimed.
" They are not very pleasant," said the Deputy.
" If you were the one to blame for it I should cer
tainly charge you with great inhumanity."
"I suppose you will think us very cruel some
times."
"In this case I don t know as you can help it.
You did not make these sleeping apartments for the
prisoners. The public functionaries of the State
may be thanked for showing such tender mercies as
these."
" We are used to seeing them, and they don t look
to us as they do to you."
" Does that make them any more comfortable for
the prisoners ? Do they get used to them so as to
be comfortable ? "
" I presume so. I know they are more comfor
table places than some had before they came here."
"Then it should be the work of the vaunting
Christianity of this religious land to raise such deg
radation to cleanliness, comfort, and respectability."
" There might be a great deal done in that direc
tion if people were only disposed to do it."
FIltST DAY IN PRISON. 5
" Our prisons are rather private affairs, I believe.
They can only be visited on certain days and occa
sions."
" It would be very inconvenient for our work to
have people running in, and over the place at all
times. We could not have it. And it wouldn t be
liked by the prisoners to be gazed at constantly."
I made no reply ; but I thought it might have a
salutary effect upon the discipline of the prison,
which he had just said I might think cruel, to be ex
posed to the observation of the public. The prison
ers must have lost the sensibility which would shrink
from being made a spectacle before they came in
there. If visiting were allowed only on certain clays
and occasions, the place and the convicts would be
put in order for company, and a very incorrect idea of
the every-day life of the prisoners would be obtained.
If there were liberty to visit the place, every day,
many might go from curiosity, and it might become
annoying. That very curiosity might discover and
discuss faults in the management, which ought to
be remedied, and thus produce a counterbalancing
benefit.
The officers might dislike such scrutiny, especially,
if they were not doing their duty. They are officers
of the government. Is it not proper that their con
duct should be looked after by the people as much
us that of any other government official ?
Evil comrades might go in and hold improper
communication with the prisoners. Can they not
do that on regular visiting days ?
6 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Is it not only the work of humanity to see that
crime is punished in a way that will not increase it ;
but also that of the legislator as a matter of civil
policy ; and that of the taxpayer as a matter of per
sonal interest. It should interest every man and
woman as a matter of personal protection from the
depredations of vice to know how convicts are
treated, and to judge whether that treatment tends
to reform the criminal, or to harden and lead him
deeper into crime when he is let out into the world
again to pursue his own ways.
Ought the punishment of criminals, who have
been tried, convicted, and sentenced publicly, to be
conducted in secret ? It is to be presumed that the
keeper of the prison is trusty. There should be no
presumption in the matter. It should be known that
he is so, and he should be kept so- by the ceaseless
vigilance of public inspection. What is the quar
terly, or semi-annual visit of fifty or a hundred men
when the visit has been notified, and the prison put
in order for their reception, towards effecting that ?
My residence in that prison led me to see that the
descriptions of Dickens, and his compeers in the re
gions of fictitious writing, have given, not the poetic
illusions of imaginary sufferings to the contemplation
of the world hardly a vivid picture of the truth.
God speed the day when our prisons and peni
tentiaries may take a place beside public schools,
orphan asylums, houses of refuge, all institutions for
the cultivation of a knowledge which tends to the
FIRST DAY IN PRISON. 7
elevation of virtue, and the suppression of vice, in
the care of the public !
Our own children may not stimulate to an interest
in them. Our own children may not require the
benefit of the public school, or orphan asylum ;
but somebody s children will. In working for the
elevation of everybody s children are we not benefit
ing our own ?
After he had shown me around, so that I might
take a general survey of my field of labor, the Dep
uty left me with my charge, saying,
" You are mistress here. No one has a right to
interfere with you, and you are responsible to no one
but me, or the Master."
" But the Head Matron will, of course, come and
instruct me in the details of my work. I must know
what work belongs to each woman, and how she is
expected to perform it."
" The women know their work and will do it. The
most yjpu have to do is to keep order."
" That may be a man s idea of managing a kitch
en ; but there are a great many details that I ought
to understand in order to get the work properly done,,
and done in its proper time ; and with the greatest
ease to myself and the women."
" The other Matrons will tell you. I will tell you
all I can."
I thought, but I did not say it, You are better
disposed than informed. He saw by the anxious,
expression of my face that I was not satisfied, and
added, " The women know, they will tell you."
8 WOMAN IN PJRISON.
I made no reply ; but I thought It is not the
proper thing for me to receive my instructions from
the convicts. It is their place to be instructed by me.
If I am taught by them, I am placed in an inferior
position to them. In order to entertain a proper
respect for me they should look up to me as their
superior in all things.
The arrangement for receiving my directions from
them placed me too much in their power also. It
would be only indulging natural proclivities to " play
off" on me under the circumstances ; and I could
hardly expect these poor, abandoned creatures to be
superior to the temptation to do it when the oppor
tunity was afforded them.
I could not consider such teachers reliable. If,
by misleading me, with regard to a rule of the insti
tution, they could obtain an indulgence, or relieve
themselves of a burden, would they not take the
advantage which they had of me and do it. I was
suspicious that they would.
There was, probably, some pride mixed with these
considerations, that rebelled against becoming a
pupil of convicts when I was their mistress.
I stood looking on, or walking around, watching
the movements of the women very narrowly, till one
of the other Matrons came in. Then, I went to her
with a volume of questions.
To most of them I received the answer,
" I don t know about that particularly. I have
never had anything to do with this, department."
FIRST DAY IN PRISON. 9
"Then, how am I to learn my duties, and get
definite orders for the regulation of my work ? Is
there no Head Matron, no superior officer in the
women s prison to whom I can go ? "
" The Master s wife is enrolled as Head Matron,
and receives pay as such, but she never comes
round."
" I would go to her if I knew where to find her."
" I don t think she knows much more about it than
you do, if you were to go to her. We will all tell
you."
" But you don t know. If there is a Head Matron,
and she is paid for doing the duties of one, why does
she not perform them? Is she enrolled head offi
cer of this prison merely to obtain the salary ? The
government is very obliging to make her office a
sinecure."
I was already perplexed I was beginning to get
vexed.
" Her husband does them for her, perhaps."
" Perhaps ! Then why is he not here, to tell me
the work which belongs to each woman, and how she
is to do it; what work is required, and how I am
to get my things to do with ? But how can the
Master attend to his own duties and those of the
Head Matron too ? "
"The Deputy will tell you."
" He must have his own duties to attend to how
can he perform hers ? He is just as willing to tell
me as you are, and I don t think he knows any more
about my place than you do."
10 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" The women know, they will tell you."
I was thrown back upon the convicts again for my
instructions.
I went on, despairing of help, to study them out
as best I could. Sometimes by asking left-hand
questions of the women, and sometimes by getting
direct explanations from them ; but chiefly by watch
ing the progress of the work. The place seemed to
me full of disorder, confusion, and dirt.
When the Deputy came round again, I was full
of trouble.
He said, when I complained to him,
" You will find things in confusion. The Matron
who went away yesterday was inefficient."
" Perhaps so," I replied ; " but the confusion ap
pears to me to date farther back than the last Matron.
It arises from the want of a head officer to regulate
affairs."
" I have double the trouble on this side, with four
Matrons and a hundred women, than with three hun
dred men and more than a dozen officers on the
other."
u You would insinuate that women are more diffi
cult to get on with than men. I make a very differ
ent solution of the difficulty in this particular case.
You are on the ground all of the time ; explain his
duty to every officer, and see that he does it. That
makes the officer s work distinct before him. It is
done under your eye, which makes it promptly and
well done. If that were the case on this side, we
FIRST DAY IN PRISON. 11
t
might be as orderly, and have as little trouble in per
forming our part, as you on yours. The cook tells
me that certain work belongs to the slide woman ;
the slide woman says it belongs to the sink women ;
the sink women shift it on the steam woman, and so
I am kept on the chase, from one to another, for some
one to do a piece of labor. I do not know who ought
to do it, and they know it. If they do not intend to
confuse me, they intend to clear themselves of all
the work they can."
" Use your own judgment, and call on whom you
please. They are all obliged to obey any order that
you give."
" If I call upon one to do the work that has for
merly been done by another, I stir up ill feelings
among the prisoners towards each other, and con
tention, and they think me hard and unjust. It
makes me trouble. They obey my order reluctantly,
and say, 4 That isn t my work. "
" If they quarrel, they know the punishment. If
they refuse to obey your orders, report them to me.
and I will put them where they will be glad to obey."
He nodded towards the prison door.
I knew he must refer to some kind of punishment.
I did not know what ; but frightful visions of the
cruelties of which I had read rose in my imagination,
and I said no more.
I vowed to myself that I would never get them
punished by refusing to obey my unjust exactions if
I could help it.
12 WOMAN IN PHIS ON.
My thoughts did not stop with my words. I rea
soned with myself. If my ignorance, or bad manage
ment, cause me to be unjust towards those women,
and if I, by my injustice, arouse their bad temper so
as to cause them to be punished, who will be most in
fault ? I decided that I should be. The question
suggested itself to me If you get them punished
unjustly who will avenge them ? The All-seeing-
Eye will notice, and avenge it. I will be careful.
I resolved to feel my way along softly and care
fully. There was no relief for my dilemma, except
in my own ingenuity to find out the ways of the
place, and the proper management to apply to it.
AT NIGHT. 13
AT NIGHT.
AT seven o clock, p. M., came the marching in to
supper, and the locking up of all the prisoners.
I looked to see, as they filed past me, one by one,
if they carried marks of their crimes upon their faces.
I saw nothing unusual in the mass ; occasionally an
individual countenance betrayed the vicious habits
which had brought the woman there. If I had not
known that they were convicts, I should never have
suspected them to be different from the ordinary
poor people who are constantly passing along the
streets.
About sixty of the women in the Penitential-}
were employed in the shop upon contract vests, pan
taloons, coats, and shirts. There were about fifty
employed upon sewing-machines. The rest cut,
basted, and finished the work.
There were from four to ten in the wash-room.
These were all lodged in my domain, with the ex
ception of two or three who slept in the hospital.
When they left their work, at night, they were
placed in file, in the order of their cells, and marched
into the prison past the ration door, where their
14 WOMAN IN PRISON.
meals were handed out to them, through a slide,
from the kitchen.
Their supper was a " skillet pan " of mush, or a
slice of bread, and a quart of rye coffee, which was
taken to their cells to be eaten after they were locked
in their rooms or stone dens, I called them in
my indignation. The sight of those little, cramped
stone cells recalled to my memory the pictures of
dungeons, and imprisonments, and tortures which I
had looked at in my childhood till my heart was
racked with agony at the cruelties which they por
trayed.
It was no paper picture that I was looking upon.
but a stern reality ; and my shrinking spirit asked
again and again, as I saw those poor creatures
marched in, and immured for the night, Why did
your folly prompt you to undertake such work ?
Never shall I forget the hissing creak of the sliding
bar as it closed them in ; or the click of the lock as
I turned the key in it, for the first time, upon those
poor wretches. Long before I got through with the
thirty-six locks, it. fell to my share to bolt, my fingers
were bruised, and my arm ached ; but not so much as
my heart.
I looked in upon the poor things, one by one, as I
locked them in. An agony of pity worked itself
into my soul, and oppressed me almost to suffocation.
I said to myself Is this a woman s work ? May
be. If it must be done, it should be done tenderly.
Great God, for Christ s sake, pity them in their cold,
AT NIGHT. 15
damp, narrow cells, and make their straw pallets
couches of rest ! I prayed mentally as I left the
grated doors.
I had thought this to be missionary ground. I
might teach some of them the way to Eternal Life,
and the way to reformation. Alas ! I found little
chance with those who went to the shop and wash
room. They rose at sunrise, and worked till sunset.
No one was allowed to hold communication with
them, but their own Overseer, about their work.
Neither were they allowed to talk in their cells at
night, and they would have been too tired if they
had been given the liberty to do so. The task
master had been over them all day to drive them,
pitilessly, to fulfill their sentence of so many months
hard labor in the Penitentiary.
I turned away, sadly, from that disappointed hope ;
but I saw the opportunity still before me to teach the
nine, whom I had under my immediate care, to gov
ern their tempers, and their passions, and to lead a
new life. It was teaching only that could effect it.
They were ignorant of the way to*do it.
My bonnet and shawl had lain all day upon the
table that was placed for my use in the kitchen. The
woman, who was to wait upon me in my room, had
asked if she should take them up. I had said, no,
thinking I might find time to go with her ; but that
opportunity did not offer.
After the w<nen were locked up, the Receiving
Matron said to her, " Take those things to our room !
We will go up now," she said to me.
16 WOMAN IN PRISON.
I started back as she led me to the stone stairs of
the prison, and began to ascend them.
" Where are we going ? " I asked in surprise.
" Our room is up here," she replied quietly.
" In the prison ! are we to sleep in the prison ? "
Yes."
She made no further comment. It was too late
in the day to recede or demur. I followed her up,
up, up, over five stone flights, along a stone walk to
the farther end of the building, through a grated
door, into a room made up of a half dozen cells with
a dormer window in the roof. Some straw had been
thrown down upon the stone floor, and an old woolen
carpet laid over it. The walls were of stone like
the cells, and whitewashed like them. There were
some wooden chairs, an old bureau, two sinks, and
two single beds, arranged on opposite sides of the
room. In one corner was a double wardrobe, appar
ently to be shared in common by both Matrons.
I had not given my own accommodations a thought
in taking my place in the prison. In all institutions
of the kind which I had ever been in, each Matron
had a nice bedroom to herself, in a comfortable part
of the house, and most of them comfortable sitting-
rooms attached. It never occurred to me that a
female officer, in any public institution, could be
requested to occupy such a room. However I could
bring myself to it for the sake of carrying out the
purpose that induced me to take the^place.
I stood a moment, and looked all round the room.
AT NIGHT. 17
I then examined the bed. It was clean, and looked
comfortable.
" Is this all the room, and are these all the com
forts we are to have ? " I asked of the Receiving
Matron.
" You see all," she replied. "If we had more, we
should have no time to enjoy them."
" Rather a sorry prospect if one is to take herself
into consideration at all. Is there a bath-room that
we can use ? To take a bath would be really re
freshing, and help me to sleep to-night, I am so
tired."
" I am tired all of the time, and there is no chance
to rest. We must rise at four in the morning, and
be on the spring every moment till eight in the even
ing ; you will be on duty till nine, because you re
ceive the keys at that hour."
" Every day ? "
" Every day ! "
" There is usually a Relief Matron in such insti
tutions, so that the other Matrons can have rest."
" There used to be one here ; but, instead of that,
there is an Assistant Matron in the shop."
" Then the Shop Matron has all of the relief, and
the others none. Why is that ? "
" They want to get as much work done in the shop
as possible, to support the institution, the Master
says. When I get tired, and feel like grumbling, I
tell them it is money taken out of our flesh and blood
to make the institution rich."
2
18 WOMAN IN PEISON.
" It is probably the way the Master takes to rec
ommend himself to the Board of Directors. They
like him for his thrift in managing."
" I don t know where the money goes ; but I know
we are worked to death. I am dying by inches."
" Why must I be up an hour later than the rest to
receive the keys ? "
" Because you have them in charge during the
night, those that stay in the prison. If you are out,
I take them."
" Out ! What time have I to go out ? "
" Three evenings in the week, after the prisoners
are locked up, if you wish."
" What time have I then ? "
" You can be gone till four o clock in the morn
ing, if you like."
"When shall I sleep?"
" You can make your own arrangements for that.
Perhaps on the way, if you take a horse car."
" I am afraid to go out evenings alone ; but in that
relief I can get a bath."
" I forgot your question about the bath-room.
There is none, that I know of, for the officers use.
There is one in the house for the Master s family. I
don t know whether the Matrons that lodge there
are allowed to use it."
" Then some of the Matrons are lodged comforta
bly in the house. Why is that distinction made ? "
" I don t know. There are bathing-tubs, for the
prisoners, in my wash-house. I never use them ; but
AT NIGHT. 19
if you wish to, you can. They are scrubbed out
clean."
" I must be up from four A. M., till nine P. M.
That makes seventeen hours of labor."
" Sometimes you will be required to sit up one,
two, or three hours later."
" Why ? "
" The Master s wife or daughters may have com
pany, and keep the women up-stairs. We have to
sit up and wait for them to come in, so as to lock
them up."
*< And be up all the same at four next morning ? "
"Yes."
" Do the Master s wife and daughters get up at
four the next morning, after sitting up so late, and go
to work ? "
Of course not."
" If the wife is Head Matron, has she not her duties
to do in the morning as well as we ? And ought she
not to see that the other officers are not worked like
that ? If she possesses the common feelings of hu
manity, she would provide some relief, if it were in
her power."
" There is not much humanity in exercise here.
We are all too hard worked to think of any one but
ourselves."
" I should think that might be your case."
" I often tell them it is as much a House of Cor
rection for the officers as the prisoners."
" Ten hours of labor is now considered a good
20 WOMAN IN PHIS ON.
day s work. To drag the convicts from sunrise to
sunset only exhausts them. They do not get through
with as much work as they would do in ten hours,
and the intervening time given to rest."
" That has been an established rule here for fifty
years or more."
" It is certainly a very antiquated idea, all of a
half century old. I recollect hearing my grandfather
say that people worked that way when he was a boy.
But people s ideas have changed since that time, and
the people of this generation consider such demands
of labor very unreasonable."
" The only changes here have been to make things
harder. They will put upon you all they can make
you do."
If she had been telling the truth that was a plain,
but correct statement of facts.
" How long has the present Master had charge
here?"
" Forty-five or fifty years."
" It is no wonder that his heart has become like the
nether millstone. No man ought to remain in such a
place such a length of time. The best human heart
that ever beat would become ossified, if it ever enter
tained human feelings, if compelled to exercise such
continued tyrannous exactions."
" I don t know whether he ever had human feel
ings he does not exercise much humanity, as I
regard it, now."
" But he does not make the laws for the regulation
AT NIGHT, 21
of the institution. There must be State laws and
a Board of Overseers to which he is accountable.
There must be printed regulations for the manage
ment of this prison. I will get them from the Dep
uty to-morrow."
" If you can, you will accomplish more than the
rest of us have been able to do."
" I can try."
" You can try, and I hope you will succeed. The
rest of us have been told that there were no printed
rules that would do us any good. It may be a ben
efit to the rest of us if you succeed."
I lay down upon my bed. Sleep was out of the
question. The effluvia of a hundred human bodies
came up through our open door, rank with nauseous
odor. I got up and opened our one window to its
utmost extent, first asking my room-mate if it would
be disagreeable to her te* have it left so.
Fatigue even would not overcome the noise of
the rattling buckets, the snoring, coughing, and
groaning of the tired women. If I closed my eyes,
my head was in confusion. I was going up, up, up
over the stone steps, and looking over the rails down
the dizzy height, to the stone floor below.
I lay thinking over my prison prospects. Seven
teen hours of regular labor, to which might be added
occasionally, one, two, or three more. The other
seven, with the noise of that prison ringing in my
ears, and the care of it, if accident or sickness inter
vene. How long can any constitution bear such a
22 WOMAN IN PRISON.
strain ? Surely the Board of Directors cannot un
derstand how things are managed here. They can
not understand the amount of work which is de
manded by the Master of his female Prison Matron.
One other was no more favored, by her own account.
I was glad when the four o clock bell rung me up
to my duties.
SECOND DAY IN PEISON. 23
III.
SECOND DAY IN PRISON.
THERE was a small bell hung directly over my
head ; the wire from it reached into the men s
prison. It was rung by the watchman at four
o clock in the morning, to call me up.
I sprang out of bed at the first tinkle, threw a
shawl around me, put my feet into my slippers, ran
down, unlocked my steam woman to make her fire,
and my cook to start her breakfast. I let them into
the kitchen, and locked them in. Then, I went
back to dress myself.
Up, up, over the five flights, past the grated doors,
over the stone walks. The air of that prison sent
a chill over me like that of a tomb. Were not
those cells the tomb of love, of hope, of peace, and
respectability ! In them lay buried all of this
world s success, all that it values : how much of the
inheritance of the life to come God knows. Those
black doors were a pall of disgrace of deeper dye
than that which covers the coffin with its lifeless
clay. I was chilled through and through by my
thoughts and the objects that engendered them.
And those objects were to be ever there before my
24 WOMAN IN PRISON.
sight, while I remained in prison, and those thoughts
must ever arise to be rny company. I could escape ;
no prison bar was slid upon me to keep me there ;
but the convicts must remain. The unyielding lock,
the unremitting toil, the pursuing regret, and the
torture of remorse were before them, upon them,
within them.
I might be able to speak to them a word of pity,
of hope in a better life to come. The thought gave
me courage to go to my day s work.
I took no unnecessary time for personal adorning ;
but my fingers were benumbed and moved slowly.
I had scarcely finished dressing when the u first
bell " rung.
That was the large bell in the yard that called all
of the prisoners from their beds.
At that signal I was to assist in unlocking the
rest of the women. If they were not out of their
beds when the key was put in the lock, they were
called to sharply by the Matron who was with me
" Come, get up ! How dare you lie there after
the first bell has rung ! "
It might prove necessary to talk to some lag
gards in that harsh way ; but I would try some
other method, with those of whom I had the care,
first.
Yawning, and groaning, and moaning, they dragged
themselves out of their beds and made them up.
After this was done they tied them up against
the wall with a cord which was attached to the iron
SECOND DAY IN PRISON. 25
bars upon which the bed rested, and then passed
over a hook in the side of the cell. Then, they
stood waiting for the second bell, which was the sig
nal for them to go to work.
Poor, pitiable objects, they looked, as they were
mustered for the long day s drill of thankless, unre- j
quited toil. They worked without a motive, and |
they went to it with listless indifference, or the sul
len determination to escape all of the task which
they could. They accomplished their work as it ;
was driven from them ; not by the lash, but by fear
of passing the night upon the bare iron bars of their
bed-frame ; or the stone floor of the solitary cell, \
without covering beside their ordinary dress, without
food, save the daily slice of, bread and quart of cold
water.
Between the ringing of the bells the unlocking
had been accomplished. One of the sweeps was
stationed at the end of the upper tier of cells.
When the second bell rung I called to her,
" Slide your bar ! "
The long bar that runs across the top of all the
cells of one division, with a bolt reaching clown over
each door to keep it shut when it is unlocked, was
then drawn out by her, so that the doors could be
opened. I then called,
" Third Division ! "
At that they all appeared at their doors.
I called, " Front ! "
The doors were opened, and they stood on the
threshold.
26 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Right face ! " All wheeled to the right.
" March ! " was the next order.
At that word they marched down the stairs, in the
order that they came out of their cells, deposited
the ration pan and quart, in which they had carried
their supper to their rooms the night before, on the
ration table, to be taken into the kitchen and
washed, ready to receive their breakfast, which was
passed out in them when they came in from work at
seven.
The other divisions were called out in the same
way, and followed in their orcTer.
Unrefreshed, sleepy, and without energy, they
moved along to their two hours of labor before
breakfast. And such a breakfast to look forward to
when it came. Rye coffee and mush, varied with
brown bread once a week, and this purposely stinted
to the least possible amount which one could subsist
on and work.
I noticed that most of them took only their coffee,
and worked upon that when it was brown bread
morning till the noon meal came.
Many a one looked into her quart, as she passed
me, and sighed out, " God help us ! "
" May He help you ! He only can I cannot,"
was my response ; but not always made audibly.
He only knew how I longed to do so. I often
said to myself, as the days passed on, I would not
starve a dumb dog as those poor human things are
starved. I would not work a dumb animal as those
SECOND DAY IN PHIS ON. 27
poor human things are worked! Nor would the
Master feed his horse as they were fed ; nor would
he stall him as those prisoners were lodged.
I did what I could for them. I asked the Deputy
if he could not substitute flour bread for the brown
which they refused. He answered,
" No ! They will come to it. The Master will
not change the order."
They did not come to it. And day after day, as I
saw them go breakfastless to their work, I wished,
was it wrong? perhaps so, that the avenger
might be on the track of that unfeeling Master, and
that the day might come when he might be obliged
to breakfast upon a quart of rye coffee and a slice of
brown bread, instead of the steaks, and eggs, and
toasts, and other delicacies that I saw carried to his
room from the kitchen, as I passed through it to the
officers dining-room.
If it aroused such indignation to witness such
cruelty, what must it do in the hearts of those who
suffer from it ! Does such correction of convicts
tend to arouse better purposes in their hearts than
those which brought them into prison ? Such treat
ment aroused in them anger and revenge. When
they dared, and in every way which they could in
vent without laying themselves liable to punishment,
they gave expression to their feelings.
When they were dismissed from the prison, the
officer usually remarked, "We shall have that
boarder back again."
28 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The answer that I should have made, had I
spoken my thoughts, would have been The whole
tendency of their discipline here is to produce that
end.
The first thing that I did, after breakfast was
over, was to take the names of my six kitchen
women, and learn, as nearly as I could, just what
work belonged to each one of them.
There were two sink women, McMullins and
Magill. Their work was to wash the dishes, keep
the sink clean, and scrub about one quarter of the
floor. The slide woman scrubbed the ration table,
a certain portion of the floor, washed the quarts and
piled them up, scrubbed the table in the centre of
the room, took care of the flour bread when it came
in, and the pieces that were left. At meal time she
passed out the coffee, and put the potatoes in the
ration pans.
The cook made the mush, which was boiled twice
a day, the soup, and hash, and stewed the peas. She
had a certain portion of the floor to scrub, and the
room to keep tidy, as well as her boilers to wash.
The steam woman took care of the steam boiler,
made the coffee, helped the cook slice the meat, and
kept her portion of the floor clean. It was a part of
her work to pile the ration pans in rows of pyramids
on the centre table.
The one .who tended the women s slide had one
half of the floor to scrub, and the Master s furnace,
which stood in the centre of the kitchen, to tend.
SECOND DAY IN PRISON. 29
There were many things to be done in common,
where all helped ; like the carrying out of the
swill, which was emptied into tubs when the ration
pans came in to be washed. That was carried a
long way down the yard, poured into barrels, and
left for the yard man to take to the piggery.
They all helped to bring up the potatoes, four
barrels at a time, wash them in the sink with a large
bat-stick, and then put them in the boiler to be
cooked by steam.
To make the confusion more confounded, the
work was changed round, and new hands put to it,
the day I went there. The bringing up of the coal,
for the steam boiler, which had heretofore devolved
upon the steam woman, was now required of all the
rest, to be divided among them, because the steam
woman had had a broken wrist, and it was not quite
strong again. That gave dissatisfaction, and created
grumbling, and the constant contention of shifting
the labor from one to the other. The rest were
constantly fretting Allen, the steam woman, because
she asked it of them.
To settle the difficulty I asked the Deputy, when
he came round, " who should bring up the coal for
Allen ? "
" Any of them that you see fit to order."
That was an excellent hint to me. Allen had
been in the habit of giving her own orders, which
made it necessary for me to interfere continually so
as to get them executed, and also to keep peace
30 WOMAN IN PETS ON.
They invariably answered her back with refusal
when she asked for coal, and made altercation over
every bucket that was needed.
All orders, like information, were given promis
cuously. I at once gave direction that all orders
were to be given through me.
"Allen, when you wish for coal, come to me
for it ! "
Orders had no authority when given by one to
another; and by watching I discovered that Allen
was disposed to retaliate the little peckings she re
ceived, by making the one that aggravated her most
bring up the most coal.
It was more than one day s work to bring them to
this arrangement. So I made it another rule that
when they differed they were never to answer back ;
but come to me to settle the trouble. That was
rather more difficult to establish than the first, they
were so hot-headed, and anxious to defend them
selves.
O Sullivan, one of the slide women, undertook to
try my authority on the first order which I gave for
coal. She sat idly upon her table, and I asked her
to bring it up.
A scowl came over her face, she hesitated, and
then answered,
" She s just as well able to bring up the coal as I."
" That s so ! that s so ! " came from three or four
other voices.
" Stop ! every one ! It is the order that Allen is
SECOND DAY IN PRISON. 31
not to bring up coal ; you have nothing to say about
it."
The others were silenced.
" O Sullivan, will you bring up a bucket of coal ? "
"I m not going to bring up her coal; she s as
well able to fetch it up as I."
" You will do just what I tell you ! Go now and
bring a bucket of coal ! "
She started, after looking me in the eye a few sec
onds to see whether she could succeed if she at
tempted to disobey.
"When you come back I will talk with you
about it."
I must have prompt obedience. I saw that her
condition, that of motherhood, required considera
tion.
While she was gone Allen came to me and whis
pered,
" They never lock up women like her, so she takes
the advantage."
After she had brought up the coal, and sat down
upon the table again, I went along to her, laid my
hand upon her shoulder, stooped down, and said
softly,
" I see the condition that you are in, I know
that it requires care, I am a mother, I will see
that you do no more than your part. You will do
as I wish in future, pleasantly, will you ? "
"Yes, ma am!"
I then called them all around me, and said to
them,
32 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" The bringing up of the coal for the steam boiler
is to be divided among you. I will give each her
share of it to do as equally as I can. If any one of
you thinks she is doing more than belongs to her,
rightfully, make no talk about it, but come directly
to me, and I will see that it is made right."
My first object was to lead the women to make me
the central, regulating power, in the kitchen, so that
I could reduce the chaotic state of affairs to some
thing like order.
" In a week," I said to the Deputy that day, " I
hope to get something like order established."
" I will give you a month to get the run of things."
" You want the meals well cooked, and promptly
passed out at the time ; the place kept quiet and
clean."
" That is what we want."
" Be patient, and in a week or two we shall arrive
at that."
" I shall find no fault till I see occasion."
That night, after the work was done, I called them
all around me, and told them they would find me
kind and pleasant, if they were obedient. If they
were not, they would surely find themselves in
trouble, because it was a part of my duty to make
them obey, and it must be done by the rules of the
institution ; I could not change them. I saw that
their work was hard ; but I would make it as easy
as possible. The work was there, and they were
put there to do it. The more willingly they under-
SECOND DAY IN PRISON. 33
took it, the easier it would go off. If they tried to
help themselves, I would help them.
They all assented, and thus we made a compact
to be kind to each other.
34 WOMAN IN PRISON.
IV.
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE.
IT was my third morning in prison. I stood be
side the mush boiler with Annie O Brien, who had
been scraping it, and was wiping it out with a dry
cloth.
McMullins came along, and demanded the cloth
from her. An altercation ensued. I hushed the
noise, and asked,
" To whom does the cloth belong ? "
" It is my dish-cloth," said McMullins.
" You might let me have it a moment just to wipe
this out ! "
" I want it meself, I m in hurry for it."
" Where is yours ? " I asked O Brien.
" I don t know, ma am. I left it on the boiler, and
some one has taken it."
She still kept on using McMullins .
" I want my dish-cloth ; I m in hurry," said Mc
Mullins, impatiently.
" Give her the dish-cloth, and go find your own ! "
I said.
Annie O Brien s temper was like a lucifer match.
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 35
At the command she threw the cloth in McMullins s
face.
Quick as a cat would spring upon a mouse, Mc-
Mullins was upon her ; and the report of the slaps
that fell quick, and followed each other fast on the
side of O Brien s face, sounded through the room.
It was in vain that I called upon them to stop.
O Brien was enraged. She caught up an iron rod
that lay upon the window seat, and struck McMul-
lins a blow upon her forehead that brought blood.
I called the other women to the spot, and they
were soon parted.
I sent McMullins out of the room, took O Brien,
who was white with anger, by the arm, and led her
to a seat.
" Sit down ! "
She looked defiance for a moment ; then, did as I
commanded her.
h What kind of behavior is this, Annie O Brien ?"
I asked, sternly.
"She slapped me in the face slapped in the
face by that low hussy ! "
The thought added fuel to her rage, and she
started up again as though to pursue her.
" Be quiet ! "
She sat down again. I stood silent by her.
" She slapped me in the face ; by , I will not
bear it ! "
She darted past me, and caught up a carving-
knife that lay on the table.
36 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" She slapped me in the face ; and, by , I will
have her heart s blood ! "
My heart sickened at the disgusting scene ; but
my duty was before me.
" Stop her, and take the knife away ! " I shouted
to the women at the other end of the room.
In a moment the knife was taken from her, and
both of her hands were confined by four of the
women.
" Annie O Brien, come here ! " I called.
She looked at me, but did not stir.
I called again, "Annie O Brien, come here!"
She said to the women that held her, " Let me
go ! I will go to her," and she started towards me.
I laid my hand on her pale, cold cheek.
" O Brien, are you not ashamed to get so angry
with that poor, foolish, half-crazed Mullins ? "
" Wouldn t it make your blood boil to have any
one slap you in the face ? "
" Undoubtedly it would rouse my temper for the
moment. It is a very mean and wrong thing to
strike ; but you have behaved no better."
" I was a fool ; but I could not help it."
" Yes, you could. Will you behave yourself now ? "
" I will do nothing more," and she heaved a deep
sigh.
" If you have really come to your senses, go about
your work ! "
She returned to her work ; but in a moment she
called to me,
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 37
" You must report me ! "
" Yes, in my own time."
" You must report me now ; I must be punished.
They will blame you if you put it off."
" Would you care if they blamed me, Annie " ?
" Yes, ma am, I should. It is bad enough for
me to behave so without making you any more
trouble."
" I wish to see you entirely over your frenzy, per
fectly quiet, before I call the Deputy."
" I am perfectly quiet," and she went about mak
ing her mush.
" Annie, if you will promise me to try to control
your temper in future, I will try to get your punish
ment made as light as possible."
" I will try to do anything you want me to ; but
they will put it on to me hard, I ve been punished
so many times before."
I saw that I had possession of her so far as she
*had control of herself.
" Keep about your work as though nothing had
happened ! "
" Yes, ma am."
I went to the door, blew my whistle, and sent for
the Deputy. I waited in the entry for him, and
stated the case before he went in to punish the wo
men.
" McMullins gave the first blow ; you know she
is a poor, foolish thing ; she has fits. You won t
punish her this time, will you ? She slapped O Brien
38 WOMAN IN PRISON.
in the face, and she struck back. Won t you let
them off this time ? "
" I can t. It won t do."
" Wouldn t it make you angry, and wouldn t you
strike back if any one struck you in the face ? "
" Probably I should."
" You won t punish her for doing what you would
do yourself? "
" I must."
" If one is punished both must be. The trouble
began in Annie s not having her own things to use.
I will see that each has her own things in future, and
avoid cause of contention in that way as much as
possible. If McMullins should have a fit in her
cell, we should both feel bad. Can t you let them
off with a reproof this time ? "
" I can t. McMullins must not count on the fool s
pardon when she fights. If I let her go now she
might fly in any woman s face at any time. They
never would be safe from her slappings. Don t you
think they ought to be punished ? "
" Yes, sir ; with some kind of punishment."
" If I were to let them off, it would be known all
through the prison in two hours, and there would be
rebellion in all quarters."
" Subordination must be maintained. I wish there
were a different way. I am so sorry to have the
poor things locked up."
" I am sorry ; but I have no other way."
When he went into the kitchen, Annie O Brien
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 39
took off her apron, and delivered herself up to him
without a word ; but McMullins cried, and begged
him not to lock her in a black cell.
He made no reply, but pointed them to the prison.
As he went, he asked me to bring No. 1 key.
The black cells are of the same size, and made
like the others. The only difference between them
is, that the doors of the black cells are closed from
the entrance of all light by a black board placed
against the bars.
They have no beds in them, not a blanket to lie
upon. Nothing but the cold stones to sit, to stand
upon, or to lean against. The only article of furni
ture allowed in them is the night bucket, which may
be converted into a seat. The rations, when in that
" durance vile," is one quart of water, and one thin
slice of bread during the twenty-four hours.
With a heavy heart I saw my poor women locked
up. I turned the key upon them with my own hand.
O this continual turning of keys ! The bunch in
my hand all day, under my pillow at night.
Click, click, when I go out of the room ; click,
click, when I come in. Will my ears ever harden
to the sound so that I shall not notice it !
It is a constant drill, drill to labor under the ever
impending punishment, which hangs over the pris
oner, suspended by a breath of complaint by an offi
cer. Is one kind of punishment the only cure for dis
obedience ? Should it not be mitigated by mercy, or
changed in character according to the circumstances,
40 WOMAN IN PRISON.
or the peculiar disposition of the offender ? How
does the Great Lawgiver treat His convicts ? Does
He punish all offenders with the same unmitigated
rigor? His sun shines alike on the evil and the
good. He reproves often, and teaches, and suffers
long, and is kind, and adapts His punishment to
the character of the crime committed.
Some crime is committed in willful disobedience
of known law ; but much more of it in ignorance of
the way to control bad tempers in ignorance of
the way to resist temptation.
Teaching is what these poor creatures want, and
the time in which to learn.
Many a time I went to the key-holes of those black
cells to listen that day. Many a time I called,
" McMullins, are you well ? "
She invariably begged me to let her out.
" I cannot. You did wrong and must be pun
ished."
" She threw the dish-cloth at me."
" You struck her."
" I ll never do it again, I am so tired. Please will
you get the Deputy to let me out."
" Just as soon as I can."
That night I went to him, and begged to have my
women let out.
" You know McMullins has fits, and to lie there
on the cold stones all night might bring them on."
" You may put her in her own room to sleep."
" Thank you ! It is a favor done to me as well as
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 41
her. I don t think I could sleep at all if she were
left lying there. You will let O Brien go to hers
it would be hardly right to let one sleep in her bed,
and not the other."
He shook his head.
"O Brien has been here before. I know more
about her than you do."
" Let me try her my way, Mr. Deputy ? "
" Not to-night."
" In the morning ? "
I will see."
O Brien was obliged to make the cold stones her
couch that night, and little sleep did I get thinking
of her. Many a time did I say to myself in its silent
hours, I will have her out in the morning if it is in
the power of persuasion to effect it.
After the women were locked up, Annie called to
me. Her quick ears had learned, or some other
prisoner had told her, that McMullins was in her
own cell.
She asked,
" Is it right to keep me in here, and let McMul
lins sleep in her bed ? "
It was not for me to decide the right or wrong of
the Deputy s orders, to a prisoner.
"McMullins has fits, and it would not be safe
to leave her in solitary all night. I should not
sleep at all if she were there. I am sorry for you,
O Brien ; but you don t wish McMullins to remain,
in solitary because you must, do you ? "
42 WOMAN IN PHI SON.
" No, ma am ; but it don t seem hardly fair to let
one out, and not the other."
She was using the same argument with me to get
her bed that I had used with the Deputy to get it
for her.
" When you have been here before, and been pun
ished, you have behaved very badly, have you not? "
" Yes, ma am."
" Annie O Brien, will you be patient to-night, and
make no complaints ? "
" Yes, ma am."
" In the morning, when the Deputy comes around,
will you tell him that you will try to govern your
temper ? "
" I will tell you so."
"Will you tell him so?"
" Yes, ma am."
" Good night, Annie, and may the Christ, whose
name you called so wickedly this morning, take care
of you ! "
" Good night, ma am ! "
The next morning, when I gave O Brien her bread
and water, I asked her,
u O Brien, do you think, if McMullins were to
strike you again, you would strike back ? "
" I don t think I should now, I shouldn t if I
thought."
" What do you think of your behavior yesterday ? "
" I am ashamed of myself that I should take any
notice of that poor, foolish, half crazy thing ! But
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 48
I ve got an awful temper, and it gets the upper hands
of me before I know it."
" When the Deputy comes around, if he says any
thing to you, will you tell him you are ashamed of
yourself, and resolved to do better ? "
l{ He never could make me say it to him before."
"He may not ask you to now; if he does, you
will be submissive and perfectly respectful ? "
" Yes, ma am, I will."
When the Deputy came in, I importuned him to
unlock my women.
" If I do, it will only be to have O Brien locked
up again in a few days. She has been here twice
before, and is one of the worst cases we have ever
had."
" If she is subdued and promises to do better, is
not that enough ? "
" Subdued ! " he echoed. She will promise any
thing to get out."
" Did you ever get a promise from her to do bet
ter?"
"I don t think we ever did. She has always
braved us as long as she could speak."
" I am a new mistress, my management may be
new to her. Will you let me try her, if you please ?
She is such a young thing, it seems as though she
might be influenced to reform. You are punishing
me to keep her in that dark cell. It takes my
strength all away to think of her there. I could not
sleep last night, thoughts of her haunted me."
44 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The tears came into my eyes. If he had refused
me, I should have cried outright. He was a man,
and one of kindly feelings, too, when left to himself.
He gave me the order,
" Bring me your key ! "
I brought it very quickly, and unlocked Annie s
cell with more alacrity than I ever turned key in a
lock before.
" O Brien," said the Deputy to her, " I let you out
because your Matron asks me to. Now show your
gratitude by your good behavior, and obedience to
her."
" I will try, sir."
" Unlock the other one when you please," he said
to me, and went out.
O Brien turned to me.
" I will never give you occasion to have me locked
up again, while T am here. I never made the prom
ise before, but I make it now. I have been in soli
tary ten days and ten nights ; I have been carried
from there to the hospital, fainted away dead, and my
feet so swelled that I could not walk on them. I
have been gagged till my jaws were so stiff and
swelled that I could not shut my mouth. I have
been in the dungeon in the cellar "
" Stop, Annie ! in the name of pity, stop ! "
I was sick to loathing of the cruelty she recounted.
Was I in one of the prisons of the Inquisition, hear
ing a description of their tortures ? "
u It is the truth. And I never made a promise tc
do any better before."
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 45
I trembled with disgust, almost fear, of the place
I was in. I bethought me, I am here Lo benefit these
poor wretches. I held my breath as I asked,
" What was all that done for ? "
" Because I sauced a matron, and wouldn t say I
was sorry."
Did you say it at last ? "
" No, ma am ! I wouldn t have said it if they had
killed me. I was so mad I had just as soon died as
not. The more they did to me, the madder I grew,
and I swore, if ever I should catch her outside, 1
would pay her back, if I got in here for life."
"Annie O Brien, if you were to sauce me, as you
call it, I should punish you." I did not say how. I
expect you to treat me with respect always. It is
not treating me with respect to quarrel with the other
women in my presence."
" I shall always treat you with respect. I could
never be mean enough to do anything else after the
way you have treated me."
She fulfilled her promise. Never yet have I met
a human being that kindness would not influence ;
but I have met with many a perverse will that harsh
ness would neither bend or break.
" Now, Annie, you say that you wish to govern your
temper, and that you will try ? "
" I will try ! "
" I will help you. When you begin to grow angry,
shut your lips close together ; then, look for me be
fore you answer."
46 WOMAN IN PRISON.
u I will, if I can think."
" As soon as you do think, come straight to me,
and tell me that you were getting angry. If I see
you, and can catch your eye, I will lift my finger in
warning ; or I will call your name. Will you heed
me?"
" I will try, with all my might."
" Go get your breakfast, and then go about your
work."
Many a time after that, when I saw her face grow
ing pale with anger, I have called her name, and
lifted my finger. She would recognize the signal,
drop upon a bench, or the bare brick floor, bury her
face in her hands for a few moments, then arise and
go about her work without speaking a word.
Once, about a week after that locking up, she got
into an altercation with the slide woman. I was in
the prison ; but I heard her voice, and ran to the
kitchen door.
" Annie ! " I called. She did not heed me, but went
on with her dispute. " Annie, remember ! " I whis
pered in her ear as I caught her arm.
She jerked it away from me. I looked her stead
ily in the eye. She dropped hers. She was waver
ing between the disposition to obey, and the desire
to indulge her temper.
" There is the Dr. s whistle, Annie. Run to the
wash-room, and tell Mrs. Martin he is coming ! "
She ran out quickly ; but when she came back,
she walked slowly, looking down to her feet. She
came up to me and asked :
A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE. 47
"Why didn t you get me punished? I almost
broke my promise ; but I didn t mean to. If you
had scolded me, I certainly should."
" I did not get you punished, because I see that
you are trying to govern your temper, and I prom
ised to help you. If I were to get angry and scold,
of what use would it be for me to reprove you ? "
" If you had scolded me then, I should certainly
have sauced you, and then I should have been pun
ished. Didn t you send me away on purpose ? "
" If I did, it was better than scoldino-."
&
I thought so ; and this shall be the last time I
will be so foolish."
" I hope so ; but if I am obliged to hold up my
finger a great many more times, I shall not be disap
pointed."
48 WOMAN IN PRISON.
V.
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES.
As my orders conflicted, and my work bothered
me, I made another effort to find a head manager, or
some printed regulations.
When the Deputy came in, on his morning rounds,
I asked him,
" Is the Master s wife Head Matron here ? "
"Yes."
" Then why does she not come and teach me to
manage my department, and see that I do my duty ?
I go to you, and you tell me the other matrons know.
I go to them, and they tell me so many conflicting
things that I am bothered more than helped. Then
if I ask some of them one thing, they wish to man
age the whole, and come in, and give orders that pro
duce such an effect that I am obliged to give others
to countermand them. They give them in such a
way, too, that my women are all stirred up, and it
takes me a long time to get them settled down again.
This morning, one of them told Mrs. Martin that she
needn t come in here putting on airs, and giving off
orders, when she was no better than the rest of them.
I pretended not to hear it, for I really thought she
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES. 49
provoked the answer. If there is a Head Matron,
she ought to come to my rescue."
" The Master s wife is Supervisor," said the good-
natured fellow, after thinking a few moments. He
was anxious to make it right on her part.
Superfudge ! I thought to myself. I said,
" I wish she would supervise my place into order.
Have you any printed directions ? "
" Yes. I don t think they would do you much
good, but I will bring them to you."
He did not offer to bring the Supervisor to me, or
to take me to her. As I got acquainted with the
affairs of the institution, I found that she was em
phatically super to all of them except her own
housekeeping. She had brilliancy enough to look
after that, and see that it was done well. She had
the ability, and she exercised it, to come or send
down when her parlor, which was directly over the
prisoners kitchen, was too cold, to have the furnace
door shut, or if it was too warm, to have it opened.
About a week after I went there she came in,
probably my repeated inquiries had been reported to
her, and gave me an order to have a room cleaned
in the attic of the prison. It was one morning when
we were in the midst of house-cleaning with a gang
of men whitewashing in the prison.
I told her I didn t think it possible to attend to it
that day.
" I will show it to you now, because I have time."
I really had not time to look at it, as any one of
50 WOMAN IN PRISON.
common powers of observation would have seen ;
but, as she was my superior officer, I followed her
without farther remark.
As she passed through the prison, and saw the
men at work, she gave me another illustration of her
luminous capacity by remarking,
" You must be careful and not let your women get
with the men."
" Yes, ma am."
She took me up the sixth flight of stairs into the
roof of the prison, into a room where the receiving
officer packs away the clothing that he takes off the
convicts when they come into the prison. After
showing me the dust on the floor, and cobwebs on
the walls, she said,
" You had better send one of your women up to
clean it. I always begin at the top when I clean
house."
u I don t see how I can spare one to-day. If the
Deputy will send me in one to do it, I will do my
best to oversee it. But you see how inconvenient
that will be, it is so far up here, and there is so much
going on in the kitchen."
" It won t be much to clean this."
I thought, but did not say it, it might appear dif
ferently to you if you were to do it. I should con
sider it a good day s work for two strong women.
I looked round with her, and listened to her sug
gestions.
" What I wanted to call your attention to, particu-
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES. 51
larly, was this box of old clothes. I think it must
have been here two or three years."
I wondered if it had been two or three years since
she had been in that room.
" They are cloth caps," she went on, " there may
be an old coat or pair of pants among them. I don t
think they will be of any use, they might as well
be sold, and the pay go towards the support of the
institution."
I looked into the box. There might have been
twenty pounds of woolen rags, originally ; but they
were nearly chowdered into dust by moths.
I saw by that one interview the occasion of the
reticence of the Deputy, with regard to the Head
Matron.
The first moment of leisure I got, that afternoon,
I examined the printed " Rules and Regulations," by
the Board of Directors, which the Deputy had
brought me. They were printed eight or ten years
before, but sensible and humane so far as they went.
There were no directions to regulate the details of
duty ; but all of the Master s orders were subject to
the approval of the Board. I did not see how it
could be possible to carry that article out, practically,
when many of them were changed almost every clay.
One order that I noticed gave me great satisfac
tion, and had it been observed, would have created
a very different state of things in the prison from
what then obtained. It was, that " no irritating lan
guage " should be used to the prisoners. Had that
52 WOMAN IN PRISON.
rule been observed, there would have been compar
atively few " in solitary," to the number which came
under my observation.
I came to the conclusion that if the rules which
governed the institution had been subjected to the
approval of the Board of Directors, that august body
must entertain a very imperfect idea of their practical
working.
One of my orders was to stand at. the ration table,
in the kitchen, while the meals were passed out.
Another was to be in the prison, at the same time,
on duty, which shut me out of the kitchen entirely.
The trouble that arose from the conflicting orders
was this. After I left the kitchen, the food for the
meals was under the control of the prisoners, and
they secreted what part of it they pleased for them
selves and their favorites.
Before I left the kitchen I saw the meat sliced,
and an equal portion placed in each pan. After I
left, and there was no one to watch it, the women
abstracted a part of it from some of the pans, or
changed it from one pan to another.
I was allowed about two hundred and eighty
pounds of meat for the four hundred prisoners, bones
included. After this was sliced, it was divided tc
each pan as nearly equally alike as possible. To this
was added three or four potatoes, with the skins on,
and the gravy or soup was then poured over them.
These pans were arranged in rows across the ra
tion table, to be passed out, through a slide, to the
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES. 53
men, as they were marched into prison, on their side ;
and to the women, on their side. The kitchen was
between the prisons.
After the pans were arranged on the table, and
the dinners put into them, I was obliged to go out
into the prison to receive the women, and see them
slid into their cells. The slide door was shut upon
me, and the convicts were left alone with the food to
hand it out.
Was it strange, with this opportunity placed in
their way, that they should help themselves to the
meat which had been divided to the others ?
My order was to detect the thief and report her.
That was much easier said than done. My opinion
was that they all took it.
It was a question strongly debated in my mind,
who was most at fault, those poor, half-starved things,
for taking the meat when the opportunity was given
them, or those who put the temptation in their way ?
I did not decide it in season to have any of them
punished for breaking the rule.
When the convicts got angry, with each other, they
would report on the one they were offended with ;
but it was an established rule that the testimony of
one prisoner was not to be taken against another, and
I had not the least inclination to break the rule.
I did discover one of the thieves at last ; but I
took my own way to punish her.
The steam woman got angry with one of the slide
women, and reported her to me one day when the
dinner came short.
54 WOMAN IN PHIS OX.
" Never mind now, Allen ; but the next time you
see her take it, tell me where she hides the meat. I
will go find it ; and then, she can t turn it on you for
betraying her."
A day or two afterwards, Allen whispered to me,
" You look on the top of the bread closet in the
cellar, and yOu will find something."
I went down, mounted some false steps, and found
a quart filled with slices of meat. I took it up into
the kitchen, and asked,
" "Who hid this meat away on the top of the bread
cupboard in the cellar ? "
Not one of them answered.
* Will the one who did it be honest enough to own
it ; or will she be mean enough to let me lay the
blame on some one else? Did you do it, Annie
O Brien ? "
" No, ma am."
" Will you tell me who did it ? "
" I don t know, ma am."
" Allen, did you do it ? "
" No, ma am."
I did not wish to ask her who did it, because she
had told me.
" I am going to ask you all, and I hope no one will
be mean enough to lie about it."
" I put it there," said O Sullivan.
" Who did you put it away for ? "
" For myself, because I don t like peas."
" Very well, O Sullivan ; but you were rather too
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES. 55
generous to yourself. Half of that would have been
enough for your dinner, and to punish you for being
so selfish, you can t have any of it. I shall give it
to the others. Your hiding it away down there,
gave it very much the appearance of stealing. In
future, when you wish to put anything away, show
it to me, and then, put it away like an honest woman.
But you are never to put anything away unless it is
left over, after I have divided the meat. It would
be very mean to take a double portion for yourself,
and make the poor fellows, on the other side go
without."
I had been studying the Rules and Regulations of
the Board, and discovered that I was to admonish
once, before reporting for punishment. I did not
propose to transcend that rule.
" Now, remember, there is nothing more to be hid
away from me."
" There isn t much danger, as long as you let us
tell you all about it."
" I shall always let you tell me, before I get you
punished ; but you must always obey, and then there
will be no punishment."
" I suppose it is only right that we should eat our
share of peas with the rest, for they can t get even
bread and coffee as we can."
" It is certainly wrong -for you to take another
prisoner s meat ; and very mean, because, as you say,
he has not the chance you have to get anything else.
Now, girls, will you promise not to hide things away,,
and try to cheat me any more ? "
56 WOMAN IN Pit IS ON.
" I will, I will," was responded by the six. I did
not expect them to do it without a great many more
" admonishings."
" Now, girls, be on your guard, so that the temp
tation does not become too strong for you."
When the Deputy came in, I asked him whether
the order for me to stand at the ration table in the
kitchen, at meal time, had been approved by the
Board.
" Of course it has."
" Has the order for me to be on duty in the prison
at meal time, been approved by the Board ? "
Certainly ! "
" You consider them a very intelligent body of
men, do you not ? "
" Of course, they are my superior officers."
" How can they expect me to be in two different
places at the same time ? "
" I really don t know much about the arrangements
on the women s side at meal times. My station is in
the men s prison at that time."
" Yes, sir ; and it is the place of our head officer
to be stationed on this side, in the women s prison,
at that time, and it is my place to be in the kitchen
at meal time, to see that the meals go out properly,
and that none of them are turned from the right
channel."
The next day afforded him an illustration of what
I said. The dinner fell short. He entered the
kitchen at one door as I went in at another. He
THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES. 57
came hurrying up to me, and asked " Why is
this?"
" I don t know, sir ! It was all right when I left
the kitchen. Since that, I have no means of know
ing what has been going on. I have been shut out
in the prison, on duty."
He ordered in bread to supply the deficiency. In
that case it was the mismanagement of the hash, by
a new hand, when " dished out," which would have
been prevented had I been there to oversee it.
58 WOMAN IN PMISON.
VI
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON.
THE four Matrons took the evening watch, alone
in prison, in rotation. It was a rule that one of them
was to be always there, when the prisoners were in.
They were not to be left by themselves a moment.
The one who had charge was to be alone ; the
other three were at liberty, one to go about the build
ings or grounds, two to go out of the prison confines,
if they liked. It was my turn to be alone in prison.
Immediately after they had been locked into their
cells, and the other Matrons had left, Haggerton be
gan to complain of her coffee.
" What is the matter with your coffee ? " I asked.
" It is cold," she replied.
" I am sorry ; but I can t help it now."
Upon that she began to fret. " I haven t eaten any
breakfast, nor any dinner, and I ve worked hard all
day, and staid an hour later," some of them had
staid till eight o clock that night in the shop " and
now I can t eat any supper because my coffee is cold.
I ll tell the Master, and he ll make an awful fuss."
Of .course I could not allow such talk as that, and
I told her to stop.
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 59
" I have done the best for you that I could. You
had the same chance to eat that the rest had, and the
same breakfast and dinner provided for you. I am
not allowed to provide anything else. If you haven t
eaten, it is your own fault."
" I can t eat brown bread, and I can t eat soup, nor
I can t drink cold coffee. The Master will be awful
mad, and make an awful fuss, for me to have cold
coffee."
" Not another word, Haggerton ! If you don t like
the fare, you ought not to take board here," I said. I
thought, if the Master would feel so bad that your
coffee is cold, why don t his compassion lead him to
provide something that you can eat.
Upon that she went on to cry and sob, and make
a great disturbance in- the prison.
I told her she must stop ; but she kept on. I had
not the heart to scold and threaten the girl. I had
no doubt that she was tired and hungry, and I pitied
her. I went for the Deputy, to see what I should do.
He was out. I stepped into the officers dining-room
to find some one to direct me.
Mrs. Hardback, the Shop Matron, was eating her
supper. The Supervisor sat there, talking with her.
I stated the case to her. Before I had got half
through with it, she motioned me away, and ex
claimed, in great agitation,
O O
" You mustn t leave the prison alone a moment !
You mustn t leave the prison alone a moment ! "
Mrs. Hardback rushed past me as though every
prisoner had got loose, and was running away.
GO WOMAN IN PRISON.
I thought they would probably be safe if she
arrived without accident, and followed at my usual
gait.
When I entered the prison she was leaving Hag-
gerton s cell door, and from the second division sa
luted me with, *
" It s no wonder the girl cries ! her coffee is cold !
I went to the kettle and tasted it myself! She hasn t
eaten a mouthful to-day ; and now, to have cold cof
fee given her for her supper, it s too bad ! The
Master shall know it, and he ll make an awful fuss."
I made no reply to her ; but the next morning, I
had several questions to ask the Deputy.
" It is a rule, is it, that the prisoners are not to be
left alone a moment at night, after they are locked
in?"
Yes."
" Then how am I to leave the prison, go across the
kitchen, and pass out my keys ? Sometimes it will
be ten or fifteen minutes before I can make the
prison officer hear my rap."
" Of course you must do that."
" Then I must leave the prison alone. Have the
Board of Directors approved both those rules ? "
He smiled.
" The reason why I asked was, because the Super
visor and Shop Matron thought I had committed a
great violation of the rules, to leave the prison a
moment to find you, to ask you a question, when I
was in difficulty last night."
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 61
" Did you have any difficulty last night ? "
I told him the story of Haggerton, and Mrs. Hard-
hack s management in the case.
" You can judge that such conduct is calculated
to produce disorder, and it did. It was nearly half
an hour before I got the women quiet again."
" Mrs. Hardhack has been here many years she
ought to know better than to behave in that way. If
she don t, I can teach her."
I did not tell him what followed. I had been
studying the " Rules and Regulations" of the Board
of Directors, for myself, and intended to abide by
them. I remarked carelessly,
" The Board direct that the convicts shall work
from sunrise to sunset. They were worked an hour
later last night."
" They had some contract work that they wanted
to finish."
" The order of the Board is to work from sunrise
to sunset. There is no provision made for finishing
contract work. The order to work over hours was
submitted to the Board for approval last night, was it
not ? "
" You are sharp. I see you wish to do your own
duty, and you wish others to do the same."
" Yes, I like to do my duty if I can find out what
it is. In this particular case, I am indifferent whether
others do theirs or not. But, if I find them follow
ing me up to make me perform mine accurately, when
they are involved in the same, it is perfectly natural
62 WOMAN IN PRISON.
for me to turn and observe their manner of doing
theirs."
" I am trying to do mine."
" I see that you are, and I am glad that you have
a better opportunity to find out what it is, than I do."
The moment that Mrs. Hardhack was out of the
prison, that night, the convicts commenced hooting
and whistling. If she did not put Haggerton up,
directly, to play off on me, which I strongly suspected,
her behavior was calculated to encourage their con
duct.
I was a new Matron, this was my first night alone,
and they would try me, to see what stuff I was made
of.
If Mrs. Hardhack had instigated their conduct, the
punishment would come upon them, not her. It was
my business to suppress the noise, and to detect those
who were engaged in making it.
I drew my feet from my slippers, and commenced
my search for the culprits.
It was made a short one by the assistance of one
of the sweeps who hated Mrs. Hardhack, and would
do anything to thwart her even betray a fellow-
prisoner.
She pointed me to one of the doors from whence
the whistling came. I crept softly along, in the
shade, and stood by the next door a moment. The
girl, unconscious that I was near, gave another shrill
call.
" That is you, is it, Kate Connolly ? " I said, close
to her ear.
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 63
She burst into tears at the sound of my voice.
Her imagination at once brought before her the long
aching induced by solitary confinement. It was far
from an agreeable prospect to look forward to.
" I m sorry ! indeed I am ! "
" Sorry for what, that you made disturbance, or
that I found you out ? "
" For both. Indeed I am ; I knew better I
knew the rules ; I ve been here ^before, and it ll go
hard with me."
" You thought I was a stranger and wouldn t know
them, did you ? "
" Yes, ma am ; but I m sorry."
" I m sorry for you, Kate, that you should be so
ill-disposed as to make a noise, purposely to disturb
me ; and that you should be so mean as to try to im
pose upon a stranger. In future it will be well for
you to know who you are playing off on before you
begin. Now, Kate Connolly, remember if ever I
catch you in another such a trick, I shall have you
punished " !
" And you wont now ? I thank you ! I never will
trouble you so again ! "
I never had occasion to reprove her afterwards for
any bad conduct while she was in the prison.
She thought it was through my kindness that she
escaped punishment. I had been reading the " Rules
and Regulations," which directed me to " admonish "
once ; and then, report for punishment. By following
those Rules, I had silenced the noise, and restored
64 WOMAN IN PRISON.
order without resorting to punishment. I had also
secured the future good behavior of the girl.
When one was detected, the others became quiet.
There are good and noble qualities still existing in
those prisoners, if the right management only be ap
plied to rouse, and bring them into action. The rule
tp admonish was a wise one, and was adopted to that
end. That the officers did not follow out the rule
was wherein the fault lay. And that they overlooked
it, or failed to obey it, caused untold suffering to the
prisoners.
No instance came under my observation where the
offense was repeated, after a prisoner had been ad
monished.
After quiet was restored, I sat down to think, and
rest. I was tired of the ceaseless surveillance, the
turning of keys, the grating of bars, the driving of the
prisoners at their tasks, the compelling to pleasant
manners while under such severe exactions of toil.
I sat thinking it over and asking myself if it would
be possible for me, driven, urged to work with no al
ternative but the solitary cell, and the bread and
water diet, with no motive but fear of punishment, to
be gentle and patient.
The exhausted flesh and the wearied spirit would
express their agony in some form of complaint.
Human nature might restrain its indignation at such
a dreary lot from breaking forth, in fear of a greater
punishment. The prisoner might work on in silence
till she fell, and was carried to the Hospital. I was
told that it had been so, and I could not doubt it.
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 65
My orders verified the statement. I was to keep
them at work. If they complained they were to see
the Doctor, and he was to decide whether they were
unfit for labor. In that case they were to go into
the Hospital.
I had asked, " Shall their whole task be exacted of
them ? "
" Yes, if you listen to their complaints, they
will all play sick, and we shall get no work done."
I had said, " They might do something, and by
not being driven so hard, made useful, and their
health spared."
" We have no such rules," was the reply.
" But any Matron, after she is acquainted with her
women, can judge so that they will not impose upon
her very much."
" They will all cheat, and lie, and shirk, if they
can."
That might be so generally ; but I knew that I
had women who would rather work reasonably than
be idle, because time passed faster when they were
employed, if from no other motive.
If they would all lie, and cheat, and shirk, the dis
cipline that was applied to them did not work any
reformation in their characters.
The treatment meted out to them was hard, unre
mitting toil, enforced by harsh words and punish
ment.
Implicit obedience to arbitrary rules was exacted,
with no reasons given why they were enforced, and
66 WOMAN IN PRISON.
no explanations for their necessity. The hard work,
the solitary cell, the meagre food, the damp stone
prison, the narrow cells, and the crawling vermin, all
went in revision before me.
Can such discipline soften the heart, and turn its
stern purposes to commit crime into the ways of
virtue ? Must not the hearts of these poor things
inevitably grow harder under such influences, till
they become the human fiends which they sometimes
manifest themselves ?
I looked along the whitewashed floor. Rats and
mice were running fearlessly about, holding gay
revel over the crumbs that had been scattered to
them by the prisoners in their rooms.
I looked up at the cells. Human faces stared
down upon me, through the bars, made ghastly by
the flickering gas-light. There were human hearts,
alive with all human emotions, beating beneath those
horrid faces.
Directly in front of me, with no light, save one
narrow, stinted ray, which glimmered through the
key-hole, with no bed but the stone floor, no seat but
the wooden bucket, nothing to lean against but the
bare brick walls, lay a girl " in solitary."
No human being has life enough to stir up those
cold stones to warmth, no change can soften them to
comfort. Whichever way she turns, the hard, chilling
granite is her resting-place. She lies there with no
covering but her usual clothing, and that has been
dealt out to her with the spare hand of public rigor.
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 67
No discretionary mercy has interposed to provide a
plank or a blanket to break the chill.
Like a flash the thought crossed my brain, If that
were my child ! It sent a pang through my heart
that stopped and wrung there till I gasped for
breath.
I looked up at the cells. The faces that glared
down upon me were the sweet faces of my own
daughters transformed to human demons by the vile
impress of crime, and its compeer, punishment.
Was I putting my hand to the work to help on the
hardening of human hearts, and the degradation of
human beings ! I would flee the place, and leave
the work with the morning light. I could not flee
the thoughts. Wretched, wretched employment !
I was half frenzied. I started up and rushed
around the prison. I laid my head against the iron
bars of the grated doors. I leaned against the cold
stone walls. I could have lain down upon them in
bitter penance for the part which I had taken.
The eight o clock bell rung for inspection. It was
a relief.
Humbly I took my lantern, and crept softly round
to examine the locks. Many of the women were in
bed, some of them were up reading.
One of the girls looked up to me with a smile, and
said, I wondered that she could smile at all,
" See how nicely I keep the rats out."
She had taken off the cover of her box, and braced
it, by the box, against the lower part of the door.
68 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Every room is furnished with a box which has a
drawer in it. This box serves for table and pantry.
It contains a spoon, knife and fork, salt and pepper
boxes.
" Can t they jump over that ? "
" They don t try ; but run along to another room.
There hasn t been one in here since I put it up."
I sat down and busied myself reading till the nine
o clock locking came. When that was accomplished,
I went up, up, up the stone stairs to my cell in the
roof of the prison.
I laid me down, and from sheer exhaustion fell into
a kind of slumber ; but my short sleep, if it were
sleep, was rank with nightmare, or haunted with the
ghosts of my abode. No sooner did I become uncon
scious, than I was falling from my eyrie to the rocky
floor below, or was strapped upon the iron bars that
held the prisoners beds. Visions appeared to my
dream-sight that roused me with a start and scream
to wakefulness again.
Even such disturbed slumber had hardly got pos
session of my faculties when a volley of oaths came
rolling through my door, and roused me to distinct
consciousness.
I sprang from my bed, ran to the door, and
called,
"What is the matter?"
" That bloody Smith snores so that we can t
sleep!"
Where is she ? I will go down and wake her. "
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 69
" On the third division, south side, almost to the
foot."
I put my feet into my slippers, wrapped a shawl
around me, and ran down to Smith s door.
* Smith, turn over ! You are snoring so loud that
the other women can t sleep."
" ! how you scared me."
" Do you know that you are snoring so loud that
the women can t sleep ? Turn over on your side ! "
" Yes, ma am."
I went back to my bed, but no sooner had I settled
myself to sleep than the clamor of complaint was re
newed.
" That bloody Smith is at her snoring again !"
Again I started for the second division, south
side.
" Smith ! you are snoring again ! "
" I can t help it, ma am ! don t have me punished."
Punished ! How the idea haunted them, even
in their sleep. " I know you can t help it, only by
turning over. Turn on your face, and try that. The
women must sleep, they are tired, and they are
obliged to work to-morrow."
" I ll try not to snore, ma am ! " She turned on
her face as I directed her.
At last I attained to that state of repose which the
renowned Sancho Panza has so felicitously eulogized,
and successfully immortalized; but my enjoyment
was not of long duration.
It was but a short distance that reached into the
70 WOMAN IN PRISON.
middle of the dark, dismal night, and time had
travelled it when I slowly awoke. Shivers of terror,
from some undefined cause, crept over me. Gradu
ally I came to a knowledge of what was passing.
My hair, which was thrown loosely over the pillow,
was moving as though trodden by some nocturnal
agent of locomotion. What moved it ? there was no
draft of air in the room.
I put my hand to the "crowning ornament by
Nature given " to my head, and imprisoned a mam-
mouth mouse, or scarce grown rat.
I was fast getting initiated into the mysteries of
prison life, and inured to its peculiarities. Un
moved, I might allow my hair to become a bed for
rats and mice ; but I could not spare the sleep.
I threw the creature from me, in a fret at being
disturbed, and issued a peremptory order, independ
ent of the Master, and without the approval of the
Board, for all rats and mice to pay respect to my
person, and my apartments, and trouble me no more.
Then I turned over, and went to sleep again.
Adverse fate, or some other mysterious personage
was on my track that night. Before I had time to
close my eyes, a shrill shriek of horror resounded
through the building, starting the echoes from every
side.
It sounded in my ears like the despairing cry of
one doomed to eternal death. Imagination supplied
the cause, and brought me to my feet with one
bound.
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 71
Some pent up prisoner was dying alone in his cell.
I sprang to the rail and called,
" What is the matter ? "
" I think I had the nightmare. I do have it some
times."
" Was that you, Mary McCullum? "
" I think it was, ma am. I m sorry I waked you !
Never mind me, ma am ! "
Poor Mary McCullum ! In a moment I remem
bered all about her. They had told me a sad tale
about her incarceration for the murder of her rival.
Mary s husband had left her, taking her three little
girls away, and married another woman. Mary, in a
fit of jealous madness, had ground up a knife, enticed
the woman to drink with her, and murdered her in
her cellar. A policeman had detected her in the act.
God pity, and judge her ! She had been sentenced
to ten years of hard labor in the Penitentiary for the
crime.
Five years had been worked out. Her health was
gone, her nervous system had become a wreck. The
damp rooms, the chilling stones, the ceaseless toil,
were the slow torture that had undermined her con
stitution, and consumed her vitality.
Her narrow cell had become, to her imagination,
the home of demons who haunted her with her
crime.
The other women had told me that the ghost of
the murdered woman came to Mary McCullum every
night, all in her bloody garments, and set her shriek
ing in her dreams.
72 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Should such a criminal go unpunished? The
halter could bring no surer death than what was
slowly creeping upon her. Restrained of her liberty
she should be, and from the power to do further
harm. Labor for her own support should be required
of her. Connected with it, a sufficient amount of
rest to secure health, a place to sleep free from the
damp and noisome air of a stone prison.
A plenty of wholesome food should be allowed her ;
time and space for repentance given, time to think
upon the error of her ways, and instruction that
would teach her how to do it.
That worrysome night was to meet with one more
" thrilling adventure " before it passed away into the
light of the following day.
I lay, tossing from side to side, after I returned to
my bed. Sleep was out of the question. I lay, tossing
thoughts about the circumstances that surrounded me
to and fro in my mind, trying to analyze, to distinct
ness, the mixed up conclusions that arose from them.
Another unearthly cry rung out on the air, and
startled me from my perplexed meditations. It was
more like the shriek of an animal in distress, than a
human sound.
Wail followed wail, in quick succession. Can it
be a human being ? I asked myself, as I hurried on
some clothing. It must be, there is nothing else
here that can make such a noise.
I stopped to listen, as I went to search it out. It
came from one quarter, and then, from another. If
FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON. 73
it were made in one cell, it possessed a wonderful
power of ventriloquism.
I remembered the hooting and whistling of the
night before, and immediately inferred that the same
mischievous girls, who made the disturbance in the
evening, had set up this cry and echoed it around
from division to division, in order to make a night
of it.
Quick as the thought entered my mind, my pa
tience gave way. I vowed, in my heart, that I would
have them punished if I could catch them. My own
aroused temper certainly suggested the punishment
that I contemplated. Even with the thought which
suggested punishment arose the query Js it not a
just indignation that I feel, and do they not deserve
punishment for willfully making this unreasonable
disturbance ? Is it my anger that seeks revenge for
the annoyance they are inflicting ?
Although half way down into the prison, I ran
back to my room, and left my slippers, in order to
avoid the tap, tapping of the leather soles on the
walks, which would announce my approach to the
culprits, and warn them in season to avoid detec
tion.
Again I traversed flat after flat in my stockings.
Quickly, and noiselessly, I threaded the walks to
wards the spot from whence the sound appeared to
proceed. But when I reached it, all was silent
there, and the wail came shrieking around another
corner.
I grew more and more angry as chills crept up my
74 WOMAN IN PRISON.
limbs, and set my teeth chattering. I raised my
thinly clad feet from the cold stones only to set them
down in a still colder track a practical test, it now
occurs to me, of the experience of the woman on the
stones " in solitary," but my determination to ferret
out the offenders never faltered.
I was benumbed ; but I persevered till I had
traversed the five flats, and listened at the door of
nearly a hundred cells. The wails had grown to
howls, and filled the prison with their noise as the
thunder fills the air with its reverberations, but eluded
my search.
I gathered my shawl around me, and sat down by
the stove to listen ; and determine my future course.
When I became stationary, the sounds changed
their course, and instead of receding approached
me. Nearer, and nearer they came. In a moment
they were issuing from the floor at my side. I shook
with a vague dread. Were those shrieking wails from
some prisoner confined in the dungeon vaults below
the prison, insane or dying ? Involuntarily I looked
down. There stood the cat, uttering piteous cries on
account of separation from her kittens in the kitchen,
and pleading to be let out to them.
Quickly I ran over the stairs to get my keys, nor
did I feel the chill of the cold stone walks, as I ran
back to appease the distress of the mother cat by
opening the way to her little ones.
I did not regret that I lost the opportunity to ex
ecute the mentally threatened punishment of my
women.
VII.
THE MASTER AND THE RULES.
ONE morning, as I sat warming my feet by the
prison stove, I heard a slow, measured tread on the
stone walk, like some one pacing off the length of
the building. When it came near to me I looked,
to see the Master stalking along in pompous dig
nity.
There was what he probably supposed to be au
thority in his bearing.
I arose and stood respectfully before him. I sup
posed he had commands of some kind, for me, from
his appearance.
He went along- without changing his gait, or turn
ing his head, into the kitchen.
I really did not know what etiquette to observe on
this state occasion ; but I slowly followed him. He
marched round, looking over the place in silent in
spection ; then came directly before me, and made a
dead halt.
He did not speak for a moment, and I, to relieve
the embarrassment, asked,
" Does the place look to suit you ? "
" When it don t, I shall tell you," he answered
gruffly.
76 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" It is more pleasant to be told when we have
pleased, than when we have not."
He made no reply to that remark ; but said
sternly,
" You are not to read the Rules to the prisoners ;
you have nothing to do with that."
" I have not read the Rules to the prisoners. I
can find no rules to be governed by myself, much
more to read to them."
" If the prisoners do not obey you, you are to re
port them at once."
" I believe, according to the Rules and Regulations
laid down by the Board of Directors, that I am to
admonish them once, and at the second offense
report them."
He turned and stalked away, looking a little
puzzled.
At first I could not imagine to what he referred ;
but after stirring up my memory, I recollected that I
had mentioned, in reproving the women, a day or two
before, that they were breaking the Rules.
I sat down and wrote the Master a note after this
wise :
" The women have a habit of talking as they march
in and out of prison. I am ordered to report them if
they do it. I find in the Rules and Regulations,
given to the officers, by the Board of Overseers, on
the tenth page, that we are directed to admonish
the prisoners, for misbehavior, and at the second
offense report them. That was what I did yesterday,
THE MASTER AND THE RULES. 77
however my proceedings may have been reported to
you."
In a few moments the Deputy made his appear
ance.
" Your explanation was just the thing. We have
looked up the Rule, and you are right. It is better
to take each one as you catch her, rather than take
them all together."
" That gives me a chance to exercise still more
mercy. Thank you ! "
Thus ended my first interview with the Master,
and the second was like unto it.
About a week after that the Receiving Matron
came and told me that I was to go to her wash-room,
to oversee her women, while she went to put the
officers rooms in order.
I replied, " I cannot attend to your work. I have
more to do in my own department than I have
strength to accomplish."
" Mrs. Hardback " that was the Shop Matron
" said you were to do it."
" I am not employed by Mrs. Hardback, nor do I
take my orders from her."
I was overburdened with work, and extremely
tired. It appeared unreasonable, to me, to crowd
anything more upon me. I had not physical strength
to do any more than I was doing.
The Matron turned from me in a fret, and left. I
dropped upon a bench and rested my head upon the
table. From sheer fatigue the tears started.
78 WOMAN IN PRISON.
In a few moments I heard the measured tread of
the Master. I did not raise my head till he had
stood before me a moment or two. Then I looked
up. I did not pay him the respect to rise. He
looked at me a moment, and seemed to have some
idea of my condition. He said gently, if anything
could be said gently by one so rough
" I should like to have you go to the wash-room
while the Matron is at the officers rooms. There is
a gang of women at work there, and she cannot leave
them alone very well."
His manner modified my feelings somewhat ; but
I had no idea of having any more labor put upon
me, and I said,
" I find it very difficult to get through with the
labor that I engaged for, and it is impossible for me
to have that of another put upon me."
" Just for to-day, as she has just come in."
" I will go for to-day, as a matter of favor ; but I
did not engage for that work, and I don t wish her
to feel that she can call upon me to take her place
at any time that she may wish. Her relief should
come from another quarter."
" It is only for to-day."
He went out, and I started for the wash-house.
vni.
MRS. HARDHACK.
I HAD been in the prison but a few days when
Ellen, one of my " sweeps," crept softly round to me,
and whispered in my ear,
" You must be careful what you say ! Mrs. Hard-
hack has just been in on the other side to listen.
She creeps round like a cat, and you never know
when she s coming, and there s no knowing what she ll
tell, and she ll surely get you into trouble."
" Don t give yourself any uneasiness, she can t get
me into trouble."
" Don t tell what I say ; but she do pick a fuss with
all the Matrons that come here, and she tells on em,
and reports em, and makes the Master mad with em.
And I jest see her creeping round in there now."
" You know that I am not obliged to stay here as
you are, Ellen. If I am made unhappy, I can leave
at any time."
" I know you can ; but I don t want you to be un
happy. I want you to stay, and so do the rest of the
women."
" Thank you, Ellen. I am glad you want me to
stay, because I think you will do your work well and
try to please me by obeying all of the rules."
80 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" I m sure I ll do anything in the world to please
ye."
I thought I would see if Ellen s information were
correct, so I stepped lightly around the corner to
which she pointed. I was just in season to see the
back of Mrs. Hardhack s garments disappearing
through the door.
I was indifferent to such espionage personally. I
could easily correct any false impression which might
be made of my conduct, as I had done in the repre
sentation which had been made of my reading the
Rules ; but it is extremely unpleasant to look upon
such a character, as had been developed, in one who
must be an associate. The meanness and treachery
that were written upon it would stand out before me,
whenever I saw her, in spite of any good qualities
that she might possess.
That woman had been in the institution a great
many years, and had become thoroughly imbued with
the spirit of its rulers. If she went round into the
other departments to listen, I inferred that it must be
with the approval of the Master.
If she carried him information acquired in that
way, it must be acceptable, or she would not continue
it.
It is difficult to understand why such management
need be pursued in this country. If the Master
found a subordinate practicing against him, he could
dismiss her arbitrarily ; but in so doing he would only
dismiss her out into the world to tell her own tale, he
MAS. HARDUACK. 81
would argue. He could make his own representation
of the case to the Board of Directors, and screen his
own doings ; but the Board are not the directors of
public opinion.
A just, upright, and open management would se
cure the cooperation of subordinates who are fit to
hold a position in such an institution. That such a
course was not pursued, was because the disposition
of the head Manager led him in another direction,
and the disposition of the subordinate, Mrs. Hard-
hack, made her a fit agent to carry out his peculiar
views of the proper way to govern the institution.
She did not stop at that, but tried many little ex
periments of her own suggestion. Her long residence
and knowledge of the place enabled her to practice
them very much to the annoyance of the other Mat
rons, and to the distress of the prisoners.
The women were her equals in detecting her
ways, if they had not the power to practice her strat
agems.
They watched her till she was fairly across the
yard that morning ; then, they gathered around me,
and began to tell me of her " tricks," as they called
them.
" She s the artfulest huzzy that ever lived," said
Ellen. " She ll tell the women when they leave the
shop not to speak a word till they get out of it, nor in
the yard ; but when they get into the prison they may
talk as much as they are a mind to. Don t ye see,
that s to make you trouble. You ll have to scold em,
82 WOMAN IN PRISON.
and get em locked up ; and then, they ll hate you.
and plague you all they can."
" Don t be anxious, Ellen ? After I have been here
awhile the women will understand me, and they won t
be any more willing to plague me than you are."
" That s true ! but it will take longer because you
don t see em so much as you do us. And don t ye
see, she ll tell em anything. She always be s stirring
up a fuss somewhere. The women all hates her."
" Never mind saying anything more, Ellen. I
think I can manage her."
" Don t let her know I ve said anything ! She d
surely pick up something to get me locked up for."
" Twas she that got me ten days in solitary, and
the gag," said O Brien. " I d like to make her bones
ache as mine ached then ! If ever I catch her out-
outside I ll " -
"Anne O Brien, stop !"
" Well, ma am, if she had treated you as she has
me you would hate her. I d strike her down in a
minute if I could get the chance. And she will get
struck down in the shop sometime and killed. She
never goes outside, and she dares not, so many of
the women hate her, and are on the watch for her."
That was the effect produced by solitary confine
ment, without mitigation, as I heard it talked univer
sally among the prisoners. Does it conduce to
reformation ?
At the time this occurred, I thought the prisoners
had exaggerated in their statements about Mrs.
MRS. HARDBACK. 83
Hardback ; but in a few days they were confirmed
by her own conduct.
I was suspicious that the truth had been told me
with regard to her putting the prisoners up to make
a noise when they came in prison, by the appearance
of a few of them.
I thought I might arouse her pity for them, and
induce her to stop her machinations in that way.
I remarked to her, as we were standing together
one evening after the women had been particularly
noisy in coming in from the shop,
" I am afraid I shall be obliged to have some of
the women put in solitary if they continue to be so
troublesome when they come in to supper."
u Afraid ! " she echoed scornfully, " I like to get
them locked up."
I looked in blank astonishment upon the human
monster before me.
" Are you in earnest ? " I asked. " Do you mean
to say that you like to add to the hard lot of those
poor creatures by that dreadful punishment of soli
tary ? "
" Yes, I m sure I do ! "
And with a coarse laugh she turned away.
I hoped she could not mean it ; but all of her ac
tions, and all the reports that I heard of her, tended
to produce the conviction that she had formed a just
estimate of her own character ;. and, upon that, made
a correct representation of herself.
That remark of mine hit wide of the mark. In-
84 WOMAN IN PRISON.
stead of touching her compassion it roused the spirit
of mischief.
She was on duty that night in prison, and, restless
as the renowned adventurer who went to and fro in
the earth seeking whom he might devour, she went
on a search through the cells of the first division
where my kitchen women lodged.
The Deputy had ordered me to supply the women,
on that division, with all the blankets they wanted,
because they worked in the kitchens where it was hot
and the air full of steam. And being the lowest
tier of cells, they were colder than the others.
I had done as he directed me, so that some of
them had four or five. Allen, my steam woman, an
old woman of nearly sixty, had six.
Mrs. Hardhack stripped their beds, and counted
their blankets. She took off all but two, and locked
them up in a black cell.
The sweep who sat tending the door saw the pro
ceeding, and ran to tell me what was going on.
" Mrs. Hardhack is stripping the blankets off the
women s beds, and she hasn t left poor old Allen
but two little strips of rags."
I went to see what she was doing. No sooner did
her eye light on me than she commenced to sho w me
how well educated she was in the use of the diction
ary.
" Here are your women with six blankets, and the
rule is that they shall have only two. A double one
and a single one."
MRS. HARDBACK. 85
I was in no wise accountable to her, and did not
think it necessary to answer. I stood and looked
at her. She went on,
" You have no right to give your women more
than the rest have. You have no right to give out
blankets in that way, and the Master will know it
directly. Here are your women with six blankets,
and my shop women with only two. It s a shame
to treat your women so much better than you do
mine."
When she had exhausted herself, I said, quietly,
but loud enough for them all to hear,
" Your shop women are just as well treated as my
kitchen women. Some of the old ones have five or
six blankets they all have as many as they wish
for. I have been to the doors, and asked every one
of them if they wished for more. And now if any
woman wants another blanket, speak ! and she shall
have it. You may be assured, every one of you, that
you shall have every comfort, from me, that I am
allowed to give you."
No one spoke. That time Mrs. Hardback failed
to stir up jealousy on the part of the shop women
towards me ; or create disturbance in the prison.
<k I shall have it my own way about the blankets
to-night," she said, and locked them in a black cell.
I did not like to come in contact with her, so I
went for the Deputy, to settle the matter. He was
out. I asked for the Master. I was told that I could
not see him. He was indisposed. I could not get
86 WOMAN IN PRISON.
access to him, and my women slept without their
blankets till nine o clock, when Mrs. Hardback left
the prison. After she was gone I returned them the
blankets she had taken away.
The next morning she came to me to know who
unlocked the black cell door.
" When you have authority to inquire into my ac
tions, I will render an account of them to you."
u You have no right to unlock a door after I lock
it."
" You have no further care of the prison after you
leave it at night, and the last order given is the one
to be obeyed. I had a plenty of blankets up-stairs,
in a chest, to supply the ones you took away, if I had
chosen to use them."
I went to the Deputy in the morning, and he for
bade her interference in such matters.
She indulged herself in one more exhibition of
her sweet temper with regard to the affair, and that
was to tell me that she had secured my women a few
hours of cool repose.
IX.
A BREAD-AND-WATER BOARDER.
ONE night, when the women were coming into
the prison, I observed great commotion and distur
bance among them. I heard a confused, mixed up,
talk about beds being taken out.
Two or three of the women stepped out of the
ranks, and looked up into their rooms, to see if their
beds were taken out of them. Among the number
was a woman by the name of Callahan.
I had heard of her as being a desperate charac
ter ; but she had behaved well in the prison.
She was a tall, stout woman, with a loud voice.
After she had looked into her room, and seen that
her bed was gone, she turned to me, and asked,
" What was my bed taken out for ? "
" I didn t know that it was out."
She looked steadily at me for a moment ; then,
lowered her voice, and asked,
" Do you mean to say that you didn t know that
my bed was out ? "
" Yes, Callahan, I meant to say that I did not know
your bed was taken out. Perhaps you are mistaken,
it may not be out."
88 WOMAN IN PJRISON.
" O, yes, it is out ; I saw the naked bars."
" Come, Callahan, go along like a good woman !
Go to your room first, and see, before you ask why it
is done."
She went into her room. The other women were
in theirs. I called,
" Second Division ! "
All of the rest shut their doors.
" Shut your door, Callahan ! " I called pleasantly.
" No, ma am, I will not. I don t mean anything
against you ; but I will not shut my door, nor sleep
on the bars. Do you know who reported me, and
what my bed is taken out for ? "
" No, I do not."
I was obliged to leave her standing in her door,
and go round to the other side of the prison to see
the other prisoners slid in.
The moment I left Callahan, she began to rave.
" By the Holy Jesus, I won t sleep on the bars. And
I ll know who reported me, and what I m reported
for, the miserable set of"
" Callahan, stop ! " I ran round and called.
Neither of the Shop Matrons appeared, and I was
told that it was because they were afraid of Calla-
han s violence.
" No, I won t stop ! I ll do something to make
them lock me up. I won t sleep on the bars. It was
Hardhack that reported me. I wish I d struck her
down ! "
" No ! no ! it was Thingsly," said a voice that I
did not know.
A BREAD-AND-WATER BOARDER. 89
" Hardback made the balls if Thingsly fried em.
She s at the bottom of all the deviltry there is done
here."
Then she commenced a tirade of vituperations
and oaths that made my ears tingle.
In a few moments the Deputy made his appear
ance.
" Your No. 1 key," he said to me, and proceeded
to Callahan s room.
I got it; and then followed him.
" Now, Mr. Deputy," she said to him, when he went
up to her ; " you know I won t sleep on the bars.
You might as well lock me up first as last, if you are
going to punish me. But you ought to tell me what
it s for. I haven t done anything but speak in the
walk, and all of em do that."
The Deputy made no reply ; but I saw that he had
buttoned up his coat as though he expected violence.
She went peaceably to her solitary cell, however ; but
all of the way she begged the Deputy to tell her
what he was locking her up for.
When she saw me standing by the Deputy, she
asked me where Hardback and Thingsly were.
" I don t know ; they haven t been in the prison
to-night."
" They re afraid to come ; but I wouldn t hurt the
poor little lambs. They know they re guilty, and
they know I m locked up for nothing."
" Shall I give her her bread and water to-night ? "
I asked the Deputy, as he turned to leave.
90 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" Yes."
I knew the water would be grateful to the poor
thing.
I wished to ask the Deputy if Callahan had told
the truth ; but my own consciousness told me that
she had. I had learned to esteem the man, and I
could not bear to hear him say that he was accessory
to such injustice, although I knew that it was his duty
as a subordinate officer to do as he had done.
I could not help questioning, Ought not the girl to
be told what she is punished for ? Has she been
" admonished ? " The poor thing had no redress
for such injustice.
That was the point that she, too, was revolving in
her mind. When I gave her the bread and water,
she said to me,
" Look here, now, don t you think they ought to
tell me what I am punished for ? "
" You must not ask me such questions. It isn t
for me to sit in judgment upon what the Master
does."
She was intent on finding out my opinions, so she
put her questions in a different way.
" If you reported me, wouldn t you tell me what it
was for ? "
" Certainly ! I should probably give you a good
scolding before I had you punished."
"If you was going to punish me just as you were
a mind to, for speaking on the walk, would you shut
me up here two days and two nights for it ? "
A BREAD-AND- WATER BOARDER. 91
" Perhaps not ; but how do you know that you are
to stay here two days and two nights ? "
" Because they are never shut up for any shorter
time."
"O Brien and McMullins were only in for one day
and a night."
" That was because you begged em off. -But no-
body ll beg me off. Say! would you shut me up
here for speaking on the walk ? "
" Perhaps not ; but you knew the rule, and dis
obeyed, it is for disobedience that you are pun
ished."
" Ever so many of them talked, they all talk ;
but none of em got punished but me. They ve got
a spite against me, is that right."
" Perhaps that is your jealousy, Callahan."
" No, it isn t. Four of us were talking together.
If Thingsly saw one, she saw the whole of us."
" Perhaps it isn t for that you are punished."
" Won t you find out ? Won t you ask Hard-
hack ? "
" No, I don t wish to."
" Are you afraid of her ? "
No ! "
" Do you like that woman ? "
" She is nothing to me. But if I were to ask her
a question, about what does not concern me, I might
not get a civil answer."
I was fast arriving to the conclusion that it would
be impossible for me to assist in carrying out such a
system of government.
92 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The next day I spoke to the Deputy about letting
her out. He shook his head.
" If she was one of your women, and you had the
care of her, I might."
When the two days were expired, he sent me
round word to let Callahan out at six o clock. With
my watch in my hand I did not defer it a moment
later. As I was waiting upon her to her room, I
asked her,
" Why had you rather go into solitary than sleep
on the bars ? "
" If I sleep on the bars, I lose just as much time,
and have to work all the next day. If I can t have
my bed to sleep in, I won t work for em."
" I shouldn t think there would be much rest in
solitary."
" There ain t ; but I don t earn any money for them
either."
There was retaliation with calculation.
" Callahan, I turned the key on you in solitary, and
kept you there, why are you not angry with me ? "
" You didn t do it out of spite you never did me
any wrong. If they only punished me when I de
served it, I shouldn t be mad."
I did not know how to reprove the woman. " Cal
lahan, be as good a woman in the shop as you are
with me."
" I ll try to ; but they wake up the devil in me. I
wish you would get me into the kitchen."
I ll try."
AN ARRIVAL.
THE windows of the kitchen were of ground glass.
They were made to let down at the top, but could not
be raised at the bottom.
When they were let down, I noticed that the
younger women, if I were out of the way a moment,
sprang upon the window-seat, which was a deep re
cess, and stood looking out. I inferred from the
manner of doing it, and the apprehensive look they
gave me, when detected, that it was breaking the
rules to do so.
But no one informed me of such a rule, and I did
not think it necessary to inquire. I could see no
possible harm that could come to them from looking
through the bars upon the grass, and trees, and
flowers of the grounds. Positive good might arise
from changing the tenor of their thoughts. If they
stood longer than I thought best, I sent them to do
something for me.
One day, Annie O Brien had mounted the window-
seat, in my absence from the kitchen, and when I
went back, was exercising her powers of description
upon what she saw, for the entertainment of the
others.
94 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The window through which she was looking, com
manded a view of the yard, the office, and the walk
through which the public found entrance to the
buildings.
" An arrival, an arrival ! " called Annie, in a loud
whisper.
" Who is it ? Is it anybody that we know ? " asked
one of the girls that had been brought in with her.
I stood behind the furnace a moment to notice
what was going on.
" Yes, there is Tom Ticket. I wonder what he
has been doing."
" Nothing new, of course ! They wanted a car
penter down here, so they sent up for him. The
carpenter was discharged the other day, and I heard
one of the men say they d have another down in a
few days, they knew just where to lay their hands
on one of the best in the city."
" Do you mean to say, Lissett, that they can have a
man brought down here a prisoner, because they
want a carpenter ? " I asked.
"Yes, ma am. They know he drinks, and can
prove it, but they don t want too many at a time, so
they let him run till they want him ; then, they have
him taken up, and fetched down here."
My face must have expressed the utter abhorrence
I felt of such work. O let us cleanse our whited
sepulchres ! Is there not work enough within our
own borders to employ our Christian men and re
forming women ! We need not go abroad for work
AN ARRIVAL. 95
with such festering sores in our own vitals. For
very shame let us cleanse these places ! were my
thoughts.
Here was another occasion for glib Annie O Brien
to hold forth ; and such occasions were never slighted
by her.
" Half that come in here," she said, " are not doing
anything when they come. My coming, when I
came, was a put up job."
" What do you mean by that ? "
" A policeman was hired to take me up. I was
sitting in a store, about nine o clock in the evening,
when he came in and told me to follow him."
" Who put him up to it ? "
" A man that kept a saloon paid him five dollars,
and he did it. Any of the policemen will take a
person up for five dollars. When I came here I
wasn t doing anything out of the way ; but, of course,
they knew what I had done."
" What did the saloon man want you taken up
for?"
" Because I wouldn t tend for him. He had tried
to get me in there, and I wouldn t go."
" Why wouldn t you go ? Wouldn t it have been
better for you to earn an honest living ? "
" An honest living ! I d had to gone with any man
he said if I d gone there, and I rather choose my own
friends."
" O, Annie, how can you stand there, and tell this
over? I should think your heart would burst with
grief when you think of it ! "
96 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" pshaw ! it s nothing when you get used to it ! "
said Lissett, and snapping her fingers at the imagina
tion that O Brien had called up, she flounced out of
the room. But for all that, I saw that she choked
as she said it, and the tears came in her eyes.
" I hadn t got quite so used to it as to go to that
pitch," said O Brien.
And where are the men that make these women
what they are ? I asked myself. Coolly walking the
streets outside the terrors of the law. At that mo
ment I could have locked all of mankind in solitary,
and fed them on bread and water, without suffering
one pang. Is there no help for this state of things,
that the weak suffer for the sins of the strong ? If
man does not meet his punishment here he is borne
on, by time, to judgment, where he will have no power
to screen his guilty acts or shift his punishment upon
the helpless.
That reflection did not satisfy me at the time. A
more summary retribution would be better suited to
the sin. One that would inflict immediate tribulation
and anguish upon him, such as had fallen upon his
victims.
Annie turned again to look out of the window.
" There is but one woman taking a ride in the
fancy carriage of the government. Exercise in that
carriage is excellent for dyspepsia."
" Do you know her ? " asked Allen.
" No ! she s a jail-bird, I kno\v, by her looks. She s
come from the Superior Court ; she ll have a long
sentence. She s coming through the kitchen."
AN ARRIVAL. 97
Annie sprang down to look at her, and all of the
rest followed her to the door which stood open, into
the garden, for the men to bring in the bread for
supper.
" Stand back ! It isn t necessary for you to give
her a welcome."
The newly arrived had her veil drawn tightly down
over her face ; but I could see that she was young,
and very good looking.
In the. absence of the female Receiving Officer I
took her from the Clerk, and waited upon her to the
reception room where she was stripped of her own
clothes, and put into a bathing-tub. When she was
thoroughly scrubbed and dried, she was arrayed in
the uniform of the place, and sent to the shop.
There her capabilities were tried, and she was as
signed to the work for which she was best adapted.
The clothes that she had taken off were carefully
folded, put in a bag by themselves, and labeled, to
restore to her when she went out of the prison.
When I returned to the kitchen, my girls had
found out who the new prisoner was, how long a sen
tence she had, and what was the offense for which
she had been committed.
How the facts got circulation in so short a time,
was a mystery to me.
7
XI.
INSIDE MANAGEMENT.
IN deciding upon the capabilities of the prisoners
Mrs. Supervisor made herself useful.
Her first care was to find out how long a sentence
a woman had. That determined one qualification for
her own service. If the sentence were for two or
three years, and there was to be a vacancy in her own
family, the woman was eligible to a place there, pro
vided she could be trained into the work required.
This care was taken to save herself and her House
keeper the trouble of changing.
To oversee her housekeeping was the Supervisor s
pet employment, and it was fortunate for the House
keeper that the government super-official had one
pet. Through that partiality, she got two hours and
a half more sleep in the morning than the rest of us.
She was not called till half past six ; but I un
locked her women at the same time that I did the
others.
I was glad she could be so favored ; but I could
not see the justice of such an arrangement.
I found, in the course of time, that it was a system
of mutual favor. I went in to breakfast one morning,
and there was no milk on the table.
INSIDE MANAGEMENT. 99
Katie, the table girl, went to the refrigerator, that
stood in the room, to get me some. She had just
laid her hand upon the bowl when the Housekeeper,
with a quick motion, arrested her.
" I must have that cream for the Master s break
fast ! " she whispered.
She took the bowl, removed the cream into one
pitcher, poured the skimmed milk into the one Katie
held in her hand, and sent it to me.
I was not particularly anxious to drink skimmed
milk in my tea so that the Master might have cream ;
but I supposed it was in some way to contribute to
the support of the institution ; or that there was an
order of the Board to that effect, so I made no com
plaint. Indeed it was my policy not to appear to
notice what was going on in such trifling matters,
trifling to the Supervisor, probably, whatever they
might have been to the inferior officers.
Before I knew the Housekeeper s hour of rising, I
went into her kitchen, on an errand, several times
before she was up.
I always found the women working on nice em
broidery. They could not attend to their housework
because the Housekeeper had the keys, and was not
up to unlock the stores and give out the things to
work with. But there could be no relaxation of their
labor on that account. They must be up and at
work.
One morning, Mary Hartwell asked me to look on
the list, and see if her name were there.
100 WOMAN IN PKISON.
The names of the women who were going out dur
ing the month, with the date of the day that they
were to be discharged, was handed to the Receiving
Matron, the first of the month.
The women were very accurate, usually, in keep
ing account of their own time, still they were anxious
to have their own calculations confirmed by knowing
that their names were entered on the discharge list.
" If you will please look for me, I will do some
thing for you after I go out."
" Something for me, Mary ! no ! I will look for
you when I go to the wash-room to-day."
Her remark called my attention to her work. I
saw that she was doing a beautiful piece of embroid
ery. When she saw that I noticed it, she held it up
and exhibited it with a great deal of pride.
It was a night-gown yoke, in linen, of an elegant
and elaborate pattern.
" Who are you doing this for ? " I asked.
" This is for Mrs. Means." That was the House
keeper.
That is what I call you up two hours and a half
before she rises, to do, I thought.
" How many of you are there that can do such
work ? " I asked.
" Five of us can do this kind, and we can all do
fine stitching, or crochet, or some kind of fine needle
work."
There were ten of them to do the work in the
Housekeeper s rooms, and those of the Supervisor.
Quite an array of talent !
INSIDE MANAGEMENT. 101
" You ought to see Ann Horton s work. She does
all kinds beautifully. She stays up-stairs, and works
all of the time. She had a sentence of three years;
it s most out now. It would do your eyes good to see
the piles and piles of nice things she has done for
the Master s wife and the young ladies. The pillow
cases, and the yokes, and bands, and skirts."
" Has she been doing embroidery all of the time
for three years ? "
" Yes, ma am, and nice sewing."
I thought three years of hard labor, from five in
the morning till eight at night, must accumulate
quite an amount in value, of such work, beside what
was done at intervals of two or three hours at a time,
by the other nine women.
Supervisor might have exercised her thrift in sup
porting the institution, very profitably, by selling that
embroidery as she proposed to do the moth-eaten
rags. In doing that she might obviate the necessity
of giving the officers skimmed milk in their tea.
I inferred that that three years labor was a per
quisite belonging to the office of Supervisor. In ad
dition to her salary she was making a profitable af
fair of her sinecure situation. Far more advantage
would accrue to her than to the institution in having
such an incumbent.
Supervisor of what ? Of her own housekeeping.
The very best of employments for a woman if she
has a family.
XII.
SUNDAY.
IT was Sunday morning. Sunday was our busiest
day, because our meals came so near together.
We were allowed one hour more of sleep on this
morning than on the others. I had waked at the
usual hour, but settled myself comfortably to rest
again hoping to obtain it. Tinkle, tinkle, went the
bell over my head. I paid no heed to it for a mo
ment. Rattle, rattle, rattle went the noisy thing for
full ten minutes. By that time, vexation had ex
pelled all drowsiness.
I vowed, in my own mind, that I would muffle it
the next Saturday night, in .retaliation for the un
seasonable summons. At first I determined to dis
regard the call. It must have rung from habit.
The next thought that suggested itself brought me
to my feet. Perhaps a new order had been issued,
and subjected to the approval of the Board at that
early hour. In that case the august mandate was not
to be disregarded. I rose, unlocked my women, and
set them to work.
The ringing of the bell so early proved to be a
mistake of the watchman, who was a new hand, who
SUNDAY. 103
fearing he should be late, gave me that untimely
warning. I judged, from that circumstance, that the
orders were as distinctly given, and the duties as
definitely arranged on the other side as on ours.
I grudged that hour of lost repose both for my
self and my women. I was hungry for rest ; and my
women were worked to sheer exhaustion.
Sunday all of the women were unlocked at six
o clock. They were called out of their rooms, in the
same order as on other days, left their skillet pans, and
the quarts in which they had taken their suppers to
their cells the night before, at the slide, as they went
out. They were marched to the shop to wash and be
dressed for chapel. While they were gone, their
dishes were washed, and their breakfasts put into
them to be taken to their rooms when they returned
to them.
At nine they were marched to chapel, where they
remained till half-past eleven or twelve, when they
returned to take their dinners, and remain in their
cells till half-past one. Then, they went to chapel
again, and returned at three to take their suppers to
their rooms, and be locked in.
After that the presence of only one Matron was
required in the prison. One of the other three was
required to remain on the premises. Two might go
where they liked.
Sunday breakfast and supper was of bread, mush,
and rye coffee, the same as other days. The dinner
was of roast beef, which was cooked at the bake
house, and sent in to us to be carved and served.
104 WOMAN IN PRISON.
The gravy was to be made in the kitchen, and the
potatoes steamed : the meat and potatoes put into
the pans, and the gravy poured over them.
To get that meat to its right destination required
sharp care on my part. There were extra women
sent in from the wash-room to help on Sunday.
They, with my own, were possessed with a disposition
to get possession of the greater part of that rarity.
They got up all sorts of inventions to get me out
of the room, while it was being sliced, in order to
secrete a part of it for their own use, the next day,
and for that of their favorites among the prisoners.
At first they had been able to impose upon my
ignorance, but at this time I had learned just how
much two hundred and eighty pounds of meat would
divide to about four hundred people. I had learned
their " tricks and their manners " also, so that it had
become impossible for them to draw me from my
object, which was, to see it equally divided.
"An sure ma am," said Bridget O Halloran;
" we re wanting the pails from the hospital."
In order to get the pails I must go to the outside
door, blow my whistle to call a runner, wait till he
came, and then order my pails. The hint was just
in season. Allen had taken the first piece on her
fork to commence carving. I said to her,
" Don t cut that meat till I come back, not one
slice."
I then ordered in the pails, and bread every
thing that would be wanted before dinner, and took
SUNDAY. 105
my station at the table with the determination not to
be drawn away from it upon any pretense.
The smell of the meat to the poor, half-fed things
was very savory, and they came around picking up
the bits which fell off while it was being carved.
k Please ma am, give me a bone, just the least
bit of bone ! " was the cry perpetually in my ears.
And the bones I was forced to give to their impor
tunity as fast as they were freed from the meat.
To keep their fingers from that meat was like
fighting eagles from a dead carcass. ,
Bridget O Halloran s ways were suspicious. I
thought she had eluded my vigilance, and secreted
some of it in spite of me. I kept watch of her mo
tions for the rest of the day.
I noticed that she visited the shed very frequently.
If I wanted her I was continually obliged to send for
her. At last I thought I would go myself and see
what attraction that old shed had become so sud
denly possessed of.
When I discovered her she was stooping down in
the middle of the building without any apparent ob
ject in view.
" Bridget I want you in the kitchen at this
moment ! "
She was fumbling about her stocking. I stood
looking at her while she was apparently arranging it.
" What is the matter with your stocking, Bridg
et?"
" Nothing, ma am ! "
106 WOMAN TN PRISON.
She colored, was confused, and started with the
top of it in her hand. I let her pass on before me
so as to get a better prospect of what was going on.
From the glimpse that I got of her leg I thought
she had been following the fashion in adopting
false calves. In hurrying her I had spoiled the
proper adjustment of them, and they had slipped to
her ankles. I intended to examine into the case
when I reached the kitchen; but an explanation
came by way of accident.
In order to make more speecj, as I hurried her on
before me, she let go the top of her stocking, the
weight of what was in it brought it down over her
shoe, and out fell two or three slices of meat. The
cause of her clumsiness in moving was explained,
also of her frequent absences. She had slily slipped
away slice after slice, one at a time, and gone into
the shed to secrete them in that safe place.
Under my eyes, as I stood looking at that meat,
she had done it.
" Stop ! pick up your meat, Bridget ! "
" It s no matter, ma am ! "
Her face was ablaze with disappointment and
smothered anger, and tears filled her eyes.
" Stop, and pick up that meat ! "
She did so.
" Now look me in the face ! "
That was a hard command for her to fulfill ; but
she looked up at me.
" Caught in the act of stealing ! You do not in-
SUNDAY. 107
tend to treat me any better than you do any one
else ? "
" I did not mean it against you, indeed I
didn t ! "
" Every rule that you disobey is something done
against me."
" I suppose you will report me ; but I was awful
hungry."
"The rest of the prisoners are awful hungry;
you are no worse off than they when you share
equally with them ; but if you rob them, in order to
help yourself to more than they have, you make
them worse off."
" I did not think of that. I work hard, and I
earn a good living, and I mean to get it if I could.
It s a shame for me to go hungry when I work so
hard."
"If you steal food here, Bridget, you steal it
from your fellow-prisoners, not from the institu
tion. There is just so much allowed for you all, and
the rest won t get any more, in any way, if you take
it from them. They must go without if you have it ;
and they work just as hard as you, and get no more
for it."
" It makes me awful mad to think I work so hard,
and don t get any pay for it."
" Then you ought not to come here. You have
been here before, and you knew just how it was before
you did the wrong which brought you here. You
were sent here to work hard, for nothing, for a pun
ishment."
108 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" Others do worse than I, and they don t come
here. If those that put me here had their dues
they d be here too ! "
That was the continual rejoinder.
" May be ; but how are you going to help that ?
You will have about as much as you can do to attend
to your own case. Only think of what you have
been doing ; robbing another person as badly off
as you are. You ought to have pity on each other,
if no else has pity on you ! You ought to respect
the rights of your fellow-prisoners, they have done
you no harm ! "
" I will ; but I was so hungry and the meat
smelt so good ; and I did not think of them. If you
worked as I do, and was real hungry, and saw the
meat, wouldn t you take it ? "
" I don t know, Bridget ; I have not had the
temptation."
The word temptation sounded out from the other
words that I had been using, fearfully loud when I
pronounced it. A nice slice of roast beef was a
strong temptation to those hungry women. They
were allowed enough to tantalize but not to satisfy
them.
By being kept without enough to satisfy their
hunger they were led into sin, if it be a sin for
them to help themselves to more than their share.
They were led to disobey the rules, which involved
punishment if they were detected. It would cer
tainly undermine their health to work so many hours
SUNDAY. 109
as they were obliged to without a suitable amount
of food to produce recuperation.
" Are you hungry enough to eat that meat after it
has been in your stocking, and on this floor ? "
" Yes, ma am ; it ain t hurt it any. I ll eat it if
you ll give it to me."
"Eat it!"
She brushed the dust off it with her hand, tore it
apart with her fingers, and put it in her mouth.
" Bridget, don t ever take any more, and secrete it
without my knowledge."
" No, ma am ; and you wont report me now."
" I gave you the meat. How can I report you ? "
"Thank you!"
"If you are ever so hungry, don t you put any
away for yourself without asking me!"
" No, ma am ! "
Perhaps she will not. The fear of punishment,
in a solitary cell, had not deterred her from taking
the meat. Perhaps pity for her fellow-prisoners
would not ; nor the desire to please me.
That evening I heard the Matrons discussing the
music by the quartette choir in the chapel of the
prison.
" You have a hired choir ? * I asked.
" Yes, and an organ ? "
That information sounded strangely in contrast
with the scanty meals and the solitary cells.
Where does the praise of God come in ?
XIII.
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY.
AFTER the kitchen was put in order, that Sunday
afternoon, I gathered the women around me, and
read a story to them, from a religious newspaper.
I also read them one of the Saviour s parables.
Then, I talked with them so as to find out what ideas
they entertained of themselves, and the lives they
had led.
" What are you in here for, Sarah ? " I asked of a
smart, bright, active woman. As she was among
convicts she was called bold ; but if she were work
ing outside she would be called a smart, capable
woman. If any notice were taken of her ways she
would be just remarked as independent.
" For shoplifting, ma am; " and with a toss of her
head, that was intended to ward off reproof, she
added, "When I go out of here I will do just so
again. I ll take five dollars for every day they ve left
me here."
" Then you will get detected, and brought back
again."
" No, ma am ! I ll look out for that."
" You cannot ; you may be sure your sin will find
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. Ill
you out. If you break God s commandment, Thou
shalt not steal/ his eye is on you, He will see it,
and surely punish you for it. It may be by coming
here, and it may be in some other way."
" Til risk all He ll do to me if I don t fall into the
hands of the police, and get in here."
"That s my case," said Bridget. "The Lord
knows just how poor we are, and how hard it is for us
to get along; and He knows how the rich folks
crowds on us, and He pities us. And He knows
how they lie, and cheat, and steal from each other,
and He won t punish us any more nor He does
them."
" It will make no difference to you what they do
to each other, or what He does to them. You will
not have to answer for their misconduct, nor be pun
ished for it. You will only suffer for the commands
which you break."
" We shall get into their company once where they
can t put on airs over us ; and that ll be a great
comfort. I hope I shall be there when some of em
go to judgment."
" If you are you may have enough to do to attend
to your own affairs."
" If I was in the lower end of the d 1 s kitchen, I
shouldn t be too busy to see them sprinkled with
brimstone."
" Hush, Bridget ! that is revenge ! "
"We can t help it," said the ever ready O Brien.
" I d like to pay them back what they ve done to me.
112 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Don t you suppose we ve got human feelings ? Only
think what that miserable Hardback has made me
suffer in solitary. Wouldn t I make her suffer back
again ? I d beat her till she couldn t stand, the first
time I meet her, if it wasn t for getting another sen
tence. One girl did give her an awful pommeling,
and scratched her face ; and she got another six
months for it."
" O Annie, that is a bad temper ! " but I thought I
would study her still further. " I don t see why just
the idea of being punished should make you so an
gry. I had you punished. What would tempt you
to strike me ? "
" Nothing on earth, ma am ! I would stand
between you and a blow if it broke my head."
" But I had you locked in solitary."
" Yes, ma am, and you was sorry for it, and I de
served it. But when they lock me up for nothing it
makes me mad."
" Who is to be judge of when you deserve it ? It
would not do to leave it to you. You would never
think you deserved it."
" You are mistaken there, ma am. Didn t I tell
you to report me when I was locked up ? Didn t I
say that I deserved it ? You might have some of us
locked up every day, if you were a mind to ; but it
wouldn t make us a bit better."
" It would make me very unhappy to do that. It
would make me sick at heart to see you such bad
women as that."
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 113
" "We know it, and that keeps us from a great
many things. But you might, for what we do, if you
had a mind to, just to show your authority. You
don t get mad, and we don t. You try to make us
better, and we wouldn t any of us be mean enough to
do wrong on purpose."
" I could not have you punished when I see that
you are trying to do right. It is when you do wrong,
and are determined to do wrong, that I shall have you
punished. I see that you are improving in governing
your temper, Annie. You don t get angry so easily
as you used to, and you don t give way to it when
you "are angry, as you did two or three weeks ago."
" I don t think I do ; but I should if you got mad
and scolded me. If I do anything wrong, you turn
round so calm, and talk to me so, it makes me
ashamed ; and I think of it when I want to do it
again, and it keeps me from it, because I know you d
make me ashamed again. You have the upper
hands of me. When I was in the shop, Hardback
would get mad and scold me, and that would make
me mad, and I would sauce her ; and then I got pun
ished. If she hadn t got mad first I shouldn t."
It occurred to me that the officers of the institu
tion would do well to study the rule of the Board
which directs that "no irritating language" be used
to the prisoners. The provision was a goo:! one. It
needed an additional quality, the oversight which
compelled it to be carried out.
" If I were to get angry and scold I could hardly
114 WOMAN IN PRISON.
have confidence to teach you to be gentle and good-
tempered. Now, Sarah, as you are only here Sun
day, let us talk about the crime that brought you
into this place."
" It wasn t a crime, ma am. I m sure I only took
from the rich. I never lifted from any but the big
stores where they lie and steal and make fortunes.
I never went into any of the little small places, where
they are trying hard for a living. I wouldn t be
guilty of such a mean thing."
" Honor among thieves," says the old proverb.
" But it did not belong to you, without regard to the
way they got it. You gave nothing in return for it."
" It did not belong to them, either. It belonged
to me as much as it did to them. It would be hard
telling who the right owner is. I thought I might as
well have my share."
"I do not see that you had any share in it. You
were taking that for which you made no return to
any one, and that was stealing."
"If it had belonged to them it would be stealing.
They take it, and dress their children up, and make" a
great show on it. My children are as good as theirs.
Don t you suppose I want them drest up as nice
when they go to school, and look like other children ?
I can t earn the things if I work ever so hard, so I
lift from those that cheat out of others."
u Do you see what examples you are setting them ?
You are bringing them up to be thieves ; and in
stead of the fine things which you covet for them,
they will be drest in the same uniform that you are."
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 115
" Never, ma am ; never ! my children shall never
be thieves ! "
" But they will do as you do."
" No, ma am, they will not do as I do. They shall
not. They go to day-school, and to Sunday-school,
and say their prayers at night. They will never do
as their mother does ! "
In saying that she choked down the sobs that
rose in her throat, and brushed off the tears that
were gathered in her eyes, just ready to run over
the hardy old cheeks.
" If they grow up to think differently from what
you do, to look upon the sin of stealing as it really
is, they will be greatly grieved that you have com
mitted such acts. They will be ashamed of the
clothes you have stolen for them. Every time they
look at them they will think, my mother stole this
dress. They will think everybody knows that she
stole it. They will be ashamed to look any one in
the face. The other children will taunt them with
it, and they will be miserable, and they will turn it
back upon you. They will blush for their mother;
then, how can they respect or love her ! "
If there were a tender spot in that mother s heart
I meant to probe it, and I succeeded. She covered
her lace with her hands, and her chest heaved. The
big tears made their way through her fingers. She
was determined to brave it out. In a very few mo
ments she mastered her emotions, and answered
me,
116 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" They don t know what I do, and they never shall
know it."
" Don t they know where you are now ? "
" No, ma am ! "
" Where do they think you are ? "
" Gone a journey."
" You may deceive them that way for a time ; but
you are only adding sin to sin. God says * the iniq
uities of the parents shall be visited upon the chil
dren. You may be sure that they will know it in
the end. It was put in the papers when you came
here. It is imposible to conceal what you have done,
and where your sin has brought you."
" I didn t come here in my own name."
" Every one in here knows your real name ; so do
all of your acquaintances outside. You cannot save
your children the knowledge and disgrace of your
crime. Then, consider what you suffer from it."
" I don t care what I suffer, if I can only get the
things for them. Talking is one thing, and living
another. My children shall look as well as the best
of them they go with."
That one idea had been ground into her mind by
the force of her associations the one idea of dress.
It was in those above, around, below her. She had
adopted it unconsciously, irresistibly.
The mother s love and pride were in that woman s
heart in all their strength, and they had been devel
oped by the circumstances around her. She did not
care what she suffered if they could only be supplied
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 117
with the good things which she valued because she
saw the whole world setting the high price upon
them. Body and soul might be the sacrifice ; no
matter, so she obtained them. Into what a strangely
perverted channel had that mother s love run. Was
that noblest, best of woman s instincts to destroy
that woman s human life, and ruin her soul ? God
knows ! He also knows how much of her sin rests
upon those who profess to be following after better
things ; but have set her the example to make the
obtaining of dress the business of her life ; and
placed the temptation in her way to do it dishon
estly.
How much of the guilt he who causes his brother
to offend ought to bear, must be decided by the
Higher Judgment.
" If God had seen fit to gratify your pride, in your
children, He would have provided a way for you in
which you could have done it honestly. As he did
not, you ought to have submitted to your lot, and
done the best that you could."
How hollow those words sounded to me as they
came from my lips. How easy it is to preach sound
doctrine. How hard to make an impression, with it,
upon minds and hearts established in their own
opinions of right and wrong, and persistent in the
determination to follow the wrong ! If I could have
had that woman under my influence a year, I might
have led her into different views and ways. She was
not wholly hardened, as her tears showed.
118 WOMAN IN PHIS ON.
" God did intend that I should have it, and that
was His way of giving it to me. He made me light-
fingered, and gave me a chance to help myself. I m
willing to leave it to Him. I don t believe He will
judge me any harder than He will those I took it
from."
She fell back again upon what others do. I had
made no progress in dispossessing her of the idea
that the wrong of another mitigated her own.
" The command reads, Thou shalt not steal. If
the men that keep those large stores steal, you are
not responsible for it. It is only for what you do
that you will be called to give an account."
" Line upon line," I thought. " I hope you will
never come in here again/
" I never mean to," and she nodded her head as
much as to say, I ll be bright enough to avoid that.
" I hope you will never again do the things that
brought you here."
" I shall, ma am. For every day I m in here, I ll
have five dollars out of em."
She did not say this so vauntingly as she had
made the assertion at first. Still there was the
spirit of retaliation, of revenge, upon some one for
her punishment.
" In doing that, who do you think you will spite ? "
She stopped to think a moment. The question
had taken her at unawares.
" I don t know. Them that put me here."
" But if you go into their store, they will know you,
and watch you, and you will get caught again."
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 119
" Then I ll have it out of some of the rest of
them."
" How will that spite the ones that sent you here ? "
" They re all alike. It won t make any difference
which I take it from."
" They are not all alike, any more than you and I
are alike because we, just now, happen to be in the
same place. If you go out of here and steal again f
you spite yourself, and the punishment for it will fall
upon your own head, and on the heads of those poor
children that you have brought into the world.
Those poor little things that are bone of your bone,
and flesh of your flesh. Does not the mother-heart
melt within you in pity for those children when they
come to find out that their mother is a thief? O
Sarah, if you are not afraid of God s judgment,
which is the most fearful thing that can overtake
you, let your children be in your thoughts when you
go to take what is not your own, and turn you from
your wicked purpose."
" She tells ye the truth," said McMullins. " And
only think of me! Here I am. the mither of five
beautiful chilter as ye ever set eyes on. And me
heart is sick after them. The lads are with the
father, and the little girls are in the alms house.
Only think what a mither I am ! I have ruined me-
self for life, and damned me soul to hell forever."
" I don t believe anything about a hell," said Lis-
sett. But she moved uneasily on her seat. It was
easy to shake off the terror at the end of her tongue ;
120 WOMAN IN PRISON.
but it was to be seen that she was haunted by a fear
of it in a conscience not quite seared.
" Indade, there is. The praist has always told me
that, and I ve got it already whin I think what a
mither I ve been. God pity ! God pity me ! " This
she said amidst sobs and tears.
" What kind of a wife were you, McMullins ? "
" I don t care so much for the old man, he used to
bate me sometimes, and he says he ll never live wid
me any more. The minister went to see him for me,
and he told him I had disgraced him ; that he was
fond of me once, but I had disgraced him, and put
the chilter in the almshouse, and he would live wid
me no more. Do you think he will ? Only think
what a miserable wife I ve been ! God pity me ! "
" What did you come in here for McMullins ? "
" It was all for a gallon measure, and a pint of
beer. I wint in a store, and there stood a gallon
measure, and a pint of ale widin it. An sure I
drank the beer like a sinsible woman ; but I didn t
know what to do wid the gallon measure, and I car
ried it to a policeman, and told him to take it. An
sure he brought me wid it to the watch-house, and
thin, to the court, an sure they gave me a year.
Wasn t it too bad to give me the making of a year in
here for jist a pint of beer and a gallon measure ?
Wasn t it a long sintence for a pint of beer, and a
gallon measure ? "
" I think you must have had something before you
took the pint of beer and the gallon measure ? "
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 121
" An sure I had ; but it was on that I lost my
sinses, and got me sintence."
< k You have been here before, havn t you ?"
" An sure I have."
" You were put here, probably, to keep you out of
the way of temptation. If you were out you would,
probably, take another pint of beer and gallon meas
ure the first thing you did."
" I don t believe I could help it."
" I don t think you could."
I turned to one of the other women and asked :
"What are you in here for, O Sullivan ? "
" For a home," said the slide woman, sharply.
" Y r ou must have a curious taste to choose this for
a home."
" I had no other. The man what s the father of
my child told rne to steal a dress, and get in here,
and be taken care of. I stole the dress, and he in
formed on me, and I came here."
" Why didn t he take care of you himself, after
bringing that trouble upon you ? "
" He couldn t. He give me all his earnings ; but
couldn t get work enough to do it all."
" An sure he s nothing but a miserable drunkard
hisself," said McMullins.
" It don t become the likes of you to say much
about it if he is ! " snapped back O Sullivan.
A poor, old reprobate, from the wash-house, whose
hair was once red, now gray, sat next.
" What are you here for, granny ? " I asked.
122 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" An sure they swore a theft on me. I didn t de-
sarve it I lived with a German family on Rust
Street. They missed a solid hundred dollars, and I
never saw it no more nor a child unborn. But they
got the sintence of ten years on me."
" How long have you been here, granny ? "
" Since seven years last Christmas."
A Ions sentence, if it is the first one. I was sure
it was not. A long life full of transgressions of the
law stretched itself upon her past history.
" What are you here for, Nellie ? " I asked a
girl not twenty.
" A handsome Balmoral skirt took my fancy, and
I m here for it. I took a sup of liquor, and I was as
rich as a Jew. I thought the Balmoral and all that
I saw was mine."
" It is glorious to feel so rich ! " said Lissett. " I
o
mean to get a sup of liquor before I get back into
the city."
" And be brought directly back here again."
" I shall have that one time on them."
" On yourself, you mean. It is all on yourself.
The law does not suffer, nor do those who execute it,
for your being here."
It was evidently a new aspect of the subject that
they were. the greatest sufferers for their misdoing.
" It plagues them, or they wouldn t put me here."
"It is not because you plague them; it is be
cause that you injure others that you are put here."
The spirit of revenge, upon some one, for the pun-
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 123
ishment they were receiving, was the one that was
uppermost in their minds. Revenge against those
whom they had injured in the beginning; against
those who made th.e laws, or the officials who ex
ecuted them. Their idea of revenge \vas to commit
the same deed again.
" Don t you all feel ashamed of what you have
done," I asked, "when you think of it?"
" Yes, we do, that s the truth," said Annie
O Brien. " But s of no use. Nobody will ever think
anything of us again, after we have been in here, and
its no use to try to do any better ; and we just do as,
bad as we can."
" But the All-seeing Eye is watching you, and, if
you try to do right, will help you along. And in the
life to come, where all hearts are known, you will
get your recompense. Then, if you are really trying
to do right you will be thought of and loved."
"It is a great while to wait for that, and it is hard."
"I know it is hard; but it cannot be long. It
may be that we go at any moment ; and then, it is
forever and forever."
" If we could only keep that in our minds but
we forget it."
" You cannot of yourself. But if you ask the
Father of your spirit to take your thoughts under
his control, He will, and help you to think."
Poor things ! They were ignorant of the way
to control themselves. They had few to teach them
in it, and none to help them in their personal efforts
to overcome the evil dispositions so long indulged in.
124 WOMAN IN PRISON.
That night, when I went into the hospital, for the
closing inspection, the nurse was grumbling about
the trouble one of the women had given her.
" Indeed, ma am, this is the awfulcst place a
woman can get into ! "
o
I thought I would give her a hint that it was her
own misdoings that brought her there.
" What brought you in here, Mary ? " I asked.
"I made my fingers too nimble with a man s
pocket-book/
" You did ! then you don t deserve a very good
place, do you ? "
" I have got my pay for it."
" How came you to do such a thing ? "
" He left some money with me to keep, and I did
keep it so as he couldn t get it again. He got
drunk, and I thought perhaps he wouldn t remember
it agin."
"Men don t forget their money so easily."
" So I found to my cost."
" What did you do with the money ? "
" I spent it for things that I wanted."
"You will hardly try that again if you ever have
the chance."
" No, ma am ! I could have earned the two hundred
and eighty dollars that I took in half the time I have
been here, and had my liberty too."
"You knew it was wrong when you took the
money and used it ? "
" Yes, ma am ; but I wanted the things, and the
LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY. 125
money was in my hand to buy em. The things
would be of use ; and I knew that drunken fellow
would waste it if he had it."
Another specimen of specious reasoning ; nor is
that kind of reasoning confined to convicts.
" It was not yours ; you had no right to it, and
that ought to have been sufficient for you. If he
wasted it in drunkenness that was his sin, not yours.
You could have restrained him through the laws that
punish drunkenness. You could have told him how
wrong he was doing, and set him a better example.
Instead of that you stole, and he got drunk. You
made yourself as bad as he."
"I did not think of that."
" I hope this has taught you a lesson that you will
never forget, one that will make you think.
Before you had this punishment you had not the
strength to resist the temptation to take the money.
Now you will always remember what you have suf
fered here, and you will not be likely to do it again."
" No, ma am, I don t think I shall. This is harder
than working for a living outside, besides the rough
handling we get. A poor living at that, and poorer
clothes. And you officers don t fare much better.
You get a little better feed, and a better bed, and a
little pay ; but not so much rest ; and you are in as
close confinement as we are."
l " But we are not prisoners ; we can go if we like."
" What do you stay here for ; you don t seem fit
for such work, and you might earn a great deal more
outside, and not work so hard ? "
126 WOMAN IN PRISON.
I may be able to teach a few of you, poor things,
to live right when you go outside, and that will be
better to me than money."
" God bless you ! that is what we want. There is
many a one of us would be glad to live right if we
knew how."
" There are some that only grow harder for com
ing here, and do as bad again, and come back."
" 0, yes ! they think they re prison birds, and
there s nothing more for em in this world, and they
don t care. Nobody likes to have such as we about
em."
" But there are people that would help you to
lead a better life, and earn an honest living, if you
could find them."
" They might find us, but it is hard for us to find
them."
That was a very true remark. Our prisons are
prominent institutions in the land. It is easy for
any one who is interested in the cause of humanity
to find them ; but to get access to them is a more
difficult undertaking, as many can testify who have
attempted it. I leave them to tell their own tale, and
let it bear its own testimony. It is easy to find the
poor wretches who are compelled to take up their
abode within them, and do them good if one wills.
What a page of life was revealed to me in that
one day ! What a work is there here for you to do,
O women of this broad land, for your fellow woman,
if you will address yourselves to it !
XIV.
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS.
IT required the exercise of a large share of physi
cal courage to enter, and examine into the condition
of the private apartments of my boarders.
I shrank away from the task in loathing. Low,
narrow, confined, they were like the cages of wild
animals.
The human odor of the occupants had penetrated
the walls and made the air noisome. They were
ventilated through the bars of the door, and an ap-
perture of five or six inches in diameter in the inner
wall of the cell ; but being used for all purposes,
they would have remained uncleansed had every care
been taken.
I went to the door of one, and looked in. I
shivered, dreaded to enter, turned away. I went
along to another. It looked comparatively tidy. A
little white cloth embroidered around the edge with
gay-colored thread, was laid carefully over the box.
I stood and looked in while I reasoned with myself
to screw my courage to the sticking- point.
I put my head within the door, the bugs were
crawling along the walls, and the white-wash was
128 WOMAN IN PRISON.
spotted with marks of the violent death which had
befallen many of them the night before. Again I
shrank back in disgust. I called the white-wash
woman to come with her brush and cover up the
filthy sight, if she could not cleanse the dirt away.
If the sight is so revolting, what must it be to sleep
among them, to be lodged with, and fed upon by
them. I worked up my feelings of pity for the poor
prisoners till my disgust was partially overcome.
The rats and mice can come in at the open doors,
and there is no obstacle to such ingress of bed-bugs.
Indeed such armies of them as I beheld could hardly
have made their entrance in any other way. There
they were in swarms, and had planted their colonies
upon the solid brick and mortar, granite and iron,
industriously, as the busy bee prepares her dormi
tory.
There is no ill to which the flesh is heir which has
not been endured by the flesh. What has been en
dured by one flesh may be by another. In this case
under modifying circumstances. Truly I can bear
the sight of these vermin, and attend to their de
struction with much less suffering than those poor
women can be made their prey night after night.
My indignation was aroused against those who had
charge of this place, and who, in their neglect, had
allowed these dens for the confinement of human
beings to become breeding nests of vermin. That
indignation gave me courage and energy for my
task. I set one of my sweeps to the work of slaugh-
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS. 129
ter. I stood by and directed the cleansing with
shivers of disgust creeping along my flesh, and thrills
of indignation stirring my heart.
When the Deputy came round, I gave vent to my
feelings in a side-thrust of sarcasm. I stated to him
the condition in which I found the cells, and then
asked,
" Did these bed-bugs get a sentence here for life ;
or did they come, a special beneficence to the pris
oners, by an order approved by the Board ? "
" We have the beds taken down, and filled with
new straw in the spring, and the cells white-washed,
and the frames washed. It has just been done, you
know."
" To what purpose you can see. It could not have
been properly done. If it had they would not have
recruited so quickly."
" I will give you a bed-bug woman, whose special
business it shall be to look after and exterminate
them."
" Some poor old cripple, I suppose, who would be
an additional care. It is no matter about the
woman."
I was vexed that the cells had been allowed to
get into such a condition. It is very disagreeable
to make them clean. I can keep Berry at the work.
If I do not keep her hands busy her tongue is hatch
ing mischief. If I do not keep her at work I can t
keep the track of her. She is over to the wash-
house, down to the shop, or hospital, gossiping, and
carrying news."
130 , WOMAN IN PRISON.
Berry was the white-wash woman. After the other
two " sweeps," or prison chambermaids, had swept
the cells, and walks, her work was to go around with
her white-wash brush, and cover up any soil or stains
which had been left upon them.
" Suit yourself. I will do all I can for you."
" Thank you ! If I could have one smart, healthy
woman in the kitchen, it would help me very much."
" 0, a smart woman ! we must have the smart
women in the shop. We can t spare you a shop
hand."
" I have enough that are maimed and halt, and
blind, now."
" You know a greenback covers every bundle of
contract work that is done in the shop," he said, with
a knowing wink.
&
" And the women must be made to help support
the institution. There may be various ways of
doing that. Greenbacks may look very nice to you
men ; but will not the health and reformation of
those woman be as much money in the treasury of
the state as the greenbacks which cover that con
tract work ? "
" That is the Master s order. He is bound up in
that contract work. He knows just how much each
woman does. He examines the tickets himself,
every morning."
" Would you work the women in that way if you
were Master here ? "
" I am not."
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS. 131
" Just let me tell you what an able-bodied corps I
have in the kitchen. Old Allen, the steam woman,
has a broken wrist. The cook is lame in one of her
hips. One of the sink women has fits ; the women
say. the other is a poor weak thing. One of the
slide women is in that condition which some women,
of the class that are here, find themselves without a
lord, and always demands consideration. Another
has just got up from her confinement. One of the
sweeps is blind of one eye, and can t see with the
other. The only able-bodied woman that I have com
plains that I put every hard thing upon her to do."
The Deputy laughed good humoredly at my de
scription, and said,
" I will see what I can do for you ; but I m sure
the Master will not be willing to spare you one of
his shop hands."
To get a large amount of contract work done, and
show the figures that were received for it, was the
Master s way of recommending himself to the Board
of Directors; and it was what enabled him to keep
his place.
It must be an apparent fact to the most shallow
comprehension, that dollars and cents are essential to
the welfare of humanity ; but there are various ways
of calculating their benefit.
The "almighty dollar" enlarges and increases
in value, as it is contemplated, and its advantages
dwelt upon. In the same ratio does an appreciation
of human suffering decrease as it becomes familiar
132 WOMAN IN Pit IS ON.
to the observation. The Master had evidently been
through the mental process in both directions. The
dollar had grown till it covered the whole surface of
human life ; the suffering had diminished till it be
came a mere speck in the distant view which he took
of it.
" Let me have Callahan ? " I proposed.
" I don t believe it would be best," and he shook
his head wisely. " You would get along with her,
and she would make you no trouble ; but it wouldn t
be a week before she would be in a broil with the
other women, and I should be obliged to lock her up."
" When she was in here before, she was in the
kitchen four months, without being locked up, wasn t
she ? She gets locked up where she is now."
He saw that I was informed upon Callahan s past
history. She did a great deal of work in the shop ;
the Master would not be willing to spare her. He
knew that to transfer her to the kitchen would be
to interfere with Mrs. Hardback s plan of breaking
her temper, and she would resist her removal. His
influence was not strong enough to overcome that of
the two combined. He shook his head,
" I m afraid I cannot, and I do not think it would
be best." He understood how to make his refusal
palatable. " I think you are getting along well. I
have been intending to tell you that I am satisfied
with your management. The kitchen is clean and
quiet ; and the meals are prompt, much more so
than they were for a long time before you came.
They are well cooked, too."
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS. 133
" Thank you ! but my women are worked beyond
endurance. It makes my heart ache to see those
poor cripples lifting out tubs of swill that two men
could scarce handle ; and bucketful after bucket
ful of that large, heavy coal from the cellar, with all
of their other lifting and scrubbing."
" I ll see what can I do about sending you another
woman. Do the best you can ! "
" I will certainly do that."
After he had gone out, O Brien said to me,
" The Deputy wouldn t be hard on us, if he could
help it."
I did the best I could. I told them I was sorry
to make them work so hard ; but I could not help it.
I asked them to do things, when I could possibly do
it, rather than give a command.
When I had time I gave them a reason, for an
order, and however tired they might be, that was
sure to secure ready and prompt acquiescence.
" You must get on more steam as quick as you
can, because we are a little behind time with our
dinner," was sure to set Allen s fire going at once.
If I came in, and found them sitting down, idly
gossiping away the time before their work was done,
I had only to say,
" Now, girls, start round, and get your work done ;
then, you can sit down and talk. A clean room is
so much pleasanter than a dirty one to me, and I
want my place to look the nicest of any one in the
institution, and you wish me to have the credit of its
134 WOMAN IN PRISON.
being so. You like to have all of the visitors taken
in to see the kitchen because it looks so nice."
They would put the work about very quickly.
Scrub and dust, and make the old kitchen shine like
a new one in a twinkling.
" They were keen enough to fathom character,
and took no advantage of my manner. They were
conciliated ; but did not lose the restraint of author
ity. They knew it was there, and could be used if
necessary.
They never gave me impertinence ; nor refused to
obey when an order came directly from me.
That inspection day was a literal washing of the
great Master s feet ; not with my tears of penitence,
but with the bitter remnants of pride and anger
subdued to patience ? My work was even more hu
miliating. It was that of the dogs, at the temple
gate, cleansing the sores of the vagrant Lazarus.
The prisoners were allowed the condiments of salt,
pepper, and vinegar. Their boxes and bottles were
filled every Thursday. That was to last till the next
Thursday. If they were wasted, or extravagantly
used, they were obliged to go without till the replen
ishing day came. To attend to that was one of the
duties of the chambermaids.
I was obliged to look after it or they would scatter
and waste their allowance, and then play off on me.
They would call to me,
" I want salt ; there was none put in my box."
That would be done from pure mischief, to get the
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS. 135
sweeps a scolding. But I gave them little chance to
carry out their mischief in that way. I had the an
swer ready,
"It was put there. I have been in every room
to-day and saw it there. If it is gone you have
wasted it, and must go without."
" I haven t wasted it."
" Wasn t it your pepper and salt that was strewed
on the shop-floor to-day ? "
That hint that I was after them, and knew what
they were about, was sufficient. There were no more
complaints made.
Every woman was obliged to make, and tie up, her
own bed. The prison women swept the rooms every
morning. That gave them an opportunity to secrete
many a nice bit for their friends. Indeed my sweeps
ran a regular underground bakery express from the
Master s kitchen, and also from the prisoners .
Many a nice biscuit and slice of cake went from
the range to the cells, and bread from my table was
provided against mush morning, and brown-bread
breakfasts.
Onions were a favorite vegetable, but their tell
tale odor enabled me to detect them easily.
One evening, I passed a cell where they gave out
unmistakable evidence of their presence. I called
to one of the sweeps,
" Ellen, the gardener has made a mistake ! He
has put the onions, for the soup to-morrow, in one of
those cells. Won t you take them out, and put them
136 WOMAN IN PRISON.
in the cellar. If one of the other Matrons, or the
Deputy, were to come in, they would smell them as
plainly as I do, and they might think you put them
there for some one to eat privately, and get you re
ported."
That hint was sufficient ; I never smelt onions in
the cells again.
The officers professed to take no report from one
prisoner against another ; but when they got angry
with a prisoner, and wished to remove her from their
department, they did not scuple to avail themselves
of information obtained in that way. Berry, my
white-washer, was an apt agent. Sly, artful, and
treacherous, she pretended sympathy, and got pos
session of knowledge which was Mrs. Hardback s
principal clew to find out what was going on in the
kitchen and prison.
The other women understood, and avoided her.
That made her angry, and the more watchful and
treacherous.
One day she found a biscuit from the officers
table in a cell. She reasoned that Flannagan must
have put it there, because Flannagan and the girl
in whose cell she found it were great friends. That
morning the Housekeeper had been fretted with
Flannagan, and Berry had got wind of it. Here
was the opportunity to exercise her vocation. She
slipped the biscuit under her apron, took it into the
officers kitchen, and showed it to the Housekeeper.
Flannagan must have done it, because she had
INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS. 137
given offense in the morning ; and she was forthwith
dismissed to the shop.
A woman who came in a few days before, on a
long sentence, had been discovered to be a nice
needle-woman, smart and pretty; whereas Flanna-
gan was plain and slow. Occasion was thus made
to effect the change, so my women said. And what
they failed to find out in that institution was beyond
investigation.
XV.
A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS.
THE day commenced at odds. In the morning
Mrs. Hardback came flying into the kitchen, and
demanded, from O Brien, something for one of her
girls to eat.
" She has fainted away for the want of food ! She
has had no breakfast ! How did you dare to keep
her breakfast from her ! "
O Brien kept her temper wonderfully. She an
swered very quietly,
I m sure she had the same as the rest if she had
been a mind to taken it."
" How do you dare to stand there and answer me
in that way ? I ll have you punished if you dare to
open your mouth again."
O Brien s face grew red, she opened her lips to re
tort just as I arrived to where they stood. I stepped
between them.
"O Brien, will you get a bucket of coal ? I want
more steam as soon as I can have it."
" Yes. ma am," and she started away ; but she
looked up at me as she went as much to say, you
have saved me.
A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS. 139
I turned to Mrs. Hardback.
" I m sorry one of your girls couldn t eat her
breakfast ; you know it is impossible for me to get
anything aside from the Master s orders, and what
the rest have. I ll see if I can find her something."
" We have got so much contract work to get done
to-night, and, if the women faint away, they can t do
it."
" I should he glad to provide them a good, sub
stantial breakfast to work on ; but I can t have my
way about it. It is very cruel to feed them as they
are fed here ; and then, to work them as they are
worked."
I thought, as I went to look up something for her
to take to the poor girl, of the remark John Ran
dolph made to his lady neighbor, when he entered
her house and found her at work for the Greeks,
" The Greeks are at your door." He had entered
the house though a little army of naked, ignorant
servants.
Do not the ladies of the United States need to be
reminded that the Greeks are at their door ? Are
they not in every prison in the land ?
I went into the pantry. There was a skillet pan
standing on the shelf with a bone in it. I took it out
and inquired,
" Whose bone is this ? "
" It is mine," said Lissett."
" Will you give it to the woman in the shop who
fainted this morning because she had no break
fast?"
140 WOMAN IN Pit IS ON.
" Yes, ma am ! "
" Bring a slice of bread, and quart of coffee to go
with it."
Handing it to Mrs. Hardback, I dispatcbed her
as quickly as possible. I was glad when she de
parted. Her visits to the kitchen were very dis
agreeable. She always managed to use the " irrita
ting language," forbidden by the Board in their
" Rules and Regulations," which stirred up the angry
feelings of my women, and it took time and argu
ment to get them settled down into calmness and
quiet again.
" If it hadn t been for you, I should have been in
solitary again," said O Brien, after she left. " How
I hate that woman ! "
" And so do I, and so do I ! " was echoed round
the room.
" If you hate such ways never copy them ! "
" What s the use in scolding us ! She knows we
can t help the victuals. If she wants to scold any
body she d better scold the Master."
" He d sauce her back again ; and then, both of
em would get locked up. Wouldn t you like to see
em both locked up ? " said Lissett.
" Yes, that I should ! " was echoed all around.
" I d like to cut the bread for em," said O Brien.
" The slices would be thin."
" I would draw small quarts of water," said Lissett.
" Hush, girls ! Don t you know that you are now
indulging in the very temper that looks so hateful to
you when you see it in others."
A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS. 141
Scarcely was I relieved of Mrs. Hardback s anti-
benign influence, when the Receiving Matron made
her appearance, and asked, although in a very differ
ent manner,
" Why didn t the women bring over their
clothes?"
" What clothes ? "
"Their sheets to be washed. This is their day.
They take them from their beds when they get up,
and carry them to the wash-house as they go down
to the shop. My women, and the four who were sent
up from the shop to help them, have lost an hour by
the delay. I don t mind about mine ; but the shop
women will be late back ; and then, I shall be com
plained of that I did not drive them hard enough,
and get the work out of them sooner."
"I didn t know anything about it. If you had
told me last night I would have attended to it.
Some of the women asked me if they should take
out their sheets; but I didn t know what they meant,
and told them I would see. I will send the sweeps
to gather them up immediately, and send them
over."
" I forgot to tell you last night. They won t blame
you but me ; there is the trouble. I hate to have
the Master come around, and find fault."
" Are you afraid of him ? "
* No ! I m not a prisoner ; but I always feel un
comfortable where he is, don t you ? "
" I have only seen him once or twice ; and then I
142 WOMAN IN PRISON.
was very much inclined to laugh at the pompous
airs he put on ; but a sense of propriety restrained
me."
" I had a great deal rather not see him, especially,
when he conies to find fault."
" He ought not to find fault with you in this in
stance. You are under no obligation to teach rne
the duties of my department. If you attend to the
work in your own you do your duty."
" I know that, but I can t help myself. He says
I am here to do whatever he orders me, and that I
must do it if I stay. I am a widow, and have a boy
to support, so I try to do all I can."
" He knows that ? "
" Yes, they all know it."
" And he takes advantage of it to compel you to
do his wife s work while he gets the pay for it."
" That is the plain English of the whole thing."
" But you can get more pay outside for less work
than you do here."
" Perhaps so, if I knew how to find it ; but I never
have been so fortunate as to find it before."
I had gone out into the prison as I was talking with
her, and stood at the door a moment after she had
passed out ; but there was no chance for rest during
my watch. There came the sound of scolding and
contention after me, and recalled me to the kitchen.
I hurried back. The fear that some of them would
get into a quarrel, beyond my reach to control,
always haunted me.
A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS. 143
" What is the matter ? " I called out at the door.
" The cook is so slow we shall never get this swill
out, and I am trying to hurry her," said the sink
woman. " She hinders me so I shall never get my
work done."
" I can t do no faster than I can," called back the
sink woman. " It is no use hurrying me."
" Stop ! both of you ! Lissett, you know Jennie is
slow, and you must have patience with her. Do I
not have patience with you ? You only make
matters worse by fretting. Jennie, you are slow.
When you carry swill with Lissett, go as fast as you
can, so as not to hinder her ; then rest when you get
through."
" Do come along ! " fretted Lissett, " You are
enough to fret a saint."
" That can t be you, Lissett. Haven t I told you,
many a time, that you ought to help each other along,
instead of scolding and fretting at each other."
" It is hard work to drag her, and the swill tub
too."
" Then go a little slower, and give her a chance to
do her part. There is one thing that I wish to do
myself, and that is the scolding, and I don t wish to
have you take it out of my hands."
" If you do it all there won t get much of it done."
" There will be enough. I do not need help.
And I can suit myself much better in doing it than
any one else can suit me. In future, Lissett, you
and Annie O Brien will carry the swill together.
144 WOMAN IN PRISON.
Then you can both work as fast as you please. Jen
nie, you and Allen may carry together; you can be
as slow as you please. I wish to hear no more
trouble over the swill."
I intended to arrange their work so as to avoid all
collision ; but I sometimes failed. When I had put
those, whom I thought to be the best of friends, at
work together, some little difference would arise and
separate them.
Directly I had a call in the prison. Berry could
not get on with her white-washing, because Maggie
had not done her sweeping, and came to me with a
complaint,
" Maggie won t sweep, and that keeps me waiting.
Won t you tell her to sweep so I can white-wash ? "
" Maggie, why don t you sweep so that Berry can
white-wash ? "
" I am, ma am, as fast as I can. I have got all of
the rooms to do before I do the floor."
" You need not wait, Berry. Take a broom and
help her."
That was something that Berry did not calculate
upon.
" If Maggie would get up in season she could get
her work done herself; she loves her bed too well."
" I have told you of a way to get your work done
if you do not wish to wait."
" You favor Maggie too much, and the other Ma
trons all say so. You ought to get her up in the
morning, they all say."
A DAT OF ODDS AND ENDS. 145
" Take a broom and sweep that platform ! Don t
bring any tales to me from the other Matrons!
When I wish you to teach me how to treat the
women, T will ask you."
Berry chose to consider herself a very much in
jured woman, and began to snivel and grumble.
" I am going down to the shop to work. Maggie
is so saucy I can t get along with her." She dared
not express her disaffection towards me.
" Well, Berry, when you find yourself so much
your own mistress as to go where you please, I will
give you a character/ and you may go to the shop
to work."
" What kind of a character ? " asked O Brien, who
happened along at that moment.
"A good one. You are a pretty good woman,
Berry. There is one fault which I think might be
corrected by going to the shop. You are very much
disposed to tattle, and that sometimes makes mis
chief. If you go to the shop, where you are not
allowed to speak at all, you can t do that kind of mis
chief. That would save me, if it did not yourself,
a great deal of trouble."
I heard no more about going to the shop.
The kitchen was quiet after dinner and the work,
before supper, done. I threw my head back, in the
large chair in which I was resting, and drowsed.
The women sat buzzing, on low stools, just behind
me. I had been too sleepy to notice what they
10
146 WOMAN IN PRISON.
were saying ; finally a word or two that I heard at
tracted me to listen.
" Was you here, O Brien ? " asked Maggie ; " when
Ida Jones was pulled into the hospital by the hair
of her head ? "
" Yes, I was, and I saw it with my two eyes. The
Master pulled her by the hair of her head, and
kicked her as he went along the walk ; and she a
poor, half-witted thing too. That was six weeks ago,
and she has been in the hospital ever since."
I was wide awake thoroughly aroused when that
story was completed.
" Maggie Murray, do you mean to say that you
saw the Master pull Ida Jones along the walk, by
the hair of her head, and kick her as he pulled her ?
You ought to be very careful how you tell such
stories, unless they are true."
" It is the truth, ma am ! " said several of them in
a breath.
" He took her by her pug, like this," and she took
hold of the coil of hair on the back of O Brien s
head, " and dragged her along. We all saw it, and
the Housekeeper saw it, and she said he ought to
be reported to the Board. And that Matron, that
skinny person, I forget her name, that was here, she
saw it There were a plenty that saw it. When you
go down to the hospital, you can ask Ida what is the
matter, and she will tell you so too."
"What did he do it for?"
" She said she was dead with work she could
A DAT OF ODDS AND ENDS. 147
not sit at it another minute she was ready to fall ;
and Hardhack reported her ; and the Master was so
mad, some of em said so drunk, he dragged
her himself out of the shop, all of the way to the
Hospital."
My face must have expressed the horror that I
felt.
"Indeed it is the truth, ma am!" said O Brien.
" The Master was crazy to get a lot of work done
that night, and it made him awful mad to lose a
hand."
I asked myself if it were possible that that man
would dare to abuse the trust reposed in him in that
manner. Certainly ! The whole system of secrecy
upon which our prisons are managed is just calcu
lated to screen such conduct, and to induce the prac
tice of it, if there be a tendency, in the disposition
of the man who has charge, to do it. If the testi
mony of prisoners is not to be relied upon, a Master
could make it for the interest of his officers to re
main silent. Some might look at it in the same light
that he did, and feel perfectly satisfied.
Why should not a prisoner s testimony be taken
in a matter where he is concerned ? He has been
tried and convicted of an offense. Is that fact a
conviction in every other case where he may have
difficulty with another person ?
If prisoners are entirely unworthy of trust, how
does it happen that such a man, once a convict him
self, according to the traditions of that prison, has
148 WOMAN IN PRISON.
charge there, and the unlimited confidence of the
Board ?
I noticed, in making out the report of inmates,
that there were not so many women as men in prison.
There was satisfaction in obtaining that fact, because
I had entertained the idea that women were more
frequently punished for their offenses than men.
It was a mistake, except in the one crime of licen
tiousness. In that man goes comparatively free, and
woman is the only sufferer in what is, to say the
least, their mutual sin. I say, almost every woman
will say, and with truth, for the sin that man leads
her into.
Woman does not seek man, in that way, in the
first instance. He draws her into the sin, and when
she becomes abandoned, and the Penitentiary brings
her up, she is no worse than he. She becomes a
night-walker, and suffers for her violation of law.
He is a night-walker also, as miserable and degraded
a man as she is woman ; but who prosecutes him,
and gives him a sentence in the House of Correc
tion ! He continues a night-walker unmolested while
she surfers for her sin.
He walks into the parlors of the intellectually
cultivated, and socially refined, I was about to say
virtuous woman. There can be little virtue in such
shaky morality. I can only say of the chaste woman,
and she takes the hand of the night-wulker, and
greets him cordially, and makes him welcome, es
pecially if he be rich, the hand that leads her
A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS. 149
fellow woman to her social ruin if not to her eternal
death.
If woman were to help make the laws, could she
remedy this state of things, would she? Would
she take her husband, father, brother from his home
to the Penitentiary ? She must do that, in order to
rid society of the pest of night-walking. She may
do that now if she will. The law gives her the op
portunity. Instead of lavishing her courtesies, as she
now does, upon the male offender, she might extend
her charity in kindly assistance to his victim, if she
were disposed to do it.
To judge by the way she treats him now, if she
were to assist in making laws would she not be still
more unjust than she now is, to her own sex, and
lenient to the other.
If man go unpunished, of human law, for this sin,
justice will find him out sooner or later. God pity
him when his retribution comes ! The avenging of
a guilty conscience will work him greater woe than
the miseries of a prison can inflict.
As I sat in the prison this evening reviewing my
day s work, I counted up my occupations.
I am Housekeeper, Engineer, Overseer, Jailer,
Porter, Usher, Sentinel, and many others which I
did not enumerate.
Irksome as was the handling of keys to me, it was
quite an entertainment to see myself answering the
knock of the gentlemen in striped uniform, letting
them into my kitchen, and following them around,
150 WOMAN IN PKISON.
like a page after a prince ; and then, letting them
out. I hardly think they get such attendances in the
outside world.
Rotation in duties, and reversion in offices was the
order of the place. I was Usher to the prisoners ;
my sweeps were stationed on the stone stairs, when
the prisoners were in their cells, and the kitchen
door locked, to open it if there were a knock on the
outside, and to lock it again after the officer who en
tered.
Sittings on the stone stairs could hardly have been
comfortable accommodations. I was reminded of
that fact this evening, by hearing Ellen whisper when
she heard a knock,
" I hate to get up, I ve just got my seat warm."
" Every back is fitted to its burden," is an old
proverb. I wondered if those prisoners had been
provided by a beneficent Providence, of some kind,
with an extra amount of animal heat, in order to
warm up the stones they lived on during their incar
ceration.
XVI.
A FRIGHT.
SUPERNUMERARY was in the habit of sending to
me for my No. 5 key occasionally. She said it let her
through from the house into the attic of the prison.
I could not imagine what she wished to go through
there for. I finally settled down upon the supposi
tion that she wished to supervise the prisoners
rooms at her convenience, and see if I kept them in
order, and made the poor things as comfortable as
possible.
The mystery was unraveled when she took me up
to show me the room of the Receiving Officer which
she wished to have cleaned. She pointed to a large
closet on the same flat, where she packed away sum
mer articles of use in the fall, and winter ones in
the spring, which she said my 5 key locked.
I had given her the credit of one generous deed
too many. Still, although she went through on her
own business she did have an eye to cast about upon
the affairs of the prison.
One night, about eight o clock, after she had been
using this key in the afternoon, I was on the third
flight of stairs. The Deputy went rushing past me,
in great perturbation, looking deathly pale.
152 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" What is the matter, sir ? pray what is the mat
ter ? " I asked, as I turned back to follow him.
"Mrs. Martin says she heard some one in solitary,
this afternoon, in one of the upper cells ; and there
has been no one put in for three days."
" And I have fed no one up there for three days ! "
I exclaimed in an agony of apprehension. The
second thought followed fast upon the first. " It
cannot be, Mr. Deputy ! I have passed those doors
several times a day, and the sweeps sleep next to the
black cells. No woman would stay there three days
and nights without letting it be known. If there had
been any one there I should not have forgotten her,
and I don t think you would."
" Mrs. Martin says she heard her talk and sing
this afternoon."
" It cannot be ! She has been very cool to make
no mention of it till now."
But the thought of my having left any one so
long in solitary, without food, took my strength from
me. My limbs trembled ; I sunk upon the steps.
" It cannot be, Mr. Deputy, that we have been so
careless ! Mrs. Martin has been very cool about it.
She had my key about three ; it is now after eight.
No woman who had been in solitary three days with
out food would be merry enough to sing."
He slackened his pace ; but still said,
" I am going to see ! "
When he came down I asked him what he found.
" An empty cell," he said quietly.
A FRIGHT. 153
Mrs. Hardback did not let her superior officer off
so easily.
" I wish that woman could ever exercise a little
common sense ! " was her gentle comment
"She is Head Matron of this institution, you
ought to speak of your superiors with respect ; " was
my sarcastic rejoinder. I could not choke down the
remark.
The Deputy showed his humanity by looking into
the matter as soon as it was told him, as much as
such testimony, in his favor, is to the disadvantage
of the brilliant and energetic Head of the female
department of the prison.
That man was very acute in his management to
get along pleasantly with the officers ; and obtain
from them what service he wished. If he exacted
labor of us, that he had no right to ask, he made the
exaction tolerable by his manner.
One day we were without a Receiving Matron.
On that day I had had the promise of having my
kitchen white-washed, and had made rny arrange
ments for it, so as to make it as easy for the women
as I could, while it was going on.
I expected to take the Receiving Matron s place ;
but I gave no hint that I expected to do so. I
wished to see how the Deputy would manage to
obtain the favor from me.
He came in quite early in the morning and said
to me,
" I m afraid we can t do the kitchen for you to-day.
154 WOMAN IN PRISON.
I don t think the white-wash will dry. It is too
damp."
If he sent his men in to white-wash it would be
impossible for me to leave, and go to the Receiving
Matron s rooms, and oversee the washing. I saw
through his plan ; but I said,
" I think I can keep fire enough to dry it. I have
made my arrangements to have it done."
" I ll see," he said, and went out.
In a short time the officer who was to oversee the
white-washing came in,
" As it is so damp to-day, the Deputy told me I
had better put the men on a job down in the men s
workshop ; so they won t be in here to-day."
" If the whitening will dry there, why not here ? "
I asked.
He smiled. " The men have begun there ; it won t
be best to take them off. I don t think the Deputy
would like to have me come in here now."
" I don t think he would," was my knowing reply.
Very soon, Mr. Deputy made his appearance
again, and came up to me with a nice, spicy compli
ment.
"I find it the same here early and late, quiet and
clean."
u I m glad you are pleased with my place."
" Can t you go over to the wash-room, and set the
women to work, when they go out from breakfast ?
And I should like to have you stay there as much as
you can this forenoon, to keep order. As it is pea
A FRIGHT. . 155
day your women won t have a great deal to do ; and
you have got them so well trained they will get on
very well without you. You will have no trouble in
managing both places."
" O yes, sir ; I will oblige you in that way with
pleasure ! "
When they came in to white-wash the kitchen, it
rained pouring. The only revenge I took upon the
Deputy was to ask him if he thought it would be a
good drying day.
XVII.
VISITING DAY.
VISITING day, which came every fourth Wednes
day, was a great occasion in the institution.
For two weeks before it was due, the question was
continually asked me,
" Is it next Wednesday, or a week from next Wed
nesday, that is visiting day ? I wonder if my husband
will come ! I wonder if anybody will come to see
me ! I want to see the old man so much ! I want to
hear from the childer so much ! "
For a day or two it was my constant care to re
press the talk occasioned by the overflowing of their
expectations, or fears, so as to get their work done
by the women.
The Doctor, when he came to make his visits,
passed the kitchen door. That door was made of
small panes of ground glass. There was a wooden
one inside, to slide over it at night. When he an
nounced his arrival, he had knocked upon one of
the panes, with the head of his cane, and broken it.
It had been done apparently for mischief; but I
thought it was to give the prisoners a glimpse of the
blue sky, and the green trees, and the bright flow
ers that were in front of the prison.
VISITING DAY. 157
The windows of the kitchen were of the same
ground glass, cut into small panes of six by seven.
They were made fifty or a hundred years ago, no
doubt, with the utilitarian notion of producing
greater diligence in the inmates by shutting out all
attractive sights which might decoy them from their
work. The Matron was taken into the account;
her attention must not be drawn from the care of
her maidens.
If that were a good rule for the inferior officers
and prisoners, why might it not apply with propriety
to the Head Matron and Master ? The city or state
might be saved the large item of expense, in " sup
porting the institution," of cultivating handsome
grounds exclusively for their benefit?
It was a deed of mercy to break that window
pane. Many a time when I have seen the lowering
brow, or heard the angry remark, I have saved a war
of words, perhaps of hands, by sending one of the
belligerents to that broken pane to see if the Doctor
were on his way to the hospital, or if the bread or
meat were coming round.
If I saw the dissatisfaction to be deep-rooted, I
gave the command,
" Stand there and watch a few moments !"
" That broken pane, on that visiting day, was an
outlet for much anxiety. One of the women stood
sentinel there all day sometimes one, sometimes
another.
The steam woman, in her anxiety to discover the
158 WOMAN IN PRISON.
approach of her " old man," forgot the care of her
boiler, and created quite a scene. She turned the
water into it and went to the broken pane to look a
moment, forgot it turn it off, and the consequence
was an overflow which put out her fire and flooded
the floor, created what McMullins called an " ex
plosion." This she did twice in the forenoon.
The hurry and scurry which was created to relight
the fire, and sweep the water down the hatches, di
verted the attention of all for a few moments, and
passed away the wearisome time of waiting. I pitied
the poor old thing as the day wore away, and there
was no call for her to go out and see her husband.
" What time is it, if you please, ma am ? " was the
continually repeated question when I went near her.
"I don t expect any one to see me," was the re
mark of the volatile O Brien.
" Then why do you stand at the window so much
to watch ? " I asked.
" I want to see who comes to see the others. I
want to see if anybody comes in that I know."
Then, the restless thing would mount the window
seat. " There goes Johnny, or Charley, or Jimmy, or
Dolan." She either saw some of her old associates,
with her " two eyes," or through the vision of her
imagination. Her suppositions, as to whom they
came to see, were as active as her curiosity to see
who came.
For the last time the steam woman asked,
" It is five yet, ma am ? "
VISITING DAY. 159
I looked at my watch. "Yes, Allen, and five
minutes past."
She dropped upon a low table, by which she stood,
and burst into tears.
I walked round the kitchen a few times to let her
fret spend itself; then I went back, and stood by her
side.
" How many children have you, Allen ? "
" Three, ma am ; two boys and a girl."
"If they were not all right your husband would
have come, or sent some one to tell you."
" That s what I m afraid of, ma am. The little girl
has had a fever. I m afraid she is worse, or has
died, and my husband hates to tell me."
" Perhaps he couldn t leave his work. What does
he do ? "
He s a house-builder, ma am. He s one of the best
workmen, ma am, and they don t like to let him go.
He gets three dollars a day, and now he has the
whole care of the childer."
" What did you come in here for, Allen ? "
" Shoplifting, ma am."
" With your husband earning three dollars a day
you had no excuse ; that was enough to keep you
comfortably."
" So it would, ma am, if I had been contented. I
don t know what made me, I got a hankering for
it. It was eighteen years ago, I was going out to
buy me a silk dress, and one of my comrades went
with me. I stood looking at a piece of silk, and was
160 WOMAN IN PRISON.
going to buy it. She touched my shoulder, don t
buy that till we look in another store ! When we
got out she showed me a piece of silk that she had
under her shawl. She got it while I was looking at
the other. After that we used to go together."
" Did you ever get caught before ? "
" Yes, ma am ; I was in here seven years ago."
" And for eighteen years you have followed that
wicked life, constantly, and never got caught but
twice."
" I never stole from the poor. It was from those
that could well afford to spare it. I always took the
richest of silks and satins and velvets and linens.
Sometimes I had seven or eight hundred dollars
worth at a time."
There was an exhibition of pride in her statement.
The larger the crime, the more honorable, she
thought. A strange code of honesty, but a very
common one, it would be found, if the practical prin
ciples of every person were subjected to analysis.
" But you had no right to the goods ; you paid
nothing for them."
" It is the way they do. If a rich customer goes
into one of those big stores, they ask him a big price.
If a poorer one comes in, and they think he knows
what a thing is worth, they don t ask him so much.
What is that but stealing ? "
" Their doing wrong does not make it right for
you to do wrong. What did you do with what you
took ? "
" Sometimes I used it, and sometimes I sold it at
SITING DAT. 161
people s doors. I went out West a great many times
with a lot."
" What did you intend to do with your money ? "
" Buy a big house, and live in the fashion, when
the childer get up."
" Do you think you would enjoy a house bought
with money got in that way ? "
. " Most of the big houses are bought with money
got in that way. I know many a person as has car
ried on the business for years, and got rich by it."
" The business of shoplifting ! then the crime has
become dignified into a business." Rather a liberal
translation of the example set, I thought.
" Did your husband know what you were doing ? "
" Yes, ma am."
" Did he approve of it ? "
" No, ma am ; he always warned me, and some
times forbid me. But as soon as he was off to his
work, I would shift my clothes and go out. I hurried
back, and got them shifted again before he came
home ; and he wouldn t know it till I had got a great
many pieces."
" Does he turn against you now ? "
" no ! He is a good man ; and he cried when I
came here, for me and the poor childer. He pitied
me, and told me how hard it would be on me, seein
I was never used to it."
Crazy Manhattan came up just in time to hear the
last sentence.
" An sure it is hard on her ! I ve known her out-
11
162 WOMAN IN PRISON.
side, and she s not bein used to lift her finger to
work."
" She had better have been, than to have been
lifting her finger to take other people s goods."
" Give me a slice of bread, ma am, an you please !
I ve been ironing in the wash-room, and I ve done
your own things beautifully. Don t tell the Dep
uty ! " she said, as she slipped it under her apron
and ran away.
"I knew her a little outside," said the steam
woman ; " but she was nothing but a house thief! "
Well, well ! the fashions of society obtain among
thieves as well as the principles. A shop lifter ranks
in a higher grade than a house thief.
I talked with Allen some time, and tried to show
her that whatever others might do was no excuse for
her in wrong doing. At last she admitted it ; but
wound up by saying,
"Ise got such an itching in my fingers for it, I
couldn t help taking the things."
The patience which is required to inculcate right
principles, where wrong ones have been practiced for
half a century, is incalculable. But it does not come
in comparison with that which is exercised towards
us by the long-suffering Father of our spirits.
XVIII.
CALL AH AN AGAIN.
I STOOD by the mush-boiler, one morning, calcu
lating the probabilities of having that delicacy well
cooked by eleven o clock, so that a second edition
might be issued before night, when I heard the cry
out in the prison,
" Callahan is coming ! Callahan is coming ! they ve
had an awful row at the shop ! "
I had some idea of what a row with Callahan
meant. I had been told that she had snatched the
Master s wig from his head, torn it in bits, and scat
tered it to the winds ; that she had pulled the
Deputy s watch from his pocket, and stamped it be
neath her feet; that she had ripped theircoats open
with her fingers, and scratched their faces like a cat.
I had heard that she gloried in being the worst
tempered woman in the shop, in being stronger than
a man, and bragged that it took two to confine her.
To me she had always been respectful and obedient,
even when in solitary.
Once, when I saw her speak while marching into
prison, I admonished " her.
" Cnllahan, you know it is against the rules to talk
when you are coming in ; you won t do it again ? "
1(54 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" No, ma am ; but Callahan isn t my name, now ;
that was my first husband s name. It is Good-
enough, now. Please call me Goodenough ! "
" I will call you so ; and I hope you will be good
enough when you are under my care."
" I will be good when I am under your care."
That was all the experience I had had in reprov-
ing ? or punishing, Callahan when she had offended
in my presence. And that was the only offense she
had committed.
The noise of voices grew loud in the yard. O Brien
came running up to me,
" Please come out here, ma am. They have had
an awful time with Callahan, I know by the way she
swears ; but she will mind you if you speak to her.
She behaves well enough if she is only treated half
decent."
I went to the door. Callahan was coming up the
walk between two officers, raving frightfully, shout
ing and swearing. When she came into the entry
she smashed her hand through every pane of glass
that she could reach, gashing her arms and spatter
ing the blood on the floor and walls.
As soon as I could get her attention, which it took
me some time to do, she was so excited, I spoke to
her,
" Callahan, stop ! haven t you promised to be a
good woman when you are with me ? "
She looked at me, lowered her voice, but kept on
with her talk. In a few moments I spoke again,
" Callahan, stop ! "
CALLAHAN AGAIN. 165
She turned to me, and answered, but pleasantly,
" Can t the Deputy take care of me ? "
" Certainly ! but you ought to have respect enough
to my feelings to talk decently where I am."
" I have cut my hands awfully ; " and she held out
her arm towards me.
" Yes, you have. Shall I bind it up for you ? "
I sent for bandages and water, and bound up her
hands and arms. She washed the blood-stains from
her clothes, and made herself tidy.
" That will do, Callahan ! We want to lock you in
now."
She looked at the key which I held in my hand.
" I am ready ; lock me up."
The key was turned, and Callahan was in solitary
again.
Not long afterwards, when all was quiet, I passed
her door. She called to me,
" Look here ! "
" Well, Callahan."
" I m sorry I talked so bad before you ; but I was
so mad I didn t know what I said. I ve got no spite
against you."
" I am sorry you have against any one."
" O that she-d 1 in the shop ! I d send her into
eternity if I could get hold of her ! "
" Stop, Callahan ! will you be gentle and patient
while you are here with me ? "
"Yes, for you I will. But look here! my arm
pains me, and it s swelled awfully ! I m afraid there s
glass in it."
1G6 WOMAN IN PHIS ON.
" I think you can see the Doctor if you wish. I
thiffk he had better see it. I ll go ask the Deputy to
send him in."
" Thank you ; I wish you would. I m afraid
there s glass in it, and it will be awful sore if it stays
there."
I whistled for the Deputy, told him what Callahan
said, and he sent the Doctor in.
When she was first locked in he had told me not
to open her cell unless he were present. He was a
new Deputy who had come into office that day, and
evidently felt the responsibility that was attached to
his office, and the consequence it gave him.
u You will come round when it is time to give her
food ? "
"Yes."
I thought he was afraid of her violence ; but I
had no apprehension on that score, so when the Doc
tor came, not thinking of the order, I opened the
cell as I had always done under the other Deputy. I
had occasion to think, afterwards, that he did not
wish her to tell her own story, unless it was in his
presence ; or intended to prevent her altogether.
The front door of the kitchen stood open, and the
Doctor came in that way without seeing any of the
officers.
" What is the matter here ? " he asked in his jolly
way ; ** who is cut to pieces ? "
* Callahan has cut herself/ I answered, as I went
to get the key to open her cell.
CALL AH AN AGAIN. 167
" How did she do it ? "
" She got angry and struck her hand through the
window."
" Is that the way you do when you get angry ? "
" Did you come here to treat me ? "
" "Women are a great deal alike, are they not ? "
" You make an assertion, and ask me to confirm
it."
"Isn t it so?"
" As much alike as different men, if you are really
interested to know my opinion."
" How about the other ? "
" You wish to understand my disposition, do you ?
I am happy to gratify you on that point so far as my
knowledge goes. There is method in my madness.
I usually consider the matter awhile, or sulk ; then,
make a thorough application of the dictionary to the
offending party. Look out for yourself or you may
get a blow sometime from Webster s Unabridged."
I had opened the black cell door.
u What are you in here again for so soon, Calla-
han ? Let me see your arm."
She reached out her arm, and the Doctor took off
the bandages.
" I ll tell you the truth, Doctor."
" Tell away."
" I called to little red-headed Jones, you know
that little dumpy thing that fetches the work for us,
I called to Jones to fetch me some work. She
was talking to that little fire-brand of a Harlan that
168 WOMAN IN PRISON.
takes care of the engine in the work-room. Well,
you see, she felt so nice to be taken notice of by
Harlan, that she wouldn t mind when I spoke. She
pretended not to hear. I called louder, Jones,
fetch me some work/ Jones was mad then, and
said, * I ll fetch it when I please. Then I told her
to fetch me some work now, and do her talking after
wards : That s what you re here for, I said. Har
lan was mad, and went straight out into the men s
shop and reported me. The Master and the Deputy
came right in, and made towards me. I was mad ;
for if anybody was reported it ought to be Harlan
and Jones, for it is against the rules for them to be
talking together ; but twasn t against the rules for
me to ask for work. When I saw the Master and the
Deputy coming straight to me, to lock me up, I
pulled up a chair to knock him down, I was so mad
to think I was going to be locked up for nothing, and
Jones to be let go when she had been breaking the
rules. And Harlan to report me, when he helped
her break em. The little spit-fire ! "
" Why didn t you wait and see if you were going
to be locked up, and tell the Master how it was, be
fore you took up a chair to strike him down ? " I
asked.
" She s green, Doctor ! Tell him ! he wouldn t let
me tell him anything ! Many s the time I ve been
locked up and didn t know what twas for. Look
here, wouldn t it make you mad to be locked up
when you wasn t to blame ? Look here, do you blame
me for being mad ? "
CALL AH AN AGAIN. 169
I could not say yes, and tell the truth. There is
not a human heart but what would resent such injus
tice. There are but few who would not resist it if
they could. I could not say no, because it might
be construed into encouraging insubordination. I
did not feel it incumbent on me to think the Master
in the ri-ht because he was the Master, and she the
t
convict I deliberately committed the vulgarity of
listening to a convict s story ; but did not think it
necessary to tell her my thoughts.
" Callahan, you mustn t ask me such questions. I
am sorry for you, and will make you as comfortable
as I can."
The doctor put some compresses on her arm, wet
them with water, and ordered her some to drink.
" Some water for Callahan to drink ! Quick ! The
doctor has ordered it ! " I echoed. I thought I heard
an officer s step at the farther end of the prison, and
it was a legitimate supposition that if it were the new
Deputy, who was coming, she would get no such favor.
Unless she got the water and drank it before he
came, she would not get it at all.
It had been whispered to me that the Master had
thrown Callahan on the floor in his anger, when she
caught up the chair, and put his foot on her neck.
I saw a mark of dirt on the lower part of her cheek
and neck. I looked closely at it. The skin was
grazed as though a boot- heel had been ground
against it.
" Callahan, what is that dirt on your cheek and
neck ? " I asked.
170 WOMAN IN PRISON.
She put up her hand and passed it across her
face and neck at the place where I saw the dirt.
She knew exactly where to find the mark of which I
spoke. The boot had evidently been there.
He did hurt me some," she said.
" Who ? " I asked.
" The Master, he put his foot on me."
" On your cheek and neck ? "
" Yes, ma am."
"What for?"
To hold me down."
" Let me see."
I examined the flesh ; it was a little discolored as
though it had been bruised. It was evident that the
tale that had been told me was true. Was it neces
sary for that man or the monster in taking the
chair away from that woman, with two men to help
him, to throw her upon the floor, and place his foot
on her neck ?
" He was pretty well seas over. Pie s always sav
age when he is. I knew he d just had a horn when I
saw him coming, and that s one thing made me mad.
Look here; folks are sent down here for getting
drunk. Do you think it ll ever cure em to put a
drunkard over em ? "
1 did not make Callahan any reply ; but I thought
of the old proverb. " It takes a rogue to catch a
rogue ; " but whether a rogue may be advantageously
set to cure one, is another question, and one upon
which a great deal of discussion might be spent, be-
CALL AH AN AGAIN. 171
fore popular judgment would decide it in the affirm
ative.
Callahan had just finished washing the dirt from
her face when the Deputy made his appearance.
" I gave the order that Callahan s cell should not
be opened unless I was here."
" The doctor came, I supposed you sent him, and
opened the cell door as I always do for him."
" What way did he come in ? "
" Through the front door of the kitchen, as he
often does."
I was not sorry for the mistake.
That evening Mrs. Hardback told me they were
determined to break Callahan s temper. They had
got her pretty well under ; but it was not quite broken.
Her constitution was in a fair way to be broken,
her temper might share the same fate. If to teach
her to control her temper were what was meant, a
very unfit method was adopted to effect the purpose.
How can one person teach another to control his
temper when he is ignorant of the way, and does not
practice the government of his own ?
When I was left alone in the prison, I sat down
before Callahan s cell door. I thought over the
object of punishment. Is it intended to deter the
vicious from continuing in crime ? That is the ap
parent object. Then, ought it not to be adapted to
the crime, and administered by those who are free
from the same faults? Instead of that, it was left, in
this instance, an almost irresponsible power, in the
172 WOMAN IN PRISON.
hands of ignorance and cruelty, and if report were
not mistaken, of kindred sin.
I thought, some mother s heart is aching for you,
poor Callahan ; such treatment as you receive here,
will never lead you to make it ache the less. Injus
tice and severity will never soften your heart, or en
lighten your understanding. God pity you, and
interpose in your behalf!
" What are you thinking of? " asked Callahan.
" How did you know that I was thinking ? "
" I looked through the key-hole, and saw you
looking straight to the floor, biting your nails."
" I was thinking of you, Callahan."
" You was thinking what a wicked wretch I am ? "
" I wish you might become better, and never come
in this place again. It is a great deal of suffering
for so little comfort as you can take in sin. Won t
you try to do better, Callahan ? "
" I can t in here. They are just as bad as I am
that put me in here, and they ll never make me any
better."
There was the injustice for which she had suffered
rankling in her heart.
" It is more what we do ourselves than what
others do to us which makes us happy or unhappy."
" It s what they ve done to me that makes me un
happy, and if ever I catch them outside, I ll pay
em back, I will, if I go to h 1 for it ! "
" Callahan, Callahan, be patient and gentle ! Don t
think of any wicked things to do outside, but think
CALL AH AN AGAIN. 173
how to behave so that you can stay there. Remem
ber it was for your own deeds that you came in here.
If you hadn t been in here, they couldn t have put
you in the black cell. Be gentle and patient while
you are here, now that it can t be helped, and never
come again."
" For you, I will ; and I ll try not to go in the
ways that bring me here. But if I should meet them,
I know I should forget it all. I should think about
it, and it would make me so mad. If I was out of
the right way, and got in here, the Master had no
right to lock me up here for what I did not do."
I had no justification of that proceeding to offer,
so I said nothing more.
" Will you please give me a drink of water ? "
asked Callahan in a moment.
" Callahan, you know that I cannot ! Why do you
hurt my feelings by asking me ?"
"You have the keys, you could give it to rne,
and the Deputy would never know it. If you knew
how dry I am you would. "
" I cannot, Callahan. When I go out of here I
can tell those who make the rules, how hard it is to
go so long without drinking, and how tiresome it is
to lie, and sit, and stand on the stones, and perhaps
they will change them ; but I cannot disobey."
" dear ! " she sighed, and began to sing. Every
sound went through my heart like the stab of a
sharp knife. If that were my child ! was the agoniz
ing thought W r hat keeps my children from such a
174 WOMAN IN PRISON.
fate ? The loving care of Him who holds the hearts
of all in His hand. I could have gone prostrate on
the cold stones to thank Him that He had saved
them from such a fate, and me from such an agony
of sorrow. How can I show my gratitude ? By try
ing to make less hard the hapless lot of the unfor
tunates around me, and teaching them in the princi
ples that lead to better practices.
My tears almost choked my utterance as I called
to her, " Callahan, stop that singing unless you mean
to break my heart ! "
O Brien had been standing on the steps that led
to the kitchen, only a few feet from me. She came
along and sat down on a low stool at my feet.
" How different you are to what I thought you
was when you came in here. You stepped round so
square and independent, I thought we had got a
hard mistress."
" Look here ! " said Callahan, " it does me good
to speak to you sometimes. It is easier to be patient,
and the time don t seem so long. Look here ! Do
you love Hardhack?"
" I know very little about her."
" I heard her in the kitchen scolding awhile ago,
and you took it as cool as could be. If I d been
you I d put her out. She has no right to come in
your place and give orders. It sets me crazy to hear
her."
"If I could not keep my own temper when I am
annoyed, how could I teach you to keep yours ? "
C ALLAH AN AGAIN. 175
" That s it," said O Brien. " Hardback gets mad
in the shop, and scolds us, and we scold back ; and
then we get punished. I wish there was somebody
to report her, too."
" Girls, did you ever hear of One who said, * Love
your enemies, bless them that curse you ? "
" Yes ; but I never saw anybody do it," said
O Brien.
" Did you ever try to do it, Callahan ? "
" No ! I always thought twas all moonshine. It ll
do to preach about."
" It will do to practice, too. Suppose you try it
towards Mrs. Hardhack, and see how much happier
you will feel."
" Ha ! ha ! ha ! " resounded through the prison in
continuous echoes.
" It has done me good to laugh. I don t feel half
so mad with her as I did."
" O Brien, I came very near sending you to the
shop to-day, when you scolded Allen so hard. Be
careful or you will change your mistress before you
know it. You keep me in constant anxiety lest the
Deputy, or some of the other Matrons should come
in and hear you. In that case it would be beyond
my power to help you."
" If YOU do send me to the shop you will have me
home again in less than twenty-four hours, one of
your bread-and-water boarders."
She understood how to meet that threat.
" I don t know but Hardhack will get me into sol-
X76 WOMAN IN PRISON.
itary as it is. When she came through the kitchen
this noon, she saw me eating a piece of fish with my
bread, we d been stripping it off for the hash, and
I took a piece. She asked me who gave me liberty
to eat fish. I told her, nobody. She asked me how
I dared to eat that fish without permission. I should
have made her a saucy answer only I knew it would
make you feel bad, so I didn t say anything."
" I am glad you had so much thought, and exer
cised so much self-control."
"I wasn t afraid of Hardback."
"I am glad you had so much regard for me. It
gives me a great deal of pleasure to know of your
good behavior. Don t you feel better, yourself, for
doing what is right ? "
" Yes, ma am ; I do ! and when you tell me I do
right, it makes me feel quite like a woman again ; as
though I was somebody."
Self-respect goes a long way towards creating good
behavior, and commendation given, where it is de
served, produces that effect. I watched for a chance
to praise them when they did well, and bestowed the
approval wherever I could find the opportunity.
There was no lack of discrimination on their part.
They were aware when they committed intentional
wrong, and, as a rule, acknowledged it when rebuked
in a kind spirit. With the same understanding they
appreciated the praise when it was deserved. Grat
itude was aroused when it was given, and the satis
faction they enjoyed was an incentive to strive to
obtain more.
CALL AH AN AGAIN. 177
I had constant proof that the exercise of kindness
was far more effectual in getting my work done than
that of stern authority.
That afternoon I had wished O Brien to take
more pains with her scrubbing, and had said to
her,
" Your floor looks red and nice," the kitchen
floor was of brick, " but do you notice that soiled
strip in that corner, under the table ? A dingy bor
der spoils all the effect of your labor."
" Yes, ma am. I saw it when I was scrubbing ;
but I was so tired, and my shoulder ached so bad
that I didn t touch it."
" I am sorry your shoulder aches, and I know
you are tired ; but I like to see the place look nice."
" I know you do ; I ll go right now and take it
away."
Kindness begets kindness. There are few human
beings so totally depraved, desperately wicked as
some may be, who cannot be aroused into apprecia
tion of kind treatment. I have never met with one
who could not. So harshness in a superior begets
harshness in an inferior; and constant fault finding
either arouses anger from its injustice, or paralyzes
all effort to do well.
As are the manners of those who lead, so are the
manners of those who follow. As a matter of pol
icy, to restrain crime without regard to the teaching
of religion, those who have charge of convicts should
be gentle and humane.
12
XIX.
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END.
A VERY few days after I entered the institution, I
gave up looking for any consideration from any one
but the Deputy.
It was a rule of the place to shift every labor,
when it could be effected, by the one to whom it
belonged, upon some other person. That is, in the
female department. The example set by the Head
Matron was considered worthy of imitation, and
copied with an accuracy deserved by a better one.
To impose upon an officer, ignorant of the ways
of the place, was a favorite entertainment of some of
the others.
They commenced to hand me along from one
to another when I wished for things to use, or for
information, giving me a long chase to find it; but
a short time, only, was required to extinguish that
entertainment. I refused to take orders or infor
mation from any one but the Deputy.
My inquiries of him, and statements of what I
had been told, exposed them. They got reproof
instead of entertainment, which, of course, created
resentment that vented itself in a thousand of those
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 179
little annoying inventions in which unamiable women
are so ingenious.
The reprisals Mrs. Hardhack made did not always
redound to my inconvenience alone, my women
came in for a share in the retaliation. A new Re
ceiving Matron was told to take no trouble about
the dresses of my women in the kitchen, it was no
matter how they looked. The shorter she kept them,
the better the Master would like it. The less they
had to wear the more money would be saved to the
institution. In consequence, dresses sufficient to
make them decent were withheld.
I made a statement of some of these things to the
Deputy. He said,
" The Matrons have been in the habit of settling
those small matters among themselves."
" So we might if either of us had the authority to
dictate. If Mrs. Hardhack has the authority to con
trol, and gives the order that my women are to go
dirty and ragged, as you see them, I appeal to you.
Just look at them as you see them now. Those
dresses are all they have, and I can get no better
without an order from you."
He looked at them. The angry color flashed into
his face, and his teeth were set together. In about
two hours tidy dresses were sent in to my women.
I went on,
" If she has no authority, but is meddling to
make mischief, will you please see that she does it
no longer. I know it is not the Deputy s business to
180 WOMAN IN PRISON.
be settling these little disagreements among the
Matrons ; but I have no one else to go to. We have
no one to regulate these matters for us but you. You
call them small matters ; so they may be to one who
looks on ; but our life, every day, is made up of
them. And if you take them home, and make them
your own, you will not think them so very small.
Neither you nor I would consider it a small matter to
go dirty and ragged. Would you allow one of your
male officers to keep the men who are under another
officer dirty and ragged, out of sheer malice, or for
any reason ? "
" They could not do it, I should not allow it."
li And you are there to see it, and have the author
ity to prevent it. And as you have undertaken to
do the duty of the Head Officer on this side, I see
no other way but to appeal to you in these cases of
ours. 1 have no authority to prevent the mischievous
interference of Mrs. Hardback ; and to aggravate,
in return, I cannot. She has the advantage of me
in the disposition and ability to do so. She has
ample opportunity to meddle with the affairs of the
other Matrons, because they are sent to her for in
struction ; and also to give her interpretation of the
Rules. Mrs. Hardhack is not so much to blame for
what she does. She is only following the bent of her
own disposition, as the opportunity to do so is given
her. The Head Matron comes to me, and says,
Control your own place. Mrs. Hardhack has
nothing to do with it. If she makes trouble with
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 181
another Matron, she shall surely be discharged. She
has been discharged three times, and begged herself
back ; but if we say to her, go again, she will surely
go. Then she goes to Mrs. Hardback, and says,
You go over to the wash-room and tell the Receiv
ing Matron about her place. You know all about the
Rules and things better than I do. I don t know
what I should do without you. That pleases Mrs.
Hardhack, and she meddles with everything, and
makes trouble all around."
" I will do all I can to help you."
" I know ; but I am tired. The care is altogether
too much, and the mismanagement of the place
makes it intolerable. Explain to the Receiving
Matron, if you please, that she is under obligation to
wash and mend the clothes of my women the same
that she does the others, and give them out another
dress when one fails."
" I will do that."
That night I was speaking of the severe labor
required of the officers in the institution to Mrs.
Hardhack. She turned to me, and said roughly,
" I find it easy enough."
It was just the right moment for me to tell her
why she found it so much easier than the rest of us.
" You may well find it so, in comparison with the
rest of us. You have an hour more of rest in the
morning than I, and an hour more at night, making
nine hours of rest from labor in the twenty-four, in
stead of the seven that I have. During those nine
182 WOMAN IN PRISON.
hours you are entirely free from care, and sleep in a
quiet room in the house. During the fifteen that
you are on duty you have the entire help of the only
Relief Matron in the institution, which ought to be
divided among us all, so that you can go out when
you please."
" Perhaps, when you have been in the institution
as long as I, you will get as many favors."
" I could not take them, if I got them by robbery.
I could not enjoy my liberty if the work which be
longed to me were imposed upon another, making
her burden double, for me to have it."
A smart rap was all the woman could feel. I
really grew in her esteem by cutting her up with my
sharpness, and she attempted to ingratiate herself
into my favor. I will relate how, and how I discov
ered it.
The next night I was called to lock a woman in
solitary. She walked into her cell in silence, and I
as silently turned the key upon her. J did not ask
the Deputy why she was put there. She was brought
up from the shop, and I supposed some miserable
tale was appended to her incarceration which I did
not care to know.
The next morning, when I went to give her bread
and water, she asked me,
" Do you know what I am in here for ? "
" No ; I haven t heard them say/
" It was for mocking you. I know it was wrong ;
but the others did it, and I did it too, and I got
caught."
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 183
" Who caught you ? "
" Mrs. Hardhack. I know it was wrong, I was
foolish, but I ll never do it again. The others did
it, and so I did it, too."
" And you hadn t courage to do right when others
were doing wrong. You are a brave girl ! Do you
know that there must be order kept in this place, and
that there must be rules in order to keep order, and
that you must treat those who have the rules in
charge with respect ? "
" Yes, ma am ; and I never will do it again. Will
you get me out ? "
" I ll try; but you must always treat me with re
spect, and all of the other officers in the same way.
I shall never intercede for you again."
" I will never give you any reason to."
When the Deputy came round I asked,
" Is Mary Muran in solitary for mimicking me ? "
He said, " Yes."
" Was it for the second offense ? Had she been
admonished once ? "
" She knew better."
" Your Rules and Regulations make no conditions
that they know better. They shall be admonished
once, and, for the second offense punished."
" They wouldn t do exactly the same thing twice,
perhaps ; but they would do something as near like
it as they could."
" We have no help for that, if we obey the Rules."
" We should be constantly admonishing."
184 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" Wouldn t that be better than constantly punish
ing ? Isn t it better to err on the side of mercy than
on that of severity ? It seems to me a very severe
punishment to put upon a girl for so slight an of
fense. I think I could have administered a rebuke
that would have prevented her repeating it towards
me. It really makes me very unhappy to think she
is locked up there for a disrespect shown me."
" If you are satisfied with the punishment she has
had, you can let her out."
" Indeed I am ! "
If she had been one of my women perhaps I
should not have reminded the Deputy that he had
transcended his orders. Mary Muran was a shop
woman. When she was released from her solitary
confinement she would return to the shop. Mrs.
Hardback would call him to account for letting her
off with so slight a punishment. I gave him an an
swer for her. ,
I went directly to the girl s cell.
" You can go, Mary, and I hope you will never do
so mean and foolish a thing as to mimic a Matron
again."
" I never will, and I shall always remember this
kindness in you."
I never knew her to require reproof again, while
I was in the institution. It was like the experience
I had with every other prisoner. There are, un
doubtedly, those who return kindness with ingrati
tude, but I never saw the kindness fail to produce
good-behavior while there.
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 185
The long day s work, the night vigils, and the
damp, noisome air of the prison, were telling upon
my health. I was getting an intermittent pulse ;
chills and fainting every other morning.
I asked the Housekeeper to let me have a cup of
tea at half past six. Unless I took it then, I was
obliged to wait another hour, because I must attend
to giving out the breakfast of the prisoners. In
doing that duty I was made a three hours and a half
watch before I had anything to eat in the morning.
She had given her permission for me to have it ;
and I had availed myself of the privilege.
One morning after setting my women about the
work I wished to have done, while I was gone, I went
in to breakfast.
Supervisor arose about that time, and made the
important discovery, to her, that the fire had gone
out in her furnace, and her parlor was cold. This
was in May, consequently the weather was not very
inclement.
Her parlor was directly over the prisoners
kitchen ; her front door over the kitchen door. The
steps that led up to her apartments went past
our windows. She often ran down these steps, and
looked in the window to give an order about the
furnace. This morning she did so, and, not seeing
me, inquired where I was.
" Gone in to breakfast," was the reply.
Annie O Brien, who had charge of the furnace,
brought me the order as soon as I went in.
186 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" Shall I have time to do it ? " she asked.
" No ; it wants but eight minutes of breakfast
time. It will take all of that time to " dish up "
your mush, and get your coffee ready. It will take
half an hour to clear the furnace and light the fire.
I am sorry ; but you will be obliged to wait till after
breakfast."
Supervisor grew impatient, and the more impatient
she was the colder she grew. Her comfort was the
first thing to be attended to in that institution. The
prisoners might go without their breakfast, the
Matrons might faint away for want of food, it was
only paying her proper respect to light her fire, as
soon as the order was given.
I was in her power, she could retaliate upon me.
That evening I met her in the officers dining-
room, and asked her if she wished me to keep a
three hours and a half watch before breakfast. She
replied,
" It has been done thirty-three years."
" Great changes have taken place in the world
during the last thirty-three years, and many more
might be effected with advantage," I remarked.
" I don t see how you can find time to go to break
fast at that hour."
" I should not find time at any hour unless I took
it."
" That is so ; but they were dishing out when I
went down. You ought to be there when they are
dishing out."
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 187
"I suppose so; but I have an order to be in the
prison a large part of the time, at all three of the
meals, when they are dishing out, and they are
obliged to do it without my oversight. Doing your
duty, I would have liked to have added.
" Most of the officers like to go to table with the
others for company."
" I did not come here for society. In wishing to
breakfast earlier, I was not consulting my taste, but
trying to take care of my health. Unless I am made
somewhat comfortable, I shall break down, and be
obliged to leave."
; Comfortable ! " she echoed. I was not surprised
that the word sounded so strangely to her, connected
with any other person than herself.
Discipline had become a mania, and it was applied
as severely to the officers as the prisoners, so far as
it was in her power to effect it.
The whole study, it appeared to me, was to keep
them on duty all day, without relaxation ; and they
were cut off from every means of enjoyment which
was not connected with their care.
There was a common sitting-room where the male
officers and Matrons sat and talked together, when
they were not on duty, when I went there ; but that
was taken away, and made into a bed-room, so that
there was no place for them to meet except in their
own bed-rooms, the halls, or on the grounds.
If human ingenuity were to set itself to work to
invent a position of unmitigated discomfort, that
188 WOMAN IN PRISON.
prison life would give some excellent hints. The
heads of the establishment were certainly very keen
in discovering ways to circumscribe the comforts of
its inmates.
I made a statement of my circumstances to Super
visor ; not with any expectation of obtaining any
consideration, but merely to place my view of things
before her.
" You cannot wonder that I do not consider that
I am made comfortable when you think of my seven
teen hours of labor in the day, to which is added the
care of the prison, nights."
* The care of the prison, nights ! " she echoed, and
turned up her nose in disdain.
I did not explain ; but reminded her that the
Housekeeper had two hours and a half more rest in
the morning than I.
" I am glad she can have it ; and it would be only
kind to give me my tea a little earlier, as I cannot
have it."
" She has to be up nights frequently."
" No oftener than I, and not so late. I lock her
women up after she dismisses them from her
kitchen."
" I shall lose a good Housekeeper if you have your
breakfast before the rest. She won t stay if she is
obliged to get it."
" She told me she was willing I should have it."
" She is unwilling now."
I readily saw why she had become unwilling. She
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 189
herself had made up her mind that it was not to be
given me, because I delayed the kindling of her fire,
and she had made the Housekeeper unwilling.
" You had better keep her. It is doubtful if I
could remain with that favor. It is with great diffi
culty that I get through the day now, with the help
of a tonic that the Doctor has given rne."
I sent in my resignation the next morning. I told
the Master that I would stay till he could find some
one to take my place.
As I was no longer an officer on duty, merely a
temporary supply of help, I took the liberty to go
back to bed, after I had called the women out, to get
an additional hour or two of sleep. I found that it
helped me wonderfully in getting through the day.
When the Deputy came round, I reported myself.
" You did not do your duty ! " was his curt reply.
" I am not on duty and I shall do it every morn
ing that I stay here to oblige you. If I were the
only one in the institution who does not do her duty,
it would be well to single me out for reproof. Indeed
I am not sure that I am not doing my duty to
myself. If the women in the officers kitchen can
work two hours and a half in the morning without a
mistress, so that the Housekeeper can get her rest,
why may not the women in the prisoners kitchen do
the same thing, so that their Matron may get rest ?"
The Deputy smiled at my reasoning. I cannot
discipline you ; you are not one of the officers of
the institution now. I get up nearly as early as you
do."
190 WOMAN JN PRISON.
" I hope you enjoy it."
" I cannot say that I exactly enjoy it ; but my
duty calls me, and I do it."
" You arc a strong, healthy man, and can bear a
great deal of care. But you do not have as much
as I. You have your rest through the night without
it. You have your watchman in prison, and go to
your bed in the house. That prison is no place for
a woman to sleep in, and the care of it is no work
for a woman, who works all day, and for no one
else who is obliged to be on duty through the day."
" It is hardly fit work for a woman to sleep in a
prison, and take care of it nights."
" Aside from its fitness I cannot do it for want of
strength. I hope you will find some one to take my
place very soon. I saw two or three advertisements
in last night s paper for such a place."
The next morning, I fainted in attempting to rise,
and was obliged to go down in my night-dress and
shawls to call the women out.
I should have told the Master that day that I
could rise no longer to call the women out, only
that I heard that Mrs. Hardback wished to go out
that nijrht, to return at seven the next morning. If
I refused to get up, she would be obliged to stay at
home to do that duty.
I thought I would heap one coal of kindness on
her head, so I told her I would try to get through
with it one more morning. She accepted the favor ;
but it was like casting pearls before swine she did
not thank me.
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 191
As soon as she returned the next morning, I wrote
the Master a note, saying I could rise no longer to
call the women out, and I hoped he would find some
one to relieve me of all duty as soon as possible.
He took no notice of my note till afternoon ; then
I heard him, in his measured tread, stalking along
the prison floor. The dinner was out of the way ;
nearly all of the work attended to for the day. The
time I had spent from morning till afternoon was so
much gained for which he did not pay.
" You are not willing to get up and unlock any
longer in the morning, you say ? "
" I cannot, sir ; I am too ill."
" Then we don t want you here any longer," was
the gentlemanly response.
" I am happy to be relieved of my duties here."
" You may go now, the sooner the better," was his
gentle reply.
" Yes, sir ; I will leave directly."
I called my maid, packed my trunk, and made all
haste to depart. I made my adieus as brief as
possible. My women, with one exception, were cry
ing and lamenting my departure, and I truly re
gretted to leave the poor wretches in such merciless
care.
" I shall spend the rest of my time in solitary,"
said O Brien.
u I shall get locked up the first thing," said Lis-
sett.
" I shall try to get into the shop," said Allen. " I
never can stand it here after ye."
192 WOMAN IN PRISON.
" My heart is as black after ye as that stove,"
sobbed McMullins.
It was many a day and night, after I went out from
that prison, before the sights and sounds that I saw
and heard there left my mental sight and hearing.
I thought as I went away, I will go from door to
door through this broad Common wealth, state what
I have learned of woman s condition in prison, and
beseech every other woman to help open the doors
of her ignorance, and degradation, to the light of the
knowledge which will lead to reformation.
Every one who has the cause of humanity at heart
will echo the cry, open the doors of our prisons,
as the doors of other public insiitutions are thrown
open, so that those who support may have an oppor
tunity to inspect them.
It is the right of every tax- payer to know what is
done within our prison walls at all times. It is the
duty of every Christian man to make himself ac
quainted with the moral bearing of the discipline
which obtains within them.
It is the duty of every religious woman to see
that her fellow woman is not trampled down in deg
radation and vice, lower than her own sins would
carry her, by the heel of her master in discipline.
Let the prison doors be opened, and the inside of
them exposed to the view of all. Knowledge awak
ens interest, and interest leads to action.
If the people of this land could be roused to exam
ine the subject, our prisons would soon be managed
DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END. 193
upon principles which would tend to the elevation
of the wretched beings who now come out of them
more degraded and hardened in the commission of
crime than they go in.
God grant that the day filled with such blessing
for the poor convict, be not far distant !
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