Читать книгу The New York Tombs Inside and Out! - John Josiah Munro - Страница 10

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Every month at the close of the term the Grand Jury pays a visit of inspection to the Tombs. This has been their custom for many years. As the warden knows they are coming he puts everything in a “spick and span” order. They receive unusual attention on all such occasions, the discipline is up to the highest pitch and the warden as a rule shows them around. But to the man who can read between the lines this is all “make believe.”

If the Grand Jury should visit the Tombs like a thief in the night, that is, unexpectedly, they would then see the place as it is and would not be imposed upon any longer. If the Grand Jury came to the Tombs on Friday and refused to be led around by the warden, but by a Court official, their eyes would be opened. Perhaps they could be induced to wait around till the noon hour, when they would have an opportunity of at least “smelling” the stinking chowder which the unfortunate inmates are compelled to eat or starve.

If any of the Grand Jury tried to eat some of this unpalatable stuff they would become so deathly sick that a doctor would have to be called and if they ever recovered we fear they would indict the warden on the spot!

Of course the monthly visit of the Grand Jury is known in advance. They are carefully piloted around through the halls where the floors have been mopped that morning and everything made to look “shiny” and neat for the occasion. As a rule they are taken through the new prison and down into the cellar where may be found the machinery all polished and bright.

I would like to lock some of these gentlemen in one of the cells for an hour or two. As is well known, many of these cells are “reeking” with vermin and filth. Not of the Tombs only, but some of the district prisons. I have seen men in the Tombs and in other prisons of the City, who had hardly become inmates before the vermin would literally be found crawling over them.

In summer time when the weather is warm and oppressive, the “Annex bug” (where the misdemeanants are kept) which is said to be an “Asiatic” brand of bug, comes out of the porous brick by thousands and for two or three months have their “fill” of human gore. I think the main trouble is with the bedding. It is sent to the Workhouse and washed about twice a year in ordinary water, instead of being boiled in a vat of carbolic acid or aqua fortis, and beaten for a few days with clubs. Not infrequently visitors and missionaries find vermin crawling over their clothing after they have returned to their homes.