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A M E R I C A N N O T E S

FOR

GENERAL CIRCULATION.

E V

C H A R L E S D I C K E N S .

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L E I P Z I G

B E II N H. Ï A li C li N ITZ 1 V «.

1 8 4 2 .

CHAPTER VII.

P h i l a d e l p h i a , and its Solitary Prison.

T H E journey f r o m N e w York to P h i l a d e l p h i a , i s m a d e by railroad, and two f e r r i e s ; and u s u a l l y o c c u p i e s b e t w e e n five and six h o u r s . It w a s a fine evening w h e n w e were p a s s e n g e r s i n the train: a n d , watching the bright s u n s e t from a little w i n d o w near the door b y which we s a t , m y attention w a s attracted to a r e m a r k - able appearance i s s u i n g f r o m the w i n d o w s of the g e n t l e m e n ' s car i m m e d i a t e l y in front of u s , w h i c h I s u p p o s e d for s o m e time w a s occasioned by a n u m b e r of i n d u s t r i o u s p e r s o n s i n s i d e , ripping o p e n f e a t h e r - b e d s , and giving the feathers to the w i n d . A t length i t occurred to m e that they were only s p i t t i n g , which w a s i n d e e d the c a s e ; though how any n u m b e r of p a s s e n g e r s which it w a s p o s - s i b l e for that car to c o n t a i n , c o u l d have m a i n t a i n e d s u c h a playful a n d i n c e s s a n t s h o w e r of expectoration, I a m still at a l o s s to u n d e r - s t a n d : notwithstanding the experience i n all salivatory p h e n o - m e n a which I afterwards acquired.

I m a d e acquaintance, o n this j o u r n e y , with a m i l d and m o d e s t y o u n g q u a k e r , w h o o p e n e d the d i s c o u r s e by i n f o r m i n g m e , in a grave w h i s p e r , that h i s grandfather w a s the inventor of c o l d - drawn castor o i l . I m e n t i o n the circumstance h e r e , t h i n k i n g il p r o b a b l e that this is the first o c c a s i o n on which the valuable m e - dicine in q u e s t i o n w a s ever u s e d as a conversational aperient.

W e reached the c i t y , late that night. L o o k i n g out of my c h a m b e r w i n d o w , b e f o r e going to b e d , I s a w , on the opposite side of the w a y , a h a n d s o m e b u i l d i n g of white m a r b l e , which had a m o u r n f u l g h o s t - l i k e a s p e c t , dreary to b e h o l d . I attributed t h i s to the s o m b r e influence of the night, and on rising i n the m o r n i n g looked out a g a i n , expecting to s e e its s t e p s and portico t h r o n g e d with g r o u p s of people p a s s i n g in and o u t . The d o o r w a s still tight s h u t , h o w e v e r ; the s a m e cold c h e e r l e s s air p r e v a i l e d ; and the b u i l d i n g l o o k e d a s if the marble statue of D o n G u z m a n c o u l d a l o n e have any b u s i n e s s to transact w i t h i n its

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gloomy walls. I hastened to enquire its name and p u r p o s e , and then my surprise vanished. It was the Tomb of many f o r t u n e s ; the Great Catacomb of investment; the memorable United States B a n k .

The stoppage of this b a n k , with all its ruinous c o n s e q u e n c e s , had cast f a s I was told on every side) a gloom on Philadelphia, under the depressing effect of which, it yet laboured. It certainly did seem rather dull and out of spirits.

It is a handsome city, but distractinglv regular. After walking about it for an hour or t w o , I felt that I would have given the world for a crooked street. The collar of my coat appeared to stiffen, and the brim of my hat to expand, beneath its quakerly influence. My hair shrunk into a sleek short c r o p , my hands folded them - selves upon my breast of their own calm accord, and thoughts of taking lodgings in Mark Lane over against the Market P l a c e , and of making a large fortune by speculations in corn, came over me involuntarily.

Philadelphia is most bountifully provided with lresh water, which is showered and jerked a b o u t , and turned o n , and poured •iff, everywhere. The W a t e r w o r k s , which are on a height near the city, are no l e s s ornamental than u s e f u l , being tastefully laid out as a public garden, and kept in the best and neatest order. The river i s dammed at this point, and forced by its own power into certain high tanks or reservoirs, whence the whole city, to the top stories of the h o u s e s , is supplied at a very trifling expense.

There are various public institutions. Among them a most ex- cellent Hospital — a quaker establishment, but not sectarian in the great benefits it confers; a q u i e t , quaint old Library, named after Franklin; a handsome Exchange and Post Office; and so forth. In connexion with the quaker H o s p i t a l , there is a picture b y W e s t , which is exhibited for the benefit of the funds of the i n - stitution. The s u b j e c t , i s , our Saviour healing the s i c k , and it i s , perhaps, as favourable a specimen of the master as can be seen anywhere. Whether this be high or low p r a i s e , depends upon the reader's taste.

In the same r o o m , there i s a very characteristic and life-like portrait by Mr. S u l l y , a distinguished American artist.

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My stay in Philadelphia was very short, but what I saw of its society, I greatly liked. Treating of its general characteristics, I should b e disposed to say that it is more provincial than Boston or New York, and that there i s , afloat in the fair city, an a s s u m p - tion of taste and criticism, savouring rather of those genteel dî < eussions unon the same t h e m e s , in connexion with Shakspeare and the Mulical G l a s s e s , of which we read in the Yicar of W a k e - iield. Near the city, i s a most splendid unfinished marble struc- ture for the Girard College, founded by a deceased gentleman of that name and of enormous wealth, w hich, if completed accord- ing to the original d e s i g n , will be perhaps the richest edifice of modern times. But the bequest is involved in legal disputes, and pending them the work has stopped; so that like many other great undertakings in A m e r i c a , even this is rather going to be done one of these days, than doing n o w .

In the outskirts, stands a great prisou, called the Eastern Penitentiary: conducted on a plan peculiar to the state of P e n n - sylvania. The system h e r e , is rigid, strict, and hopeless solitary confinement. I believe it, in its effects, to be cruel and wrong.

In its intention, I am well convinced that it is k i n d , humane, and meant for reformation; but I am persuaded that those who d e - vised this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent g e n - tlemen who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing. I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the i m m e n s e amount of torture and agony which this dreadful p u n i s h m e n t , prolonged for years, inflicts u p o n the sufferers; and in guessing at it m y s e l f , and in reasoning from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that there is a depth of terrible endurance in it which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain, to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body: and because its ghastly signs and tokens are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh; because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that h u - man ears can hear; therefore I the more denounce it, as a sccret

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punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay. I hesitated o n c e , debating with m y s e l f , whether, if I had the power of saying " Y e s " or " N o , " I would allow it to be tried in certain c a s e s , where the terms of imprisonment were short; but n o w , I solemnly declare, that with no rewards or honours could I walk a happy man beneath the open sky by day or lie m e dowD u p o n my bed at night, with the consciousness that one human creature, for any length of t i m e , no matter what, lay suffering this unknown punishment in his silent c e l l , and I the c a u s e , or I consenting to it in the least degree.

I was accompanied to this prison by two gentlemen officially connected with its management, and passed the day in going from cell to c e l l , and talking with the inmates. Every facility was a f - forded m e , that the utmost courtesy could suggest. Nothing was concealed or hidden from my v i e w , and every piece of information that I s o u g h t , was openly and frankly given. The perfect order of the building cannot be praised too highly, and of the excellent motives of all who are immediately concerned in the administration of the s y s t e m , there can be no kind of question.

Between the body of the prison and the outer w a l l , there is a spacious garden. Entering i t , by a wicket in the massive gate, •we pursued the path before u s to its other termination, and passed into a large chamber, from which seven long passages radiate. On either side of each, is a l o n g , long row of low cell d o o r s , with a certain number over every one. A b o v e , a gallery of cells like those b e l o w , except that they have no narrow yard attached ( a s those in the ground tier h a v e ) , and are somewhat smaller. The p o s s e s s i o n of two of t h e s e , is supposed to compensate for the a b - sence of so much air and exercise as can be had in the dull strip at- tached to each of the others, in an hour's time every day; and therefore every prisoner in this upper story has two c e l l s , adjoin- i n g and communicating w i t h , each other.

Standing at the central p o i n t , and looking down these dreary p a s s a g e s , the dull repose and quiet that prevails, is awful. O c - casionally, there is a drowsy sound from some lone weaver's s h u t t l e , or shoemaker's l a s t , but it i s stifled by the thick walls

and heavy d u n g e o n - d o o r , and only serves to make the general

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stillness more profound. Over the head and face of every prisoner who comes into this melancholy h o u s e , a black hood is drawn; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped b e - tween him and the living world, he is led to the cell from which he never again comes forth, until his whole term of imprisonment has expired. H e never hears of wife or children; home or friends; the life or death of any single creature. He sees the prison-officers, but with that exception he never looks upon a human countenance, or hears a human voice. H e i s a man buried alive; to be dug out iu the slow round of years; and in the mean time dead to every- thing but torturing anxieties and horrible despair.

H i s n a m e , and crime, and term of suffering, are unknown, even to the officer who delivers him his daily food. There i s a number over his cell-door, and in a book of which the governor of the prison has one copy, and the moral instructor another: this i s the index to his history. Beyond these pages the prison has no re- cord of his existence: and though he live to be in the same cell ten weary years, he has no means of knowing, down to the very last h o u r , in what part of the building it is situated; what kind of men there are about h i m ; whether in the long winter nights there are living people n e a r , or he is in some lonely corner of the great jail, with walls, and p a s s a g e s , and iron doors between him and the nearest sharer in its solitary horrors.

Every cell has doable doors: the outer one of sturdy oak, the, other of grated iron, wherein there is a trap through which his food i s handed. He has a Bible, and a slate and pencil, a n d , under certain restrictions, has sometimes other b o o k s , provided for the p u r p o s e , and pen and ink and paper. H i s razor, plate, and c a n , and basin, hang upon the wall, or shine upon the little shelf. Fresh water is laid on in every c e l l , and he can draw it at his pleasure. During the day, his b e d - s t e a d turns up against the w a l l , and leaves more space for him to work in. H i s l o o m , or b e n c h , or w h e e l , is there; and there he labours, sleeps and wakes, and counts the seasons as they change, and grows old.

The first man I s a w , was seated at his l o o m , at work. H e had been there, six y e a r s , and was to remain, I think, three more. He had been convicted as a receiver of stolen g o o d s , but even after

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this long imprisonment, denied his guilt, and said he had been hardly dealt by. It was his second offence.

He stopped his work when we went i n , took off his spectacles, and answered freely to everything that was said to h i m , but always with a strange kind of pause first, and in a l o w , thoughtful voice. H e wore a paper hat of his own m a k i n g , and was pleased to have it noticed and commended. H e had very ingeniously manufactured a sort of Dutch clock from some disregarded odds and e n d s ; and his vinegar-bottle served for the pendulum. Seeing me interested in this contrivance, he looked up at it with a great deal of pride, and said that he had been thinking of improving i t , and that he hoped the hammer and a little piece of broken glass beside it " w o u l d play music before long." He had extracted some colours from the yarn with which he worked, and painted a few poor figures on the wall. O n e , of a f e m a l e , over the door, he called " T h e Lady of the Lake."

H e smiled as I looked at these contrivances to wile away the t i m e : but when I looked from them to h i m , I saw that his lip trembled, and could have counted the beating of his heart. I forget how it came a b o u t , but some allusion was made to his having a wife. H e shook his head at the word, turned a s i d e , and covered his face with his hands.

" B u t you are resigned n o w ! " said one of the gentlemen after a short p a u s e , during which he had resumed his former manner. H e answered with a sigh that seemed quite reckless in its h o p e l e s s - n e s s , " Oh y e s , oh y e s ! I am resigned to it." " And are a better m a n , you think?" " W e l l , I hope s o : I ' m sure I hope I may b e . " " A n d time goes pretty quickly?" " T i m e is very long, gentlemen, within these four w a l l s ! "

He gazed about him — Heaven only knows how wearily! — as he said these words; and in the act of doing s o , fell into a strange stare as if he had forgotten something. A moment afterwards he sighed heavily, put on his spectacles, and wcilt about his work again.

In another cell, there was a German, sentenced to five years' imprisonment for larceny, two of which had just expired. W i t h colours procured in the same manner, he had painted every inch of the walls and ceiling quite beautifully. H e had laid out the few

feet of g r o u n d , b e h i n d , with exquisite n e a t n e s s , and had made a little bed in the centre, that looked by the bye like a grave. Thr taste and ingenuity he had displayed in everything were most extra- ordinary; and yet a more dejected, heart-broken, wretched creature, it would be difficult to imagine. I never saw such a picture of forlorn affliction and distress of mind. My heart bled for h i m ; and when the tears ran down his c h e e k s , and he took one of the visitors a s i d e , to a s k , with his trembling hands nervously clutching at his coat to detain h i m , whether there was no hope of his dismal sentence being c o m m u t e d , the spectacle was really too painful to witness. I never saw or heard of any kind of misery that impressed me more than the wretchedness of this man.

In a third cell, was a tall strong b l a c k , a burglar, working at his proper trade of making screws and the like. H i s time was nearly out. H e was not only a very dexterous t h i e f , but was notorious for his boldness and hardihood, and for the number of his previous convictions. He entertained us w ith a long account of his achievements, which he narrated with such infinite relish, that he actually seemed to lick his lips as he told u s racy anecdote- of stolen plate, and of old ladies whom he had watched as they sai at windows in silver spectacles (he had plainly had an eye to theii metal even from the other side of the s t r e e t ) , and had afterwards robbed. This fellow, upon the slightest encouragement, would have mingled with his professional recollections the most detestable caut; but I am very much mistaken if he could have surpassed the unmitigated hypocrisy with which he declared that he blessed the day on which b e c a m e into that prison, and that he never would commit another robbery as long as he lived.

There was one man who was a l l o w e d , as an i n d u l g e n c e , so keep rabbits. H i s room having rather a close smell in. c o n s e q u e n c e , they called to him at the door to come out into the p a s s a g e , H e complied of c o u r s e , and stood shading his haggard face in the. unwonted sunlight of the great w i n d o w , looking as wan and un- earthly as if he had been s u m m o n e d from the grave. He had a white rabbit in his breast; and when the little creature, getting down upon the ground, stole back into the c e l l , and h e , being d i s m i s s e d , crept timidly after i t , I t h o u g h t it would have been very

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hard to say in what respect the man was the nobler animal of the two.

There was an English thief, who had been there but a few days out of seven years: a v i l l a n o u s , low-browed, thin-lipped fellow, with a white face; who had as yet no relish for visitors, and who, but for the additional penalty, would have gladly stabbed me with his shoemaker's knife. There was another German who had entered the jail but yesterday, and who started from his bed when we looked i n , and pleaded, in his broken English, very hard for work. There was a poet, who a f t e r doing two days'work in every four-and-twentv hours, one for himself and one for the prison, wrote verses about ships (he was by trade,a mariner), and " t h e maddening w i n e - c u p , " and his friends at home. There were very many of them. Some reddened at the sight of visitors, and some turned very pale. Some two or three had prisoner nurses with t h e m , for they were very sick; and one, a fat old negro whose k g had been taken off within the jail, had for his attendant a classical scholar and an accomplished surgeon, himself a prisoner likewise. Sitting upon the stairs, engaged in some slight work, was a pretty coloured boy. " I s there no refuge for young criminals in Phila- delphia, then?" said I. " Y e s , but only for white children." Noble aristocracy in crime!

There was a sailor who had been there upwards of eleven years, and who in a few months' time would be free. Eleven years of solitary confinement!

" I am very glad to hear your time is nearly out." What does he say? Nothing. Why does he stare at his h a n d s , and pick the ilesh upon his lingers, and raise his eyes for an instant, every now and then, to those bare walls which have seen his head turn grey? It is a way he has sometimes.

Does he never look men in the face, and does he always pluck at those hands of his, as though he were bent on parting skin and bone? It is his humour: nothing more.

It is his humour too, to say that he does not look forward to going out; that he is not glad the time is drawing near; that he did look forward to it once, but that was very long ago ; that he has lost all care for everything. It is his humour to be a helpless, crushed.

and broken man. A n d , Heaven be his witness that he has his humour thoroughly gratified!

There were three young women in adjoining cells, all convicted at the same time of a conspiracy to rob their prosecutor. In the silence and solitude of their lives, they had grown to be quite beautiful. Their looks were very sad, and might have moved the sternest visitor to tears, but not to that kind of sorrow which the contemplation of the m e n , awakens. One was a young girl; not twenty, as I recollect; whose snow-white room was hung with the work of some former prisoner, and upon whose downcast face the sun in all its splendour shone down through the high chink iu the wall, where one narrow strip of bright blue sky was visible. She was very penitent and quiet; had come to be resigned, she said (and I believe her); and had a mind at peace. " I n a word, you are happy here?" said one of my companions. She struggled — she did struggle very hard — to answer, Y e s : but raising her e y e s , and meeting that glimpse of freedom over-head, she burst into tears, and said, " She tried to be; she uttered no complaint; but it was natural that she should sometimes long to go out of that one cell: she could not help that," she sobbed, poor thing!

I went from cell to cell that day; and every face I s a w , or word I heard, or incident I noted, is present to my mind in all its pain- fulness. But let me pass them b y , for o n e , more pleasant, glance of a prison on the same plan which I afterwards saw at Pittsburgh.

When I had gone over that, in the same manner, I asked the governor if he had any person in his charge who was shortly going out. He had o n e , he s a i d , whose time was up next day; but he had only been a prisoner two years.

Two years! I looked back through two years in my own life — out of j a i l , prosperous, happy, surrounded by b l e s s i n g s , c o m - forts, and good fortune —• and thought how wide a gap it was, and how long those two years passed in solitary captivity would have been. I have the face of this m a n , who was going to be re- leased next day, before me now. It is almost more memorable in its happiness than the other faces in their misery. How easy and how natural it was for him to say that the system was a good

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o n e ; and that the time went " p r e t t y quick — c o n s i d e r i n g ; " and that when a man once felt h e had offended the l a w , and must s a t i s f y i t , " h e g o t a l o n g , s o m e h o w : " a n d s o f o r t h !

" W h a t did he call you back to say to y o u , in that strange flutter?" I asked of my conductor, when he had locked the door and joined m e in the passage.

" O h ! That he was afraid the soles of h i s boots were not fit for w a l k i n g , as they were a good deal worn when he came i n ; a n d that h e would thank m e very much to have them m e n d e d , ready."

Those boots had been taken off his f e e t , and put away with the rest of his c l o t h e s , two years b e f o r e !

I took that opportunity of inquiring how they conducted t h e m - selves immediately before going out; adding that I presumed they trembled very m u c h .

" W e l l , i t ' s not so m u c h a t r e m b l i n g , " w a s the answer — " t h o u g h they do quiver — as a complete derangement of the nervous s y s t e m . They can't sign their names to the b o o k ; s o m e - t i m e s can't even hold the p e n ; look about 'em without appearing to know w h y , or where they are; and sometimes get up and s i t d o w n again, twenty t i m e s in a minute. This i s when they 're in the office, where they are taken with the hood o n , as they were brought in. W h e n they get outside the gate, they s t o p , and look first one way and then the other: not knowing which to take. Sometimes they stagger as if they were drunk, and sometimes are forced to lean against the f e n c e , they 're so b a d : — but they clear off in course of time."

A s I walked among these solitary c e l l s , and looked at the faces of the men within t h e m , I tried to picture to myself the thoughts and feelings natural to their condition. I imagined the hood j u s t taken o f f , and the scene of tfceir captivity disclosed to them in all i t s dismal monotony.

A t first, the man i s stunned. H i s confinement i s a h i d e o u s v i s i o n ; and his old life a reality. H e throws himself upon his bed, and lies there abandoned to despair. By degrees the insupportable solitude and barrenness of the place rouses him from this stupor, a n d when the trap in his grated door i s o p e n e d , he humbly b e g s

and prays for work. ! t Give me some work to d o , or I shall go raving m a d ! "

H e has i t ; and by fits and starts applies himself to labour; but every now and then there comes upon him a burning sense of the years that m u s t be wasted in that stone coffin, and an agony s o piercing in the recollection of those who are hidden from his view and knowledge, that he starts from his s e a t , and striding u p and down the narrow room with both hands clasped on his uplifted h e a d , hears spirits tempting him to beat his brains out on the wall.

Again he falls upon his b e d , and lies there, moaning. S u d - denly he starts u p , wondering whether any other man i s near; whether there is another cell like that on either s i d e of h i m : and listens keenly.

There i s no s o u n d , but other prisoners may b e near for alt that. H e remembers to have heard o n c e , when he little thought of coming here h i m s e l f , that the cells were so constructed that the prisoners could not hear each other, though the offi- cers coulJ hear them. Where is the nearest m a n — u p o u the r i g h t , or on the l e f t ? or i s there one in both directions? W h e r e i s he sitting now — with his face to the light? or i s h e walking to and fro? H o w i s he dressed? Has he been here l o n g ? Is he much worn away? Is he very white and s p e c t r e - l i k e ? D o e s he think of his neighbour t o o ?

Scarcely venturing to breathe, and listening while h e thinks, h e conjures up a figure with its back towards h i m , and imagines it moving about in this next celL H e has no idea of the f a c e , b u t be is certain of the dark form of a stooping m a n . In the cell upon the other s i d e , he puts another figure, whose face i s hidden from h i m also. Day after d a y , and often when h e wakes up i n the middle of the night, be thinks of these two m e n , until he i s almost distracted. H e never changes them. There they are always as he first imagined them — an old man on the right; a younger man upon the left — whose hidden features torture h i m to death, and have a mystery that makes him tremble.

The weary days pass op with solemn p a c e , like mourners at a funeral; and slowly he begins .to feel that the white walls of the cell

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have something dreadful in t h e m : that their colour i s horrible: that their smooth surface chills his b l o o d : that there i s one hateful corner which torments h i m . Every morning when be w a k e s , he hides his head beneath the coverlet, and shudders to see the ghastly ceiling looking dowu upon him. The b l e s s e d light of day itself peeps i n , an ugly phantom f a c e , through the unchangeable crevice which is his prison window.

By slow but sure degrees, the terrors of that hateful corner swell until they b e s e t him at all t i m e s ; invade his rest, make h i s dreams h i d e o u s , and his nights dreadful. A t first, h e took a strange dislike to i t : feeling as though it gave birth in his brain to something of corresponding s h a p e , which ought not to b e there, a n d racked his head with p a i n s . T h e n he began to fear i t , then to dream of i t , and of men whispering its name and pointing to i t . T h e n he could not bear to look at i t , nor yet to turn his back upon it. N o w , it is every night the lurking-place of a g h o s t : a s h a d o w : — a silent s o m e t h i n g , horrible to s e e , b u t whether b i r d , or b e a s t , or muffled h u m a n s h a p e , h e cannot tell.

W h e n he is in his cell by d a y , h e fears the little yard, without. W h e n h e i s in the y a r d , he dreads to re-enter the cell. W h e n night c o m e s , there stands the phantom in the corner. If he have the courage to stand in its p l a c e , and drive it out ( h e had o n c e : being d e s p e r a t e ) , it broods upon his b e d . In the twilight, and always at the s a m e hour, a voice calls to him by n a m e ; as the darkness thickens, h i s L o o m begins to l i r e ; and even that, his comfort, i s a hideous figure, watching h i m till daybreak.

A g a i n , b y slow degrees, these horrible fancies depart from him one by o n e : returning s o m e t i m e s , unexpectedly, b u t at longer intervals, and in l e s s alarming sh a p es. H e has talked upon r e - l i g i o u s matters with the gentleman who visits h i m , and h a s read h i s B i b l e , and h a s written a prayer u p o n h i s s l a t e , and hung it u p , as a kind of protection, and an assurance of Heavenly c o m - panionship. H e dreams n o w , s o m e t i m e s , of his children or h i s w i f e , but is sure that they are dead or have deserted h i m . H e i s easily moved to t e a r s ; i s gentle, s u b m i s s i v e , and broken-spirited. Occasionally, the old agony comes back: a very little thing will revive i t ; even a familiar s o u n d , or the scent of s u m m e r flowers

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in the air; but it does not last l o n g , n o w . for the world without, has come to b e the vision, and this solitary life, the sad reality.

If his term of imprisonment b e short — I mean comparatively, for short it cannot be — the last half year i s almost worse than all; for then he thinks the prison will take fire and he b e burnt i n the r u i n s , or that he i s doomed to die within the w a l l s , or that he will be detained on some false charge and sentenced for another term: or that something, no matter what, must happen to prevent h i s going at large. And this is natural, and impossible to b e reasoned against, b e c a u s e , , after his long separation from human l i f e , and bis great suffering, any event will appear to him more probable in the contemplation, than the being restored to liberty and his f e l - low-creatures.

If his period of confinement have been very l o n g , the prospect of release, bewilders and confuses him. H i s broken heart may flutter for a m o m e n t , when he thinks of the world o u t s i d e , and what it might have been to him in all those lonely years, but that i s all. The cell-door has been closed too long on all its hopes and cares. Better to have hanged him in the beginning than bring him to this p a s s , and s e n d him forth to mingle with his k i n d , who are his kind no more.

On the haggard face of every man among these prisoners, the same expression sat. I know not what to liken it to. It had something of that strained attention which we see upon the faces of the blind and d e a f , mingled with a kind of horror, as though they had all been secretly terrified. In every little chamber that I e n - tered, and at every grate through which I looked, 1 seemed to see the same appalling countenance. It lives in my memory, with the fascination of a remarkable picture. Parade before m y e y e s , a hundred m e n , with one among them newly released from this s o - litary suffering, and I would point him out.

T h e faces of the w o m e n , as I have s a i d , it humanizes and re- fines. Whether this b e , because of their better nature, which is elicited in solitude, or because of their being gentler creatures, of greater patience and longer suffering, J do not k n o w ; b u t s o i t i s . That the punishment i s nevertheless, to my thinking, fully as cruel

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and as wrong in their case, as in that of the m e n , I need scarcely add.

My firm conviction i s , that independent of the mental anguish it occasions — an anguish so acute and so tremendous, that all imagination of it must fall far short of the reality — it wears the mind into a morbid state, which renders it unfit for the rough contact and busy action of the world. It is my fixed opinion that those who have undergone this punishment, MUST pass into society again morally unhealthy and diseased. There are many instances on record, of m e n who have chosen, o r have been con- demned, to lives of perfect solitude, but I scarcely remember oue, even among sages of strong and vigorous intellect, where its effect has not become apparent, in some disordered train of thought, or some gloomy hallucination. What monstrous phantoms, bred of despondency and doubt, and born and reared in solitude, have stalked upon the earth, making creation ugly, and darkening the face of Heaven!

Suicides are r a r e among these prisoners: are almost, indeed, unknown. But no argument in favour of the system, can reason- ably be deduced from this circumstance, although it is very often urged. All men who have made diseases of the mind, their study, know perfectly well that such extreme depression and despair as will change the whole character, and beat down all its powers of elasticity and self-resistance, may be at work within a m a n , and yet stop short of self-destruction. This is a common case.

That it makes the senses dull, and by degrees impairs the bodily faculties, I am quite sure. I remarked to those who were with me in this very establishment at Philadelphia, that the cri- minals who had been there long, were deaf. They, who were in the habit of seeing these men constantly, were perfectly amazed at the idea, which they regarded as groundless and fanciful. And yet the very first prisoner to whom they appealed — one of their own selection — confirmed my impression (which was unknown to him) instantly, and said, with a genuine air it was impossible to doubt, that he couldn't think how it happened, but he VMS growing very dull of hearing.

That it is a singularly unequal punishment, and affects the

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worst man least, there i s no doubt. In its superior efficiency as a means of reformation, compared with that other code of regula- tions which allows the prisoners to work in company without c o m - municating together, I have not the smallest faith. All the instan- ces of reformation that were mentioned to m e , were of a kind that might have been — and I have no doubt whatever, in my owe mind, would have been — equally well brought about by the Silent System. With regard to such men as the negro burglar and the English thief, even the most enthusiastic have scarcely any hope of their conversion.

It seems to me that the objection that nothing wholesome or good has ever had its growth in such unnatural solitude, and that even a dog or any of the more intelligent among b e a s t s , would pine, and'mope, and rust away, beneath its influence, would b e in itself a sufficient argument against this system. But when we recollect, in addition, how very cruel and severe it i s , and that a solitary life i s always liable to peculiar and distinct objections of a most deplorable nature, which have arisen here; and call to mind, moreover, that the choice is not batween this systepj, and a bad or ill-considered o n e , but between it and-another which has worked well, and i s , in its whole design and practice, excellent; there i s surely more than sufficient reason for abandoning a mode of punishment attended by so little hope or promise, and fraught, beyond dispute, with such a host of evils.

A s a relief to its contemplation, I will close this chapter with a curious story, arising out of the same theme, which was related to m e , on the occasion of this visit, by some of the gentlemen c o n - cerned.

A t one of the periodical meetings of the inspectors of this prison, a working man of Philadelphia presented himself before the Board, and earnestly requested to be placed in solitary c o n - finement. On being asked what motive could possibly prompt him to make this strange demand, he answered that he had an irresist- ible propensity to get drunk; that he was constantly indulging it, to his great misery and ruin; that he had no power of resistance; that he wished to be put beyond the reach of temptation; and that he could think of no better way than this. It was p l i n t e d out to

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him, in reply, that the prison was for criminals who had been tried and sentenced by the l a w , and could not be made available for any such fanciful purposes; he was exhorted to abstain from intoxi- cating drinks, as he surely might if he would; and received other very good advice, with which he retired, exceedingly dissatisfied with the result of his application.

H e came again, and again, and again, and was so very earnest and i m p o r t u n a t e , that at last they took counsel together, and said, " He will certainly qualify himself for admission, if we reject him any more, l e t u s shut him up. He will soon be glad to go away, and then w e shall get rid of him." So they made him sign a statement which would prevent his ever sustaining an action for false imprisonment, to the effect that his incarceration was v o l u n - tary, and of his own seeking; they requested him to {ake notice that the officer in attendance had orders to release him at any hour of the day or night, when h e might knock upon his door for that purpose; but desired him to understand, that once going o u t , he would not b e admitted any more. These conditions agreed upon, and he >still r e m a i n i n g ^ the same m i n d , he was conducted to the prison, and shut up in one of the cells.

In this cell, the man, who had not the firmness to leave a glass of liquor standing untasted on a table before him — in this cell, in solitary confinement, and working every day at his trade of s h o e - making, this man remained nearly two years. H i s health b e g i n - ning to fail at the expiration of that time, the surgeon recommended that he should work occasionally in the garden; and as he liked the notion very m u c h , he went about this new occupation with great cheerfulness.

H e was digging here, one summer day, very industriously, when the wicket in the outer gate chanced to be left open: showing, b e y o n d , the well-remembered dusty road and sun-burnt fields. The way was as free to him as to any man living, but he no sooner raised his head and caught sight of i t , all shining in the light, than, with the involuntary instinct of a prisoner, he cast away his s p a d e , scampered off as fast as his legs would carry h i m , and never once looked back.