The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844: Volume 23, Number 6Various
General
The Knickerbocker, or New-York Monthly Magazine, June 1844: Volume 23, Number 6
Various
Periodicals
The daily allowance of food consisted of a pound of beef, a pint of soup,
and a pound of bread to each man; that is to say, at the rate of one
hundred pounds of raw beef to an hundred men. The meat was cut up and put
into large boilers, with sufficient barley to thicken it for soup. This
was boiled until the meat would leave the bone, and the barley was well
cooked; and when ready, was served up to the different messes. By the time
each person got his beef it was almost too small to be seen, being shrunk
up by long boiling; and the bone being taken out, it was no larger than a
small-sized tea-cup. The pound of bread was not much larger: it was made
of barley, slack-baked, and very dark, though sweet. Indeed it was good
enough, what there was of it. On Fridays the fare was varied by the same
amount in fish and potatoes.
As some require more nutriment than others, the same quantity of fare did
not satisfy all the prisoners alike. I frequently saw many of them devour
their day's allowance at one meal without appeasing their hunger; and
before the next day's rations were served out, they would be almost
frantic from starvation. Some became so exhausted that they were compelled
to go to the hospital until they recovered strength. Those who possessed a
little money fared somewhat better, as they could indulge in the luxury of
bullock's liver, fried in water for the want of fat, or a hot pumgudgeon
fried in the same material. This exquisite dish is not appreciated
according to its merits. It commonly bears the undignified title of
'codfish-balls;' and is well known at the present day among our eastern
brethren, though not held in the same veneration by them as clam-chowder.
'Dartmoor pippins,' or potatoes, were also held in high estimation with
us.
Dartmoor prison was a world in miniature, with all its jealousies,
envyings and strife. How shall I describe the scenes enacted within its
walls? how portray the character of its inhabitants? If I but held the pen
of DICKENS or the pencil of MOUNT, I might hope so to bring the objects
before the mind's eye of the reader, that they would stand forth in full
relief, inducing him almost to imagine that he stood in their midst.
Though many years have rolled by since those events occurred, they still
linger in my memory like the vivid scenes of a high-wrought drama; and
often in the 'dead waste and middle of the night' do I revisit in my
dreams scenes which I should be sorry to survey when awake.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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