"Good night, ma'am!"
The next morning, when I gave O'Brien her bread and water, I asked her,—
"O'Brien, do you think, if McMullins were to strike you again, you would strike back?"
"I don't think I should now,—I shouldn't if I thought."
"What do you think of your behavior yesterday?"
"I am ashamed of myself that I should take any notice of that poor, foolish, half crazy thing! ButI've got an awful temper, and it gets the upper hands of me before I know it."
"When the Deputy comes around, if he says anything to you, will you tell him you are ashamed of yourself, and resolved to do better?"
"He never could make me say it to him before."
"He may not ask you to now; if he does, you will be submissive and perfectly respectful?"
"Yes, ma'am, I will."
When the Deputy came in, I importuned him to unlock my women.
"If I do, it will only be to have O'Brien locked up again in a few days. She has been here twice before, and is one of the worst cases we have ever had."
"If she is subdued and promises to do better, is not that enough?"
"Subdued!" he echoed. "She will promise anything to get out."
"Did you ever get a promise from her to do better?"
"I don't think we ever did. She has always braved us as long as she could speak."
"I am a new mistress, my management may be new to her. Will you let me try her, if you please? She is such a young thing, it seems as though she might be influenced to reform. You are punishing me to keep her in that dark cell. It takes my strength all away to think of her there. I could not sleep last night,—thoughts of her haunted me."
The tears came into my eyes. If he had refused me, I should have cried outright. He was a man, and one of kindly feelings, too, when left to himself. He gave me the order,—
"Bring me your key!"
I brought it very quickly, and unlocked Annie's cell with more alacrity than I ever turned key in a lock before.
"O'Brien," said the Deputy to her, "I let you out because your Matron asks me to. Now show your gratitude by your good behavior, and obedience to her."
"I will try, sir."
"Unlock the other one when you please," he said to me, and went out.
O'Brien turned to me.
"I will never give you occasion to have me locked up again, while I am here. I never made the promise before, but I make it now. I have been in solitary ten days and ten nights; I have been carried from there to the hospital, fainted away dead, and my feet so swelled that I could not walk on them. I have been gagged till my jaws were so stiff and swelled that I could not shut my mouth. I have been in the dungeon in the cellar"—
"Stop, Annie! in the name of pity, stop!"
I was sick to loathing of the cruelty she recounted. Was I in one of the prisons of the Inquisition, hearing a description of their tortures?
"It is the truth. And I never made a promise to do any better before."
I trembled with disgust, almost fear, of the place I was in. I bethought me, I am here to benefit these poor wretches. I held my breath as I asked,—
"What was all that done for?"
"Because I sauced a matron, and wouldn't say I was sorry."
"Did you say it at last?"
"No, ma'am! I wouldn't have said it if they had killed me. I was so mad I had just as soon died as not. The more they did to me, the madder I grew, and I swore, if ever I should catch her outside, I would pay her back, if I got in here for life."
"Annie O'Brien, if you were to sauce me, as you call it, I should punish you." I did not say how. "I expect you to treat me with respect always. It is not treating me with respect to quarrel with the other women in my presence."
"I shall always treat you with respect. I could never be mean enough to do anything else after the way you have treated me."
She fulfilled her promise. Never yet have I met a human being that kindness would not influence; but I have met with many a perverse will that harshness would neither bend or break.
"Now, Annie, you say that you wish to govern your temper, and that you will try?"
"I will try!"
"I will help you. When you begin to grow angry, shut your lips close together; then, look for me before you answer."
"I will, if I can think."
"As soon as you do think, come straight to me, and tell me that you were getting angry. If I see you, and can catch your eye, I will lift my finger in warning; or I will call your name. Will you heed me?"
"I will try, with all my might."
"Go get your breakfast, and then go about your work."
Many a time after that, when I saw her face growing pale with anger, I have called her name, and lifted my finger. She would recognize the signal, drop upon a bench, or the bare brick floor, bury her face in her hands for a few moments, then arise and go about her work without speaking a word.
Once, about a week after that locking up, she got into an altercation with the slide woman. I was in the prison; but I heard her voice, and ran to the kitchen door.
"Annie!" I called. She did not heed me, but went on with her dispute. "Annie, remember!" I whispered in her ear as I caught her arm.
She jerked it away from me. I looked her steadily in the eye. She dropped hers. She was wavering between the disposition to obey, and the desire to indulge her temper.
"There is the Dr.'s whistle, Annie. Run to the wash-room, and tell Mrs. Martin he is coming!"
She ran out quickly; but when she came back, she walked slowly, looking down to her feet. She came up to me and asked:—
"Why didn't you get me punished? I almost broke my promise; but I didn't mean to. If you had scolded me, I certainly should."
"I did not get you punished, because I see that you are trying to govern your temper, and I promised to help you. If I were to get angry and scold, of what use would it be for me to reprove you?"
"If you had scolded me then, I should certainly have sauced you, and then I should have been punished. Didn't you send me away on purpose?"
"If I did, it was better than scolding."
"I thought so; and this shall be the last time I will be so foolish."
"I hope so; but if I am obliged to hold up my finger a great many more times, I shall not be disappointed."
As my orders conflicted, and my work bothered me, I made another effort to find a head manager, or some printed regulations.
When the Deputy came in, on his morning rounds, I asked him,—
"Is the Master's wife Head Matron here?"
"Yes."
"Then why does she not come and teach me to manage my department, and see that I do my duty? I go to you, and you tell me the other matrons know. I go to them, and they tell me so many conflicting things that I am bothered more than helped. Then if I ask some of them one thing, they wish to manage the whole, and come in, and give orders that produce such an effect that I am obliged to give others to countermand them. They give them in such a way, too, that my women are all stirred up, and it takes me a long time to get them settled down again. This morning, one of them told Mrs. Martin that she needn't come in here putting on airs, and giving off orders, when she was no better than the rest of them. I pretended not to hear it, for I really thought sheprovoked the answer. If there is a Head Matron, she ought to come to my rescue."
"The Master's wife is Supervisor," said the good-natured fellow, after thinking a few moments. He was anxious to make it right on her part.
Superfudge! I thought to myself. I said,—
"I wish she would supervise my place into order. Have you any printed directions?"
"Yes. I don't think they would do you much good, but I will bring them to you."
He did not offer to bring the Supervisor to me, or to take me to her. As I got acquainted with the affairs of the institution, I found that she was emphatically super to all of them except her own housekeeping. She had brilliancy enough to look after that, and see that it was done well. She had the ability, and she exercised it, to come or send down when her parlor, which was directly over the prisoners' kitchen, was too cold, to have the furnace door shut, or if it was too warm, to have it opened.
About a week after I went there she came in, probably my repeated inquiries had been reported to her, and gave me an order to have a room cleaned in the attic of the prison. It was one morning when we were in the midst of house-cleaning with a gang of men whitewashing in the prison.
I told her I didn't think it possible to attend to it that day.
"I will show it to you now, because I have time."
I really had not time to look at it, as any one ofcommon powers of observation would have seen; but, as she was my superior officer, I followed her without further remark.
As she passed through the prison, and saw the men at work, she gave me another illustration of her luminous capacity by remarking,—
"You must be careful and not let your women get with the men."
"Yes, ma'am."
She took me up the sixth flight of stairs into the roof of the prison, into a room where the receiving officer packs away the clothing that he takes off the convicts when they come into the prison. After showing me the dust on the floor, and cobwebs on the walls, she said,—
"You had better send one of your women up to clean it. I always begin at the top when I clean house."
"I don't see how I can spare one to-day. If the Deputy will send me in one to do it, I will do my best to oversee it. But you see how inconvenient that will be, it is so far up here, and there is so much going on in the kitchen."
"It won't be much to clean this."
I thought, but did not say it, it might appear differently to you if you were to do it. I should consider it a good day's work for two strong women.
I looked round with her, and listened to her suggestions.
"What I wanted to call your attention to, particularly, was this box of old clothes. I think it must have been here two or three years."
I wondered if it had been two or three years since she had been in that room.
"They are cloth caps," she went on, "there may be an old coat or pair of pants among them. I don't think they will be of any use,—they might as well be sold, and the pay go towards the support of the institution."
I looked into the box. There might have been twenty pounds of woolen rags, originally; but they were nearly chowdered into dust by moths.
I saw by that one interview the occasion of the reticence of the Deputy, with regard to the Head Matron.
The first moment of leisure I got, that afternoon, I examined the printed "Rules and Regulations," by the Board of Directors, which the Deputy had brought me. They were printed eight or ten years before, but sensible and humane so far as they went.
There were no directions to regulate the details of duty; but all of the Master's orders were subject to the approval of the Board. I did not see how it could be possible to carry that article out, practically, when many of them were changed almost every day.
One order that I noticed gave me great satisfaction, and had it been observed, would have created a very different state of things in the prison from what then obtained. It was, that "no irritating language" should be used to the prisoners. Had thatrule been observed, there would have been comparatively few "in solitary," to the number which came under my observation.
I came to the conclusion that if the rules which governed the institution had been subjected to the approval of the Board of Directors, that august body must entertain a very imperfect idea of their practical working.
One of my orders was to stand at the ration table, in the kitchen, while the meals were passed out. Another was to be in the prison, at the same time, on duty, which shut me out of the kitchen entirely.
The trouble that arose from the conflicting orders was this. After I left the kitchen, the food for the meals was under the control of the prisoners, and they secreted what part of it they pleased for themselves and their favorites.
Before I left the kitchen I saw the meat sliced, and an equal portion placed in each pan. After I left, and there was no one to watch it, the women abstracted a part of it from some of the pans, or changed it from one pan to another.
I was allowed about two hundred and eighty pounds of meat for the four hundred prisoners, bones included. After this was sliced, it was divided to each pan as nearly equally alike as possible. To this was added three or four potatoes, with the skins on, and the gravy or soup was then poured over them.
These pans were arranged in rows across the ration table, to be passed out, through a slide, to themen, as they were marched into prison, on their side; and to the women, on their side. The kitchen was between the prisons.
After the pans were arranged on the table, and the dinners put into them, I was obliged to go out into the prison to receive the women, and see them slid into their cells. The slide door was shut upon me, and the convicts were left alone with the food to hand it out.
Was it strange, with this opportunity placed in their way, that they should help themselves to the meat which had been divided to the others?
My order was to detect the thief and report her. That was much easier said than done. My opinion was that they all took it.
It was a question strongly debated in my mind, who was most at fault, those poor, half-starved things, for taking the meat when the opportunity was given them, or those who put the temptation in their way?
I did not decide it in season to have any of them punished for breaking the rule.
When the convicts got angry with each other, they would report on the one they were offended with; but it was an established rule that the testimony of one prisoner was not to be taken against another, and I had not the least inclination to break the rule.
I did discover one of the thieves at last; but I took my own way to punish her.
The steam woman got angry with one of the slide women, and reported her to me one day when the dinner came short.
"Never mind now, Allen; but the next time you see her take it, tell me where she hides the meat. I will go find it; and then, she can't turn it on you for betraying her."
A day or two afterwards, Allen whispered to me,—
"You look on the top of the bread closet in the cellar, and you will find something."
I went down, mounted some false steps, and found a quart filled with slices of meat. I took it up into the kitchen, and asked,—
"Who hid this meat away on the top of the bread cupboard in the cellar?"
Not one of them answered.
"Will the one who did it be honest enough to own it; or will she be mean enough to let me lay the blame on some one else? Did you do it, Annie O'Brien?"
"No, ma'am."
"Will you tell me who did it?"
"I don't know, ma'am."
"Allen, did you do it?"
"No, ma'am."
I did not wish to ask her who did it, because she had told me.
"I am going to ask you all, and I hope no one will be mean enough to lie about it."
"I put it there," said O'Sullivan.
"Who did you put it away for?"
"For myself, because I don't like peas."
"Very well, O'Sullivan; but you were rather toogenerous to yourself. Half of that would have been enough for your dinner, and to punish you for being so selfish, you can't have any of it. I shall give it to the others. Your hiding it away down there, gave it very much the appearance of stealing. In future, when you wish to put anything away, show it to me, and then, put it away like an honest woman. But you are never to put anything away unless it is left over, after I have divided the meat. It would be very mean to take a double portion for yourself, and make the poor fellows on the other side go without."
I had been studying the Rules and Regulations of the Board, and discovered that I was to admonish once, before reporting for punishment. I did not propose to transcend that rule.
"Now, remember, there is nothing more to be hid away from me."
"There isn't much danger, as long as you let us tell you all about it."
"I shall always let you tell me, before I get you punished; but you must always obey, and then there will be no punishment."
"I suppose it is only right that we should eat our share of peas with the rest, for they can't get even bread and coffee as we can."
"It is certainly wrong for you to take another prisoner's meat; and very mean, because, as you say, he has not the chance you have to get anything else. Now, girls, will you promise not to hide things away, and try to cheat me any more?"
"I will, I will," was responded by the six. I did not expect them to do it without a great many more "admonishings."
"Now, girls, be on your guard, so that the temptation does not become too strong for you."
When the Deputy came in, I asked him whether the order for me to stand at the ration table in the kitchen, at meal time, had been approved by the Board.
"Of course it has."
"Has the order for me to be on duty in the prison at meal time, been approved by the Board?"
"Certainly!"
"You consider them a very intelligent body of men, do you not?"
"Of course,—they are my superior officers."
"How can they expect me to be in two different places at the same time?"
"I really don't know much about the arrangements on the women's side at meal times. My station is in the men's prison at that time."
"Yes, sir; and it is the place of our head officer to be stationed on this side, in the women's prison, at that time, and it is my place to be in the kitchen at meal time, to see that the meals go out properly, and that none of them are turned from the right channel."
The next day afforded him an illustration of what I said. The dinner fell short. He entered the kitchen at one door as I went in at another. Hecame hurrying up to me, and asked—"Why is this?"
"I don't know, sir! It was all right when I left the kitchen. Since that, I have no means of knowing what has been going on. I have been shut out in the prison, on duty."
He ordered in bread to supply the deficiency. In that case it was the mismanagement of the hash, by a new hand, when "dished out," which would have been prevented had I been there to oversee it.
The four Matrons took the evening watch, alone in prison, in rotation. It was a rule that one of them was to be always there, when the prisoners were in. They were not to be left by themselves a moment.
The one who had charge was to be alone; the other three were at liberty, one to go about the buildings or grounds, two to go out of the prison confines, if they liked. It was my turn to be alone in prison.
Immediately after they had been locked into their cells, and the other Matrons had left, Haggerton began to complain of her coffee.
"What is the matter with your coffee?" I asked.
"It is cold," she replied.
"I am sorry; but I can't help it now."
Upon that she began to fret. "I haven't eaten any breakfast, nor any dinner, and I've worked hard all day, and staid an hour later,"—some of them had staid till eight o'clock that night in the shop—"and now I can't eat any supper because my coffee is cold. I'll tell the Master, and he'll make an awful fuss."
Of course I could not allow such talk as that, and I told her to stop.
"I have done the best for you that I could. You had the same chance to eat that the rest had, and the same breakfast and dinner provided for you. I am not allowed to provide anything else. If you haven't eaten, it is your own fault."
"I can't eat brown bread, and I can't eat soup, nor I can't drink cold coffee. The Master will be awful mad, and make an awful fuss, for me to have cold coffee."
"Not another word, Haggerton! If you don't like the fare, you ought not to take board here," I said. I thought, if the Master would feel so bad that your coffee is cold, why don't his compassion lead him to provide something that you can eat.
Upon that she went on to cry and sob, and make a great disturbance in the prison.
I told her she must stop; but she kept on. I had not the heart to scold and threaten the girl. I had no doubt that she was tired and hungry, and I pitied her. I went for the Deputy, to see what I should do. He was out. I stepped into the officers' dining-room to find some one to direct me.
Mrs. Hardhack, the Shop Matron, was eating her supper. The Supervisor sat there, talking with her. I stated the case to her. Before I had got half through with it, she motioned me away, and exclaimed, in great agitation,—
"You mustn't leave the prison alone a moment! You mustn't leave the prison alone a moment!"
Mrs. Hardhack rushed past me as though every prisoner had got loose, and was running away.
I thought they would probably be safe if she arrived without accident, and followed at my usual gait.
When I entered the prison she was leaving Haggerton's cell door, and from the second division saluted me with,—
"It's no wonder the girl cries! her coffee is cold! I went to the kettle and tasted it myself! She hasn't eaten a mouthful to-day; and now, to have cold coffee given her for her supper, it's too bad! The Master shall know it, and he'll make an awful fuss."
I made no reply to her; but the next morning, I had several questions to ask the Deputy.
"It is a rule, is it, that the prisoners are not to be left alone a moment at night, after they are locked in?"
"Yes."
"Then how am I to leave the prison, go across the kitchen, and pass out my keys? Sometimes it will be ten or fifteen minutes before I can make the prison officer hear my rap."
"Of course you must do that."
"Then I must leave the prison alone. Have the Board of Directors approved both those rules?"
He smiled.
"The reason why I asked was, because the Supervisor and Shop Matron thought I had committed a great violation of the rules, to leave the prison a moment to find you, to ask you a question, when I was in difficulty last night."
"Did you have any difficulty last night?"
I told him the story of Haggerton, and Mrs. Hardhack's management in the case.
"You can judge that such conduct is calculated to produce disorder, and it did. It was nearly half an hour before I got the women quiet again."
"Mrs. Hardhack has been here many years—she ought to know better than to behave in that way. If she don't, I can teach her."
I did not tell him what followed. I had been studying the "Rules and Regulations" of the Board of Directors, for myself, and intended to abide by them. I remarked carelessly,—
"The Board direct that the convicts shall work from sunrise to sunset. They were worked an hour later last night."
"They had some contract work that they wanted to finish."
"The order of the Board is to work from sunrise to sunset. There is no provision made for finishing contract work. The order to work over hours was submitted to the Board for approval last night, was it not?"
"You are sharp. I see you wish to do your own duty, and you wish others to do the same."
"Yes, I like to do my duty if I can find out what it is. In this particular case, I am indifferent whether others do theirs or not. But, if I find them following me up to make me perform mine accurately, when they are involved in the same, it is perfectly naturalfor me to turn and observe their manner of doing theirs."
"I am trying to do mine."
"I see that you are, and I am glad that you have a better opportunity to find out what it is, than I do."
The moment that Mrs. Hardhack was out of the prison, that night, the convicts commenced hooting and whistling. If she did not put Haggerton up, directly, to play off on me, which I strongly suspected, her behavior was calculated to encourage their conduct.
I was a new Matron, this was my first night alone, and they would try me, to see what stuff I was made of.
If Mrs. Hardhack had instigated their conduct, the punishment would come upon them, not her. It was my business to suppress the noise, and to detect those who were engaged in making it.
I drew my feet from my slippers, and commenced my search for the culprits.
It was made a short one by the assistance of one of the sweeps who hated Mrs. Hardhack, and would do anything to thwart her—even betray a fellow-prisoner.
She pointed me to one of the doors from whence the whistling came. I crept softly along, in the shade, and stood by the next door a moment. The girl, unconscious that I was near, gave another shrill call.
"That is you, is it, Kate Connolly?" I said, close to her ear.
She burst into tears at the sound of my voice. Her imagination at once brought before her the long aching induced by solitary confinement. It was far from an agreeable prospect to look forward to.
"I'm sorry! indeed I am!"
"Sorry for what,—that you made disturbance, or that I found you out?"
"For both. Indeed I am; I knew better—I knew the rules; I've been here before, and it'll go hard with me."
"You thought I was a stranger and wouldn't know them, did you?"
"Yes, ma'am; but I'm sorry."
"I'm sorry for you, Kate, that you should be so ill-disposed as to make a noise, purposely to disturb me; and that you should be so mean as to try to impose upon a stranger. In future it will be well for you to know who you are playing off on before you begin. Now, Kate Connolly, remember—if ever I catch you in another such a trick, I shall have you punished!"
"And you won't now? I thank you! I never will trouble you so again!"
I never had occasion to reprove her afterwards for any bad conduct while she was in the prison.
She thought it was through my kindness that she escaped punishment. I had been reading the "Rules and Regulations," which directed me to "admonish" once; and then, report for punishment. By following those Rules, I had silenced the noise, and restoredorder without resorting to punishment. I had also secured the future good behavior of the girl.
When one was detected, the others became quiet.
There are good and noble qualities still existing in those prisoners, if the right management only be applied to rouse, and bring them into action. The rule to admonish was a wise one, and was adopted to that end. That the officers did not follow out the rule was wherein the fault lay. And that they overlooked it, or failed to obey it, caused untold suffering to the prisoners.
No instance came under my observation where the offense was repeated, after a prisoner had been admonished.
After quiet was restored, I sat down to think, and rest. I was tired of the ceaseless surveillance, the turning of keys, the grating of bars, the driving of the prisoners at their tasks, the compelling to pleasant manners while under such severe exactions of toil.
I sat thinking it over and asking myself if it would be possible for me, driven, urged to work with no alternative but the solitary cell, and the bread and water diet, with no motive but fear of punishment, to be gentle and patient.
The exhausted flesh and the wearied spirit would express their agony in some form of complaint. Human nature might restrain its indignation at such a dreary lot from breaking forth, in fear of a greater punishment. The prisoner might work on in silence till she fell, and was carried to the Hospital. I was told that it had been so, and I could not doubt it.
My orders verified the statement. I was to keep them at work. If they complained they were to see the Doctor, and he was to decide whether they were unfit for labor. In that case they were to go into the Hospital.
I had asked, "Shall their whole task be exacted of them?"
"Yes,—if you listen to their complaints, they will all play sick, and we shall get no work done."
I had said, "They might do something, and by not being driven so hard, made useful, and their health spared."
"We have no such rules," was the reply.
"But any Matron, after she is acquainted with her women, can judge so that they will not impose upon her very much."
"They will all cheat, and lie, and shirk, if they can."
That might be so generally; but I knew that I had women who would rather work reasonably than be idle, because time passed faster when they were employed, if from no other motive.
If they would all lie, and cheat, and shirk, the discipline that was applied to them did not work any reformation in their characters.
The treatment meted out to them was hard, unremitting toil, enforced by harsh words and punishment.
Implicit obedience to arbitrary rules was exacted, with no reasons given why they were enforced, andno explanations for their necessity. The hard work, the solitary cell, the meagre food, the damp stone prison, the narrow cells, and the crawling vermin, all went in revision before me.
Can such discipline soften the heart, and turn its stern purposes to commit crime into the ways of virtue? Must not the hearts of these poor things inevitably grow harder under such influences, till they become the human fiends which they sometimes manifest themselves?
I looked along the whitewashed floor. Rats and mice were running fearlessly about, holding gay revel over the crumbs that had been scattered to them by the prisoners in their rooms.
I looked up at the cells. Human faces stared down upon me, through the bars, made ghastly by the flickering gas-light. There were human hearts, alive with all human emotions, beating beneath those horrid faces.
Directly in front of me, with no light, save one narrow, stinted ray, which glimmered through the key-hole, with no bed but the stone floor, no seat but the wooden bucket, nothing to lean against but the bare brick walls, lay a girl "in solitary."
No human being has life enough to stir up those cold stones to warmth, no change can soften them to comfort. Whichever way she turns, the hard, chilling granite is her resting-place. She lies there with no covering but her usual clothing, and that has been dealt out to her with the spare hand of public rigor.No discretionary mercy has interposed to provide a plank or a blanket to break the chill.
Like a flash the thought crossed my brain, If that were my child! It sent a pang through my heart that stopped and wrung there till I gasped for breath.
I looked up at the cells. The faces that glared down upon me were the sweet faces of my own daughters transformed to human demons by the vile impress of crime, and its compeer, punishment.
Was I putting my hand to the work to help on the hardening of human hearts, and the degradation of human beings! I would flee the place, and leave the work with the morning light. I could not flee the thoughts. Wretched, wretched employment!
I was half frenzied. I started up and rushed around the prison. I laid my head against the iron bars of the grated doors. I leaned against the cold stone walls. I could have lain down upon them in bitter penance for the part which I had taken.
The eight o'clock bell rung for inspection. It was a relief.
Humbly I took my lantern, and crept softly round to examine the locks. Many of the women were in bed, some of them were up reading.
One of the girls looked up to me with a smile, and said,—I wondered that she could smile at all,—
"See how nicely I keep the rats out."
She had taken off the cover of her box, and braced it, by the box, against the lower part of the door.
Every room is furnished with a box which has a drawer in it. This box serves for table and pantry. It contains a spoon, knife and fork, salt and pepper boxes.
"Can't they jump over that?"
"They don't try; but run along to another room. There hasn't been one in here since I put it up."
I sat down and busied myself reading till the nine o'clock locking came. When that was accomplished, I went up, up, up the stone stairs to my cell in the roof of the prison.
I laid me down, and from sheer exhaustion fell into a kind of slumber; but my short sleep, if it were sleep, was rank with nightmare, or haunted with the ghosts of my abode. No sooner did I become unconscious, than I was falling from my eyrie to the rocky floor below, or was strapped upon the iron bars that held the prisoners' beds. Visions appeared to my dream-sight that roused me with a start and scream to wakefulness again.
Even such disturbed slumber had hardly got possession of my faculties when a volley of oaths came rolling through my door, and roused me to distinct consciousness.
I sprang from my bed, ran to the door, and called,—
"What is the matter?"
"That bloody Smith snores so that we can't sleep!"
"Where is she? I will go down and wake her."
"On the third division, south side, almost to the foot."
I put my feet into my slippers, wrapped a shawl around me, and ran down to Smith's door.
"Smith, turn over! You are snoring so loud that the other women can't sleep."
"O! how you scared me."
"Do you know that you are snoring so loud that the women can't sleep? Turn over on your side!"
"Yes, ma'am."
I went back to my bed, but no sooner had I settled myself to sleep than the clamor of complaint was renewed.
"That bloody Smith is at her snoring again!"
Again I started for the second division, south side.
"Smith! you are snoring again!"
"I can't help it, ma'am! don't have me punished."
Punished! How the idea haunted them, even in their sleep. "I know you can't help it, only by turning over. Turn on your face, and try that. The women must sleep, they are tired, and they are obliged to work to-morrow."
"I'll try not to snore, ma'am!" She turned on her face as I directed her.
At last I attained to that state of repose which the renowned Sancho Panza has so felicitously eulogized, and successfully immortalized; but my enjoyment was not of long duration.
It was but a short distance that reached into themiddle of the dark, dismal night, and time had travelled it when I slowly awoke. Shivers of terror, from some undefined cause, crept over me. Gradually I came to a knowledge of what was passing. My hair, which was thrown loosely over the pillow, was moving as though trodden by some nocturnal agent of locomotion. What moved it? there was no draft of air in the room.
I put my hand to the "crowning ornament by Nature given" to my head, and imprisoned a mammoth mouse, or scarce grown rat.
I was fast getting initiated into the mysteries of prison life, and inured to its peculiarities. Unmoved, I might allow my hair to become a bed for rats and mice; but I could not spare the sleep.
I threw the creature from me, in a fret at being disturbed, and issued a peremptory order, independent of the Master, and without the approval of the Board, for all rats and mice to pay respect to my person, and my apartments, and trouble me no more. Then I turned over, and went to sleep again.
Adverse fate, or some other mysterious personage was on my track that night. Before I had time to close my eyes, a shrill shriek of horror resounded through the building, starting the echoes from every side.
It sounded in my ears like the despairing cry of one doomed to eternal death. Imagination supplied the cause, and brought me to my feet with one bound.
Some pent up prisoner was dying alone in his cell. I sprang to the rail and called,—
"What is the matter?"
"I think I had the nightmare. I do have it sometimes."
"Was that you, Mary McCullum?"
"I think it was, ma'am. I'm sorry I waked you! Never mind me, ma'am!"
Poor Mary McCullum! In a moment I remembered all about her. They had told me a sad tale about her incarceration for the murder of her rival.
Mary's husband had left her, taking her three little girls away, and married another woman. Mary, in a fit of jealous madness, had ground up a knife, enticed the woman to drink with her, and murdered her in her cellar. A policeman had detected her in the act. God pity, and judge her! She had been sentenced to ten years of hard labor in the Penitentiary for the crime.
Five years had been worked out. Her health was gone, her nervous system had become a wreck. The damp rooms, the chilling stones, the ceaseless toil, were the slow torture that had undermined her constitution, and consumed her vitality.
Her narrow cell had become, to her imagination, the home of demons who haunted her with her crime.
The other women had told me that the ghost of the murdered woman came to Mary McCullum every night, all in her bloody garments, and set her shrieking in her dreams.
Should such a criminal go unpunished? The halter could bring no surer death than what was slowly creeping upon her. Restrained of her liberty she should be, and from the power to do further harm. Labor for her own support should be required of her. Connected with it, a sufficient amount of rest to secure health, a place to sleep free from the damp and noisome air of a stone prison.
A plenty of wholesome food should be allowed her; time and space for repentance given, time to think upon the error of her ways, and instruction that would teach her how to do it.
That worrisome night was to meet with one more "thrilling adventure" before it passed away into the light of the following day.
I lay, tossing from side to side, after I returned to my bed. Sleep was out of the question. I lay, tossing thoughts about the circumstances that surrounded me to and fro in my mind, trying to analyze, to distinctness, the mixed up conclusions that arose from them.
Another unearthly cry rung out on the air, and startled me from my perplexed meditations. It was more like the shriek of an animal in distress, than a human sound.
Wail followed wail, in quick succession. Can it be a human being? I asked myself, as I hurried on some clothing. It must be, there is nothing else here that can make such a noise.
I stopped to listen, as I went to search it out. It came from one quarter, and then, from another. Ifit were made in one cell, it possessed a wonderful power of ventriloquism.
I remembered the hooting and whistling of the night before, and immediately inferred that the same mischievous girls, who made the disturbance in the evening, had set up this cry and echoed it around from division to division, in order to make a night of it.
Quick as the thought entered my mind, my patience gave way. I vowed, in my heart, that I would have them punished if I could catch them. My own aroused temper certainly suggested the punishment that I contemplated. Even with the thought which suggested punishment arose the query—Is it not a just indignation that I feel, and do they not deserve punishment for willfully making this unreasonable disturbance? Is it my anger that seeks revenge for the annoyance they are inflicting?
Although half way down into the prison, I ran back to my room, and left my slippers, in order to avoid the tap, tapping of the leather soles on the walks, which would announce my approach to the culprits, and warn them in season to avoid detection.
Again I traversed flat after flat in my stockings. Quickly, and noiselessly, I threaded the walks towards the spot from whence the sound appeared to proceed. But when I reached it, all was silent there, and the wail came shrieking around another corner.
I grew more and more angry as chills crept up mylimbs, and set my teeth chattering. I raised my thinly clad feet from the cold stones only to set them down in a still colder track—a practical test, it now occurs to me, of the experience of the woman on the stones "in solitary,"—but my determination to ferret out the offenders never faltered.
I was benumbed; but I persevered till I had traversed the five flats, and listened at the door of nearly a hundred cells. The wails had grown to howls, and filled the prison with their noise as the thunder fills the air with its reverberations, but eluded my search.
I gathered my shawl around me, and sat down by the stove to listen; and determine my future course. When I became stationary, the sounds changed their course, and instead of receding approached me. Nearer, and nearer they came. In a moment they were issuing from the floor at my side. I shook with a vague dread. Were those shrieking wails from some prisoner confined in the dungeon vaults below the prison, insane or dying? Involuntarily I looked down. There stood the cat, uttering piteous cries on account of separation from her kittens in the kitchen, and pleading to be let out to them.
Quickly I ran over the stairs to get my keys, nor did I feel the chill of the cold stone walks, as I ran back to appease the distress of the mother cat by opening the way to her little ones.
I did not regret that I lost the opportunity to execute the mentally threatened punishment of my women.
One morning, as I sat warming my feet by the prison stove, I heard a slow, measured tread on the stone walk, like some one pacing off the length of the building. When it came near to me I looked, to see the Master stalking along in pompous dignity.
There was what he probably supposed to be authority in his bearing.
I arose and stood respectfully before him. I supposed he had commands of some kind, for me, from his appearance.
He went along without changing his gait, or turning his head, into the kitchen.
I really did not know what etiquette to observe on this state occasion; but I slowly followed him. He marched round, looking over the place in silent inspection; then came directly before me, and made a dead halt.
He did not speak for a moment, and I, to relieve the embarrassment, asked,—
"Does the place look to suit you?"
"When it don't, I shall tell you," he answered gruffly.
"It is more pleasant to be told when we have pleased, than when we have not."
He made no reply to that remark; but said sternly,—
"You are not to read the Rules to the prisoners; you have nothing to do with that."
"I have not read the Rules to the prisoners. I can find no rules to be governed by myself, much more to read to them."
"If the prisoners do not obey you, you are to report them at once."
"I believe, according to the Rules and Regulations laid down by the Board of Directors, that I am to admonish them once, and at the second offense report them."
He turned and stalked away, looking a little puzzled.
At first I could not imagine to what he referred; but after stirring up my memory, I recollected that I had mentioned, in reproving the women, a day or two before, that they were breaking the Rules.
I sat down and wrote the Master a note after this wise:—
"The women have a habit of talking as they march in and out of prison. I am ordered to report them if they do it. I find in the Rules and Regulations, given to the officers, by the Board of Overseers, on the tenth page, that we are directed to 'admonish' the prisoners, for misbehavior, and at the second offense report them. That was what I did yesterday,however my proceedings may have been reported to you."
In a few moments the Deputy made his appearance.
"Your explanation was just the thing. We have looked up the Rule, and you are right. It is better to take each one as you catch her, rather than take them all together."
"That gives me a chance to exercise still more mercy. Thank you!"
Thus ended my first interview with the Master, and the second was like unto it.
About a week after that the Receiving Matron came and told me that I was to go to her wash-room, to oversee her women, while she went to put the officers' rooms in order.
I replied, "I cannot attend to your work. I have more to do in my own department than I have strength to accomplish."
"Mrs. Hardhack"—that was the Shop Matron—"said you were to do it."
"I am not employed by Mrs. Hardhack, nor do I take my orders from her."
I was overburdened with work, and extremely tired. It appeared unreasonable, to me, to crowd anything more upon me. I had not physical strength to do any more than I was doing.
The Matron turned from me in a fret, and left. I dropped upon a bench and rested my head upon the table. From sheer fatigue the tears started.
In a few moments I heard the measured tread of the Master. I did not raise my head till he had stood before me a moment or two. Then I looked up. I did not pay him the respect to rise. He looked at me a moment, and seemed to have some idea of my condition. He said gently, if anything could be said gently by one so rough—
"I should like to have you go to the wash-room while the Matron is at the officers' rooms. There is a gang of women at work there, and she cannot leave them alone very well."
His manner modified my feelings somewhat; but I had no idea of having any more labor put upon me, and I said,—
"I find it very difficult to get through with the labor that I engaged for, and it is impossible for me to have that of another put upon me."
"Just for to-day, as she has just come in."
"I will go for to-day, as a matter of favor; but I did not engage for that work, and I don't wish her to feel that she can call upon me to take her place at any time that she may wish. Her relief should come from another quarter."
"It is only for to-day."
He went out, and I started for the wash-house.
I had been in the prison but a few days when Ellen, one of my "sweeps," crept softly round to me, and whispered in my ear,—
"You must be careful what you say! Mrs. Hardhack has just been in on the other side to listen. She creeps round like a cat, and you never know when she's coming, and there's no knowing what she'll tell, and she'll surely get you into trouble."
"Don't give yourself any uneasiness, she can't get me into trouble."
"Don't tell what I say; but she do pick a fuss with all the Matrons that come here, and she tells on 'em, and reports 'em, and makes the Master mad with 'em. And I jest see her creeping round in there now."
"You know that I am not obliged to stay here as you are, Ellen. If I am made unhappy, I can leave at any time."
"I know you can; but I don't want you to be unhappy. I want you to stay, and so do the rest of the women."
"Thank you, Ellen. I am glad you want me to stay, because I think you will do your work well and try to please me by obeying all of the rules."
"I'm sure I'll do anything in the world to please ye."
I thought I would see if Ellen's information were correct, so I stepped lightly around the corner to which she pointed. I was just in season to see the back of Mrs. Hardhack's garments disappearing through the door.
I was indifferent to such espionage personally. I could easily correct any false impression which might be made of my conduct, as I had done in the representation which had been made of my reading the Rules; but it is extremely unpleasant to look upon such a character, as had been developed, in one who must be an associate. The meanness and treachery that were written upon it would stand out before me, whenever I saw her, in spite of any good qualities that she might possess.
That woman had been in the institution a great many years, and had become thoroughly imbued with the spirit of its rulers. If she went round into the other departments to listen, I inferred that it must be with the approval of the Master.
If she carried him information acquired in that way, it must be acceptable, or she would not continue it.
It is difficult to understand why such management need be pursued in this country. If the Master found a subordinate practicing against him, he could dismiss her arbitrarily; but in so doing he would only dismiss her out into the world to tell her own tale, hewould argue. He could make his own representation of the case to the Board of Directors, and screen his own doings; but the Board are not the directors of public opinion.
A just, upright, and open management would secure the coöperation of subordinates who are fit to hold a position in such an institution. That such a course was not pursued, was because the disposition of the head Manager led him in another direction, and the disposition of the subordinate, Mrs. Hardhack, made her a fit agent to carry out his peculiar views of the proper way to govern the institution.
She did not stop at that, but tried many little experiments of her own suggestion. Her long residence and knowledge of the place enabled her to practice them very much to the annoyance of the other Matrons, and to the distress of the prisoners.
The women were her equals in detecting her ways, if they had not the power to practice her stratagems.
They watched her till she was fairly across the yard that morning; then, they gathered around me, and began to tell me of her "tricks," as they called them.
"She's the artfulest huzzy that ever lived," said Ellen. "She'll tell the women when they leave the shop not to speak a word till they get out of it, nor in the yard; but when they get into the prison they may talk as much as they are a mind to. Don't ye see, that's to make you trouble. You'll have to scold 'em,and get 'em locked up; and then, they'll hate you, and plague you all they can."
"Don't be anxious, Ellen? After I have been here awhile the women will understand me, and they won't be any more willing to plague me than you are."
"That's true! but it will take longer because you don't see 'em so much as you do us. And don't ye see, she'll tell 'em anything. She always be's stirring up a fuss somewhere. The women all hates her."
"Never mind saying anything more, Ellen. I think I can manage her."
"Don't let her know I've said anything! She'd surely pick up something to get me locked up for."
"'Twas she that got me ten days in solitary, and the gag," said O'Brien. "I'd like to make her bones ache as mine ached then! If ever I catch her out-outside I'll"—
"Anne O'Brien, stop!"
"Well, ma'am, if she had treated you as she has me you would hate her. I'd strike her down in a minute if I could get the chance. And she will get struck down in the shop sometime and killed. She never goes outside, and she dares not, so many of the women hate her, and are on the watch for her."
That was the effect produced by solitary confinement, without mitigation, as I heard it talked universally among the prisoners. Does it conduce to reformation?
At the time this occurred, I thought the prisoners had exaggerated in their statements about Mrs.Hardhack; but in a few days they were confirmed by her own conduct.
I was suspicious that the truth had been told me with regard to her putting the prisoners up to make a noise when they came in prison, by the appearance of a few of them.
I thought I might arouse her pity for them, and induce her to stop her machinations in that way.
I remarked to her, as we were standing together one evening after the women had been particularly noisy in coming in from the shop,—
"I am afraid I shall be obliged to have some of the women put in solitary if they continue to be so troublesome when they come in to supper."
"Afraid!" she echoed scornfully, "I like to get them locked up."
I looked in blank astonishment upon the human monster before me.
"Are you in earnest?" I asked. "Do you mean to say that you like to add to the hard lot of those poor creatures by that dreadful punishment of solitary?"
"Yes, I'm sure I do!"
And with a coarse laugh she turned away.
I hoped she could not mean it; but all of her actions, and all the reports that I heard of her, tended to produce the conviction that she had formed a just estimate of her own character; and, upon that, made a correct representation of herself.
That remark of mine hit wide of the mark. Instead of touching her compassion it roused the spirit of mischief.
She was on duty that night in prison, and, restless as the renowned adventurer who went to and fro in the earth seeking whom he might devour, she went on a search through the cells of the first division where my kitchen women lodged.
The Deputy had ordered me to supply the women, on that division, with all the blankets they wanted, because they worked in the kitchens where it was hot and the air full of steam. And being the lowest tier of cells, they were colder than the others.
I had done as he directed me, so that some of them had four or five. Allen, my steam woman, an old woman of nearly sixty, had six.
Mrs. Hardhack stripped their beds, and counted their blankets. She took off all but two, and locked them up in a black cell.
The sweep who sat 'tending the door saw the proceeding, and ran to tell me what was going on.
"Mrs. Hardhack is stripping the blankets off the women's beds, and she hasn't left poor old Allen but two little strips of rags."
I went to see what she was doing. No sooner did her eye light on me than she commenced to show me how well educated she was in the use of the dictionary.
"Here are your women with six blankets, and the rule is that they shall have only two. A double one and a single one."
I was in no wise accountable to her, and did not think it necessary to answer. I stood and looked at her. She went on,—
"You have no right to give your women more than the rest have. You have no right to give out blankets in that way, and the Master will know it directly. Here are your women with six blankets, and my shop women with only two. It's a shame to treat your women so much better than you do mine."
When she had exhausted herself, I said, quietly, but loud enough for them all to hear,—
"Your shop women are just as well treated as my kitchen women. Some of the old ones have five or six blankets—they all have as many as they wish for. I have been to the doors, and asked every one of them if they wished for more. And now if any woman wants another blanket, speak! and she shall have it. You may be assured, every one of you, that you shall have every comfort, from me, that I am allowed to give you."
No one spoke. That time Mrs. Hardhack failed to stir up jealousy on the part of the shop women towards me; or create disturbance in the prison.
"I shall have it my own way about the blankets to-night," she said, and locked them in a black cell.
I did not like to come in contact with her, so I went for the Deputy, to settle the matter. He was out. I asked for the Master. I was told that I could not see him. He was indisposed. I could not getaccess to him, and my women slept without their blankets till nine o'clock, when Mrs. Hardhack left the prison. After she was gone I returned them the blankets she had taken away.
The next morning she came to me to know who unlocked the black cell door.
"When you have authority to inquire into my actions, I will render an account of them to you."
"You have no right to unlock a door after I lock it."
"You have no further care of the prison after you leave it at night, and the last order given is the one to be obeyed. I had a plenty of blankets up-stairs, in a chest, to supply the ones you took away, if I had chosen to use them."
I went to the Deputy in the morning, and he forbade her interference in such matters.
She indulged herself in one more exhibition of her sweet temper with regard to the affair, and that was to tell me that she had secured my women a few hours of cool repose.