Only fourteen years had rolled over this boy's head, when he became a
prisoner in Windsor on a sentence of three years. Rude, but not
vicious--lively without design--and less experienced than a man of
sixty, he was a promising victim for the _irrespective_ discipline of
that dreary place. He soon took up his abode in the solitary cell, and
there, young as he was, he spent much of his time, both in summer and
winter. Fifteen days at a time has that little boy been in the cell in
the dead of winter, with only one blanket, and a piece of bread not
larger than his hand once in a day. All night long have I heard him
cry, and plead to be let out, that he might not freeze; but no reply
could he get from the keeper but--"Stop your noise--shut your
head--learn to keep out--I hope you'll freeze."
To say nothing about the impropriety and unmercifulness of such
conduct to _any_ prisoner, how does it appear in a man of sufficient
years to know better, towards a small boy. Would Lucifer himself have
treated even a young _christian_ so? Every one knew that Dean was by
no means a _bad_ boy; he was thoughtless and imprudent, but never did
he deserve such cruel treatment. Indeed such punishments as are
properly called _cruel_, cannot be _constitutionally_ inflicted on
_any_ one, much less on a boy; nor for any _offence_, much less for a
_trifle_. I here hold up to the view of humanity this tortured
youth--his ears frozen, his limbs shivering, his fingers numb and red
as blood, pinched with hunger, exhausted by exercise to prevent
freezing to death, and dying for want of sleep. I hold him up in this
predicament, amid the gloom of the solitary cell for some trifling
error, at the dark and silent hour of midnight, in the cold months of
winter, pleading for his life, and comforted only by this snarling
reply of the guard, "Stop your noise." Yes, I hold him up in such
circumstances, where I have often heard his piercing cries, and ask
the beholders to read in him the _common mercy_ of that "_merciful
Institution_."
This is a _penitentiary_. It was erected as such. The laws consider it
in this light. It is made the duty of the officers to have an especial
eye, in all their conduct, to the moral reformation of the prisoners.
How inconsistent, then, must such conduct be? Can such cruelty on any
person do him any good? Rather would not such treatment have the
effect, even on a saint, to make him a sinner? But look at the
punishment of this little boy. What he endured would have crushed a
giant. No account made of his age and inexperience--no thought of the
_kind_ and _degree_ of correction suited to him--no feelings of
compassion; but the steel-hearted man, who ought to have thought of
his own children of the same age, met this young unthinking trespasser
on some of the _minor_ rules of the limbo, like a hungry bear, and
threw him into the infernal machinery of his vengeance.