Show A IN MEXICO CURIOUS CUSTOMS THAT PREVAIL IN BELEM jaal in the cells and a concert almost every by tit dinner hour marked by a cahloun spectacle among tho various uses to which mexico has put some of her old monasteries and convents is that of serving for the incarceration of violators of the law tho convento Cou vento do beleu at mexico city has become iu common parlance belem the city jail and prison accused and convicted persons men women and children alike being confined there in different compartments the building was put up by the spanish governor in as an inscription at the head of the main stairway tells A casual visit paid it by a reporter of the mexican herald reveals a condition of prison management in mexico worthy of passing attention in the days of prison reform associations and international prison congresses the herald said that belam had been commonly spoken of as a second blaek hole of calcutta but the reporter found that the prison was kept in a state of comparative cleanliness not so however the prisoners their condition he described as one of disgusting filthiness although there was a hydrant in every cell and general bathing facilities in each compartment the reporter found only one inmate either at bath or with any indication of having bathed within a year it was explained to him by the prison authorities that formerly the regulations required prisoners to bathe daily but that this was regarded as such a hardship that the sufferers managed to haab it declared a form of cruel and unusual punishment and so to have the rule abrogated there are in the prison now prisoners of whom 2933 are men and 0 are minors A curious feature found by the reporter was the sli regard for the arts even within prison walls ho found in the south wing the writers of libel and the cells reserved tor musicians sic ians artists and others of the fine arts it would seem to be a charitable as well as an inclusive provision that and others besides artists of the fine arts the musicians are permitted apparently to tako their instruments to jil with them much as mechanics take into tha prison workshop their own tools of trade the walls of tho musicians sic ians cells are decorated with different musical instruments and the reporter was told that almost every oven ing thero was a conceit in one of the patios men sometimes do in mexico what in this colder clime they content themselves with wishing done for the reporter came upon one adams budor sentence of 20 years for killing a waiter at the club do la opera because he did not bring his dinner quick enough adams has the freedom of his galley there are in each galley three who go about with cluba and preserve order using the club only when moral suasion will not do as well there were stoics among the 57 men condemned to death ono of these under sentence for assassinating a man expressed his serene confidence as to his future but if worst comes to worst a shrug of the shoulders and palms up this man and some others under death sentence had the run of the corn mandanis mand ants offices notwithstanding there were on the walls serving as decorations confiscated weapons of prisoners oddly enough as it would seem in this country though it have been strange in tho italy of there ft gun among these the nearest to it waa a bayonet and tho rest were poin ards scimitars miters stilettos tos butcher knives table duiven penknives and shoemakers knives the dinner hour was marked by a curious spectacle the street outside the prison waa filled with the wives children dogs and other members of the prisoners households those brought baskets of edibles to the prison era some of whom were to speak to relatives through a grating to tho not permitted to come to the grating their VPS were allowed to send in notes accompanying the dinner baskets this privilege had given rise to a peculiar way of making a few pennies among persons able to write itinerant scribes who tor a cent or two wrote to the prisoners one woman bade tha to put her massago in red ink she hava of the stuff tell him said aho that I 1 bond him two little and tell him that la corrita died yesterday says tho reporter and the scribe leaning under tho ahado of his umbrella sitting on n rook with his bottle of red ink ou another rook beside him worked awny assiduously with an etymology all his own beginning paragraphs with lower case letters and put giua in capa in the most unexpected places eo that it would take au ignatins donnally cryptogram to decipher tho of his hieroglyphics |