It Is Never Too Late to Mend Part 78

Joram.Crank not performed--bread and water.

Joram.Punishment-jacket.

Joram.Refractory--crank--bread and Joram. Refractory--bread and water. water.

Joram.Attempted suicide; Joram. Feigned suicide; cause insensible when found. Had religious despondency--put on cut off pieces of his hair to sick-list.

send to his friends--sick-list.

Josephs. Crank not performed; says Josephs. Refractory; said he could not turn the crank No. 9; he would not work on crank 9; punishment-jacket. punishment-jacket.

Tomson. Communicating in chapel-- Tomson.Communicating--dark cells.

dark cell 12 hours.

Tomson. Bread and water.

Tomson. Crank not performed; Tomson. Refractory--jacket.

punishment-jacket.

Tomson. Dark cells.

Tomson. No chapel.

Tomson. Dark cells.

Tomson. Melancholy. Tomson. Afflicted with remorse for past crimes--surgeon.

Tomson. Very strange.

Tomson. Removed to lunatic asylum. Tomson. Removed to asylum.

Tanner (nine years old). Caught Tanner. Caught up at window; up at window; asked what he did answered insolently--jacket.

there; said he wanted to feel the light--jacket, and bread and water three days.

Tanner. For repining--chapel Tanner. Refractory language-- and gas stopped until content. forbidden chapel until reformation.

"Can I see such a thing as a prisoner who has attempted suicide?"

inquired he, with lingering incredulity.

"Yes! there are three on this landing. Come first to Joram, of whom Mr. Hawes writes that he made a sham attempt on his life in a fit of religious despondency--Mr. Fry, that having been jacketed and put on bread and water for several days, he became depressed in spirits and made a real attempt on his life. Ah! here is Mr. Fry, he is coming this way to tell you his first falsehood. Hawes has been all this while persuading him to it."

"Where is your journal, Mr. Fry?"

"Well, sir," replied Fry, hanging his head, "I can't show it you. I lent it to a friend, now I remember, and he has taken it out of the jail; but," added he with a sense of relief, "you can ask me any questions you like and I'll answer them all one as my book."

"Well, then, was Joram's attempt at suicide a real or a feigned one?"

"Well, I should say it was a real one. I found him insensible and he did not come to for best part of a quarter of an hour."

"Open his cell."

"Joram, I am here from the Secretary of State to ask you some questions.

Answer them truly and without fear. Some months ago you made an attempt on your life."

The prisoner shuddered and hung his head.

"Don't be discouraged, Joram," put in Mr. Eden kindly, "this gentleman is not a harsh judge, he will make allowances."

"Thank you, gentlemen."

"What made you attempt your life?" persisted Mr. Lacy. "Was it from religious despondency?"

"That it was not. What did I know about religion before his reverence here came to the jail? No, sir, I was clammed to death."

"Clammed?"

"Yes, sir, clammed and no mistake."

"North-country word for starved," explained Mr. Eden.

"No, sir, I was starved as well. It was very cold weather, and they gave me nothing but a roll of bread no bigger than my fist once a day for the best part of a week. So being starved with cold and clammed with hunger I knew I couldn't live many hours more, and then the pain in my vitals was so dreadful, sir, I was obliged to cut it short. Ay! ay! your reverence, I know it was very wicked--but what was I to do? If I hadn't attempted my life I shouldn't be alive now. A poor fellow doesn't know what to do in such a place as this."

"Well," said Mr. Lacy, "I promise you your food shall never be tampered with again."

"Thank you, sir. Oh! I have nothing to complain of now, sir; they have never clammed me since I attempted my life."

Mr. Eden. "Suicide is at a premium here."

"What was your first offense?" asked Mr. Lacy.

"Writing on my can."

"What did you write on the can?"

"I wrote, 'I want to speak to the governor.'"

"Couldn't you ring and ask to see him?"

"Ring and ask? I had rung half a dozen times and asked to see him and could not get to see him. My hand was blistered, and I wanted to ask him to put me on a different sort of work till such time as it could get leave to heal."

"Now, sir," said Mr. Eden, "observe the sequence of iniquity. A refractory jailer defies the discipline of the prison. He breaks Rule 37 and other rules by which he is ordered to be always accessible to a prisoner. The prisoner being in a strait, through which the jailer alone can guide him, begs for an interview; unable to obtain this in his despair he writes one innocent line on his can imploring the jailer to see him. None of the beasts say, 'What has he written?' they say only, 'Here be scratches,' and they put him on bread and water for an illegal period; and Mr. Hawes's new and illegal interpretation of 'bread and water' is aimed at his life. I mean that instead of receiving three times per diem a weight of bread equal to the weight of his ordinary diets (which is clearly the intention of the bread and water statute), he has once a day four ounces of bread. So because a refractory jailer breaks the discipline, a prisoner with whom no breach of the discipline _originated_ is feloniously put to death unless he cuts it short by that which in every spot of the earth but ---- Jail is a deadly crime in Heaven's eyes--self-murder."

"What an eye your reverence ha' got for things! Well now it doesn't sound quite fair, does it? but stealing is a dog's trick, and if a man behaves like a dog he must look to be treated like one; and he will be, too."

"That is right, Joram; you look at it from that point of view, and we will look at it from another."

"Open Naylor's cell. Naylor, what drove you to attempt suicide?"