Miscellany: The Prison At Blackwell's Island

I went last week to ÏJIackwcll's Island, in the East River, between the cify and Long island. The énvirons of the city are unusual'Jy beautiful, consideiing hou far autuinn has ad vaneed upon us. Frequent rain has coaxed vegelation into abundunce, and preserveel it in 'verdant beauty. The trees are hung with a profusión of vines, the rocks are dressed in Nature's green velvct of nross, and from overy Hitle cleft peeps the rich foliage of some wTnd-scattered seed. This island itscif prefients a quifit loveliness of scenery, unsurpassed by any thin-g I -have evpr witnessed; thatigh Nature and I are oíd friends, and she has eliown me many 'of her choicest pretures, in a light let in only from above. No form of gjacefuliícss c an compare with the beid of flowing waters b 11 round and Tound the ver'dnnt island. Thc'circle typifies Love ; and those who read the spiritual ilphnbet, written all over the èarth, vill see that a 'circle kCicüters must needs be very beautifu!. Beautifu] it ís even when the Janguage it speaks is an tinknown tongue. T hen the green h i lis beyond look so very pleasant in the sunshine, With homes nest ing among thrtn, liice dimples 'on a smilinn; face. The isíafid itself aboirnds with charming nooks- open wells in shady places, scrtíeiíed by Jarge weeping 'willoAvs; gardens and arbors running down to the riVer's etlge, to look at themselves in the vaïers and pretty 'boat&, Kke w'hite-winged'birds chnsed by their shadowa, and breaking the waves into gems. But man has prof.ined this charming rctrèat. He hn8 brought. the screech o, the ba1, andtho-vuhure, into the holy temple of Kature. The Mand belongs togovernraent; and the or.ly 'buildings on it ore ajpeuitentiary,' inad-house, and with a few dweiliiiLs occupied :by those connected with those institutions. The discord between man and Kature never beforc struck me so painfully ; yet U is wise and kind to place the erring and the diseased in the mulst of such;alm, briglu influences. Man may curse, but Nature for■ever blesses. The guiltiest of her wanderingcliildren bIic would fain enfold withai her arms to the friendly hearMvarmlh of a mothers l)osom. She speaks to them ever in the eoft, low tones of earnest Jove; but they, alas, tossed on the roaring, stunning surge of Society, forget the qniet .langunge. As I looked lip at the mnssive wtills of the pnson, it did my hcart good to 6Ce dovcainnr within the shelter of the deep, narrow, grated windows. I thought what blessed lit tle messcngers of heaven they would appear to me, if ] were in prison; but nstantly a shadow passed over the snnshine of my thouffht. Ala?, doves do not speak to their souls, as they would to mine; for they have lost their love for childlike and gentle things. How have they los. it ? Society with ïts unequal distribution, its prcverted education, its manifold injustice, its coid neglect, its biting mockery, has taken from them the gifts of God. They are placed here, in the midst of green hulp, and flowing streams, and cooing doves, after the heart is petrificd against the genial influence of all such sights and sounds. As usual, the organ of justice (wlnh phrenologisis say is unusually developed'in my skull) was roused inio great activity by the sight of prison ers. They snid, 'Would you have them prey on society !' I onswered. 'I am tronbltd that society hns preycd upon them. I would not enter mto an argument about the nght of society f.o punish thïse ?inners; but'I sny she made them sinners. How much I have done townrd it, by yielding to popular prcjudices, obeying falso customs, and puppressinjr vital truths, I know not ; but doubt less I hiwe done, and am doing, my share. God forgive me ! If He dealt with u?, as we deal with our brother, who could stand before Him VWhile I was t!,ere, they brought n the edi . tors of the Flash,thc Libertine.and the Weekly Rake. My very sou] lontho.s such polhiN. ed publications; vet a sense of jusfice ogain made me refractory. These men w ere perliaps trainee! to such service by oll the social influences lliey hnd ever known. They dared to publish what nine-tenths of all aiound ihem livcd unreproved. Why ehould thoy be imprisoned, ,', hile flourishes in the ftill tide of editorial success, circulating a paper ns immoral, and perhaps more dungerous, because its indecency isslightly veiled! VVliy should the Weekly Rake be shut up, when daily rakes walk Broadway in fine broadcloth and silk velvet? Many more than half the tomates of the penitentiary wore women ; and ofcourso a large proportion of them were taken up as walkers.' The men who mude them such, who, perchance, caused the love of a human heart to be its ruin, and changed tenderness into eensuality and crime- these men 1 ïve in the ceiled hotises of Broadway, and sit in council at the City Hall, and pass regulations' to clear the streets they have filled with sin-. And do you suppose their poor victims do not feel the injustice of society thus reii latcd? Think you they respect of lawsl Vicious they are, and they may be both ignorant and foolish; but, nevertheless, they nre too wise to respect such laws. Their whole being cries out that it is a mockery; all their experience proves that society is a game of chance, where thecunning .slip through, and the strong slip over. The criminal feels this, even when incapable of rcasyning upon il.- . The lavvs do not 6ecure his reverence, ■because he sees that their operotion is unjust.- The secreta of prisons, so far as they are revealed, all tend to show that the praya-iímg feeling of crimináis, of al] gradef, iá that thoy are wronged. What we cali jnsticc, tlicy regard as unkickey chance-, and whosoever looks calmly and wisely ijito the foundations on which society rolls and tumbles, (T cannot sny on wLichit rcsle, forits foundations arp like the sea,) will perceive that they um victims ofchar.ee.For mstance, everylhing in school-books. social remar'ks, domestic con versal jon, lii-erature, public fcslivols, legislativo proccedings, and popular honors, all tcach lhe young soul tliat it ÍS noble to retalíate, mean to forgive an insult, and unmanly not to iejíent a wrong. Animal insüncls, instead of bein? brought iñto subjection to tl.e higher povveTs of the soulare Muis cherished foto more than natural ;u tivity. Of three tnen Ujus edneated, oue enters the arsny, kills a hundred Indiana, }ia1r3 theií Ecalps on a tree, is inade inajor-ociuMa!, and oonsidered a ñitmg enndidate for the presidercy. The second rrOes to the Southwest to reside; scnie 'roarer' calis hian a roscal- a phrase not nusapplied, perhaps, 'biil necessary to be --esented; he agrees to tettle the question of honor at ten paces, shoots his insuller throngh the heart, and is hailed by society as a brave man. The third lives i New-York; a man enters his oi5ce, and, truc or untrue,, calis him a knave. He ñghls, kflls bia adversary, is tiied by the laws of the land, and hung. These thrce men indulge the same passion, acted from the sanie motivps, and illustratcd the same education; vet hou' different their fate ! With reg-ard to dishonesty, too- tlie maximsoftrade, the customs of' society, and the general unreflecting tone of pnblic 'conversation. all tend to promote it. The man who has made 'good hnrgam s ueahhy and honored: vet the detai's of the?e bargains few would dare to prononnco good. Of two yomirr men nurtured under such influences, une becomes a successful merchant; fivelhousand dollars are borrowed ot him; he takes a a mortgagc on a house worth twenty Isand dollars; in the absence of the owner, when sales nre very dull, he offers the house for aale, to piy his mortgage: he bids it in hiniself, for four thousand dollars; and afterwarde persecutes and imprisons his debtor for the remaining thousand. Society calis him a shrewd business man, nnd pronounces his dinners excellent; the chance is, he will be a magistrate before he dies. The other young man is unsuccessful; his necessifies are great; he boriows some money from his employer's drawr, perhaps resolving to restore the same; the loss is discovered before he hos a chance to refnnd it: the society sends him to Blackwell's island, to hammer stone3 with bjgliway robbers. Society made ho!h these men thieves, but punished the one, whilst she rewarded the other. That crimináis so universally feel themselves victims of injustice, is one strong proof that it is true: for imprcssions entirely without foundation are not apt to become universal. Ir' society does make lts own crimináis, how shall she cease to do t ? It can be done only by a change in the structure of socieiy, that willdeminish the temptation of vice, and increase tb? encouragement of virlue. Ifwe can abolish poverty, we shall have taken the greatest step towirds the abolishing of crims; and this will be tjie final triumph of tl;e gospel of Christ. Diversities of gifts will doublless always exist; for the law vrit:cn on spirit, as vvell as nter, is infinte variety. But when the kingdom of God comes on earth, as it is in heaven, there will not be found in any corner oft ttat poverty wliich harden? the I.eart under thesevere pressure ofphysical suñering, and stultifies the intollcct with loil for mero animal wants When public opinión regards wealth as rr.eans,ana not as an end, me will no longer dcem penitenliaries a necessary evil; for society will theu cease to be a great school for crime. Tn the meantime, do penitentiaries and prisons increase or diminish the evils they are intended lo remedy ? The superintendent at Blackwell told me, unasked, that ten years' experience had onvinccd him that the whole system tended to increase crime. He said of the lads who carne there, a large portion had alrcady been in the house of refuge; a large proportïoii of those who left, afterward went to Sing Sing. 'It has as regulara sucesión as the classes in a college,' saidiie, from the house of refuge to the penitentiary, and from the penitentiary to the State prison.' I remarked that coerción tended to rouse all the bad passions of man's nature, and if long continued, hardened the whole character. ;I know that,' said hc, 'from my own experience: all the devil thcre is in me rises up wlien a man aüempts to compel me. But what enn I do ? I am obliged to be very strict. Wlien my fcelings tempt me to unusual indulgence, a bad use :s almost ahvnys made of it. I seo that the systein faiïs to produce the eflect inlcnded ; but I cannot change the result.' I feit that liis words were true. He could not change the influence of the system while he discharge the duties of his office; for ihc same reasen that a man cannot be at once slave-driver and missionary on a plnntation. I alinde to the necessilics of the office, and do not mean to imply that the eharact-.-r of the individua! wa.s sevtre. On the contrary, the priaoners scenied to be made as comfortnble as was possibtë compatible with Iheir si tiuilion. There were vatcli-towersr and men witli loaded guwj to )revcnt escape from the íh];uk]; bot. thoy converscd freely with oacli othet as thcy workod in tbc sunshino, and very few of them lookcd wretclred. 'Átatíng tliosc who wcre sent under guard to row us brok to the city, was one who jcsted on his own bitriaticn, in u mannor which slrowed plainly enough that he lookcd on Uhe whoe thing as a game of chance, i.i which he pened to 'be the looser. Isfiligértfeè connot benefit such clmracters. WhaP is wantod íf, thai no human beingshould grow up without deep and friendly interest from tho society ïiround Jiiur; and that none shouid fcel hirmelf the victirn of injr.itice, becnuse society punishes tire very sins which it teaches, nay drives mentocommit. 'J'l,e vvorld would bc in a happier condition if Jrgidators spcnl half as much time and labor to prevent crime, as they do to üunish if. This truth beffins. at )„t. ín