RECOLLEQTIONS OF A PRISON GOVERNOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 18, 21 January 1905, Page 7

RECOLLEQTIONS OF A PRISON GOVERNOR.

4 man who has dealt with the redoubt- , I Charles Peace, has kept Dixblanc, fti-stance Kent. aud the notorious bank . v - ui jJoi' look and key. and has had twenrv years' odieial connection with t- ,:;'n nri-on-. may surely be classeU tng!i" u t" ■- - * ~„t -h.' (rrea.tcr-1 .rimir.olo"ist.s of our among tnt -"*"■ = ;:;ue. Suvh a one is Major Arthur Griffith?. vvho.-e "Fitty Years ot Public has iu.-t been published. The hook is a valuable contribution to the literature of crime, ami a -turehouse of mtonnation about and the raort ;uno us iriminal- who have inhabits tj, rm . 1 have not read a !>.".k .-.. excit- •'.' n iD'i >'-' ~" :1 enthralling interest lor a long time. The experiences of Major (!ri_th- cover than half i century: h- ha- been i-,'.{ier. civil -Tvaut. author, artist, and n- : -en i'o\ernor. and in ihe x.ur-o cf his i j- ; ed carver has been as-<x-iat p<l with , : ,H r ;_e 5 a;:'i the not' null- in all i-l isses -oeietv. His rti-i-rd begins wit! Ihe i riTiean Via:'- 111 which lie w.i- en;; iged ,/,,. n .till '" ■ - ''"" :l ~- ;,! '' l '"'•'" ! U1 l in - ~■ ?ie_e an.; :a!i oi Sebastopol am the •anturr er Kinbs.rn. Military service fan i.;.., :,. Ci'..i\i!tar. where, on a «udlirn call. !•• tnmsf erred himself to the business with which he has been sin<r conKC ted —th- custody and control or criminals. [t i« with the Major's experience-: of Ensiish prison life -md systems that will be most deeply interested, aud the book contains some remarkable revelations or" life in our great convict establisnments. 4t Chatham, where Major Griffith* tj r -:t aooointed. the convicts were treated with rieornus harshness, and the warders were like slave-drivers, strict separation was rhe rule while indoors, and although the prisoners laboured in association.oringangs.it was in silence. It was easy to do very difficult to do ri_rht "l"n:idy cell." "noi closing up the ranks." "hesitating to obey order-"—any of these trifle- might subipet a man to t'ae penalty of forfeiture of ''ood and lo- oi the -till more prized remission of mark.-. The day besan early: the first bell to rou-c the ennvi ■;- was at 5..10 a.m.. and the first order was to fold hammocks, -weep and arrange cells, and "put .".ut vi 'i r broom*." n simple method of calling the roli. Attempted suicides among the >-»nvie'- were frequent: even hardened criminals felt the terrible burden ."! life "' t"ha:ham. One day a convict would ru-1 from his party, and before he .-onld b • eauirht. deliberately lay his leu- on the tails immediately in front of a line of running trucks. Another day the scene would he the "tip." where the trick load- of ■ lay were delivered at hifrh s peed. to he -topped abruptly by a little barrier, and -o emptied. A convict flowed the draucjht hor-e into a .eallop, and at a given point drew him quickly off the track, releasing the -mall iron plug that held the b». k-hoard ir its place. , R.?re - .vn- aaa automatic .Tujrgernaut. quite I uncontrollable; it must rtm its course. and here was onportuiiity for the dogrrpiilv determined executant. This persistence in self-mutilation, which wa ; imti entirely ...nri'i.-d to Chatham, caused I considerable diet re*- among the authorities, who would have gladly put an end te it. The intraoT&bilitv of the women was paiafullr -hov.n •'.< the very earliest _aj3. The tir-t batch of wennen received were found to be suffering from St=—

imaginary as lt proved. The affliction promptly disappeared when.the Governor suited that the beat treatment was to shave and blister the heads* of all who were attacked.

The female prisoners were also fanciful about their-food, refused to eat brown oread, and raised an uproar in chapel by chanting "Give us our daily bread." One female prisoner invented a new form of annoying her keepers. She lay on the ttoor on the broad of her back, and drummed perpetually on the inside of her cell door with the soles of her feet. Her neighbours quickly followed suit, the idea .-aught on, and the practice was« adopted by the whole yard. The cell doons were often badly iiuug, and a little loose. They shook, therefore" and rattled, and the combined noise became deafening. The performers were indefatigable, and kept up the disturbance for hours, day after day. and weeks together. The phy<icr. 1 exertion wan <t> severe that the pe'rsrns pngnged became a prey to uncontrollable excitement, amounting to hysteria: they were soaked in perspiration, and lay in great pools of moisture. Shoes and stockings were -non worn away, and the skin was rubbed off. the flesh exposed. and nasty sores were formed. The epidemic, for it was nothing less, lasted for mouths, then it died away, and revived. and died away again. Nothing checked it. until a kind of ankle-strap was invented, which confined the lower limbs as handcuffs do the wrists, aud the use of a dumb cell, or a cell built within a cell, no sound from which could possibly reach outside. The moral effect of this was remarkable: the fruitlessness of all disturbance entirely cheeked and took the heart out. of the offenders. Among the male prisoners were many well-known criminals, including Arthur Orton. the Tichborne claimant. It was the Major's duty to visit him daily, and choose the labour to which he should be put —tailoring, in which he acquired skill, and found constant employment in raking in his own clothes. For he lost flesh so fast that it was necessary to provide him with two suits, one for wear while the other was being altered to meet his rapid wastage. He was very softspoken, and clung to his imposture. Some of the convicts at Millbank were given to strange vagaries, such as the swallowing of pebbles, fragments of blanket, and gutta-percha, pint pots. One prisoner contrived, when in the exercising yard, to pick up and swallow pebble after pebble, till he got down some four pound- of stone. Another preferred blankets, torn into piecps -i\ inches square, and devoured them: a third made short work of a pound of candles if he could get them. Tbe very converse of this was to be seen in the obstinate refusal of food, because it was supposed to have been tampered with. It had been poisoned, flies bad been put into it, everything was adulterated, the bread, potatoes, even the water. One man rejected the milk brought to him because there was a crumb floating on the surface. Another would not touch ati peg, because there were spots on the shell.