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
Shameful and disgraceful it certainly was to treat a dying man in this
way. What man of ordinary feelings would have treated his dog, as the
Warden treated Ellis? Is that man fit for any office in a humane
Institution who could thus forget his kindred nature, and plant with
thorns the death-bed of a brother? And ought there not to be a place
for such monsters in human form, where they must drink of the cup
which they have filled for others, and experience the pains they have
inflicted? THERE IS JUST SUCH A PLACE.--There the rich man lifted up
his eyes being in torments. And if those will be doomed to this place,
of whom the Judge will say--"I was sick and in prison, and ye visited
me not," what must be the fate of this man, who locked up his _living_
prisoners in the cell of _despair_, and threw the _dying_ into a bed
of _embers_?
A---- W----.
This young man was of a very feeble constitution, and was frequently a
proper subject of medical treatment.--When a prisoner complained of
being sick, he was very often permitted very kindly to take his choice
of three things; 1, to take an emetic; 2, to go and do his usual task;
or 3, to go into the cell and live on bread and water, and sleep on a
stone floor. A. W. was taken sick and this choice was given to him; he
took the emetic, remarking that he "might as well die one way as
another." He was now left in his room, and for three days received no
further attention. After this the physician visited him, and
immediately ordered him to be moved into the hospital, where he
suffered a severe course of fever.
Mr. Woodruff was the keeper who gave him the emetic, and he was much
displeased when the physician rescued him from his hands. After the
fever left him, and he went to his work, he was so weak that he
applied to the physician for relief, and some bark and wine were
ordered for him; but Mr. Woodruff thought fit to refuse the wine, and
gave him only a small quantity of bark, and that of the poorest kind.
At another time when he was sick, and unable to do his task, I got
some bark for him at my own expense, and wove as much over my task as
he fell short of his, and caused it to be placed to his credit, to
keep him out of punishment. This was done with the master weaver's
knowledge, and was the only arrangement I could make to save him. It
was nothing in his favor that he was sick; his task was required, and
it must be done by himself or some one else.
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