Part 17 (2/2)
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”Do they do this all the time?” I asked. It seemed as though needless energy was being spent counting and recounting our little group.
”Wouldn't do anybody any good to try to get away from here,” said one of the white girls. ”Too many bloodhounds!”
”Bloodhounds!” I asked in amazement, for after all these women were not criminals but merely misdemeanants.
”Oh, yes. Just a little while ago, three men tried to get away and they turned bloodhounds after them and shot them dead-and they weren't bad men either.”
When our untasted supper was over that night we were ordered into the square, bare-walled ”recreation” room, where we and the other prisoners sat, and sat, and sat, our chairs against the walls, a dreary sight indeed, waiting for the fortyfive minutes before bedtime to pa.s.s. The sight of two negro girl prisoners combing out each other's lice and dressing their kinky hair in such a way as to discourage permanently a return of the vermin did not produce in us exactly a feeling of ”recreation.” But we tried to sing. The negroes joined in, too, and soon outsang us, with their plaintive melodies and hymns. Then back to our cells and another attempt to sleep.
A new ordeal the next morning! Another of the numberless ”pedigrees” is to be taken. One by one we were called to the warden's office.
”Were your father or mother ever insane?”
”Are you a confirmed drunkard, chronic or moderate drinker?”
”Do you smoke or chew or use tobacco in any form?”
”Married or single?”
”Single.”
”How many children?”
”None.”
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”What religion do you profess?”
”Christian.”
”What religion do you profess?” in a higher pitched voice.
I did not clearly comprehend. ”Do you mean 'Am I a Catholic or a Protestant?' I am a Christian.”
But it was of no avail. She wrote down, ”None.”
I protested. ”That is not accurate. I insist that I am a Christian, or at least I try to be one.”
”You must learn to be polite,” she retorted almost fiercely, and I returned to the sewing room.
For the hundredth time we asked to be given our toothbrushes, combs, handkerchiefs and our own soap. The third day of imprisonment without any of these essentials found us depressed and worried over our unsanitary condition. We plead also for toilet paper. It was senseless to deny these necessities. It is enough to imprison people. Why seek to degrade them utterly?
The third afternoon we were mysteriously summoned into the presence of Superintendent Whittaker. He seemed warm and cordial.
We were ordered drawn up in a semi-circle.
”Ladies, there is a rumor that you may be pardoned,” he began.
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