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FEMALE LIFE IN PRISON. t
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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.
» A Remarkable Book Has Lately Been Runn...
tina Sommercondemned for a brutal murder of her child , " after " , whomhowevershe never seemed to fretgradually weakened In
intellect , and had , finally to be sent to Fisher , ton Asylum . Even at the best , of timestheir tricks and their daring" are on the verge of
sanity . Imagine , women , who , for the sake of being sent to the Infirmary ward , will coolly pound a piece of glass to powder and '
bring on internal haemorrhage ; twist staylaces round their necks till iration almost ceasesor deliberately hang themselves with an
eye resp to the chance of being , cut down in time ! Ingenious to the last degree is this latter invention . The woman hangs herself to the
inside of her door by passing her bit of rope or string through the ventilator , stands meanwhile on her pail full of water , which she
kicks away from her , sending the water streaming underneath the door over the flagstones of the ward . The water catches the
matron ' s eye ; the door is attempted to be opened ; " a heavy swinging substanceto the matron ' s horroris felt inside the door ; extra
assistance is , calledthe woman is , cut downand the doctor is hastily sent for . " The , woman , half dead , or wholl , y unconscious , is
sent to the infirmary , —triumphant ! In one instance , a prisoner named Eliza Burchall lanned a scheme with another -woman ,
other whereby was Burchall to bring was a to matron p hang on herself some at excuse a given to moment Burchall , and ' s cell the .
Burchall , " hearing footsteps approaching a few minutes before the time appointed , leaped off as arranged , and the footsteps passed the
door _andtoent on down the _tvard . " When the confederate arrived with the matronsome three minutes laterBurchall was found hanging
by the neck , , to all appearance dead , , and it was only by the unceasing exertions of the surgeon , Mr . Rendle , that the wretched
creature was brought back to life , after remaining unconscious three The and histories forty hours here ! iven of arate _jDrisoners are in the highest
degree interesting as g psycholog sep ical studies . "What can chivalric worshippers of " angelic womanhood " say to Sarah Baker , a very the
mass young as , delicate an obedient woman , even , " who cheerful soon prison becam er e . distinguished " She was sentenced from lest the _~
for having thrown her child down a pit-shaft ! and who ( - reader might excuse the deed on the plea of mortal anguish ) is reported to have spoken about it to another female prisoner in
Words so cruelly coarse that they are unfit to be copied here . In . July 1863 Baker will probably obtain her liberty , —life women
, , _tt standing Mary May a chance was a of prisoner freedom of after a different ten years stamp . —only in for petty t
larceny ; a little weak in the wits , but affecting a supreme contemp for the other prisoners" I can't speak to ' emMiss" she would
. , , parti say confidentiall al to flattery y , " and they telling are such fortunes a set and of rubbitch would . promise " She was the
, matron that gold and a young man with dark eyes were awaiting
her , "I dreamt of him last night , Miss ! " But fortune-telling
Female Life In Prison. T
FEMALE LIFE IN PRISON . t
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Sept. 1, 1862, page 7, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01091862/page/7/
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