THE PANTOMIME OF CONVICTS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10410, 29 July 1899, Page 2

THE PANTOMIME OF CONVICTS.

Gasseli/s Saturday Journal A former governor of the gaol at Armley, near Leeds, once caused a well-conducted prisoner, but an old gaol-bird, to exhibit his powers as a weight gauger in the presence of the writer. The man gave to minute fractions of an ounce the weights of various objects in the office that he handled, and in regard to prison rations, intentionally short in weight, that were brought in, his judgment was simply wonderful. The writer afterwards independently tried the powers of a man "out on license," and he was just as clever in gauging weight where provisions were concerned. None but those who have to deal regularly with old prison-birds know what fine pantominr'sts—using the word pantomime in its better sense of "dumbshow"—are to be found amongst the class; indeed, the most modern and progressive of all our prison governors declares that no class, not even the professional theatrical one, possesses greater powers of dumb-show than does that consisting of regular gaolbirds, and he adds that all the accomplished habitual thieves that he has met were admirable actors. Long practice and the necessities-of the case have no doubt given this power of dumb-show pretty generally to old convicts, but there are many cases in which a man can not only convey to another a few sentences, but whole histories, given the time, by the minutest signs, either during church service or'working hours or at exercise, and no jplan for preventing this has ever been found.

A prison chaplain of vast experience who was consulted by /the writer on this subject, says:—"Old gaol-birds can defy the vigilance of all the warders in Europe. With mouths half open, they can speak to a companion hard by with absolute impunity, the lips and lower jaws never even being moved. If the companion fails to hear, he indicates the fact by putting his finger into one ear as though it were itching. Their dumb alphabet is marvellously complete. A prisoner wants to say that som.3 one is dead—he spells the name on his fingers, then rests his head upon his hands and stamps on the ground; So-and-so is dead and buried. Some one is imprisoned for so many years, and this is conveyed from one prisoner to another by the former putting as many fingers as correspond to the years across his ear—the man has got, saj, three '"ear"; for months a similar sign is made on the mouth. Coughs and sneezes ot different kinds indicate all manner of distinct things. One well-known cough means 'listen.' The prisoner who gives it has received a letter; he looks:at the palm of one hand and pretends to scribble with the other. If he has got a newspaper—prisoners do receive such things sometimes, I can assure you—he. pretends to be reading the palm of the hand very intently. He pretends to whip to indicate that he 'has been flogged ; he puts his hand on his stomach to denote short allowance; he has written a letter, so he pretends to write on his hand and then to throw the words into the air." And thus it goes on through the entire chapter, absolutely genuine dumb-show, where no code has been agreed upon beforehand, telling whole histories.

A large barque from Liverpool, called the Diomed, was in 1892, whilst trading, wrecked on one of the smaller islands of the Pacific. A great number of savages, who seemed quite friendly, surrounded the shipwrecked men; but none of the latter knew a scrap of language that the natives could understand. But one of the crew, a middle-aged man known as "Mac, -the Convict"— he was a man who had turned over a new leaf—intimated to the captain that he could makethe natives understand "anything," and he actually succeeded in making communication easy on every subject required, solely by means of signs and acting. The captain of the Diomed was the writer's informant, and he gave a second similar instance that was told to him by another ship master.