Part 8 (2/2)
The a.s.sociation had not arranged for furnis.h.i.+ng the men with clothing, supposing the State would properly attend to that, as previously, through her warden. But as the winter now approached, the society found itself driven to the necessity of helping in this, too, by the fact that the present warden would furnish the men with only the same outfit as in summer, the under-clothes they might happen to have on at the time, added. And, in making out this summer suit, he would construe the letter of the law in the superlative degree, which says, ”A suit of cheap clothing,”--he obtaining the cheapest, the most miserably poor. To ill.u.s.trate, a man left prison in one of those suits, and, before walking a mile, was obliged to call and borrow sewing implements to repair them.
The day after, another left, and had worn the s.h.i.+rt furnished him about one day, when, taking him to a shop for the purpose of trying on a coat, I found that one sleeve of the s.h.i.+rt had wholly parted from the body, and the other about half. Another man had worn his pants less than twelve hours when they needed mending.
I went to the shop-keeper and lectured him for such dealing, to which he replied, ”I have to be governed by the price the warden will pay. He will not pay for anything better. If he would, I should furnish a better article, and prefer that to this method.”
At almost every turn I was met with this money-making system. Well, this could be endured in warm, balmy weather, though truly annoying to the poor fellows; but in the full rigors of the winter of '70 and '71, it was cruel, to say the least.
Let us take a few specimens of this practice. In nearly the severest weather of that winter, a man came to me from the prison to be sent home, some two hundred miles beyond Bangor, Me. As I looked at him I was perfectly astonished that we had a man among us who would think, for a moment, of sending away a dependent, human being, and sickly, too, in such a plight; a rather thin coat, vest and pants that might last him two or three days; no collar, cravat, mittens, overcoat, or boots, but brogans, and those not mates, one of which so pinched his foot that he was forced to remove it shortly after coming in. His person and clothes were filthy indeed, not having seen water for weeks. I could but exclaim, ”What a condition! The law says, 'a suit of cheap clothing suited to the season,' and this is such a suit!”
In addition to all this, as the man a.s.serted, the warden asked him, on pa.s.sing out, ”How long do you think it will be before you will contrive to get back here again?” Was not that cool? He himself robbing the fallen one of his just due, a suit of comfortable clothing fitted to the season, and turning him away under those circ.u.mstances which would almost of necessity force him to steal to avoid peris.h.i.+ng, and then taunt him with such a question?
As yet, our a.s.sociation had not practiced clothing the men, and of course the warden had no reason to suppose we should.
Keeping my feelings under calm subjection, I went to the prison and asked him if he did not purpose to furnish the man with boots, overcoat, &c., to which he responded in his short, pompous way, ”No; when I was deputy here, the men were sent out in just what they happened to have on at the time.” After talking till evidently of no further avail, I remarked, ”I am a native of New Hamps.h.i.+re, and have some regard for the honor of my State, and I will never disgrace it by sending a man to Maine in such a plight as you propose. I shall fix him up.” To which he answered, ”I would not carry the matter too far.” Well, I did not carry the matter too far, but took the man to the store, s.h.i.+vering by the way, and purchased for him the needed articles, cheap but good,--boots $5.00, overcoat $6.50, and so on,--and returned home with him, where he cast off his ”filthy rags,” took a warm bath, donned his new under-clothes and came out feeling like a different man, though feeble. He took a bad cold that day by being out in his thin apparel, and pa.s.sed a hard night, leading us to fear that he would have a fever. But his anxiety helped him the next morning, when he set off, the railroad men giving him a free pa.s.s, thus showing that humanity was not all dead in this region.
Soon another was released in a somewhat worse condition, as to clothing, than the above, though with better health. His drawers had one leg wholly minus, the other coming down nearly to the knee, what pretended to remain being in tatters.
Two from western Maine were pardoned one evening and went away early the next morning in the suit given by the warden, without my knowledge. The severe weather must have caused them no little suffering, especially as they must end their journey by a long walk through a deep snow, with their brogans, and one of them was a sickly man.
Another, liberated without my knowledge, started on foot for Providence, R. I., to follow the railroad track. Learning the fact in a few moments, I hastened after him, but to no avail. I heard that his outfit was similar to those above described. I should have clothed him comfortably and furnished a pa.s.s by rail, had I overtaken him.
The warden now maintained that he had no concern with the men after leaving prison, and usually took no pains to inform me of their departure; hence, if I did not keep a close watch myself, more or less would leave without my knowledge. My practice usually was to obtain a list each month, from the deputy, of those who would leave during the four following weeks.
The reader will see that I had a good opportunity of knowing the state of the men's under-clothing, from those thus leaving; and further, I would find more or less mending their clothes on the Sabbath. One day a man was at work on his pants, which had become perfectly indecent to wear. On a week day, finding a man in bed in his cell, I inquired if he was sick, to which he replied, ”No, I am having my pants mended.”
Another man brought out the shoes he had been accustomed to wear in prison. No, he could not do that; but they came out; how, I never knew, and he brought them to me. It would be difficult to tell which most abounded, holes or leather. I knew they were his, for I had often seen them on his feet in the prison; though they appeared much worse on a near inspection than at a distance.
An aged prisoner, whose feet were large and lame, wore his shoes sandal fas.h.i.+on, tying them on with such strings as he could find. When I would ask him how he did, he usually replied, ”Oh, lame and suffering terribly with my feet.” Having nothing but his stockings to protect them from the cold, this must have been severe in winter, though, when in the shop, his fellow prisoners would heat bits of plank and pa.s.s to him, on which he could stand and thus be relieved in a measure. I asked him if he could not wear his shoes in the usual way, to which he said, ”No, they are too small. Had I very large ones I could. I have asked for such, but they will not obtain me any.” The requisite shoes must have been made purposely for the convict, large and of very soft leather, costing, no doubt, more than ordinary shoes. But they would have brought great relief to an old, suffering man.
But our Prison Aid a.s.sociation, notwithstanding its efforts for good, met those who opposed it. Hence, one told me that the concern was organized for the purpose of running an opposition to the prison, all I could say to which was, ”If helping the men, as above described, be running an opposition to the prison, it was organized for that very purpose; otherwise, not.” But the man was, no doubt, nettled that the prisoners were looked after on leaving prison, and not permitted to go as the warden provided.
Some, again, pretended that the influence of the a.s.sociation was in favor of having the prisoners remain in and about Concord. This was the very thing we labored against, or one of them, at least. The Agent, and every active member, invariably used their influence in favor of their going to other places, and especially to keep them away from their old haunts and a.s.sociations. I knew, however, that there were influences used here, and among prison officers, too, to keep men in the city.
Some, for whom I had provided good places away, were tampered with and thus influenced to remain.
23. _Lecturing for the Prison Aid a.s.sociation._ To widen the influence of this body and become personally acquainted with places where we could send our men for suitable employment and care, the idea was conceived of giving occasional lectures, in favorable localities within the State, on the interests in question. For this purpose, I went out four times during the winter. Besides treating upon the objects and needs of the a.s.sociation, I alluded to some of the prison matters, such as the proposition in the governor's then late message for the management of the inst.i.tution to be put under a permanent Board, the responsibility of which the legislature largely s.h.i.+rked, by turning the whole matter into the hands of the governor and council;--for reasons given, the very place where it should not be;--expressed the hope that the next legislature would do its full duty upon the matter; referred also to the much needed repairs just made, and hoped they would be carried still further, improving the manner of lighting the prison by having a small gas jet at each cell, also provide a library room, &c.; but of course I wholly avoided alluding to the internal management of matters at the inst.i.tution. My attention was called particularly to this point, however, in one place, by the question being publicly asked by a gentleman, ”How are the prisoners treated there?” in reference to which I begged the gentleman to excuse me from answering his question, as I wished to keep the mind on other points. That was true, but it was not the whole of the truth. The question itself was not a proper one to answer then in that place. Could I have conscientiously said, ”Well,” it would have been done in a moment and been all right, but that I could not do, and besides, I hoped that our rulers would soon get their eyes opened, or the next legislature put things on a proper basis and matters pa.s.s off without having anything publicly said. Indeed, I knew but little then of the prison workings in comparison with what I afterwards learned.
24. _Prison correspondence under the new rule._ The former warden had solicited me to a.s.sist in the correspondence, and I would write for a prisoner occasionally, but pa.s.s it to the warden for his examination, till he said, ”You need not pa.s.s them to me, send them yourself. You know what to write just as well as I do.” Hence, I sent a very few in the course of a year without his examination. The reader will understand that all letters, to and from a prisoner, must be thoroughly examined, that nothing prohibited may pa.s.s. They are allowed to speak of personal family matters, but nothing of general, secular affairs. The prisoner would not be permitted, of course, to express any dissatisfaction at prison fare or treatment.
The new warden put the entire matter of correspondence into the hands of his deputy, without asking me to do anything about it. Hence, when subsequently solicited to pa.s.s a letter as before, I would answer, ”I have no right to do that, and can not. You must pa.s.s your letter to the deputy.” On one occasion, being rather hard pressed to step over the bounds and pa.s.s a line, with the a.s.surance it should never be known, &c., &c., I gave the decided negative, adding, ”It makes no difference whether known or unknown, the step will be violating the prison rule and my purpose is so to proceed that at all times and under all circ.u.mstances, I can say with a clear conscience, I have duly observed every rule.” This ended all attempts to influence me in that direction.
Still, I supposed it proper and nothing inconsistent with good prison order, for me to speak of a prisoner's health and success to a friend whom I met outside and to the prisoner of having met the friend and of personal family concerns; or to encourage the prisoners to write to their friends, if thus requested by letter; or to write to friends myself, by request of the prisoners. I did something in this line a very few times, perhaps not a half dozen in all.
<script>