Bismarck tribune. [volume], December 26, 1879, Image 7

About Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, D.T. [N.D.]) 1878-1884

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
A "MAMMY'S" LAMENT,
•INCIDENT OF THE YELLOW FEVER EPIDEMIC.
*Yes, sar, dat is my little b#y, de onliest one
I had—
De fever touk him yestidday, he had it mighty
bad
Nothin' didn't do no good, he died at break ob
day
*I had four odder chil'en, sar, an' los' 'em all
dat "way.
Las year de (ever took all dem, an' lef me jus'
dis one,
Ky youngest, too, de baby, sar.—an' now, oh!
Lord, heyx gone.
"What make I didn't portde case? AtfusI
thought I would
But doctors all is hurried so' dey couldn't do
no good.
Dey' mighty kind an' siderate, and does all
dat dey know
But when dis fever gits a-holt it nebber does
let go.
It ain't no good a-fighten it—'tis useless for to
try,
When yaller fever gits you down you jus' is
bound to die.
"I know ef I should 'port de case dey'd take
de child away.
An' I hoped de Lord would call me, too, befo'
de close ob day.
You see he is little, sar, he'll miss his mammy
so—
Hebben's such a great big place he won't
know whar to go.
I thought ef I could die to-day it wouldn't be
too late
To obertake his little soul an' tote it to de gate.
"He'll be so skeered all by hissef, my blessed
little lam',
An' cry so pitiful for me to come ketch hold
his han'.
I feel dat well an' strong I'se feered I isn't
gwine to die—
An' oh! it breaks my heart to think dat may
be he will cry,
An' hang about outside de gate widout a bit
or sup—
Awaitin' an' a-longin' for his mammy to ketch
up.
"De onliest thing dat I kin do is jus' to beg
an' pray
De angels up above to take an' kar him on de
way
To dat bright place de preachers say is up
above the skies,
Whar God Hissef shall wipe away de tears
from tired eyes
An' let him stay along wid dem in dat lubly
home
So safe an' free from ebbery pain, unt' will
his mammy come."
"OLD NEWGATE."
The Ancient Copper-Mine Prison in Connect­
icut.
The infamous Black Hole of Calcutta,
or the dungeons of the Middle Ages,
scarcely rivaled in their horrors the "Old
Newgate" of Connecticut. And this,
but half a century ago. was the living
hell to which prisoners fr®m the State
courts were consigned. It w&s aban­
doned in deference to a strong public
sentiment created against it by exposes
of the wretchedness of the prisoners, and
the cruelties which could be only too
readily practised upon them under the
pretense of insuring their safe-keeping.
Philanthropists were met with the fa­
miliar cry of the jailers of to-day, that
criminals area desperate set and means
must be adopted for restraining them but
the'sentiment of the people, once aroused,
reiagated the underground Bastile to its
original uses. About 1830 the prisoners
were removed to the new prison at
Whethersfield, neat this city.
THE ANTE-REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY.
In the present town of East Granby,
formerly Sunsbury, traces of copper ore
were discovered alout the year 1700. The
place was Copper Hill, a high, rocky
range, and seven years later a company
was formed to develop the mine. No­
thing was done, however, until some
years later, when Jonathan Belcher, ot
Boston,(afterward Governor), and others
opened the mine, and removed more or
less ore annually for a quarter of a cen
tuiy. Financially, Belcher and his part­
ners didn't reap a harvest. The grasping
British Government watched all the min
ing enterprises of the colonists, and made
regulations caululated to repress them,
or at least to ensure to home merchants
the profits. In the case of this mine, it
was ordered that the ore should be ship­
ped to England for smelting. The route
was by wagons over a rough country
twenty miles to the Conneticut liver at
Hartford, thence by sloops to New York,
and by ship to England. However, con­
siderable copper was surreptitiously
smelted by German workmen in the vicin­
ity, and in 1737 a Mr. Higby manufac­
tured a large number of the Granby cop­
pers, which became current throughout
the Colony. Specie being scarce, the coin
age of the embryo mint established by
Higby, who was only a local blacksmith,
was regarded with great tavor. Single
specimens of these coins now command
from $15 to $25, but, as they are stamped
from unalloyed copper, few perfect ones
are to be had.' Five designs were made,
one ot which had on the obverse the mod­
est suggestion, "Value me as you please,"
and on the reverse, "Good copper, 1737."
The work at the mine was carried on
at various periods until 1773, more than
seventy Years, through wars and rumors
of wars, by private enterprise and by
chartered companies. In that year the
Colony of Connecticut purchased the pro­
perty and fortified it for use as a perma­
nent prison.
THE MINE PRISON.
After an exploration of the caverns a
legislative committee reported that by a
small expenditure it would be next to
impossible for any person to escape. The
Puritans of that day were hard-minded
men. Having selected for a prison the
worst place that could be conceived of,
they passed laws authorizing the keeper
to employ the convicts at hard labor, to
use the whip, shackles and fetters, and
extended terms of imprisonment were
imposed tor nearly all offenses. At this
time two shafts led down into the cavern,
but, escapes being frequent, a block-house
was built over one, and the other was
closed with stone and iron. But few
prisoners were confined until the opening
year of the Revolutionary War, when
several Tories were consigned to its cav­
erns, and at a later period it v» as found
a convenient and safe place for the keep­
ing of British soldiers captured in Con­
necticut. In the winter of 1775 Wash­
ington wrote from his headquarters at
Cambridge to the Committee of Safety
at Lewisburg, consigning to them several
"FLAGRANT AND ATROCIOUS VILLAINS."
and at his request they were long confined
in the caverns. After the close of the
War the State established the mine as a
permanent prison. A palisade was built,
inclosing half an acre, with the shaft of
the mine near the centre of the inclosure,
and twelve years later this palisade was
replaced by a high stone wall. A brick
guard-house was built in the center, and
just to the rear of this was a stone apart­
ment directly over the mam shaft, lead­
ing to the caverns 100 feet below. At
later dates workshops were erected, in
which the convicts labored by day, and
at night were driven by aimed guards
down the shaft ladders to their miserable
beds below, in pitchy darkness, damp­
ness, and foul odors.
A visitor in 1807 gave an interesting
account of the wretchedness of life in the
prison. The employment consisted in
making nails, barrels, shoes, and wagons,
and farming on land near the prison.
When the convicts came up from the
shaft, by threes they crossed the yard to
the workshop, before the cocked and
leveled muskets of the guards. All were
heavily ironed, both with handcufls and
fetters, and.
could walk only with a sort
of hopping motion. On entering the shop
collars, dependent by iron chains from
the beams above, were fastened about
their necks others were chained to wheel­
barrows. In distributing the pork for
the dinner of the convicts employed at
the forges, pieces were thrown on the
floor and left to be washed and boiled in
the water-trough used for cooling the
iron. Punishments were hanging by the
heels, severe flogging, confinement in the
stocks on a bread-and-water diet, double
irons, and solitary confinement. Convicts
were allowed to swap rations for cider,
and often got too tipsy lor work. Rum
was bought by the gallon by an aged
negro convict, who was allowed to go to
the village, and^liquor could always be
bought at a tavern near the prison, the
convict being accompanied by a guard,
whom he treated for his trouble.
"OLD NEWGATE" AT PRESENT.
The Tribune correspondent visited Old
Newgate recently, and found everything
fast going to ruin. It is on the east slope
ol Copper Hill, approached by an easy
roadway, and from a distance, with its
towered building, dismantled walls, and
broken roots, is as picturesque as a ruined
castle of the Rhine. The lottv stone wall
on the front abuts on the highway, and
the entrance is through a massive stone
gateway the keystone of which bears
the inscription, "Newgate 1801." The
visitor is at liberty to wander around the
inclosure, but at the time ot my visit a
"Halloo there!'' summoned a guide from
the ancient guard-house, on whose step
a towheaded boy or two rolled around in
the sunshine. A few steps bring one to
the first shaft, descending 100 feet into
the caverns. Over its mouth are the
weather-beaten remains of the windlass
and rope used for hoisting ore years and
years ago. The inclosure is nearly square
and off to the left hand is a long range
of the dilapidated workshops. The
roofs are warpeil and shrunken, and in
places broken through. Within is dust
and confusion. The plastering has fall­
en from walls and ceiling, and upon
patches remaining are scrawled the names
of visitors. The solidity of construction is
noticeable. The partition walls are of
stone, and the floor is planked and sup­
ported by huge hewn logs, in some of
the upright beams strengthening the floor
remain the rings to which the prisoners
were chained, and the flooring beneath
is worn with their impatient tread. At
the entrance end of the range of work­
shops is a high building of composite
construction of brick and stone suiround
ed by a lookout and bell tower. This
commands a view of the roadways for
miles, and the bell often notified to the
residents of the valley below the escape
of convicts, and sent them from their
houses to sceur the woods and fields in
pursuit. From the lower floor of this
building, steps lead to an underground
dungeon with small, heavily barred win­
dows, in which a few of the best disposed
prisoners spent their nights instead of be­
ing driven like dogs to the caverns of the
mines. On the other side of the enclos­
ure, is a building containing the remains
of a tread-mill, where convicts wearily
trod the boards of. a thirty-foot wheel
and ground the corn for the farmers in
the neighborhood.
FAREWELL TO SUNLIGHT.
The prison enclosure was the heaven of
the convicts the caverns below their hell.
At daylight the call to labor resounded
through the passage of the mine, and the
convicts, hastening to the shaft, climbed
up the long ladder to the guard-house.
Only three came up at a time, and then
the trap was slammed down upon the
others until the armed'guard had march­
ed the trio oft to the work-shop. To have
permitted a general exodus meant insur­
rection and bloodshed, for men treated
like brutes were nerved to desperate
deeas, and only awaited their opportu­
nity. Work being suspended at sunset,
the prisoners were again sent down the
shaft, the massive trap-door was closed
and bolted: and armed guards sat beside
it through the night.
Accompanied by the guide, your cor­
respondent made an extensive exploration
of the caverns. Coarse outer clothing
and candles were furnished, and the
shaft was descended by the ponderous
ladder whose rungs are half worn through
by convict feet. At the foot was a narrow
passage-way sloping away downward at
an angle of 30 degrees, agreeing with the
natural din of the strata of rock. Fifty
feet away a rude chamber is hollowed
out, and at one side were remnants of
a plattorm of planks, which had been
one of the sleeping places of the convicts.
From this chamber small passages
branched off in various directions, all
with a downward slope, and so
IOJI
that
it was necessary to proceed in a half
bent attitude to escape contact with the
dripping and slimy roof. Traces of cop­
per were everywhere visible—in the
green slime on the solid walls and in the
discolored fragments of stone underfoot.
Several of the larger passages were ex­
plored for a distance of 300 feet, progress
being checked by the filling of the lower
ends with water from insufficient drain­
age. At that point the guide remarked:
"BLOW OUT THE CANDLES IP YOU WANT A
QUEER SENSATION."
Out they went, and we were left in the
blackness of Egypt. The darkness could
almost be felt, and was terribly oppress­
ive. Over head 200 feet of solid rock
was between us and daylight. The hand
stretched o.ut at either side touched slimy,
cold, pitiless stone. Sound there was
none other than that of suppressed breath­
ing and the occasional fall of a drop of
water from the roof. The scratching ot
a match was the first relief, and the fee­
ble gleam of the tallow dip a blessed
sensation of which we did net again wish
to deprive ©urselvc s.
One of the
shortest
passages terminated
in a circular chamber, scarce ten feet
across, and at one side a huge iron ring
was made fast to the solid floor of rock.
This was the solitary confinement cell.
Chained to the ring net a sound was
heard, not a ray of light visible, ncr a
face excepting when the keeper brought
the pannikin of bread. Near the ring a
cavity the size of a drinking-cup, scooped
in the rock, is filled with water which
trickles, drop by drop, from the rock
overhead. Thus it fell a century ago,
when some wretched being hammered at
the solid rock with fragments of stone
until he wore this cavity, and thereafter
had fresh cool water by the quantity, in­
stead of lapping it with his tongue as it
trickled down the side of his dungeon.
It is related that one convict died this
horrible place from mortification result­
ing from the iron manacles eating into
his legs. This was always denied by the
prison authorities, but convicts in the
prison at that time, and who were cog­
nizant of the affair, persist that the story
is true.
HALF THE KORRORS OP THE PLACE
have never been told. The authorities
were autocrats, amenable to no one. Star­
vation, the lash and chains had full sway
in those terrible caverns, and so secret and
so distant were the chambers of torture
that might be chosen, that even the other
convicts might never know by sight or
sound the inhumanities that were prac­
ticed.
The guide was an unusually intelligent
fellow, and, in the course of our wander­
ings through the caverns, related a host
of interesting incidents in the history of
the prison. To kim the solitude and
darkness were not unpleasant, and formed
an impressive surrounding for his facts
and fictions. But the visitors longed for
daylight, and ascending the steep ladder,
welcomed the blue sky, the trees, and all
nature, as only one can who has felt their
deprivation. Beneath, the impenetrable
vastness supporting the awful mass absve,
impending as if to crush one to atoms,
the water trickliug like tears from its
sides, and the unearthly echoes respond­
ing to the voice, inspire the visitor with
feelings almost indescribable.
PLOTS AND ESCAPES.
The history ot old Newgate is replete
with interesting stories of the attempts
of prisoners to gain their liberty. Some
of them are ot thrilling interest. It
might be supposed that escapes would
be impossible, but sharp-witted and des­
perate convicts frequently succeeded.
The first general escape was during the
Revolutionary War, when the prison had
been but recently occupied. The small
number ot prisoners were shut in a
chamber, and it was the custom of the
Warden to carry them their meals. There
was an anteroom or passage through
which to pass before reaching their cell,
and the Warden looked through the
grates into this passage to observe4wheth
er the convicts were near the door. If
not he entered and locked it after him.
The convicts one day managed to unbar
the cell-door, huddled themselves togeth­
er in a corner behind the door in the pas­
sage, and, when the Warden opened it,
fhey captured him, went out, locked the
door upon him, and in a few minutes
were beyond the walls. However, an
alarm was speedily raised, and nearly all
were recaptured by the people in the ad­
jacent country. It was somewhat sin­
gular the first convict in "Old Newgate"
escaped. He was committed in Decem­
ber, 1773, and escaped eighteen days lat­
er by being drawn up by the mining
shaft assisted, it is said, by a woman to
whom he was paying his addresses.
A level had been opened during the
mining operations from the bottom of
the mine out to the open air on the hill­
side for purposes cf drainage. This was
closed by a heavy wooden door, and in
the spring of 1776 the prisoners built a
fire against this one night, but, instead
of escaping, were nearly suffocated by the
smoke that spread through the caverns.
One was found dead, and five others
were taken out senseless. A few months
later the convicts were taken from the
caverns and confined in a block house
within the enclosure. This they set on
fire, and nearly all escaped. The spring
of 1781 found in confinement thirty Tor­
ies committed by order of the American
army officers. They were desperate men,
and for their greater security a guard
was appointed equalling them in num­
ber. While two of the guards were ad­
mitting a relative of one of the Tories to
the shaft leading into the caverns, sever­
al who had climbed up the ladder made
a rush when the trap was opened. The
guards were overpowered, and the other
prisoners rushed up, and, seizing the
inuskets in the guard house, had a des­
perate fight: Several of the guards were
locked up in the caverns, and others fled
for their lives.
A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.
In July, 1802, forty prisoners were left
with but a single guard, the officers and
other guards being sick. He was a stal­
wart six footer and full of fight. The
prisoners were passing through the guard­
house down into the shaft at the close of
work, and had all passed down on the
ladder excepting ten or a dozen. They
sprang^ upon the guard who, instead of
retreating, dashed in among them and
dealing with one at a time, flung him
headlong, down the shaft upon those who
had now begun to surge upward to join
their comrades. The uproar summoned
assistance from beyond the walls but the
guard was master of the situation, had
caged his rats, and closed the door. Four
years later the convicts, in the nail-shop,
having unlocked the fetters which they
wore even at work with keys made from
the pewter buttons on their clothing, at­
tacked the guards, but a musket-ball
through the head ef the ringleader quell­
ed the mutiny in short order. One con­
vict succeeded in a most ingenious plan
for escaping. A fellow-convict's body
was removed from a coffin and secreted.
Then the daring fellow stretched himse !f
in the coffin, and, on reaching the place
of burial beyond the walls put the
guards to flight by a series of sepulchral
groans. He was never recaptured.
AN AWKAWARD DILEMMA.
The drain above mentioned, the door
of which the convicts attempted to de­
stroy by fire, eventually afforded a way
to liberty for several prisoners. The
outer end was left unprotected, but the
inner was closed with heavy iron bars.
One of these was removed by a conviet,
and, after nights of weary toil in enlarg­
ing the partly-choked and unused drain
he found himself near the outer office.
When at labor one night far within the
drain he gave himself up for lost. A
stone overhead which he had loosened
fell into the djain behind him. This
closed the passage to his return, while
the way forward was impracticable. A
lingering horrible death by starvation
stared him in the face, but, a lucky im­
pulse, he kicked desperately at the stone
and found that it could be moved. By
superhuman efforts, continned through
long hours, he worked the great stone
backward until it reached a wider place
in the drain, where he passed around it
and rejoined his comrades. A few nights
latter a dozen or more made their way to
liberty through this dangerous passage
and the plucky fellow who had
cleared the road for them escaped
recapture and reached England
A story is tola of another pris­
oner who, some years later, while attempt
a similar enterprise, became wedged in
the drain and died there, but this is not
supported by the prison records. It is
merely a neighborhood story, and tells
that the prisoner, a thin, wiry chap,
reached and became fixed in a space so
narrow
that no one could get near him,
and that the drain was clogged untill his
body decomposed and passed away.
Many other stories, some of them high­
ly improbable, are related to visitors.
And they have their value, in one re­
spect at least, that they keep up the in­
terest in Newgate and its history. It is
daily visited by parties from an area of
many miles in the vicinity, and occasion­
al tourists from New York and Boston.
In historical interest it is scarcely second
to any other place in New England, and
especially as it remains in very much the
same condition as it was when oecupied
for prison purposes, more than half a
century ago. Within the past few years
some attempts were made to develop
the mile but the results were unprofit­
able, and it is doubtful that it will ever
be worked again.
Six Miles to School*
One of Dickens' characters, Mark
Tapley, was noted for being jolly under
difficulties. How many school-boys
would imitate the remarkable Mark and
be jolly if they had to walk six miles to
school and back every day? Yet Sir
Titus Salt, the founder of the model
manufacturing town, Saltaire, used to
do it when a boy of 9 years.
The village in which this young Salt
lived could boast of no better educator
than a woman who kept a dame school.
As the parents of a number of boys
wished to give them a classical and com­
mercial education, they sent their sons
to a school six miles distant, kept by a
clergyman.
The boys started early in the morn­
ing, carrying their dinners with them,
Titus' being an oatmeal cake and a kettle
of milk. In winter he often had to go
in the dark mornings and milk the cow
himself for his daily supply.
But the lads never thought of com­
plaining of the length of the journey.
It was a bracing "constitutional," and
they made the road ring with their
cheery voices. They would rendez­
vous at an appointed time and a certain
spot. Those who were in time wrote
their names on a piece of slate. This
was put in a well-known hole in a wall,
that the
late-comers
might see who had
been punctual and gone on their way.
So far from doing them any harm,
fhia daily journey strengthened the
boys' constitutions and developed their
bodies. When Titus became a man he
had a working-power which enabled
him to do a large amount of labor with
but slight fatigue.
The destruction of crops by squirrels
is
not
confined to California. The loss
of corn in Overton county, Tennessee
from this cause last season was estimated
at
«ne-tenth
of the crop. One farmer re­
ported that they were "swimming across
the Cumoerland by thousands." The
equilibrium between these lower links in
the chain of animal life is seriously-dis­
turbed by man's arbitrary interference
with the natural course of production,
and he must pay the penalty or modify
it if he can.
AT NIGHT.
TRANSLATED FROM "JUSTE OLIVIER.''
At night, when work is done, 'mid shadowB
gray that darken
And cling about the window, where once the
sim was bright,
Sweet sounds come back again to which we
used to hearken
Sley
At night!
At night, though we are cold, and the gray
shadows clinging
Presage to us that shore where there is more
light,
Sometimes there come again sweet airs of
childhood singinsr,
At night!
At night we two may sit in shadow open
hearted
.Long since the time is passed when hope was
insight!
Softly we sing the songs of happy days de­
parted,
At night!
At night the cricket's voice sounds through
the shadows dreary:
Our songs, alas, like his, have neither charm
nor weight
We only rest and sing, hushed hopes and
voices weary,
At night!
LITTLE RED NOSES.
BY M. QUAD.
How the north wind whistled and stung
the other day! It was the first signal of
a long, dreary winter, and even men in
overcoats turned sharp corners to get out
of the biting blast. Two children, a boy
and girl, neither of them over nine years
old, stood shivering in a door-way, wish­
ing to go on to their lowly home, but
dreading the wind. They crept closer
and closer to each other, and their chins
uivered and their noses grew red as
grew colder. Hundreds of men and
women passed by without care, but by
and-by along came a whistling, jovial
lad of fourteen, who was swinging his
bootblack's kit by a strap, and picking
up the steps of some clog dance. He
saw the shivering bits of humanity, while
others were blind, and, halting before
them with a "clig-jigger-rigger" of his
heels, and a toss of his box, he called out:
"Kin I borry them 'ere chins o' yours
about an hour?"
"Yes, ma'am demurelyjreplied the girl
"I kin eh?—ho! ho! ho! That's a give­
away on me! Be you chickens cold?"
"Yes, ma'am," she answered.
"And that ere cub is your brother, I
s'pose? Well, when I'm cold, I git warm.
What do you do—freeze?"
"Yes, ma'am, if you please," she re­
plied.
"If I please—ha! ha! ha!—'nother
give-away on me! Well, you autumn
leaves, come along with me. I hain't
got no influence on the weather, but I
kin smell a hot stove as fur off as the
next shiner in this town. Come right
over to this store.
He led the way across the street and
into an office where there was a fire. He
had placed chairs for them, when a man
came in from a back room and said:
"What do you children want here?"
"Want some o' this waste hotness,"
bluntly replied the shiner. "These 'ere
cubs is nigh froze to death, and IJbrought
'em here to thaw out."
"And we won't even look at you, nor
cough, nor sneeze!" added the little girl,
as she saw a frown on the man's face.
"That's richness there's innocence!"
laughed the shiner and the man's face
cleared, and he poked up the fire and
said they could sit nearer.
"S'pose me'n you chip in and buy 'em
sumthin' to stay their stomachs?" sug­
gested shiner, all of a sudden. "Tell you
what, some of the children in this town
don't have a square meal any more'n
you'n me wear diamonds. Little gal, are
ye hungry?"
"Yes, ma'am, if you won't be mad at
us," she replied.
The man stood irresolute, but shiner
went down into his pocket, rattled around,
and said:
"Here's ten cents that says they are
hungry!"
"Well, I'll give as much," replied the
man. "You go-land buy something, and
they can sit here and eat it."
Shiner bought crackers and cheese, and
the children ate until he felt obliged to
say
"Now, you chbs, go a leetle bit slow,
and save the rest for supper. Kin ye find
the way home alone?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"All right, then. We're dead to rights
obliged to this man, and I'll black his
boots beside. You'd better run along
home now. What ye goin' to tell yer
mother?"
'•I'll tell her we ceme awful near go­
ing to Heaven and my little brother he
thanks you, too and now we'll go, and—
and thank you, ma'am, ever so many
times—good-bye!"
The man looked after them through
the window with softer lines in his face
than had been there for months. The
boy stood outside on the walk and
watched until they had turned a corner,
and then exclaimed:
"Phew! but I almost feel that I was
ingaiged to that gal!"
Woman Smokers*
Tobacco has some distinguished fe­
male devotees in Europe. Emily Faith­
ful, it is declared, smokes like a Michi­
gan tugboat the Duchess of Edinburgh
tofrpn a quiet puff now and then, and
the Princess of Wales keeps a little
cigarette case, which she hides pro­
foundly from the smoke-abhorring nose
of her royal mother-in-law, while the
list might be extended by naming
Elizabeth Thompson, the artist, Ma­
dame Batazzi, of Italy, andothers.
MORE things are wrought by prayer
than the world dreams of.—Tennyson.