The Olden Time Series Volume V Part 7

Description of the Tread Mill

_Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline._

The annexed engraving exhibits a party of prisoners in the act of working one of the tread wheels of the Discipline Mill invented by Mr. Cubitt, of Ipswich, and recently erected at the House of Correction for the county of Surrey, situated at Brixton. The view is taken from a corner of one of the ten airing yards of the prison, all of which radiate from the Governor's house in the centre, so that from the window of his room _he commands a complete view into all the yards_. A building behind the tread wheel shed is the mill house, containing the necessary machinery for grinding corn and dressing the flour, also rooms for storing it, &c. On the right side of this building a pipe pa.s.ses up to the roof, on which is a large cast iron reservoir, capable of holding some thousand gallons of water, for the use of the prison. This reservoir is filled by means of forcing pump machinery below, connected with the princ.i.p.al axis which works the machinery of the mill; this axis or shaft pa.s.ses under the pavement of the several yards, and working by means of universal joints, at every turn communicates with the tread wheel of each cla.s.s.

The wheel, which is represented in the centre of the engraving, is exactly similar to a common water wheel; the treadboards upon its circ.u.mference are, however, of considerable length, so as to allow sufficient standing room for a row of from ten to twenty persons upon the wheel. Their weight, the first moving power of the machine, produces the greatest effect when applied upon the circ.u.mference of the wheel at or near the level of its axle; to secure therefore this mechanical advantage, a screen of boards is fixed up in an inclined position above the wood, in order to prevent the prisoners from climbing or stepping up higher than the level required. A hand rail is fixed upon this screen, by holding which they retain their upright position upon the revolving wheel, the nearest side of which is exposed to view in the plate, in order to represent its cylindrical form much more distinctly than could otherwise have been done. In the original, however, both sides are closely boarded up, so that the prisoners have no access to the interior of the wheel, and all risk of injury whatever is prevented.

By means of steps the gang of prisoners ascend at one end, and when the requisite number range themselves upon the wheel, it commences its revolutions. The effort, then, to every individual is simply that of ascending an endless flight of steps, their combined weight acting upon every successive stepping board precisely as a stream of water upon the float boards of a water wheel.

During this operation each prisoner gradually advances from the end at which he mounted towards the opposite end of the wheel, from whence the last man taking his turn descends for rest, another prisoner immediately mounting as before to fill up the number required, without stopping the machine. The interval of rest may then be portioned to each man by regulating the number of those required to work the wheel with the whole number of the gang; thus if twenty-four are obliged to be upon the wheel, it will give to each man intervals of rest amounting to twelve minutes in every hour of labor. Again, by varying the number of men upon the wheel, or the work inside the mill, so as to increase or diminish its velocity, the degree of hard labor or exercise for the prisoners may also be regulated. At Brixton, the diameter of the wheel being five feet, and revolving twice in a minute, the s.p.a.ce stepped over by each man is 2193 feet.

From the _Salem Register_.

TRAVELLING ON SUNDAY. At the session of the U. States Circuit Court at New-Haven (Conn.) last week came on the trial of _Foster vs. Huntington_. This was a prosecution inst.i.tuted by _Dr.

Foster_, of New-York, against _Deacon Eliphalet Huntington_, a Constable of Lebanon (Conn.), for arresting plaintiff's wife on Sunday, the 10th of July, 1831, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and detained her at an inn until sun-down, and then released her on condition of appearing the next morning to answer for violating the Sabbath. Mrs. Foster was travelling from New York City to her father's in Lebanon for her health, and had arrived at East Haddam on the morning of Sunday, and took the regular conveyance connected with the steamboat, and had arrived near the meeting-house in Lebanon at the time she was stopped, and was in sight of her father's (Dr. Sweet) house, when arrested.

The action was for false imprisonment, and it was contended by the plaintiffs,--1st, That Mrs. Foster was travelling from necessity and charity, and so within the exception of the statute. 2d, That the defendant could not justify himself as Constable unless he carried the person apprehended under the Sabbath law before a Justice. 3d, That as Constable he had no power to detain, and that he did not disclose his authority as Constable to arrest. And 4th, that the Sabbath law and its provisions are unconst.i.tutional.

Judge Thompson charged the jury that the words "necessity and charity" in our statute mean not physical necessity, but moral fitness and propriety, and that it was inc.u.mbent on Mrs. Foster to show that there was some necessity of this kind operating on her when she left New York--she knowing that her regular route would require travelling on Sunday; but that a Constable when he arrests, must carry the prisoner, under the law, before a Justice, and then he has done his duty; and as the defendant had not done it in this case, he was liable. The Judge further expressed a decided opinion that the law was const.i.tutional, and that before he could say a law was otherwise which had been acquiesced in so long, he should require the strongest reasons to be shown. As to what const.i.tuted an arrest, the Judge remarked that force was not required, or a touching, but it must be a detention professed to be done by authority and an exercise of authority; which, he observed, was clearly proved in the present case. The damages should give at least the actual injury and something as smart money, if there was any bad motive. This the Judge said did not appear, but the officer seemed to be impressed with a desire to discharge his duty.

The jury returned a verdict of 125 dollars damages and costs for the plaintiffs.--_New-Haven Reg._

[This was a case tried under the statute of Connecticut against the right of unnecessary travelling on the Sabbath. The result appears to be very remarkable. In the first place, we consider the Law itself to be clearly unconst.i.tutional, and we have never had the slightest doubt that if the question ever goes to Was.h.i.+ngton, the Supreme Court will declare it unconst.i.tutional, and reverse the decision of the Connecticut Court.--_Boston Centinel._]

_Salem Observer_, May 4, 1833.

The ridiculous practice here recorded does not appear to have gained a foothold in America. It would have been, to say the least, less harmful in its effects than the hanging of witches or the whipping of Quakers.

PROSECUTIONS AGAINST ANIMALS. The second number of the American Jurist, just published, contains a curious article relating to the prosecutions formerly inst.i.tuted against animals, and for whom counsel was sometimes a.s.signed by the Court, in the same manner as is now done in cases of capital felony. The first case mentioned is a prosecution of some rats in the Bishopric of Autun, in France. They had become so mischievous that a bill in due form was filed against the rats, and a summons issued for their appearance before the Court. The Judge, unwilling to take advantage of their default, appointed an advocate to plead for them, and he managed their cause so adroitly that by means of this prosecution he obtained an elevation to the highest honor of his profession. In another case counsel was appointed to defend some caterpillars who had drawn upon themselves the vengeance of the law; but the ingenious arguments of their advocate availed nothing, and the caterpillars fell under the censure of a spiritual Court, who ordered adjuration, prayers, and sprinkling of holy water.

_Salem Observer_, May 9, 1829.

A very full and interesting account of this subject can be found in a recent number of the "Popular Science Monthly."

Arrest in Connecticut for teaching colored children.

CONNECTICUT BARBARISM. We have been permitted to read a letter from Miss Prudence Crandall, who is actually confined in jail in the town of Brooklyn, Conn., for teaching colored misses to read and write!

The letter from Miss Crandall is dated "BROOKLYN JAIL, CLOSE CONFINEMENT, June 28, 1833." Miss Crandall simply relates that she was arrested on the 27th, with her sister, by Mr. Cady, the Sheriff of the County, and examined before Justice Rufus Adams.

Miss Crandall was found _guilty_ of teaching blacks to read, and was thereupon bound over, in the sum of $150, to appear at the Superior Court holden at Brooklyn on the second Tuesday of August next.

Miss Crandall was sent to the county jail and put into the cell which had been occupied by Watkins the murderer. At the close of her letter she says, "If all the prisoners are as happy as I am, I can a.s.sure you they do not bear much mental suffering."

The friends of Miss Crandall were preparing to give the bond necessary for her release.

_Salem Observer_, July 6, 1833.

Innholders prosecuted as lately as 1824 for the crime of entertaining on the Lord's Day.

_John F. Trueman_ and _Almoran Holmes_, licensed Innholders, convicted on several indictments for entertaining two inhabitants of Boston on the Lord's Day, they not being travellers, strangers, or lodgers, were sentenced according to the act of 1796, each to pay a fine of $6 66 and costs of prosecution.

_Boston Telegraph._

LUDICROUS PUNISHMENT. In the first volume of the "Library of American Biography, conducted by Jared Sparks," the following incident in the life of Ethan Allen shows the character of the government in Vermont in 1774, when the inhabitants were resisting the claims of New-York to jurisdiction over their territory. A Committee of Safety was the highest judicatory, and Allen was Col. Commandant of the territory. If any person presumed to act under the authority of the State of N. York, he was immediately arraigned and judgement p.r.o.nounced against him, in the presence of many persons, by which he was sentenced to be tied to a tree and chastised "with the twigs of the wilderness"

on his naked back, to the number of two hundred stripes, and immediately expelled from the district, and threatened with death if he should return, unless specially permitted by the convention.

"In the midst of these signs, the mode of punishment was sometimes rather ludicrous than severe. In the town of Arlington lived a doctor who openly professed himself a partizan of New-York, and was accustomed to speak disrespectfully of the Convention and Committees, espousing the cause of the New-York Claimants, and advising people to purchase lands under their t.i.tle. He was admonished by his neighbors, and made to understand that this tone of conversation was not acceptable, and was requested to change it, or at least to show his prudence by remaining silent. Far from operating any reform--these hints only stirred up the ire of the courageous doctor, who forthwith armed himself with pistols and other weapons of defence, proclaiming his sentiments more boldly than ever, setting opposition at defiance, and threatening to try the full effects of his personal powers and implements of warfare on any man who should have the temerity to approach him with an unfriendly design. Such a boast was likely to call up the martial spirits of his opponents, who accordingly came upon the doctor at an unguarded moment and obliged him to surrender at discretion. He was then transferred to the Green Mountain Tavern, in Bennington, where he was arraigned before the Committee, who, not satisfied with his defence, sentenced him to a novel punishment, which they ordered to be put in immediate execution.

"Before the door of this tavern, which served the double purpose of a court-house and an inn, stood a sign-post twenty-five feet high, the top of which was adorned with the skin of a Catamount, stuffed to the size of life, with its head turned towards New-York, and its jaws distended, showing large naked teeth, and grinning terror to all who should approach from that quarter. It was the judgment of the court that the contumacious doctor should be tied in a chair and drawn up by a rope to the Catamount, where he was to remain suspended two hours--which punishment was inflicted in the presence of a numerous a.s.semblage of people, much to their satisfaction and merriment. The doctor was then let down and permitted to depart to his own house."

_Salem Observer_, April 12, 1834.

From the "Ess.e.x Register," Feb. 19, 1820.

Burning of a Negro in Georgia.

From the Augusta (Geo.) Chronicle, Feb. 1.

_Execution_.--On Friday last two negro men, named Ephraim and Sam, were executed in conformity to their sentence for the murder of their master, Mr. Thomas Hanc.o.c.k, of Edgefield District, South Carolina; Sam was burnt, and Ephraim hung, and his head severed from his body and publicly exposed. The circ.u.mstances attending the crime for which these miserable beings have suffered, were of a nature so aggravated as imperiously demanded the terrible punishment which has been inflicted upon them.

The burning of malefactors is a punishment only resorted to when absolute necessity demands a signal example. It must be a horrid and appalling sight to see a human being consigned to the flames. Let even Fancy picture the scene,--the pile, the stake, the victim! The mind sickens, and sinks under the oppression of its own feelings. What then must be the dread reality! From some of the spectators we learn that it was a scene which transfixed in breathless horror almost every one who witnessed it. As the flames approached him, the piercing shrieks of the unfortunate victim struck upon the heart with a fearful, painful vibration; but when the devouring element seized upon his body, all was hushed. Yet the cry of agony still thrilled in the ear, and an involuntary and sympathetic shudder ran thro' the crowd. We hope that this awful dispensation of justice may be attended with such salutary effects as to forever preclude the necessity of its repet.i.tion.

COMMUNICATION.

If any Ma.s.sachusetts man can read the above without shuddering, and experiencing alternate emotions of horror and indignation, his heart must be harder than a millstone and colder than the ice of the poles. We know not the particular circ.u.mstances of the crime for which this poor wretch suffered, but as far as we can learn from the public prints, it was for the murder of his Master. The probability is there was some provocation; for such dire deeds are not perpetrated without a strong and powerful impulse. It is however of no consequence; no matter what was his crime, such a punishment was abominable, and could not be inflicted, even if the laws permitted it, in our State. If that monster who committed the Stoneham murder in cold blood, impelled solely by avarice, had not put an end to his own life, but had awaited his conviction, had been sentenced to such a punishment, although he would have merited, perhaps more than any other offender who has appeared in our times, the greatest sufferings, yet such a sentence could not be carried into effect. The people would have risen at once, animated by one sentiment, and without the least previous concert have prevented it. Every man in the Commonwealth, waiving all distinctions of condition or age, would have been seen, without consulting his neighbour or considering consequences, putting a new flint in his musket and girding on his sword. Thank G.o.d! our feelings and love of order and obedience to proper authority can never be put to such a trial; for the moment we became free, and created our own political inst.i.tutions, we made it a fundamental article of our Const.i.tution of Government that "no magistrate or court of law shall inflict cruel or unusual punishment." In Georgia such a punishment would not be inflicted upon a white man for any crime; and in the name of Heaven, who deserves the greatest punishment for offences,--the white man, who is instructed in the principles of religion and morality, and is therefore justly accountable for his actions, or the negro, who is kept by the policy of the laws and the power of public opinion in a state of absolute ignorance of his duties, lest he should obtain a knowledge of his rights? D.

Singular account from the "Salem Gazette," April 13, 1824.

ARREST OF THE DEAD.

The United States Gazette says:--

"While the papers from the south and the west are bringing back to us the report from Mr. Degrand's paper of the attachment of a dead body in Boston, the Eastern papers are bringing us a.s.surances of the total illegality of any such act, and a contradiction of some of the important parts of Mr. Degrand's tale of horror. At the time of the first appearance of this story in our city, a gentleman of information a.s.sured the public through the medium of our columns that any such act was unlawful.