Prisons -- United States; Women prisoners -- United States
To judge by the way she treats him now, if she were to assist in making
laws would she not be still more unjust than she now is, to her own sex,
and lenient to the other.
If man go unpunished, of human law, for this sin, justice will find him
out sooner or later. God pity him when his retribution comes! The
avenging of a guilty conscience will work him greater woe than the
miseries of a prison can inflict.
As I sat in the prison this evening reviewing my day's work, I counted
up my occupations.
I am Housekeeper, Engineer, Overseer, Jailer, Porter, Usher, Sentinel,
and many others which I did not enumerate.
Irksome as was the handling of keys to me, it was quite an entertainment
to see myself answering the knock of the gentlemen in striped uniform,
letting them into my kitchen, and following them around, like a page
after a prince; and then, letting them out. I hardly think they get such
attendances in the outside world.
Rotation in duties, and reversion in offices was the order of the place.
I was Usher to the prisoners; my sweeps were stationed on the stone
stairs, when the prisoners were in their cells, and the kitchen door
locked, to open it if there were a knock on the outside, and to lock it
again after the officer who entered.
Sittings on the stone stairs could hardly have been comfortable
accommodations. I was reminded of that fact this evening, by hearing
Ellen whisper when she heard a knock,--
"I hate to get up,--I've just got my seat warm."
"Every back is fitted to its burden," is an old proverb. I wondered if
those prisoners had been provided by a beneficent Providence, of some
kind, with an extra amount of animal heat, in order to warm up the
stones they lived on during their incarceration.
XVI.
A FRIGHT.
Supernumerary was in the habit of sending to me for my No. 5 key
occasionally. She said it let her through from the house into the attic
of the prison.
I could not imagine what she wished to go through there for. I finally
settled down upon the supposition that she wished to supervise the
prisoners' rooms at her convenience, and see if I kept them in order,
and made the poor things as comfortable as possible.
The mystery was unraveled when she took me up to show me the room of the
Receiving Officer which she wished to have cleaned. She pointed to a
large closet on the same flat, where she packed away summer articles of
use in the fall, and winter ones in the spring, which she said my 5 key
locked.
I had given her the credit of one generous deed too many. Still,
although she went through on her own business she did have an eye to
cast about upon the affairs of the prison.
One night, about eight o'clock, after she had been using this key in the
afternoon, I was on the third flight of stairs. The Deputy went rushing
past me, in great perturbation, looking deathly pale.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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