Norwalk gazette, Friday, April 29, 1898 · page 7

 

 

WEEKLYeNURWALh

- (i A 7. E T "i‘_ 14;.

 

POLITICAL PRISOdS.

iRISH PATRIOT TELLS or: TORTURE
IN THE BRITISH JAILS.

Thirteen Awful Years—His Suffering: In
the Cells of Chathnm and
Terrible Abuse! Crowded -L' pon l'uliti-
cal Offenders by the Guards Over Them

Portii 2: ml—

“Cruelties, such as are almost past
belief are practiced on Irish political
convicts in English prisons," declared
John Daly, recently 11 Chicago. “I
am heartily glad that the othergpoor
fellows, who, like myself. were sen—
tenced for life, are to be set at lib-
erty next June, when they will have
served fifteen years of their time.”

John Daly, recently in Chicago. "‘1
man, who, in spite of having; passed
nearly thirteen years of his life WIthin
the penel cells of Chatham and Port-
land prisons, scarcely looks the
years to which he lays claim. From
his boyhood he has been connected with
the various movements to free his na—
tive land from British dominion, and
was first arrested on a charge of be-
ing connected with the Fenian conspi-
racy in 1866, when he was but 20 years
of age. The remainder of his story
can best be told in his own wordsz-a

:n
0v)

J OHN DALY.

I was spotted by the police, and, as;
Chief of. Police Farindale afterward;
confessed during what he believed tog
be a fatal illness, they determined toi
put me out of the way for life by one}
of the foulest conspiracies everi
hatched. Through a series of falsei
pretenses I was induced to take charge;
of a package, with the contents of;
which I was kept in ignorance. This
was given to me by a man, whose name
I have never recalled, in Liverpoob
Whether he was a tool of the police or!
a victim of circumstances I am still1
unable to determine, but he gave that
package to me, with instructions to
take It to the railway station at Bir-l

 

 

 

‘shire, on a charge of treason-felony.

 

- the bare boards.

 

kenhead, across the river. . I did so and?
was immediately pounced upon by the
police. After being, kept in jail atl
Birmingham for three months I was
brought to trial at Warwick, Stafford-

The government accused me of being:
a dynamitard, but I solemnly aver that
I do not know to this minute, of my
own knowledge, whether that package
contained explosives or not. James
Francis Egan, in whose house I had
stayed during my residence in Bir-
mingham, was also arrested and tried
with me. For the simple reason that
I had lived in his house—they could
prove nothing worse, against him—he
was given twenty years penal servi—
tude. The entire trial was a mockery
of Justice, I was unable to prove my-
self innocent, and hence was found
guilty. The fiction of law, that a
man is presumed to be innocent until
proved guilty, was reversed in my case,
and I was held to be guilty until I
could prove my innocence.

On being convicted I was taken to
Chatham prison, where I remained for
seven years.

To give you an ideaof the tortures we
Suffered, I need only tell you that the
governors of the prisons all took afiend-
ish delight in seeing to it that every
“screw,” or prison guard, who had any
thing to do with us was an Orange-
man. During the entire twelve and al
half years, unlike ordinary prisoners;
I was never given a hammock or any?
other kind of bed. I had to sleep on;
I was not put into'
an ordinary cell, but into a ‘solitary,’
where there was no sound to be heard,
no heat of any kind in the coldest,
weather, and where even the poor priv-I;
lege of looking out of the window was
denied; for the light was admitted
through roughened glass. The filthy
obscenity of the guards’ language to-‘
ward me and my fellow political pris-
oners was something too gross to re-I
peat. Their constant object was to;
goad us to madness, so that we would‘i
lose control of ourselves, and strike a;
guard, which would entail a horrible;
flogging with the cat-o'-nine-tails, and.
a diet of bread and water in solitary
confinement for days and weeks.

Bread and water! No man who has;
not experienced it can understand thej
awful horror of that punishment. It is,
worse than a flogging, for the physi-g
cal pain of that subsides in forty-eight:
hours. But a pint of water and eight'
ounces of bread in twenty-four hours
will just barely sustain life, while it,
leaves the stomach gnawing, gnawing, f
with constantly increasing anguish,.'
until you are almost driven mad. For
being caught with an inch of lead pen-'

 

 

- oil I have been condemned to that hell .-‘

on earth for thirteen days. For be-'
ing discovered wit ha scrap of news-.
paper in his cell, Featherstone was
tortured in that way for three mortal
weeks. :

But that was not the most fiendishi
thing they did to us. During the first;
four years we were awakened, and ourf
1ells searched. every hour of the night.,i

I

 

 

It was that which drove Flanagan and
Featherstbne out' of their minds. Think
of it! Wakened every hour of the
night for four long years. Even the
Malay pirates never devised a torture
more exquisitely hideous, and“ yet the
English Home Secretary repeatedly
declared that we were dealt with like
the ordinary prisoners. That was a lie
———a. deliberate and cruel lie. The ex-
cuse for our treatment was that con-
victs in Australia had been released by
an expedition on board the American
schooner Catalpa, and that it was nec-
essary to guard againa any attempt
at escape.

No man was allowed to speak a word
or communicate with a fellow convict
under the terrible penalty of three days
on bread and water. During the first
year we were only allowed to write and
receive one letter; the second year two,
the third year three, and after that
four. But when letter time was ap-
proaching our Orange guards used to
do their best to provoke us so that,
by committing some breach of disci-
pline, We might be deprived of the
privilege of writing or receiving a com-
munication to or from the outside
world.

Three times I was approached by
emissaries of the government and of-
fered my liberty on condition that I
would appear before the royal commis-
sion and give perjured evidence against
Parnell. The first to come to me was
Somes, the rascally lawyer hired by
the London Times, and the second was
the traitor, Richard' Piggot, who was
never guilty of but one decent act in
his life, and that killed him. He shot
himself. The third was Littlechild, the
head detective of Scotland Yard. But
I turned a. deaf ear to them all, and
told them I would sooner rot in a
British jail or die insane than purchase
my liberty at such a shameful price.

Finding that persuasion was useless,
they tried to poison me. The jail phy-
sician gave me an almost fatal dose
of belladonna. There was a govern-
ment inquiry into this attempt at mur-
der, and it was reported to have been
an “accident," but medical men, with
one accord, have assured me that bel-
ladonna was the last thing in the
world that should have been given to
a man in my enfeebled condition. A
significant fact is that neither the
physician who prescribed the dose, not
the druggist who prepared it, was dis-
missed from -his position. I am still
demanding a fuller investigation into
that matter, but have almost despaired
of getting what I seek.

While I was imprisoned, in 1893, my
fellow townsmen in Limerick did me
the honor to elect me to Parliament,
but the House of Commons voted
against me, and I was disqualified on
the ground of my conviction. In the
following year they elected me high
sheriff, but the Lord Lieutenant of Ire-

land set that election aside on the same .

ground and appointed another man.
Last November I was nominated for
mayor of Limerick, but the crown law

I

 

adviser ruled that I lacked fifteen days
of a. legal residence, so, of course, I
could not run. However, I expect to
be elected to the next Parliament, or,
if a vacancy occurs in Limerick before
the present Parliament is dissolved, I
expect to be elected to fill it.

 

Mrs. Danbury’s Patriotism.

"Of course we want wart” exclaimed
Mrs. Danbury. “The idea of letting
such an outrage go unpunished! I
don’t care Jvhether the Spaniards did
it or not. They deserve to be whipped,
anyway. If they hadn't oppressed
those poor Cubans our boat.wouldn’t
have been ordered to go down there.
and the terrible thing probably would
not have happened.

“I just wish I were a man! I can tell
you I would show some of these cow-
ards how to act at such a time as this.

“Bravo! Bravo!” exclaimed her hus—

band. “Spoken like a regular little pa—
triot! Your sentiments are mine ex-
actly. I’m glad you take such a noble

view of it, for now I shall not have to
hesitate any longer. There is some-
thing I have wanted to tell you for
two days, but I have hesitated for fear
It might distress you. I am going to
join a military company so as to be
ready to go to the front at the first call
to serve my country. I am so glad
you”—

“John ! " exclaimed Mrs. Danbury, “are
you crazy? Do you mean to say that
you would go away to war and leave
me here.alone? You will join no mili-
tary company. You will stay right
here, no matter what happens! This
country has never done anything for
you! Let others do its fighting it it
gets into trouble. Here, take a cup of
tea. It’ll be good for your head!”

No Difference.

Mr. Spouter—“The different ways in
which really sincere piety manifests
Itself are indeed remarkable. For in-
stance, some people believe in fasting,
while others, just as devout, attend
church suppers.”

Mr. Beenthere—“What's the differ-
ence?”

 

IN A NEW CLAS;

 

 

Browne—Waiter. bring me a dozen
)ysters on the half shell.

Waiter (apologetically)—Soray. sah,
out we’s all out of shell fish, aah, ’cept—
ng aigs.

 

THOSE "J OBLIN 8 ES.”

BY ELEANOR ROOT.

 

“Miss Stebbins, I’m goin’ to git mar--
tied, an’ I brought you over my grave-A
stone money!”

I looked up in astonishment. Saphira
Joblins stood before me. She refused
the preferred seat, and folding her
hands meekly delivered herself of the
following:

“Yes, I’m goin’ to git married. It
aint becuz I feel to hatetobe called an
old maid, nur yet becuz I feel to be bet-
ter’n the rest 0’ the Joblinses girls
’Taint none 0’ that a. tall. But I got. a:
reason that I been a thinkin’ on fur
years—an’ then, I don’t like my name!
It don’t make so much difference when
I’m livin’, but you know yourself‘how
it is when you’re dead. Not ’at I’m liv‘
in’, they jes’ call me Saphiry, and
that’s the end of it; but when you're
dead—well, you know the row 0’ Job.
linses, father’s sisters? Every summer
when the summer boarders come to
town they go over to the graveyard an’
talk about ’em. They say ‘Joblins,
Joblins, Joblins! Here lies Miss Sap-
hiry Joblins, an’ Miss Lucindy Joblins,
an' Miss Submit Joblins, an’ Miss Hep-
sy Joblins, an’ Miss Roxany Joblins,
an’ Miss Lycady Joblins, an" Miss
Clarissy Joblins, an’ Miss Remem-
brance Joblins, an’ Miss Ann Joblins!‘
And then they laff and say ‘Why didn’t
they change their name some 0’ them?’
,An' then like as not they go huntin’
around to poor Uncle Billious’s grave
stone an’ talk about that when Uncle
Bilious couldn’t a changed his name if
he‘s been married a hundred times. An'
his first name—he wa’n’t no more to
blame fur that than they were. It was
gin to him before he was old enough
to rightly appreciate it. An’ then they
my ‘Bllious Joblins’ in such a way, and
luff," ‘at it makes my blood boil.

“An’ then they hunt up Uncle Bil-
ious’s first wife’s grave over in the
corner. An’ they look at that carved
figger of a hand that’s pointln’ down,
and they read them words above it—
‘Gone Home’—an’ they lad again. 'I
should think that any buddy'd have
sense enough to know ’at it don’t
mean that.

“Now Mis Stebblns, perhaps you
don’t know it, but my middle name’s
Eglantine. I’ve hed it in my mind all
my life to have it put on my grave-
stone. I’ve saved up considerable from
my blackberry money, an’ my rhubarb
money, and hain’t eat no butter this
summer nur last, except what I got to
the mite societies, and I put it with
what father left, and I’ve got enough
to git a handsome stone—and some be-
sides. And I want Eglantine put on it
—Mrs. S. Eglantine—but I’ll tell you
the last name. It’s goin’ to be Van
Wycke—Mrs. S. Eglatine Van Wycke.
It sounds kind 0' stylish, don’t it?

“Do you mind Hi Van. Wycke—him
that tended Squire Shuttleworth’s lawn

 

 

fast summer‘} Well, he come back this
summer but he was too late for a job,
and he was around trying to borrow
money to git him out west. He come
to me. Well, I made a bargain. I hope
I hain’t demeaned myself—and I know
that none 0' the Joblinses girls ever
done such a thing afore—but it hain’t .
no worse—no it hain't half as bad as
them Gould and Asterbilt girls done, a
making bargains with their money fur
the titled nobility, for all they’re think-
in’ of is the things 0' this world—and
my thoughts is set on the next. That’s
what i'm a doin’t it fur.

“It'll do good all around, fur Hiram
woe jes’ tickled to give me his name
fur a consideration—that’s what ' he
called it—a consideration.

“We‘re goin’ to be married to-mor-
row mornin’ at seven o’clock—50’s he
kin git the eight o’clock ’commodation.
And he haint never comin’ back. That’s
in the bargain, too. He says he don't
want to. He’s goin’ to make his fortune
out west. That’s what he says. But I
don’t know. He haint the kind to be
forehanded. But I haint no call to
worry about him.

“Now about that gravestone money,
Mis Stebbins. I feel to believe I’m set
when I make up my mind; all the Job-
linses be, and I feel to believe that Hi-
ram Van Wycke’s honest. But he might
ask if I couldn't-let him have a little
more’n I agreed on, after the ceremony,
and my heart might get soft—they say
that you never can tell—and so I’d a
little ruther hev the gravestone money
here where I can’t get at it, and I kin
:sll him so. Here it is.” She untied
her handkerchief and emptied its con-
tents into my lap. There were two or
three bills and a great quantity of
small coin.

"There, Mis Stebbins," she continued
“that’ll jes’ make it. I've been pricin’
gravestones for a good long while, and
I know jest what I want, an’ how much
it costs. I’ll tell you jest the kind the
next time I come over, 'but I got to go
home now and do up my lawn dress. It
looks bridier’n anything else I got, and
it haint been done up sence the last
mite society.

Without waiting for a word from me,
she departed as noiselessly as she had
come. I watched the little limp figure
climbing over the back fence, making
as much haste as it could to get ready
for the bridal of the morrow. I did
not know whether to laugh or cry, but
I made up my mind that Saphira
should indeed have. a tombs-tone “sty-
lisher’n any of the rest 0' the Job-
linses.”—The Home.

 

Preserving Ont Blossoms.

To preserve cut blossoms of hard
wood trees or shrubs, such as lilac,
laburnum, apple blossoms, roses or
hydranges, the stalks should be strip-
ped of the bark a. good way up at the
ends so that they can suck up the
water. and the water in which they
are placed should be warm.

 

SEVENTH REGIMENT TWO-STEP. »

Tempo a’z' [Warden

 

 

9

By F.O. D. V.
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