without fat, to be sure!

And I'm very much | ing glass, however, called assistance, and the obliged to you, Miss. God bless you!" And marauders were caught by the same trick they she went chuckling to her bed. had played on the matron; they were locked in There is one very curious development of the the cells where they were doing their smashing female character-as seen at Millbank-which business, and thus the riot was quelled. Three is worthy of notice at some length. If the re-hundred and fifty panes of glass had been demark may be made without seeming abusive of stroyed, nevertheless. the sex, it would appear that nearly all women positively demand, now and then, a tempest of some sort, in order to throw off their surplus of electricity, as we will say. Sometimes this outbreak takes the form of a breeze at home; sometimes of a quarrel with a neighbor; now of a downright "blowing up" of a delinquent tradesman; again of hysterics; among the most cultivated perhaps a red-hot epistolary communication to some one may relieve the highly-charged battery. If the women themselves would give candid testimony, would they not acknowledge that they feel at times as if they would give a year of life for the privilege of smashing crockery at pleasure for just two minutes?

The female convicts have this feeling, and act upon it. The result in each case is what at Millbank is called a "Breaking out." The operation is simple, and usually the same in all cases, varied somewhat in the manner of performance, according to the peculiar temper of the operator. The time selected is almost invariably night; the woman begins by smashing all the glass in her cell window, follows that by breaking such of her furniture as is frangible, and then tearing her bedding to pieces, all the while swearing at the top of her voice, and winding up her portion of the entertainment by a demoniac dance among the ruins. The nightguard of men arrive with more or less promptness, carry her off, swearing and plunging, to the dark cell where such characters are sent for extreme punishment; and so ends the "breaking out" for that time with that woman.

The almost universal cause of these "breakings out" is the nervous irritability attending long-continued restraint, amounting, perhaps, in most cases to temporary madness. Our earliest Latin maxim declares that anger is a brief insanity; and its truth finds vivid illustration among the female prisoners at Millbank. There are, however, minor causes which suffice to set on fire the ready train; a reproof from the matron; a refusal of the same officer to accede to some request; a fancied slight on the part of the higher authorities of the prison to whom she has appealed for redress of a grievance; jealousy of some "pal" among her fellow-convicts who seems inclined to look with more favor upon another than on herself-these are some of the provocatives. There are others more sad. The receipt of a letter from home, the matron tells us, is very likely to be followed by a "breaking out." At Christmas time, too, the women seem driven by the busy devil, Memory, to commit excesses which they would not think of at other seasons. Singularly enough, too, the most trying days to female prisoners are those approaching the time when they are to be released. The hour for which they have pined and fretted, and of which they have so long dreamed, is close upon them; and while all are more or less affected by the coming boon, some will grow so nervously excitable as to "break out" even on the eve of leaving the prison. One woman begs the superintendent for extra work. "I'm thinking too much," she says; "every thing comes to my mind to worrit me and persuade me to break the windows. Give me something extra to keep me from thinking, or I'm sure to make a smash of it."

With that woman, we say; because the example is so infectious that one outbreak of this sort is pretty sure to be followed immediately by others, till sometimes it seems as if Pandemoni- One woman whose time of release was almost um had been suddenly discharged of its tenant- at hand, but who, in the event of misbehavior, ry. The extent to which this irregularity is would have had some additional months of concarried is shown by the fact that in one year finement to undergo, was our friend, Mary Ann one hundred and fifty-four cases of "breaking Ball, the ingenious prisoner mentioned above. out" occurred at Millbank Prison. One instance She had really, for what must have seemed to of wholesale smashing was for years a favorite her a long time, been straining every nerve to tradition among the prisoners. Two desperate act properly; as the days intervening between women had cunningly matured a plan, and wait- restraint and freedom grew fewer she betrayed ed only for a favorable opportunity to carry it an unusual degree of nervousness. She said into operation. One day they were lugging wa- one day-"If I could only have one more break ter through their ward just at the time the one out before I go. I can't stand this quietness. adjacent was ventilating, all the prisoners being I'm sure I shall make a smash of it before the out of it and the cells open. A matron was ticket comes." Sometimes she would feel so here and there about the ward examining cells. convinced that a catastrophe impended that she The two women sped into this ward, suddenly would implore the matron to lock her up for an closed the door of the cell into which the officer hour or two. "Lock me up," she would say; had gone, thus making her a prisoner, and then "lock me up! It's a coming if you don't! dashed at every window within reach, darting Just an hour or two, just to get me cool like." hither and thither on their exciting errand, while And so Ball was locked up and cooled. We the imprisoned matron rattled her door and un- are happy to say that she was safely engineered availingly screamed. The noise of the break-through her term, and that she afterward came

66

As

to America under very favorable auspices.
she was but nineteen or twenty years of age,
she has by this time, it may be hoped, become
a steady woman, perhaps a good wife and mo-
ther.

Some women will quietly and systematically arrange for a smashing of windows and tearing of blankets. They will address the matron thus:

"Miss G

night."

I'm going to break out to

ron would remonstrate; Jane would reply: "If you say it'll put you out-that your head can't stand it-I'll wait a little while, Miss." The matron fell ill, and it was a sure method of quieting Jane's nerves to say, "If you break out Miss will be very sorry to hear of it, and the news may make her worse." It is believed that this attachment was a powerful instrument in the reformation of the woman.

Punishment immediately follows the breaking out in the form of close confinement in dark You won't think of any cells, popularly called in the prison "the dark."

"Oh, nonsense! such folly, I'm sure." "I'm sure I shall then." "What for?"

"Well, I've made up my mind, that's what for. I shall break out to-night. See if I don't. It's so dull here, I'm sure to break out."

And the breaking out often occurs as promised. A cell furniture is reduced to fragments, and the usual punishment is administered.

They are not entirely without daylight, but the refractory who are therein confined are not allowed gas or candles. The furniture is simple, consisting of a slanting series of boards for a bedstead, a block of wood for a pillow, two blankets and a rug for bedding. As soon as a prisoner begins her smash, and the noise of the breaking glass reaches the ear of the watchful matron, she summons the guard of men from the male prison, and the offender is taken away, usually by main force. These guards have a hard time of it often, though they deserve some rough usage for the fierce manner in which they occasionally perform their task. Our acquaintance, Mary Ann Ball, must be once more re

"Tib" was one of the most troublesome of all the Millbank prisoners, the matron said. Her name was given her by some of her fellows, and by it, as above, she was always known. After being in the penitentiary for some time, and smashing an unconscionable amount of glass and furniture, she contracted a strange affec-ferred to here. She was one of the strongest wotion for one of the matrons, which helped materially to keep her in good order. This regard had its drawbacks, however; for Tib became so jealous of all the other prisoners that if Miss

made but a single remark to one of them, or gave a pleasant look, the infuriated woman threatened to "break out." The matron fell sick, and then Tib broke out with a vengeance; but when the officer returned to her post the poor creature became comparatively docile once more. By-and-by it was proposed to remove Tib to a milder prison, in consideration of her good conduct; this step she rebelled against, because it would take her from her friend. So she "broke out" that night with unusual force, and tore every thing to bits. The cause of the misbehavior being reported together with the principal fact, the authorities thought it well to send her off notwithstanding her vicious performance.

"Never mind," said Tib "If they won't let me stop with my dear friend Miss now, I'll find my way back. They can take me there, but the devil's in me if they can make me stop.' Accordingly, she had no sooner reached her new quarters than she began breaking windows, tearing blankets, indulging in the most blasphemous language, fighting with all the convicts with whom she came in contact, and winding up by flinging a pewter pint at the head of the chief matron. So back she was sent to Millbank, and when she came in sight of her favorite matron she burst into tears, exclaiming, "I said I'd come back."

Jane Dunbabin was another prisoner who "took a fancy" for a certain matron. To that officer she would privately communicate her intention of making a smash at night. The mat

men in the prison, and after one of her outbreaks her passage to the "dark" would be marked by shreds and patches of her own dress, by tufts of hair from the heads and beards of her male captors, and by buttons from their uniforms. She had a wonderful facility in slipping off the handcuffs which her violence rendered necessary, and these she would summarily fling at the head of the first person who opened the door.

The doors of the dark cells are arranged differently from those of the ordinary ward apartments. In the former case the inner door is grated, and the outer one close, having a thick pad also drawn over it, to deaden the sound of the fearful yells in which the infuriated women indulge. There is a rule which obliges the matron on night duty to visit the dark cell each time in her rounds-that is, once every hour-in order to see that the inmate neither suffers from illness nor inflicts violent injuries upon her body in an attempt to commit suicide. If the woman were singing or shouting, or flinging herself about, as is often the case, that would be evidence enough of her vitality. If she is quiet, however, and will not answer when the matron taps outside, then the officer is forced to slide back the pad, open the heavy door, and look in through the grating. Mary Ann Ball was always delighted to give this trouble to the officer; and though she had been singing fearfully not ten minutes before she would be silent as a mouse at every call of the matron; so the latter would be forced to go again through the exertion of sliding the pad and opening the door only to find the wild-beast woman standing bolt upright against the grating with an awful expression of countenance, or lying at length

among the shreds of her bedding, shrieking with each prisoner receives seven gas papers, or, as satanic laughter.

The testimony of the prison officers is almost unanimous on one point: they declare that they have known hardly an instance of any salutary effect produced upon a woman by confinement in the dark cells. Every precaution is taken to prevent injury of body, and the inmate of the cell is visited often, day and night. The woman, however, usually continues defiant to the last; she knows that this is the extreme mode of punishment, and that this has its limits; so she braces herself to endure doggedly, or else expends her energies in raving and screaming, tearing her blankets in strips, and flinging in the matron's face the water which that officer brings. The length of the confinement varies, some women receiving only two days, even for a grave offense, while others will bear twenty-eight days with perfect indifference. It is certainly difficult to invent any mode of punishment quite adapted to women; but this method is a relic of barbarous ages, which is not only cruel but useless.

The

we should call them, lamp-lighters, one for each day in the week. The matron turns on the gas at night, then passes down the ward and calls out " gas paper:" one of these is at once put through the inspection hole in the inner door, and is lighted at the candle of the officer. prisoner then complains that there is wind in the pipe and it will not light, that the paper has gone out or burned out; meanwhile the gas is escaping, the matron's work is hurrying her, and there is no time for argument; so the prisoner obtains her extra paper, and this is one method of procuring what the women call a "stiff," that being the invariable slang name for a bit of paper.

Then an occasional leaf is torn out of a library book, or the blank portion of a page at the end of a chapter is slyly abstracted, or even the margins of the leaves are cut off. The copybooks used in teaching writing are sometimes levied on without detection. A stump of a leadpencil, and, once in a while, a pen is secreted during the school hour, which occurs twice a week. At the same time a woman manages to steal a thimbleful of ink; how shall she hide it from the eyes of the matron who makes careful inspection of the cells after dinner? When that meal is served she pretends to have a slender appetite, and obtains leave to put away half her loaf till tea-time; whereupon she sinks in it her thimbleful of ink, cunningly covers it over, and then she has "only a bit of my bread, Miss," to show the inspector.

Of its uselessness in one case here is an instance: Honor Matthews once refused to leave the "dark" when her time had expired, flung herself on the floor and announced her intention of remaining there. She swore she would "break out" again at once, or assault some one if she were moved. So the door of the dark cell was again closed on her, and week after week passed without producing any signs of feebleness in her purpose. She was fed with the usual prison rations instead of the dark cell bread and water, and even extra food was given her. One day a favorite kitten of the matron strayed into the cell unperceived by its mistress; the woman deliberately suffocated the poor little animal, and when search was made for the missing pet she flung its dead body out, mutter-ly the message is one of jealousy and revenge; ing, "That's how I should like to serve the whole of you." By-and-by, in an easy, unconstrained way, she signified her intention of going back to her own cell, and back she went, as stubbornly hard as ever.

The means having thus been procured, the letter is written. It contains often messages of friendship, and, rarely, of affection; often remonstrances against a fancied slight: the person addressed has been seen looking kindly on some other than her own "pal," the writer. Frequent

a change of "pals" is threatened, and the threat is accompanied by abuse of the person addressed, the reception of this sort of a missive being frequently followed by a general smash up in the cell of the injured woman. Arrangements for a simultaneous "breaking out" often form the subject of these letters.

In referring to the friendships, and consequent jealousies of female prisoners, it becomes necessary to mention the means of correspondence But how to send the communication when adopted; for, as was said before, Millbank Peni- written? For, be it observed, the genuinely tentiary is conducted on what is called the "si-plucky prisoner disdains to hold elaborate correlent system," though, of course, perfect abstinence from conversation can not be achieved by women as at present constructed. The female inmates of the prison, as a general rule, have what they call "pals" in the flash dialect of their order.

A "pal" is a comrade, and the act of acquaintanceship is called "palling in." When a woman has made a mental selection of a "pal" she proceeds to court the mate chosen by the various methods of correspondence invented in prison. The chief of these is the commonplace mode of pen, ink, and paper; but the difficulties under which the operation is performed raise it almost to the height of a fine art. Paper is procured sometimes thus: On Monday morning

spondence with any one but a remote comrade. The "pals," as a general rule, are in different wings of the prison, and the transmission of a note becomes to all parties a most agreeable excitement. The means of transit are ingenious, and in the majority of cases baffling to the matron. Prisoners are obliging one to another; and a "stiff" will sometimes pass through twenty hands before reaching the one for whom it is intended. Sometimes, in chapel, a paper is thrown so skillfully that the matron remains in ignorance of the transaction till the excitement of the recipient betrays to the experienced official eye the fact that A, B, or C, has received a note. Another way is this: the writer of the

to do so of her own accord. Then there are women who have the faculty of feigning death. The matron, well as she knows the trick, is often really frightened, and the doctor is sent for; he orders a pint of water to be dashed in the corpse's face, when it usually starts up and utters a torrent of oaths.

though with only limited success; materials are scarce, and the female convict's idea of anatomy is peculiar; the consequence is a long-waisted, long-necked monster, with features stitched in colored thread on the white nob representing a head. One woman works crochet; her needle is formed of a hair-pin, and she steals cotton wherever she can find it, her manufactory stopping now and then for days and weeks on account of the scarceness of stock. Pin-cushions are made by the peck almost; and the matron remarks that this is strange, because they can not be given away, they are difficult of hiding, and they entail much extra work in their construction.

Then there are the good-tempered but unim

These tricks appear to be performed mainly from pure love of mischief, but others are used for the purpose of gaining access to the infirm ary. Pricking the gums with a needle is a common practice; this produces what the would-be patient declares is bleeding of the lungs. Soap pills for frothing at the mouth in the course of a sham fit are in much request. One of the Millbank prisoners possessed a remarkable capacity for self-inflation; she managed to de-aginative prisoners who turn their attention to ceive for a time even the medical attendant. She would expand herself astoundingly, her size becoming greater every instant; being removed to the infirmary, she would lie in bed a few days, then gradually recover, sit up for a short time, then expand again, and betake herself once more to bed. At last chloroform was suddenly administered, and a collapse followed as soon as the power of inhalation was suspended. Still another woman could throw herself into a state of seeming trance. She lay rigid and inflexible on one occasion for two days, taking only beef tea, and that through the medium of a spoon; at the end of the time mentioned she received a little asafoetida with the tea, at which insult she sprang up in bed, and poured forth the richest stream of invective that even prison officials ever listened to.

But are there not, even here, some evidences of a better nature, of something a trifle more womanly and gentle? Certainly. The matron assures us that there are at this time in the prison a number of women, well behaved and orderly, who refrain from window smashing, and fulfill all their duties with regularity and neatness, having self-command enough to resign themselves to the dismal monotony of penitentiary life, and prudence enough to see that they gain in comfort by decent behavior. Among a few of them there are little fancies and tastes that tell very plainly of a thoughtful mind and an affectionate disposition. Strictly speaking, the rules of the prison forbid the convicts all indulgence in fancy needle-work; but the judicious matron, especially if she is not too recent an appointment, has the good sense to see that the spirit of the law can sometimes be better preserved by in a measure disregarding the letter; and she is accordingly quietly blind to various minor infractions of the code.

An ingenuity almost beyond belief is shown by the "good-conduct women," as the decent ones are called, in the manufacture of the articles with which they beguile the dull hours of their captivity. The making of tiny boots and shoes is a favorite pastime; these are formed from bits of rag picked up here and there, and have a grace of outline and neatness of finish wonderful indeed. Rag dolls are also made,

fancy cooking, having a positive passion for making cakes. They conceal their dinner loaf, soak the bread in the water which is three times each day furnished them, and then mix it with fat skimmed from their stewed meat; the whole is kneaded into some remote likeness to a cake, and is then baked in a tin can over the gaslight. When the woman has no tin can she holds the cake over the gas in her fingers, changing it rapidly from one hand to the other, meanwhile blowing her fingers to cool them. The cake baked, it is eaten in the dead of night like a delicious morsel, a part of it perhaps being reserved for transmission to the prisoner's "pal" the next day.

More poetical, and certainly much sadder, is the eagerness with which these poor women seize upon the smallest flower within their reach. In one of the prison yards there grow a few very common daisies; occasionally one of the convicts, eluding for an instant the eye of the matron, will snatch one of these, and hide it as if it were a priceless gem; sometimes she will lend it, and instances have been known of its passing from hand to hand on many short visits; oftener its possession is made the subject of a quarrel, which results only in betraying the presence of the contraband article. Some years ago a matron, making her round of inspection, saw one of. the rudest and most repulsive of her charges sitting, with her elbows on her table, staring at one of these common flowers. The woman was not conscious of the official presence, and was for a time herself-her old self of years ago, when she played among the daisies and laughed with the sunshine. She looked long at the flower with a wistful gaze, then dropped her head upon the table before her, and wept till the tears forced themselves through her fingers interlocked. The daisy had spoken with a voice too eloquent for the woman's heart. Six months afterward the same matron found it carefully pressed between two leaves of her prison Bible, and when the doors opened for the poor creature's release, her daisy went with her, her choicest, almost her only treasure.

We must leave various topics quite untouched, and forbear recording very numerous instances of feminine peculiarities as seen at Mill