It required the exercise of a large share of physical courage to enter,
and examine into the condition of the private apartments of my boarders.
I shrank away from the task in loathing. Low, narrow, confined, they
were like the cages of wild animals.
The human odor of the occupants had penetrated the walls and made the
air noisome. They were ventilated through the bars of the door, and an
aperture of five or six inches in diameter in the inner wall of the
cell; but being used for all purposes, they would have remained
uncleansed had every care been taken.
I went to the door of one, and looked in. I shivered, dreaded to enter,
turned away. I went along to another. It looked comparatively tidy. A
little white cloth embroidered around the edge with gay-colored thread,
was laid carefully over the box. I stood and looked in while I reasoned
with myself to screw my courage to the sticking point.
I put my head within the door, the bugs were crawling along the walls,
and the white-wash was spotted with marks of the violent death which
had befallen many of them the night before. Again I shrank back in
disgust. I called the white-wash woman to come with her brush and cover
up the filthy sight, if she could not cleanse the dirt away.
If the sight is so revolting, what must it be to sleep among them, to be
lodged with, and fed upon by them. I worked up my feelings of pity for
the poor prisoners till my disgust was partially overcome.
The rats and mice can come in at the open doors, and there is no
obstacle to such ingress of bed-bugs. Indeed such armies of them as I
beheld could hardly have made their entrance in any other way. There
they were in swarms, and had planted their colonies upon the solid brick
and mortar, granite and iron, industriously, as the busy bee prepares
her dormitory.
There is no ill to which the flesh is heir which has not been endured by
the flesh. What has been endured by one flesh may be by another. In this
case under modifying circumstances. Truly I can bear the sight of these
vermin, and attend to their destruction with much less suffering than
those poor women can be made their prey night after night.
My indignation was aroused against those who had charge of this place,
and who, in their neglect, had allowed these dens for the confinement of
human beings to become breeding nests of vermin. That indignation gave
me courage and energy for my task. I set one of my sweeps to the work of
slaughter. I stood by and directed the cleansing with shivers of
disgust creeping along my flesh, and thrills of indignation stirring my
heart.
When the Deputy came round, I gave vent to my feelings in a side-thrust
of sarcasm. I stated to him the condition in which I found the cells,
and then asked,--
"Did these bed-bugs get a sentence here for life; or did they come, a
special beneficence to the prisoners, by an order approved by the
Board?"
"We have the beds taken down, and filled with new straw in the spring,
and the cells white-washed, and the frames washed. It has just been
done, you know."
"To what purpose you can see. It could not have been properly done. If
it had they would not have recruited so quickly."
"I will give you a bed-bug woman, whose special business it shall be to
look after and exterminate them."
"Some poor old cripple, I suppose, who would be an additional care. It
is no matter about the woman."
I was vexed that the cells had been allowed to get into such a
condition. "It is very disagreeable to make them clean. I can keep Berry
at the work. If I do not keep her hands busy her tongue is hatching
mischief. If I do not keep her at work I can't keep the track of her.
She is over to the wash-house, down to the shop, or hospital, gossiping,
and carrying news."
Berry was the white-wash woman. After the other two "sweeps," or prison
chambermaids, had swept the cells, and walks, her work was to go around
with her white-wash brush, and cover up any soil or stains which had
been left upon them.
"Suit yourself. I will do all I can for you."
"Thank you! If I could have one smart, healthy woman in the kitchen, it
would help me very much."
"O, a smart woman! we must have the smart women in the shop. We can't
spare you a shop hand."
"I have enough that are maimed and halt, and blind, now."
"You know a greenback covers every bundle of contract work that is done
in the shop," he said, with a knowing wink.
"And the women must be made to help support the institution. There may
be various ways of doing that. Greenbacks may look very nice to you men;
but will not the health and reformation of those woman be as much money
in the treasury of the state as the greenbacks which cover that contract
work?"
"That is the Master's order. He is bound up in that contract work. He
knows just how much each woman does. He examines the tickets himself,
every morning."
"Would you work the women in that way if you were Master here?"
"I am not."
"Just let me tell you what an able-bodied corps I have in the kitchen.
Old Allen, the steam woman, has a broken wrist. The cook is lame in one
of her hips. One of the sink women has fits; the women say, the other is
a 'poor weak thing.' One of the slide women is in that condition which
some women, of the class that are here, find themselves without a lord,
and always demands consideration. Another has just got up from her
confinement. One of the sweeps is blind of one eye, and can't see with
the other. The only able-bodied woman that I have complains that I put
every hard thing upon her to do."