CONVICT TELEGRAPHY.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXV, Issue 1929, 20 March 1905, Page 2

CONVICT TELEGRAPHY.

Every prison has its secret "telegraph,"" for it is not to be expected that cunning offenders could be long confined together, even on the "separate cell," system, without discovering a method of secret intercommunication. Prisoners "rap their messages" to each other, and experience has shown that an attentive ear may receive and understand a communication thus made through the thickest prison wall.

| The raps correspond regularly with ! the letters of the alphabet, which is arranged for the purpose into six rows, the first beginning with "a" | and the last beginning and ending the series with "z" The first rapping indicates the row in which the ; letter is to be found, one for first, i two for second, and so on ; the sub- ' sequent raps given after a pause ' show the number of the letter in the row. At first the table must be kept I in mind, but after a little practice the prisoner is enabled to dispense 1 with all conscious reference to it, ! the message being really received, as in the Morse telegraphy, in the form of symbols standing in place of let- ; ters.

In Russia the clue is not so much 1 in the system itself as in the Nihilistic method of manipulating lan- : guage with a view to concealment. This is clear from what happened recently in one of the central prisons. Word had gone round to protest, not only against an excess of hard ; work, but against the bad quality of the food supplied to the prisoners, and the protest* was to take the form of a refusal to perform the usual tasks on the men being called together after breakfast. Somehow or other the Governor obtained (he message as it had been rapped through the walls ; but lie took it literally as a plot to break prison by the whole of the convicts, so he armed the whole of the warders to the teeth, taking effective measures to prevent the assembly on the. morrow. This blunder had a highly beneficial effect upon the discipline !of the prison, for the convicts ob- ! tained not only immediate immunity from (lie heavy tasks to which they had not been accustomed, but afterwards enjoyed better food and more humane treatment.