That evening I met her in the officers' dining-room, and asked her if
she wished me to keep a three hours and a half watch before breakfast.
She replied,--
"It has been done thirty-three years."
"Great changes have taken place in the world during the last
thirty-three years, and many more might be effected with advantage," I
remarked.
"I don't see how you can find time to go to breakfast at that hour."
"I should not find time at any hour unless I took it."
"That is so; but they were dishing out when I went down. You ought to be
there when they are dishing out."
"I suppose so; but I have an order to be in the prison a large part of
the time, at all three of the meals, when they are dishing out, and they
are obliged to do it without my oversight." Doing your duty, I would
have liked to have added.
"Most of the officers like to go to table with the others for company."
"I did not come here for society. In wishing to breakfast earlier, I was
not consulting my taste, but trying to take care of my health. Unless I
am made somewhat comfortable, I shall break down, and be obliged to
leave."
"Comfortable!" she echoed. I was not surprised that the word sounded so
strangely to her, connected with any other person than herself.
Discipline had become a mania, and it was applied as severely to the
officers as the prisoners, so far as it was in her power to effect it.
The whole study, it appeared to me, was to keep them on duty all day,
without relaxation; and they were cut off from every means of enjoyment
which was not connected with their care.
There was a common sitting-room where the male officers and Matrons sat
and talked together, when they were not on duty, when I went there; but
that was taken away, and made into a bed-room, so that there was no
place for them to meet except in their own bed-rooms, the halls, or on
the grounds.
If human ingenuity were to set itself to work to invent a position of
unmitigated discomfort, that prison life would give some excellent
hints. The heads of the establishment were certainly very keen in
discovering ways to circumscribe the comforts of its inmates.
I made a statement of my circumstances to Supervisor; not with any
expectation of obtaining any consideration, but merely to place my view
of things before her.
"You cannot wonder that I do not consider that I am made comfortable
when you think of my seventeen hours of labor in the day, to which is
added the care of the prison, nights."
"The care of the prison, nights!" she echoed, and turned up her nose in
disdain.
I did not explain; but reminded her that the Housekeeper had two hours
and a half more rest in the morning than I.
"I am glad she can have it; and it would be only kind to give me my tea
a little earlier, as I cannot have it."
"She has to be up nights frequently."
"No oftener than I, and not so late. I lock her women up after she
dismisses them from her kitchen."
"I shall lose a good Housekeeper if you have your breakfast before the
rest. She won't stay if she is obliged to get it."
"She told me she was willing I should have it."
"She is unwilling now."
I readily saw why she had become unwilling. She herself had made up her
mind that it was not to be given me, because I delayed the kindling of
her fire, and she had made the Housekeeper unwilling.
"You had better keep her. It is doubtful if I could remain with that
favor. It is with great difficulty that I get through the day now, with
the help of a tonic that the Doctor has given me."
I sent in my resignation the next morning. I told the Master that I
would stay till he could find some one to take my place.
As I was no longer an officer on duty, merely a temporary supply of
help, I took the liberty to go back to bed, after I had called the women
out, to get an additional hour or two of sleep. I found that it helped
me wonderfully in getting through the day.
When the Deputy came round, I reported myself.
"You did not do your duty!" was his curt reply.
"I am not on duty and I shall do it every morning that I stay here to
oblige you. If I were the only one in the institution who does not do
her duty, it would be well to single me out for reproof. Indeed I am not
sure that I am not doing my duty--to myself. If the women in the
officers' kitchen can work two hours and a half in the morning without a
mistress, so that the Housekeeper can get her rest, why may not the
women in the prisoners' kitchen do the same thing, so that their Matron
may get rest?"
The Deputy smiled at my reasoning. "I cannot discipline you; you are not
one of the officers of the institution now. I get up nearly as early as
you do."
"I hope you enjoy it."
"I cannot say that I exactly enjoy it; but my duty calls me, and I do
it."
"You are a strong, healthy man, and can bear a great deal of care. But
you do not have as much as I. You have your rest through the night
without it. You have your watchman in prison, and go to your bed in the
house. That prison is no place for a woman to sleep in, and the care of
it is no work for a woman, who works all day,--and for no one else who
is obliged to be on duty through the day."
"It is hardly fit work for a woman to sleep in a prison, and take care
of it nights."
"Aside from its fitness I cannot do it for want of strength. I hope you
will find some one to take my place very soon. I saw two or three
advertisements in last night's paper for such a place."
The next morning, I fainted in attempting to rise, and was obliged to go
down in my night-dress and shawls to call the women out.
I should have told the Master that day that I could rise no longer to
call the women out, only that I heard that Mrs. Hardhack wished to go
out that night, to return at seven the next morning. If I refused to get
up, she would be obliged to stay at home to do that duty.
I thought I would heap one coal of kindness on her head, so I told her I
would try to get through with it one more morning. She accepted the
favor; but it was like casting pearls before swine--she did not thank
me.
As soon as she returned the next morning, I wrote the Master a note,
saying I could rise no longer to call the women out, and I hoped he
would find some one to relieve me of all duty as soon as possible.
He took no notice of my note till afternoon; then I heard him, in his
measured tread, stalking along the prison floor. The dinner was out of
the way; nearly all of the work attended to for the day. The time I had
spent from morning till afternoon was so much gained for which he did
not pay.
"You are not willing to get up and unlock any longer in the morning, you
say?"
"I cannot, sir; I am too ill."
"Then we don't want you here any longer," was the gentlemanly response.
"I am happy to be relieved of my duties here."
"You may go now, the sooner the better," was his gentle reply.
"Yes, sir; I will leave directly."
I called my maid, packed my trunk, and made all haste to depart. I made
my adieus as brief as possible. My women, with one exception, were
crying and lamenting my departure, and I truly regretted to leave the
poor wretches in such merciless care.
"I shall spend the rest of my time in solitary," said O'Brien.
"I shall get locked up the first thing," said Lissett.
"I shall try to get into the shop," said Allen. "I never can stand it
here after ye."
"My heart is as black after ye as that stove," sobbed McMullins.
It was many a day and night, after I went out from that prison, before
the sights and sounds that I saw and heard there left my mental sight
and hearing.
I thought as I went away, I will go from door to door through this broad
Commonwealth, state what I have learned of woman's condition in prison,
and beseech every other woman to help open the doors of her ignorance,
and degradation, to the light of the knowledge which will lead to
reformation.
Every one who has the cause of humanity at heart will echo the
cry,--open the doors of our prisons, as the doors of other public
institutions are thrown open, so that those who support may have an
opportunity to inspect them.
It is the right of every tax-payer to know what is done within our
prison walls at all times. It is the duty of every Christian man to make
himself acquainted with the moral bearing of the discipline which
obtains within them.
It is the duty of every religious woman to see that her fellow woman is
not trampled down in degradation and vice, lower than her own sins would
carry her, by the heel of her master in discipline.
Let the prison doors be opened, and the inside of them exposed to the
view of all. Knowledge awakens interest, and interest leads to action.
If the people of this land could be roused to examine the subject, our
prisons would soon be managed upon principles which would tend to the
elevation of the wretched beings who now come out of them more degraded
and hardened in the commission of crime than they go in.
God grant that the day filled with such blessing for the poor convict,
be not far distant!
Transcriber's Notes:
The following corrections which did not concern obvious printer errors
have been made to the text:
In the header for the second chapter ("At Night"), the number II. was
added.
"mammoth mouse" was "mammouth mouse".
"aperture" was "apperture".
"worrisome" was "worrysome".
"awfullest" was "awfulest".
"You ought to have pity on each other, if no one else has pity on you!":
"one" was added.
"As he went, he asked me to bring the No. 1 key.": "the" was added.
"Don't be anxious, Ellen!": question mark replaced by exclamation mark.