Frederick Marryat – The Complete Collection

Chapter 48

Certainly those remarks do not argue much for the reformation of the culprit.

By his account, a parsimony in every point appears to be the great desideratum aimed at. Speaking of the chaplain to the institution, he says:--

"Small blame to him; I honour and respect the man, though I laugh at the preacher. And I say, that seven hundred and thirty sermons per annum , for three hundred dollars and a weekly dinner, are quite pork enough for a shilling. No man goeth a warfare on his own charges, and the labourer is worthy of his hire. I do not see how he can justify such wear and tear of his pulmonary leather, for so small a sum, to his conscience. What is a sixpenny razor or a nine-shilling sermon? Neither can be expected to cut--not but his sermons would be very good for the use of glorified saints--but, alas! there are none such in the House of Correction. What is the inspiration of a penny-a-liner? I will suppose that one of the hearers is a sailor, who would relish and appreciate a sausage or a lobscouse. Mr -- sets blanc mange before him.--Messrs. of the city government give your chaplain two thousand dollars a-year, so that he may reside in the house of correction, without leaving his family to starvation; let him visit each individual, learn his circumstances and character, and sympathise with him in all his sorrows, and, my word for it, Mr -- will have the love and confidence of all. He will be an instrument of great good by his counsel and exhortations. But as for his public preaching, this truly good, pious, and learned man might as well sing psalms to a mad horse. Fishes will not throng to St Anthony, or swine listen to the exorcism of an apostle, in these godless days. If you think he will be overpaid for his services, you may braze the duty of a schoolmaster, who is very much needed, to that of a ghostly adviser.

"Mr -- never fails to pray strenuously that the master and officers may be supported and sustained, which has given rise to the following tin-pot epigram:--

"Support the master and the overseers, O Lord! so runs our chaplain's weekly ditty; Unreasonable prayers God never hears, He knows that they're supported by the city."

He complains bitterly of the convicts not being permitted the use of any books but the Bible and temperance Almanac. It is rather strange, but he says that he supposes that a full half of the inmates of the house of correction can neither read nor write .

"Is it pleasant to look back on follies, vices, crimes; presently on blasted hopes, iron bars, and unrequited labour; and forward upon misery, starvation, and a world's scorn? In some degree the malice of this regulation, which ought only to be inscribed on the statute-book of hell, is impotent. The small glimpse of earth, sea, and sky a convict can command, a spider crawling upon the wall, the very corners of his cell, will serve, by a strong effort, for occupation for his thoughts. Read the following tea-pot-graven monologue, written by some mentally-suffering convict, and reflect upon it:--

"Stone walls and iron bars my frame confine, But the full liberty of thought is mine, Sad privilege! the mental glance to cast O'er crimes, o'er follies, and misconduct past. Oh wretched tenant of a guarded cell, Thy very freedom makes thy mind a hell. Come, blessed death; thy grinded dart to me, Shall the bless'd signal of deliverance be; With thy worst agonies were cheaply bought, A last release, a final rest from thought."

"If the pains of a prison be not enough for you, I will teach you a lesson in the art of torture which I learned from our chaplain, or one of his substitutes.--`Make your cells round and smooth; let there be no prominent point for the eye to rest upon, so that it must necessarily turn inward, and I will warrant that you will soon have the pleasure of seeing your victim frantic.' Look well to the temperance trash you physic us with, and you will find, in the Almanac for 1837, a serious attempt to make Napoleon Bonaparte out a drunkard, and to prove that a rum-bottle lost him the battle of Waterloo. The author must himself have been drunk when he wrote it. Are you not ashamed to set such pitiful cant, I will not say such wilful falsehood and slander, before any rational creature? Did you not know that an overcharged gun would knock the musketeer over by its recoil? I do not tell you to give the convicts all and any books they may desire; but pray what harm would an arithmetic do, unless it taught them to refute the statistics of your lying almanac, which gravely advises farmers to feed their hogs with apples, to prevent folks from getting drunk on cider? Why not tell them to feed their cattle with barley and wheat for the same reason? What mind was ever corrupted by Murray's Grammar, or Washington Irving's Columbus? When was ever falsehood the successful pioneer of truth!"

His remarks upon visitors being permitted to see the convicts are good.

"Among the annoyances, which others as well as myself felt most galling, was the frequent intrusion of visitors, who had no object but the gratification of a morbid curiosity. Know all persons, that the most debased convict has human feelings, and does not like to be seen in a parti-coloured jacket. If you want to see any convict for any good reason, ask the master to let you meet him in his office; and even there, you may rely upon it, your visit will be painful enough; to be stared at by the ignorant and the mean with feelings of pity, as if one were some monster of Ind, was intolerable. I hope a certain connexion of mine, who came to see me unasked and unwelcome, and brought a stranger with him to witness my disgrace, may never feel the pain he inflicted on me. To a kind-hearted `Mac,' who came in a proper and delicate way to comfort when I thought all the world had forsaken me, I tender my most grateful thanks. His kindness shall be remembered by me while memory holds her seat. Let the throng of uninvited fools who swarmed about us, accept the following sally of the house of correction muse, from the pen, or rather the fork, of a fellow convict. It may operate to edification.

"To Our Visitors.

"By gazing at us, sirs, pray what do you mean? Are we the first rascals that ever were seen? Look into your mirrors--perhaps you may find All villains are not in South Boston confined.

"I'm not a wild beast, to be seen for a penny; But a man, as well made and as proper as any; And what we most differ in is, well I wot, That I have my merits, and you have them not.

"I own I'm a drunkard, but much I incline To think that your elbow crooks as often as mine; Ay, breathe in my face, sir, as much as you will-- One blast of your breath is as good as a gill.

"How kind was our country to find us a home Where duns cannot plague us, or enemies come! And you from the cup of her kindness may drain A drop so sufficing, you'll not drink again.

"And now that by staring with mouth and eyes open, We have bruised the reeds that already were broken; Go home and, by dint of strict mental inspection, Let each make his own house a house of correction.

"This morceau was signed `Indignans.'"

The following muster-roll of crime, as he terms it, which he obtained from the master of the prison, is curious, as it exemplifies the excess of intemperance in the United States--bearing in mind that this is the moral state of Massachusetts.

"The whole number of males committed to the house of correction from the time it was opened--July 1st, 1833, to September 1st, 1837,--was 1477. Of this number there were common drunkards 783, or more than one-half.

"The whole amount of females committed to this institution from the time it was opened to Sept 1837, was 869. Of this number there were common drunkards 430, very nearly one-half.

"And of the whole number committed there were--"

+========================+====+===============+====+ ÝNatives of MassachusettsÝ 720ÝEngland Ý 104Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝNew Hampshire Ý 175ÝScotland Ý 38Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝMaine Ý 130ÝIreland Ý 839Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝVermont Ý 17ÝProvinces Ý 69Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝRhode Island Ý 35ÝFrance Ý 10Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝConnecticut Ý 28ÝSpain Ý 2Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝNew York Ý 50ÝGermany Ý 2Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝNew Jersey Ý 3ÝHolland Ý 2Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝPennsylvania Ý 28ÝPoland Ý 2Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝDelaware Ý 6ÝDenmark Ý 2Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝMaryland Ý 10ÝPrussia Ý 1Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝVirginia Ý 20ÝSweden Ý 8Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝNorth Carolina Ý 10ÝWest Indies Ý 12Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝSouth Carolina Ý 1ÝCape de Verde Ý 1Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝGeorgia Ý 5ÝIsland of MaltaÝ 1Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝDistrict of Columbia Ý 3ÝAt Sea Ý 7Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ Ý Ý ÝForeigners Ý1100Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝUnited States Ý1241ÝUnknown Ý 5Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝMORAL States Ý1905Ý Ý Ý +------------------------+----+---------------+----+ ÝOther States Ý 236ÝTotal Ý2346Ý +========================+====+===============+====+

He sums up as follows:--

"I have nearly finished, but I should not do justice to my subject did I omit to advert to the beggarly catch-penny system on which the whole concern is conducted. The convicts raise pork and vegetables in plenty, but they must not eat thereof; these things must be sent to market to balance the debit side of the prison ledger. The prisoners must catch cold and suffer in the hospital, and the wool and stone shops, because it would cost something to erect comfortable buildings. They must not learn to read and write, lest a cent's worth of their precious time should be lost to the city. They may die and go to hell, and be damned, for a resident physician and chaplain are expensive articles. They may be dirty; baths would cost money, and so would books. I believe the very Bibles and almanacks are the donation of the Bible and Temperance societies. Every thing is managed with an eye to money-making--the comfort or reformation, or salvation, of the prisoners are minor considerations. Whose fault is this?

"The fault, most frugal public, is your own. You like justice, but you do not like to pay for it. You like to see a clean, orderly, well conducted prison, and, as far as your parsimony will permit, such is the house of correction. With all its faults, it is still a valuable institution. It holds all, it harms few, and reforms some. It looks well, for the most has been made of matters. If you would have it perfect you must untie your purse-strings, and you will lose nothing by it in the end."

VOLUME THREE, CHAPTER FORTY.

REMARKS--ARMY.

Isolated as the officers are from the world, (for these forts are far removed from towns or cities,) they contrived to form a society within themselves, having most of them recourse to matrimony, which always gives a man something to do, and acts as a fillip upon his faculties, which might stagnate from such quiet monotony. The society, therefore, at these outposts is small, but very pleasant. All the officers being now educated at West Point, they are mostly very intelligent and well informed, and soldiers' wives are always agreeable women all over the world. The barracks turned out also a very fair show of children upon the green sward. The accommodations are, generally speaking, very good, and when supplies can be received, the living is equally so; when they cannot, it can't be helped, and there is so much money saved. A suttler's store is attached to each outpost, and the prices of the articles are regulated by a committee of officers, and a tax is also levied upon the suttler in proportion to the number of men in the garrison, the proceeds of which are appropriated to the education of the children of the soldiers and the provision of a library and news-room. If the government were to permit officers to remain at any one station for a certain period, much more would be done; but the government is continually shifting them from post to post, and no one will take the trouble to sow when he has no chance of reaping the harvest. Indeed, many of the officers complained that they hardly had time to furnish their apartments in one fort when they were ordered off to another--not only a great inconvenience to them, but a great expense also.