Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious ReflectionReynolds, John, of Vermont
History
Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious Reflection
Reynolds, John, of Vermont
Vermont State Prison
No chilling winds, nor pois'nous breath
Can reach that healthful shore;
Sickness and sorrow, pain and death,
Are felt and fear'd no more.
Fill'd with delight, my raptur'd soul
Can here no longer stay;
Tho' Jordan's waves around me roll,
Fearless I launch away.
After a prisoner dies, his friends can have his body if they wish it.
If they do not call for it immediately, it is buried in the
prison-yard; but if they should call for it any time afterwards, it
would be disinterred and given to them.
The ceremony at the funeral is usually appropriate and solemn. Laid in
a decent black coffin, the body is placed where all the prisoners can
see the face, as they pass in Indian file by it. A clergyman always
attends, makes some remarks, and then prays; after which the corpse is
laid in the grave, and his memory is soon lost.
The house of the dead is no place to make a reflection, and the grave
of the individual may be thought by many to be the place in which all
that pertains to him should be buried. In general, perhaps, this is
true, but not always; and I shall, before I leave the buried remains
of the prisoners, record some facts which ought not be forgotten.
After their death, very sympathetic letters are written by order of
the keeper, or by the keeper himself, to the friends of the deceased,
stating how kindly he was treated, and how peacefully he died. I was
called upon to write one of these letters, and I have not forgotten
what directions were given me by the very man whom the dying prisoner
considered his murderer.
During the prisoner's sickness, he frequently writes to his friends;
but as his letters are examined by the keeper, and not sent unless
approved, he cannot state his real condition and treatment, but must,
in order to have his letter sent, at least _imply_ that he is treated
kindly. Hence many a friend is led to feel grateful to the officers,
when perhaps their cruelty has caused the very death they deplore.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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