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256 AN IRISH NEWGATE " IN THE FIELDS."
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
O I Had Lieard A Great Deal Of An Irish....
We walked away : I so puzzled at what I had seen that I did not know what to ask first .
" But , " I exclaimed , " they can easily runaway . " " There has not "been even an attempt at escape . " to tell that
I said , " This is too good a joke . Do you mean me they " They like it simp ?— l wh get at do prison they diet get ; to as eat littl ? e " bread . and meat as is
cony sistent men mowin with g keep get ing tea them in the out aft o ernoon £ hosp . ital Neither —no more tobacco , no , nor less . spirits The , and
nor beer is allowed . The men , according to their good conduct they that industry gratuity get , sixpence can is earn placed a week rig to ht . their to As a certain account a proof gratuit to th be at the y g : iven the diet on greater is release not part luxu ; but of
rious or indulgent , they generally spend that sixpence a week in buy " ing Then extra , they bread are . not " better off than the prisoners in any of our
gaols " Not . " half so well fed as some of the prisoners in English gaols , conduct
who can earn pudding and beer by good . " " Then , why do they not run away ? " and rested stile to
" There are two reasons , I think / ' we on a look back at the men tossing the hay about . The smell came to us leasantlyand we could still hear an occasional laugh , or a voice
p momentaril , y raised . " This Lusk prison is the final stage of the convict ' s prison career . secret ell confinement in
After nine months of hard living and c Moun commences tjoy prison The , he rules goes there to Sp are ike very Island strict , where tlie industry his c probation required ' _,
. , severe attentive , the to disci teaching pline , stern he . gets If released he is obedient from unattractive , industrious , Sp and ike
than Island a many man who month is s fractious ( sometimes or idl eig e hteen : and or his twelve release months from ) sooner Sj ) ike
Island sends him here . At Spike Island the prisoners know what Is before themby good conduct they soon earn a passport to this
comparatively p ; leasant place ; by bad conduct they may remain at Philipstown , with all its hard rules and stern system , for the whole
term of the sentence . Thus , the men who come liere have purchased _, the riht to come by a long course of practical good conduct—not
professions g of piety or amendment , but ' patient continuance in welldoing /—and they areas it weretaking leave of their prison career
and coming nearer every , day to the , renewal of their old free life , in a state of societhaving some of the characteristics of both . Some
of the men here y succeed in reaching this colony only for a few months before their release ; but the very fact of their having
reached it seems a proof of their amendment so far : —they are as well behaved as any of the other prisoners . "
"In Mountjoy and Spike Island do the prisoners know of this
comparative paradise for prisoners ? "
256 An Irish Newgate " In The Fields."
256 AN IRISH NEWGATE " IN THE FIELDS . "
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1862, page 256, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061862/page/40/
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