This man entered the prison under the influence of a cold which he had
taken in gaol. He was in the bloom of youth, and as bright as young
men in general. Not feeling well, he did not always do so much work as
was required of him, and consequently soon began to feel that he was
in a prison. The iron storm of punishment began to beat upon him, and
he was so affected by it, that he lost the use of his limbs in a great
measure, of his speech for some time, and finally of his reason. The
treatment he received would make the records of the inquisition blush.
Starvation, chains, and the cold cell were the only mercies he
experienced. At a certain time when he was unable to speak, as he was
sitting in the cook-room, the Warden entered, and declared that he
would make him speak or kill him. To effect this, he took him by the
hair of his head, and dragged him round the room, pulling and jerking
him with all his might, and crying all the time, "speak or I'll kill
you!"--Reader, have you ever read Howard's Prisons of Europe? It was
in _Europe_ that _he_ found so much misery and cruelty; but this is in
_America_. Yet here, see that Warden of a prison, dragging a prisoner
by the hair of his head, and declaring his intention to kill him if he
did not speak. Inhuman man! where is your heart, if you have any? Will
God suffer you to go unpunished for thus trampling on His authority,
and abusing your fellow man?
After exhausting all his strength, the Warden gave up, without either
making him speak, or killing him. Every prisoner's heart burned within
him, when he saw what this poor unfortunate man was suffering, and
what might become his own doom. I wonder that every one of them did
not spring forward, and rescue the sufferer from the wicked hands of
that heartless tyrant. I wonder that the earth which bore up the
lion-hearted despot, did not open and destroy him. But this is not the
end of Collier's sufferings from the same man.
Reduced by disease, and unable to be in the yard, the doctor ordered
him to be put into the hospital, and properly attended to. While he
was there, the Warden went up to see him. Unkind visit! for he took
with him a horsewhip, and before he left him, he used it with lusty
arm about his naked back, until he was quite exhausted, and till
demons might have trembled at the superior depravity and heartlessness
of man. This visit was repeated _once_, and perhaps twice, and the
same medicine administered.
Such was the conduct of the Warden, of whom the laws of the prison
say, that "with the powers entrusted to him it cannot be necessary for
him to _strike_ his prisoners; much less can it answer any _good_
purpose for him to give his command in a threatening tone, or
accompanied with oaths; but he shall give his commands with _kindness_
and dignity, and enforce them with promptitude and firmness."--"_He
shall never strike a prisoner_ except in self-defence, or in defence
of those assisting him in the discharge of his duty." With this part
of the laws of the prison before us, no comment on the acts of the
Warden, in the cases cited above, is necessary.
After wading through seas of affliction--after losing his
reason--after he had outlived the ability of his destroyers to torment
him further, he went home to his mother, a fair specimen of the
Warden's mercy.--His ruined form is before me--I see his vacant
look--I hear his unmeaning words--my soul sickens--my nerve
trembles--I can neither think nor write.