HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1933-01-05, Page 74
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THE SEAFORTH NEWS.
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Special Offer ---New and Renewal Yearly Subscriptions
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!•'TLA xrTlr1N n r%0
Publishers.
Nov. 5, 1932.
News
Frig
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It Hi McInnes
ehlropractor
Of Wingham, will be at the
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Monday, Wednesday and
Friday Afternoons
Diseases of all kinds : success"
fully treated.
Electricity used.
IF CHRIST HAD NEVER COME 1.
It is interesting to 'wander am.ongs-
st the. "ifs" 'olE.'possible 'his'tdry, says
s writer in the Christian World of
London. If a 'tnnicrabe in Babylon •'had
no killed Alexander the Great, all.
Europe might have been completely
'changed under an 'Oriental' culture.
If George VIII. .had been a wiser man
than he was, America and Britain
might :always have been one. I1 'the
car of the :Grand Duke of ; Austria
Bad not stopped in a side street in
Serajeivo, .a frenzied lad on the curb
taiight never have ',shot him, and
perhaps there might have •been no
Great War. But the most startling
speculation of all is to try to imagine
What fife would have been in 'Jesus
Christ had never, Ibsen born. Just
over the hill from Nazareth, the Ro-
man road ran front East to West,
rand as a boy the little Jesus must
(lave sat there often' and seen the
world go by -m'erch'ants. .from the
East perched on their bales of car -
)et and fine ,silks; tined :p'ilgrims
(harping' after truth; philosophers and
I'eachirs full of the oddest collections
of ideas; strolling companies' of play-
ers; Iblind
lay-ers;'blin'd men tapping out 'their way;
soldiers marching, ,slick 'nven and :wo-
anen hobbling everywhere. In some
ways 'that ancient world was n'at
very different' from ours. Under' the
dust 'Po'mpeii, splurged in red
paint u'pon the walls, are the election dition of the 'cern market, and of
'gotices, "Vote for P'a'quis Proculus, the sights of IEgyspit. He etds', 'with
the Ma* for the bakers." "We crave hopeful 'ingtbiries as to his wa"'fe's
your 'votes for Fronto, who will look :health, and .then adds that, if it be
after the/'pu'blic 'funds." Where 'the-, another girl .which is born, it will best
atre sgtteue.s waited, !people have scni'b- to .throw her away. You. heard ,bh,e
tied .thein names on the pillars. In cries of these discarded' !children
out-Iof-the-way corners lovers 'have the night acid rain, and old hags
written their messages. is strange !nom 'baby farms prowled 'the streets,
to draw up the curtain and to try to
see some _of the faces of that ancient
world. Here, for example, is a slave,
Everyone, save the very poorest, ,had 1 be reared otherwise: If they were
frail, they lent them on the damp
flag stones to die. That was the
world into which Christ came. And
here is an ordinary 'man. You would
see him in thousands on the tiers of
amp•itheatre. The show might begin
with a bull chained to a tiger fighting
in frenzy and terror. Then came the
gladiators, and little lads syrin'gcd
the hot air under the red and blue
a'wn'ings to drawn the reek of blood.
Then they twitched the dwarfs, 'tike
women, and the deformed fight, and
trailed home debauched in mind.
That was the world into which Christ
was 'born. If II -Ie had never come,
What then?
a slave, whilst a wealthy man might
have as many as eight h'und'red on
his estate. You b'o'ught them in the
market. Au ordinary slave might
coat twenty pounds; a skilled baker
fifty p'ou.nds; a coachman, too deaf, to
hear conversation in .the carriage ;be-
hind +him, a hundred and fifty pounds.
An amusing dwarf, or a beau'tifu'l wo-
man of marriageable age, might cast
a thousand pounds. You .bought them
and you set your brand am their
forehead or back. 'Some were oared
for; some were not. IA girl drops a
dish at a banlquet, and her ,mistress
sends her'with a note to the flog-
ging shop, and the note says thirty
lashes. !Augustus finds a slave in the
larder eating a quail' left over from
sulpp'er, and as an 'example hashim
crucified. I't is dark to think what
would have happened to the world's
chains and chained, if 'Christ had
never 'been born, And here is a wo-
man..A'mongst the ,Romans they were
given a fairly high position; in other
races' they were often treated as cat-
tle, Owiid the ,poet goes abroad on
State bta'siness, and writes to his wife;
"`I address thee absent. !Never night
and never day ,00mes to me without
the t'hough't o'f • thee." But taken on
the 'whiol,e, women were of seco'nd'ary
or third-rate value.
(Women were looked down upon and
looked down upon them'sel'ves, until
Christ came. And here!is a child.
Some of the very tenderest letters in
history are letter written about little
children. In'many homes they were'
loved most tenderly, and often 'wh:en
the angel of death touched a child,
hearts were broken. But usually, ,chit=
drew were looked upon in rather a
utilitarian way. 'T'hey were necessary
in order to carry on a family, or to
pirovide ,fiarnt hands, slaves and sol-
diers, But, if they were not wanted,
RIOT LN TIHE BIG HOUSE
!I'm out of "stir" now and I'an 1'o'k-
ing for a job. WheniI read aboutthe
riot, I was glad that I was out, be-
cause if I had been in,�I might have,
.got my temper up and taken a poke
at someone and their it would have
been good -'bye tine -off and pro'bab'ly
a rot ofmisery down in the ` !role."
Yet, 'a'fellow is kind of .funny that
way. I would have liked to have seen
it I'll bet 't'here are of lot of fellows
down there who get the most fun out
of the riot that they have had since
they were put away. There are a 'lat
of men dawn there who haven't had
any .Fun or excitement For a long time.
S was in the "big -house for nea'r'ly
four years I didn't'have any fun or
excitement for nearly four years. I
w.o.uld have Piked to see` it. I wound
like to have ,seen same df .the
"screws"—that's what they call the
guards down _th'er'e — sweating" and
worrying, .not knowing- if' they were
going to be killed or not. 1 wauld
like to have seen some of the other
."screws" working among the ' gang
and. trying to stop 'them. There are.
they we're destroyed like !puppies or good '"`screws" and bad "screws" and
put out to .die. 'Hlil'arion,' a .cont 'mer- it would have' been something , to.
c'han't, goes to: Egypt and writes to think about,the rest of my l'i'fe, to
his• wife, who is ,expecting a child, a 'have, seen how the good ones acted
very iiainel'y letter ,telling of 'the con-; when,hell was popping all around
t'henm.' It must have been hot for
a while,,I knew that something" was
going to break long before they let
Inc out, .can't tell you exactly how I
know. There are things that go on in
the 'big -house'' that' you can't,ex-
plain. You have 'to d'o' time to know,
!But I knew that it was coming and
Q 'knew that unless something craok-
feeling their limbs. '11 ' they were ed, that while things would be hot
strong, they mighit do for slaves. If1When t!he time came, they wouldnt
they were fair little limbs, 'they could l be anything like the ro'wIs down. in
Auburn, Poliet, (Leavenworth, and
other
other penitentiaries down in the
States. They were out for b'lo'od in the
American penitentiaries. Either that
or the demon's'trations 'cracke'd and
then blew up.I tkn'dw for certain there was no in-
tention of starting a real break. d
know I felt !before'I got out that it
wouldn't hunt to start something and
let the p'eop'le outside know that we
were .down there add had a complaint
or two. I have 'heard more talk about
cigarette .papers than ever before. At
first, I was amused in kind of a sup-
erior way. I thought to myself,, little
do they know what they are talking
about, Then; I got a little sick,of all
the criticism. It reminded me of arm-
chair ,soldiers during the war time.
You remember how they took Hill 60
with pins on a map. Can you picture
tobacco means to s'm;okers down
in the penitentiary? You can't, because
you have never been there. You have
never been ,lo'cked in a cell, day in and
day out 'until the weeks pass into
month's and the mon'th's into years.
You have never been rocked in a cell
to eat .three drab meals a day with a
o'
spoon'ut of a metal tray. Yon have
never been cut off from recreation
with the exception of a little reading.
You Have never ben tied down to, the
monotonous routine of a 'penitentiary
until the very thought of a riot looms
as big as a holiday trip to Europe
with your expenses paid and money
to spend an champagne and all the
rest o'f it,
!Anyone who knows anything
abatat smoking knows that a package
of tobacco 'will last longer if it is.
anade into cigarette's than if it is
sm'o'ked in, a pipe. Anyone who has
been "stir" knows how each cigar-
ette butt is saved and re-rdl'ied' into
another cigarette. 'Then, •there is the
natter Of satis'fac'tion to anyone used
to smoking cigarettes. Pipe smokers
use an awful Bolt of matches. But they
don't have matches dawn in the "big
house.'" 'After. meals, if you get
g
li ht, yoti ,get it front a guard 'wave)'wave)has
a torch. He s'ti'cks his torch fh'rough.
the :bars. If he is a good "screw" he
may leave, i1 long 'etmough for a pipe
smoker to ,ge'this tobacco glo'w'ing.
If he isn'ta good "screw," or if he
is
in a hurry, you're oat of luck. But
even with the coarse,cu't tobacco tivat.
they give you down there, if you use
care, you .coli roll a cigarette . that
draws fairly well. ,I ani with the gang
itt their complaint ab'ou't the cigarette
•aa pP ers, And, I like the first than wih'o
had enough nerve to write, "Steal a
million and see Collin's Bay."
During these age -long hours that
you have to lie in your cell with noth-
ing to do, you are apt to do a lot of
thinking. There was a lot of thinking
done the nigth a'f'ter the word was
passed around that some brokers were
sent to the "preferred class" pen.
There was a lot more thinking the
night after the word was passed
arounld'that some .brokers had been
let. out. Did you ever hear after dark
a convict give a derisive cackle some-
where along the line of cells? !Did you
ever hear a convict's cackle, blle'd
with, a world of meaning, -e'chb out of
his dark cell and dawn the dark cor-
ridor after the light switch'h'ad been
cwt at nine? Convicts can't talk at
the Dartmouth ,pen, A canwict can't
whisper to his next neighbor- in the
lune without risking a penalty. But
convicts risk th'e penalties. They talk.
.Dawn there at IC'in'gston, they are
wondering 'whalt "preferred class"
means in its application to a prison.
They talk about pull from the ant-
side. They talk about pull .From the in-
side and they talk about the parole
board.
I don't believe 'there is any kick
about the food, The food is good ,a1 -
though . there is no .variety. But 'what
can you expect? After all it is a peni-
tentiary. I don't believe there is
I don't believe there is much of a
kick' about the living conditions'. The
cells and the cell blo'cks are clean.
;They aught tobe clean for there are
enough hien down thereto keep them
clean. The .ce'll lavatory accommoda-
tions are sanitary. One thing they
will do is give you chloride of lime
when you ask for it. The cell !block
ventilation is poor, 'They are a good
deal like railway coa'ches, either hot
and stuffy or freezing cold and drau-
ghty as soon as windows are opeenld,.
It is possible to sleep on the bunks
without a great deal of di'scomfott
and, 'the bedding is kept clean.'Then
what did they riot about? There was
the cigarette and Collins Ray business,
and then there was the lack of recrea-
tion and the friction 'that is bound to
rise in the work shops. As I said be-
fore, they know what theyare down.
there for and with the exception of
the le'ad.sw'ingers and cranks they
don't expe'ct anything large in the'.
favor way. But the deadly rau'tine and
monotony of the "bag house" life gets
Them. For 'nearly 'four years, I gat •up
a't,6?4I5 at the ringing of a bell, Around
seven, the night bars were lifted and
a 'screw" turned . the master lock
that released the doors of a whole tier
of 'cells at a time. I stepped out of
my cell with the resit• of the prrs'aners
in the tier and,' in ia• lane, -marched +;
dawn to the kitchen; wing ,tut the west
end of the eels bloek. I ,passed before
a kind of !cafeteria laffair and had tm'
pannikin served with mush and bread
and the other things. Sitdl in t'he ,
same line, I marched back to my e1 ','
and was' locked in while I ate breallea,,';i
fast. Alt ,stated times, I marched a
round the path in the exercise yard'
between .the cell block and the 'work-
ahips. itt seemed like a !treat to march ;,
out to the quarries with the working
Party. Bast always a marched -even &f
it was into the library to gest the:
books and magazines that are pro-
vided, or into chapel for the- Sunday
services. 'I heard music once during
the four years, It was a phonograph
record. Iit was played one Christmas
day. I tried to whistle a.tane between
my teeth one. Iit couldn't be heard
mere than three yards away, A guard''
heard it and I was reprimanded.
"What the he—, let's riot,"
(Even an outsider can ,see difficul-
ties in arranging work in a prison..
Many prisoners have never worked at
a trade. Many snore dont know how
to handle a tool if it is placed before
them. Some don't ,wanit to work.
Every week, some mutineer is 'Sroken
and is left to kick his heels against
the walla in the "hole." They break
thein in many ways. They don't
starve them but they will put them on
what they laughingly call a diet They
will take away his privileges and they
will keep h'ini away from light and
open air and the sight and sound of
'hum'ans until he either gets hard or
wishes he were dead. ht doesn't help
a man much to get hard. They only
break him more. Then, on the other
side, are the tradesmen. 'There are
skilled workmen down in the "big
house" who know more about their
trade than the prison "screws" and
instructors ever thought they knew.
They have 'to take orders from them.
They have to do the work their way
which is often the wrong way be-
cause if the "screws" were really
good at their 'jab, they wouldn't be
instructing convicts. I don't think the
work is too hard on the whole. Et
wouldn't be too hard if it was getting
you anywhere.
When the newspaper clippings
about the 'Au'burn riot started circul-
ating about the I{ings'ton Pen, there
were mutterings,: "What the h—,
let's riot." There were a lot more of
the same kind when news of the two
Joliet riots of last year started along
the grape -vine trail. The D'adtm'oor
riot bast January stirred things up
again. It got pretty close . to home
when we heard about the Stony
_Mountain riot near Winnipeg. Lf
there was any one bit of news that
the warden and the '"screws" were
really anxious to keep outside the
"tag house" walls, it was the news
about these prison riots. They couldn't
keep 'them out. I saw the write-up
,and pmture's of the Auburn and Joliet
riots. 'Clippings were passed right
thro,ugh the penitentiary at the risk
of being sent drown to the "hole" or
(having time -off cancelled. I do know
'that the clipping about the Stoney
!Mountain affair was smuggled in in
an egg crate. bt is not for me to tell
how the others got in. They started
a lot of men thinking about rioting,
The ones in on long terms or for i.ife
were stronger for rioting than the
others. Elven if they hadn't much to
gain they hadn't much to lose by .it.,
if got in on the grape -vine. I picked
up a word there and there. Once or
twice I had notes swung' into my cell
from the next one on the end of a
string. S read them and swung them
around to the next one, Notes passed
along a whale tier of cells that way.
Out in the shops and the exercise
yard men broke the silence rule with
a word here and there about griev-
ances. They wanted to riot and they
were scared to. All the same, things
shaped up more and more right np to
the time 'I got out. One thing was
sure, we 'couldn't have burned the
cell block the waythey did down
south. You can't burn the cell block
at :Portsmotrth. There .is too much
stone in it Even the 'floors are stone
and you can't make much of a fire out
of bed rolls in a stone corridor. Some
thought they ought to be permitted
to buy tobacco and extra food if they
could afford it. ;1But they all wanted
more recreation and sports. 'They
'didn't exactly want radios in every.
,cell the way they have down in some
of the United States' prisons, but they
thought' it wouldn't be spoiling con
victs toe mu'c'h to have some loud-
speakers in the cell .black so that they
could 'hear music once in a wliile.
!I'm tell you that a l'ot of .then thought
df the .convicts down south could riot
and yet 'away withit and get more
privileges that we stood a decent
chance, We thought we had more to
raise a row for t'h'an they had down
there I still think we had. Not being
able to 'talk goes hard. Look at Tiny'
Buck, the, little courmunis, .They say
that 'at the height of the row 'Tina, .
,Buck got the/height
and gave the = boys a '
whirlwind speech. I bet he had the •
best time of his 'life speaking after'
"
bein'g bot'tle up for so long., Perhaps
that's the:nt'ain thing no matter where
yaote are, being .bottled up. ,