AN INDIAN GAOL

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 20

AN INDIAN GAOL

(Dr Josiah Oldfield, in the "Leisure Hour.”) A guest of the Maharajah has every door open to him! One of my first visits iu Bhownagur was to His Highness’s school of education for those who had shown signs of moral disease. The mind of an Englishman must first grasp that the climate is not so hot and dry that the gaol, like most other buildings, Is largely an open space, and that there are no close corridors with shut doors or little rooms with only a tiny ray of light. Everything is open-aired! The chief characteristic which struck me on entering the central yard was that it was very much like a menagerie, only that behind the bars were yards and sheds in which men were kept, and not animals! The whole place is walled round, but the wall is not very high, and there is none of that forbidding gloom which always attaches to an English gaol. The gateway is much like the entrance to a college at Oxford, only somewhat "ramshackle.” When I arrived it stood open, and a few people were in the porch, while the gaoler was sitting in Uf+m "porter’s lodge,” which is used as an office, with piles of rugs, and shawls, and mats, and other prison-made goods stacked up against the wall. We passed ■through tire gateway into an open garden space, where vegetables were cultivated, and where the gaol infirmary is situated. This open yard garden entirely surrounds the central building, which is thus like a small circle contained in a large circle, and the.intervening space used as a vegetable garden—without any trees. Crossing this space we came to the gate of the central enclosure, and the big key was inserted into a padlock, and this iron-railed gate opened for onr admission. It seemed very like the description of Peter’s leaving his prison. He, too, came to a gate with warders sleeping beside it, and to another gate which creaked upon its hinges, and to an "iron” gate, which was probably only an open wooden gate like these, with iron bars in it. Had I been leaving my den in Bhownagur gaol I should have had to run exactly the same gauntlet that Peter ran. We were now in the centre of the inner circle in a little sentry tower, and round ns an open yard, with iion-harred menagerie-gates all round it. Through these open-work gates were the prisoners, walking about or sitting working, and all with iron fetters round their ankles, and looped tip in the centre to a hand round their waist. They all wore the same dress; a short iacJcet and short trousers of rough unbleached calico, with one or two. broad stripes on it. No shirt no stockings, no boots! Their bronzed and bronzed-black skin was visible up to their elbows, on their chest down to the navel, and from above their knees to their hare feet. v -

One by one the gates were opened T>v the warders, and we visited each of the yards. In one the men were all busy with cane-woric, in another with making coarse tape, m another weaving Coarse cotton goods (towels, and canvas, and bed-spreads, and sheets), in another coir matting, in another weaving woollens and cotton carpets and rugs. Some, of the latter were very fine, and as the patterns that were being copied were handsome Persian and Turkish, as well as Western designs, the output, of this yard was handwork which would hold its own in the best markets of the world. The sleepinghuts adjoined the yard, and were very like tho sleeping-dens attached to the yards at the Zoo. In saying this I am not saying it disparagingly, but only to give a fairly correct idea of what the place was like. In such a hot. dry climate as this is, I would ten times rather be herded iu a yard, and sleep on the ground of a mud-floored shed than be sliut p.]> in flag tuid. stone cells, liowever palatial their outside might be 1 The sleeping-huts were long ward like sheds, with open gratings all round, just like •cow-shed windows (without glass) and a door at one end. They hold about fifty, and the prisoners lie side by side on the ground, on a thin mattress and blanket with their heads against the wall, and their feet towards the centre gangway. Four feet space is allowed for each man, gives about three feet for the man s .body. and. a .foot between each. The central aisle between the opposite feet of the two rows of sleeping men is about six ieet. The floor is made- of a liarcl mud composed chiefly of cow-dung. The jailor was a most kindly man. Sir Cooverp by name, and one. in. whom every honestly repentant prisoner would find a friend. He is a Parsee, who ha s held his present post for eleven years, and to bun I am indebted for most, of my infor m a1i0n..." What do you feed your prisoners on ?” I asked'. "The dietary is as. follows,” he replied:—"Jib. of Bajri flour, ilb. of' whole wheat : flbnr, Jib. of rice, Jib. of lentils, Joz: of sweet oil, Joz. of fried butter, loz. of salt, and two pieesworth of vegetables, buttermilk, and con-

diments. The prisoners are told • messes of sixty or seventy, and W S ’ five men are taken out to cook J r 1 mess. An allowance of 21bs. of firewood 1 ;* made per man for cooking.” " 00 “ 15