PHIA: 1842. C. D. to J. F. A correction-house: with four hundred PHILADEL ́A, B, C, and D, are the walls of the building with windows ' in them, high up in the wall. The shaded place in the 'centre represents four tiers of cells, one above the other, 'with doors of grated iron, and a light grated gallery to 'each tier. Four tiers front to B, and four to D, so that 'by this means you may be said, in walking round, to see 'eight tiers in all. The intermediate blank space you 'walk in, looking up at these galleries; so that, coming in 'at the door E, and going either to the right or left till 'you come back to the door again, you see all the cells 'under one roof and in one high room. Imagine them in 'number 400, and in every one a man locked up; this single cells. 'one with his hands through the bars of his grate, this one 'in bed (in the middle of the day, remember), and this 'one flung down in a heap upon the ground with his 'head against the bars like a wild beast. Make the rain 'pour down in torrents outside. Put the everlasting 'stove in the midst; hot, suffocating, and vaporous, as a 'witch's cauldron. Add a smell like that of a thousand old mildewed umbrellas wet through, and a thousand 'dirty clothes-bags musty, moist, and fusty, and you will 'have some idea-a very feeble one, my dear friend, on my 'word-of this place yesterday week. You know of course 'that we adopted our improvements in prison-discipline 'from the American pattern; but I am confident that the 'writers who have the most lustily lauded the American 'prisons, have never seen Chesterton's domain or Tracey's. 'There is no more comparison between these two prisons and ' of ours, any I have seen here YET, than there is Compari. son with English prisons. * See ante, p. 255. PHIA: 1842. C. D. to J. F. 'between the keepers here, and those two gentlemen. PHILADEL 'Putting out of sight the difficulty we have in England of 'finding useful labour for the prisoners (which of course ' arises from our being an older country, and having vast 'numbers of artizans unemployed), our system is more 'complete, more impressive, and more satisfactory in every 'respect. It is very possible that I have not come to the 'best, not having yet seen Mount Auburn. I will tell 'you when I have. And also when I have come to those 'inns, mentioned-vaguely rather by Miss Martineau, Inns and 'where they undercharge literary people for the love the 'landlords bear them. My experience, so far, has been of establishments where (perhaps for the same reason) they 'very monstrously and violently overcharge a man whose 'position forbids remonstrance. 'WASHINGTON, Sunday, March the Thirteenth, 1842. landlords. TON: 1842. 'In allusion to the last sentence, my dear friend, I WASHING 'must tell you a slight experience I had in Philadelphia. 'My rooms had been ordered for a week, but, in consequence of Kate's illness, only Mr. Q and the luggage 'had gone on. Mr. Qalways lives at the table d'hôte, 'so that while we were in New York our rooms were 'empty. The landlord not only charged me half the 'full rent for the time during which the rooms were ' reserved for us (which was quite right), but charged me 'also for board for myself and Kate and Anne, at the Hotel ex'rate of nine dollars per day for the same period, when we were actually living, at the same expense, in New York!!! I did remonstrate upon this head; but was tortion. WASHING TON: 1842. C. D. to J. F. Philadelphia Penitentiary. cooly told it was the custom (which I have since been 'assured is a lie), and had nothing for it but to pay the amount. What else could I do? I was going away by 'the steamboat at five o'clock in the morning; and the 'landlord knew perfectly well that my disputing an item 'of his bill would draw down upon me the sacred wrath of the newspapers, which would one and all demand in capitals if THIS was the gratitude of the man whom 'America had received as she had never received any ' other man but La Fayette? 'I went last Tuesday to the Eastern Penitentiary near 'Philadelphia, which is the only prison in the States, or I 'believe in the world, on the principle of hopeless, strict, 'and unrelaxed solitary confinement, during the whole 'term of the sentence. It is wonderfully kept, but a 'most dreadful, fearful place. The inspectors, immediately on my arrival in Philadelphia, invited me to pass the day in the jail, and to dine with them when I had finished 'my inspection, that they might hear my opinion of the The solitary system. Accordingly I passed the whole day in going 'from cell to cell, and conversing with the prisoners. 'Every facility was given me, and no constraint whatever 'imposed upon any man's free speech. If I were to write 'you a letter of twenty sheets, I could not tell you this 'one day's work; so I will reserve it until that happy 'time when we shall sit round the table at Jack Straw's '-you, and I, and Mac-and go over my diary. I never 'shall be able to dismiss from my mind, the impressions of that day. Making notes of them, as I have done, is 'an absurdity, for they are written, beyond all power of system. TON: 1842. C. D. to J. F. Solitary prisoners. erasure, in in my brain. I saw men who had been there, WASHIN}'five years, six years, eleven years, two years, two months, 'two days; some whose term was nearly over, and some 'whose term had only just begun. Women too, under the same variety of circumstances. Every prisoner who comes 'into the jail, comes at night; is put into a bath, and 'dressed in the prison garb; and then a black hood is 'drawn over his face and head, and he is led to the cell 'from which he never stirs again until his whole period of 'confinement has expired. I looked at some of them with the same awe as I should have looked at men who had 'been buried alive, and dug up again. How re ceived and kept. the in spectors. 'We dined in the jail: and I told them after dinner Talk with 'how much the sight had affected me, and what an awful 'punishment it was. I dwelt upon this; for, although the 'inspectors are extremely kind and benevolent men, I question whether they are sufficiently acquainted with the 'human mind to know what it is they are doing. Indeed, 'I am sure they do not know. I bore testimony, as every 'one who sees it must, to the admirable government of the 'institution (Stanfield is the keeper: grown a little younger, that's all); but added that nothing could justify 'such a punishment, but its working a reformation in the 'prisoners. That for short terms-say two years for the 'maximum-I conceived, especially after what they had 'told me of its good effects in certain cases, it might 'perhaps be highly beneficial; but that, carried to so great 'an extent, I thought it cruel and unjustifiable; and 'further, that their sentences for small offences were very 'rigorous, not to say savage. All this, they took like men WASHING- 'who were really anxious to have one's free opinion and TON: 1842. C. D. to J. F. Cary. 'to do right. And we were very much pleased with each other, and parted in the friendliest way. 'They sent me back to Philadelphia in a carriage they 'had sent for me in the morning; and then I had to dress Bookseller in a hurry, and follow Kate to Cary's the bookseller's 'where there was a party. He married a sister of Leslie's. 'There are three Miss Leslies here, very accomplished; ' and one of them has copied all her brother's principal We got 'pictures. These copies hang about the room. 'away from this as soon as we could; and next morning 'had to turn out at five. In the morning I had received ' and shaken hands with five hundred people, so you may 'suppose that I was pretty well tired. Indeed I am obliged to be very careful of myself; to avoid smoking 'and drinking; to get to bed soon; and to be particular in respect of what I eat. . . . You cannot think how bilious A levee. tempera ture. 'and trying the climate is. One day it is hot summer, Changes of 'without a breath of air; the next, twenty degrees below 'freezing, with a wind blowing that cuts your skin like steel. These changes have occurred here several times 'since last Wednesday night. Henry 'I have altered my route, and don't mean to go to 'Charleston. The country, all the way from here, is 'nothing but a dismal swamp; there is a bad night of 'sea-coasting in the journey; the equinoctial gales are • blowing hard; and Clay (a most charming fellow, by the 'bye), whom I bave consulted, strongly dissuades me. The 'weather is intensely hot there; the spring fever is coming 'on; and there is very little to see, after all. We there |