OCR Text |
Show I (DARK CORNERS IFF THE PB08LY I FIGHTF.D COUNTY COURT HOF'SE I "Say, partner, is the sun shining outside out-side today or is it snowing or what in Is it doing"" I SpThe above was a remark of a pris-i pris-i -oner in the county jail yesterday after-1 noon to a Standard representative, who made a trip of inspection through , the jail, for the purpose of verifying I the reports of the ill-lighred and poorly ventilated system in the dark, damp and dismal bastile. The reporter turned t" the speakei and saw a young man, of apparently , rugged constitution, but with a face I as pRle as one jus' getting over a sick I spell. When asked If he was sick, the prisoner remarked: Sy"No, 1 am not sick, but I am suffer-1 ing greater torture in this 'Black Hole of Calcutta' than 1 would if 1 were In dungeon. Every on? of the fellows here gets bleached out like a baby aft r he is here a whil. Wp never see the sun from the time we are brought In here until we are released. You can see how much sun gets in through those windows. Down the north side of ihe cells are three narrow windows, which remind Ohe of the loopholes in the old i,(h toned forts in which the 'blunder-bus" 'blunder-bus" protruded in repelling the attack of the Indians The windows opened and a small rav ol light entered. en-tered. The prisoners In the cells had their lights burning. If the lights were no', burning in the jail corridor he prisoners would collide v. ith each oth er while exercising In walking down the south side of the cells, the reporter had to light a match to find his waj i- - The cells for the desperate crimi nals are small and very poorly vent I-lated. I-lated. No torture could b greal s that of placing a criminal in one of those cells for thirty days This ward is separate from the main part of the jail. It Is three all-steel cages crowded into a small space. The padded cell and women's ward, prior ro lemodelin? ol a room in the east end of the Jail, was indeed a hole No matter what was the crime1 committed by a woman, she should not be placed in such a cell. It is little wonder that Sheriff Peterson deprived himself of room to make a ward for, the women prisoners. The kitchen department of ihe jail is under two big electric lights all the ! time. There is not a window from the outside in this room. The cooking is done by Mrs. (.'lark, who assured the i reporter that ll was a strain for one to be working under electric light from morning to night. |