The trusties who clean up the floor and the cells and make up our beds
are mostly short term prisoners from the penitentiary. In spite of his
stripes, one of them looks like a Greek athlete; his dark, curly hair,
powerful chin, strong nose, the muscles showing through the striped
shirt at the neck and arms, excite the respect and admiration of his
fellow prisoners.
My trusty is a weak-faced individual, who is always fawning for a tip
with which to gamble with his companions upstairs. His wife had him
arrested for non-support. Although quite competent to make a living and
to support his wife and three children, he confesses himself unable to
resist the lure of the games of chance. Imprisonment has not reformed
him in the least; on the contrary, indeed, for now he can gamble to his
heart's content!
The detective who arrested me on a warrant asks to speak to me, and
gives as a pretext his friendship for me. He feels neither rebuked nor
offended when he is told that I am careful to choose my friends among my
equals. Quite modestly he admits being only a petty larceny detective,
but he is now anxious to discover who and what is behind the political
game played in my case. He leaves in disgust when advised to adopt
Sherlock Holmes's method of deduction.
V
Next morning, handcuffed to a young prisoner and accompanied by a score
of men, I am taken to a pen. The place cannot be described in decent
writing, but I can safely assert that a more filthy, disgusting place
does not exist in New York. The stench is so sickening that I suffer the
rest of the day from a splitting headache.
After an hour's wait I am brought into the presence of a kindly faced
probationary officer who asks me for addresses of friends who might
write to the judge, and inquires for certain facts concerning my case
which did not come out during my trial. She also begs me to write a
letter giving these facts, so that she can show it to the judge before
sentence is passed on me. The result is negative, as the judge has
already made up his mind about my case.
The young man who was handcuffed to my wrist goes into court to get his
sentence. He returns, pale, trembling, almost fainting, and can only
whisper hoarsely that he is going to state's prison in the morning for
four years.
Another companion in misery is an Italian waiting for trial. He is
indignant, even furious, at his treatment by the District Attorney. His
case is a record breaker; he has been brought up for the two hundredth
time without being tried. This is done to wear him out and force him to
plead guilty.
A lean, dark-haired, young man with unpleasant features, suspected of
having murdered a pal, tells a story of a third degree at headquarters.
After two days and nights, passed in a cell without food and water, he
says he was brought in to the presence of several masked detectives.
Stripped to his bare skin, he was forced to stand on a metal rack with
burning hot points until he attempted to jump off, when the whole gang
of sleuths assaulted him, beat and kicked him, and forced him back.
Without rest or halt, questions were yelled at him in quick succession;
when the answers did not come fast enough, they battered him
unmercifully with their fists; when the answers were unsatisfactory, the
vilest and foulest of insults were shouted at him, tauntingly,
sneeringly, to arouse his anger and loosen his tongue.
No opportunity was given him to concentrate his mind. He was racked by
a gnawing hunger, a parched throat, a delirious thirst; by painful
stinging wounds of cut lips, bleeding teeth, two half closed black eyes
and a constant hopping on the radiator to keep the soles of his feet
from burning.
Then they tempted him by bringing a table covered with luscious,
steaming food, sparkling drinks and expensive cigars. Like Tantalus, he
was intercepted and derided when he attempted to partake of the food or
the drink. Meanwhile the detectives ate and drank with relish almost
under his nose; they drank to his health, and blew into his face the
fragrant smoke of their cigars.
They continued this torture for several hours, until his body and mind
could bear the strain no longer; and then he fell to the floor in a dead
faint.