2. THE COAL MINES A COLLEGE OF INFAMY.
The mines of this Penal institution are a college for the education
and graduation of hardened criminals, and for illustration, and the
instruction of those not familiar with the subject matter referred to, I
will relate what came under my personal observation, and some things
that I heard while in there. One day, in company with me while engaged
in mining, were two other convicts. One of these was a hardened old
crook. He was serving out a term on the charge of making and passing
counterfeit money. The other fellow-convict was a young man seventeen
years of age—a mere boy. Tired of mining, we laid off awhile, resting.
During this time the old convict gave us instructions in the manner of
making counterfeit money. He told us how he would construct his
counterfeit molds out of plaster paris,
which he would use in the same manner that bullet molds are used. He
would purchase some britannica metal. On some dark night he would go
into the forest, build up a fire, melt the metal, pour the melted liquor
into the molds, and in this manner make silver dollars. He informed us
that it didn't take very long to make a hatful of money. A few days
thereafter this young man, who was with us in the room at the time,
informed me that when he went out again into the world, if he was unable
to secure work, he would try his hand at making counterfeit money. I
advised him not to do this, as it was almost a certainty that he would
be detected. He thought differently. About a month thereafter he was
released from the prison. He went out into the world, and, unable to
obtain work,
did try his hand at making counterfeit money.
Shortly before my time expired here came this young man to prison again,
with a sentence of three years at hard labor for making and passing
counterfeit money. He had received his criminal instruction in the
penitentiary mines, the result of which will be that he will spend the
greater portion of his life a convict.
There are a great many instances where
these young convicts, having received their education in the coal mines,
go into the world to become hardened criminals. Down in this school of
crime, in the midst of the darkness, they learn how to make burglary
tools, to crack safes, and to become expert as pickpockets; they take
lessons in confidence games, and when their time expires they are
prepared for a successful career of crime. It is utterly impossible for
the officers of the coal mines to prevent these men from conversing with
each other. If these mines were sold, and the money obtained from the
sale of them was used in building workhouses on the surface, and these
men placed at work there under the watchful care of the official, they
would then be unable to communicate with each other, and would be saved
from the debasing contamination of the hardened criminals. They would
be saved from all this that degrades and makes heartless wretches.
A scene occurred in the mines one day that illustrates the fact
that judges sometimes, in their anxiety to enforce the laws, overstep
the bounds of justice, and inflict excessive punishment and place
burdens upon human beings which they are unable to bear. One afternoon
in the city of Emporia ten tramps were arrested and thrown into the
county jail. During the succeeding night one of these persons thrust a
poker into the stove, and heating it red hot, made an effort to push the
hot iron through the door, thus burning a large hole in the door-casing.
The next morning the sheriff, entering the jail, perceiving what this
vagrant had done, was displeased, and tried to ascertain which one of
the ten was guilty of the offense. The comrades of the guilty party
refused to disclose the perpetrator of the act. Court was then in
session. The sheriff had these ten fellows brought into court, hoping
that when placed upon the witness stand, under oath, they would tell
which had committed the offense. Even in court they were true to each
other, and would not reveal the perpetrator. They were then all
convicted, and the judge passed a sentence of ten years upon each of
these vagrants for that trivial offense. They came to the penitentiary.
The day after their arrival they were all sent to the coal mines. For
two years they worked day after day down in the Kansas bastile. One
morning, after they had been in the mines for two years, one of the
number, at the breakfast table in the dining-room, unperceived secreted
a knife in his clothing and carried it with him down to his place of
work. He went into his little room and began the labors of the day.
After toiling for a few hours he took a stone and sharpened his knife
the best he possibly could, then stepped out into the entry where he
could stand erect, and with his head thrown back drew that knife across
his throat, cutting it from ear to ear, thus terminating his life,
preferring death to longer remaining in the mines of the Kansas Hell!
Who is there that is not convinced of the fact that the blood of this
suicide stains the garments of the judge who placed this unbearable
burden of ten years upon this young man, and who, I subsequently
learned, was innocent of the offense. I would advise the good people of
Lyons County, and of Emporia particularly, after they have perused this
book, if they come to the conclusion that they have no better material
out of which to construct a district judge, to go out on the frontier
and lassoo a wild Comanche Indian and bring him to Emporia and place him
upon the ermined bench. I do not even know the name of this judge, but I
believe, if I am correctly informed in this case, that his judgment is
deficient somewhere. But I must say in this
connection, when the good people of Lyons County heard of this suicide,
they immediately thereafter petitioned the Board of Pardons for the
release of these prisoners, and the board at once reported favorably
upon their cases, and Governor Martin promptly granted their pardons and
they were released from the prison. If the pardon had not been granted,
others of them had resolved upon taking their lives as did their
comrade. One of these prisoners was for a time a companion of mine in
one of my mining rooms, and told me if he was required to remain in the
coal mines digging coal another three months he had made up his mind to
follow the example of his comrade, preferring death to the horrors of
the mines.
For the further information of the reader, as to the dread of the
prisoners of work in the mines, I cite the following which I call to
recollection. The gentlemanly physician of the institution, Dr.
Neeally, told me that at four different times men had feigned death in
the mines and had been carried on stretchers to the hospital; the
particulars in one case is as follows: One of these men feigned death
and was carried to the hospital, and was reported by his comrades
to be dead. He had suppressed his breathing. The physician felt his
pulse, and finding it regular, of course knew he was simply endeavoring
to deceive. In order to experiment, the physician coincided with the
statements of the attending convicts who had carried him from the mines,
and announced that he would try electricity, and if he failed to restore
him to life he would then have to bury him in the regular way. The
doctor retired for the purpose of getting his electrical apparatus. In
a few moments he returned, bringing it with him, and placing the
magnetic cups, one in each hand, commenced generating the electricity by
turning the generator attached to the machine. After a few turns of the
crank the prisoner opened his eyes; one or two more and he sat up; a few
more and he stood on his feet; another turn or two and he commenced
dancing around, and exclaimed, "For God's sake, doctor, do quit, for I
ain't dead, but I can't let loose!" Reader, what do you suppose was the
object this convict had in view in thus feigning death? What did he hope
to gain thereby? Being well acquainted with this prisoner, a few days
after the doctor had told me of the circumstances I met him, and asked
him what object he had in feigning death the time that he was taken from
the mines to the hospital? His reply was that he hadn't the nerve to
take his own life, as he believed in a future state of punishment, and
that he did not desire to step from the Kansas Hell to the hell of the
future, and that by feigning death he hoped to be taken to the hospital,
placed in a coffin, then taken out to the prison graveyard, and buried
alive, so that he would suffocate in his grave!
There is not a man in those mines but would leave them quickly
for a place on the surface.
I now call to mind one instance where a heart-broken father came
to the prison and offered one of the leading prison officials one
thousand dollars if he would take his son out of the coal mines and give
him a place on the surface during the remainder of his term. A man who
labors in these mines simply spends his time, not knowing but the next
hour will be his last.
As I have stated heretofore the prisoners are allowed to converse
in the mines, and as a result of this almost necessary rule, every
convict has an opportunity to listen to the vilest
obscenity that ever falls upon human ears. At times, when some of these
convicts, who seem veritable encyclopedias of wickedness, are crowded
together, the ribald jokes, obscenity and blasphemy are too horrible for
description. It is a pandemonium—a miniature hell! But worse than this
horrible flow of language are the horrible and revolting practices of
the mines. Men, degraded to a plane lower than the brutes, are guilty of
the unmentionable crimes referred to by the Apostle Paul in his letter
to the Romans, chapter I, verse 27, which is as follows: "And likewise
also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lusts one toward another,
men with men, working that which is
unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error
which was meet." Every opportunity is here offered for this vile
practice. They are far removed from the light and even from the
influences of their officers, and in the darkness and silence old and
hardened criminals debase and mistreat themselves and sometimes the
younger ones that are associated with them in their work. These cases of
self-abuse and sodomy are of daily occurrence, and, although the
officials of the prison take every precaution to prevent
such evil practices, yet, as a matter of fact, so long as prisoners are
permitted to work in the mines it will be impossible to break up these
terribly degrading and debasing practices. Oh, Kansan! you that boast
of the freedom and liberty, the strength of your laws, and the
institutions in your grand young State, what do you think of this
disclosure of wickedness, equalling if not excelling the most horrible
things ever pictured by the divine teachers of humanity,—the apostles
and their followers? A hint is only here given, but to the wise it will
be sufficient, and but a slight exercise of the imaginative powers will
be necessary to unfold to you the full meaning of this terrible state of
affairs.
It is believed by the writer that if the people of the State of
Kansas knew under what circumstances men in the prison were compelled to
work, there would be a general indignation, which would soon be
expressed through the proper channels, and which might lead to a proper
solution of the difficulty.
In many of the rooms of the mines there are large pools of water
which accumulate there from dripping down from the crevices above; this,
taken in connection with the natural
damps of the mines, which increases the water, makes very large pools,
and in these mud-holes convicts are compelled to work and wallow about
all day long while getting out their coal, more like swine than anything
else. How can this be in the line of reformation, which, we are taught
to believe outside of the prison walls, is the principal effort of all
discipline within the prison. The result of work under such unfavorable
circumstances is that many of the convicts contract rheumatism,
neuralgia, pneumonia and other lung troubles, and, of course, malaria.
Many persons that enter these mines in good health come out physical
wrecks, often to find homes in the poor-houses of the land when their
prison days are over, or die before their terms expire. In the judgment
of the writer the coal mines should be sold; until that is done,
prisoners who contract diseases there that will carry them to untimely
graves should be pensioned by the State, and thus kept from spending the
rest of their natural lives in some of the country poor-houses.
Each person in the mines is assigned a task; he is required to
get out a certain amount of coal each week. In case the convict fails to
mine the task that has been assigned him he must endure punishment, a
description of which will be given later on. It is the opinion of the
author that something should be done to remedy this. The young men from
seventeen to twenty, together with the old men from fifty to sixty, and
those suffering from diseases, are often required to dig as much coal as
middle-aged and able-bodied men. I have seen old men marching to their
cells after a hard day's work scarcely able to walk, and many times have
I laid in the mines along with these young boys who would spend hours
crying like whipped children for fear they would be unable to get out
their regular task of coal, and would therefore have to spend the
Sabbath in the dungeon, suffering unspeakable anguish.
Because of the dangers to which the inmate is exposed; because of
the debasing influences by which lie is surrounded, it is wrong, it is
wicked to work our criminals in such a place as those mines of
the Kansas penitentiary.
