TOBACCO IN PRISONS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 413, 18 March 1870, Page 3

TOBACCO IN PRISONS.

(From the “ Melbourne Argus.") One of tbe greatest- luxuries ot a very large class of criminals is tobacco, and their chief hardship, when within the walls of a prison is that they are deprived of the consolation afforded hy the use ot the soothing wee ’, whether for smooking or • hewing. Most stringent regulations are enforced to prevent them from serreprit’onslyobtaining the coveted article; but p isnners will rim almost any risk for the chance o f evadin ' the vigilance of the officials in that les'eet, and their friends outside are always willing to help them at c -nsiderahle peril to themsel cs, remembering, on doubt, that they are continually changing their positions wiHi reference to the wUs of the gaol. Friends will sometimes cut a piece out of a loaf, enclose a tig of tobacco in the hole, and fit the excise ! ’ ieee in again so carefully that only the strictest scrutiny can detect the deception. In this way opium is frequently conveyed to the Chinese prisoners. Another plan is to throw tobacco over tbe walls ot the gaol while the prisoners are taking exercise, labelled with directions of a mystic character. In these cases the donors trust to luck that the parcel shall fall into the hands of thoes for whom it is intended, for as often as not it is picked up by one of the warders. An attempt to convey tobacco into the Melbourne gaol in this way was frustrated ou Wednesday by Constable Flannery, who at about, six o’clock observe I two men rap in a very peculiar manner to some ironwork of the walls, when a warder looked over and spoke to them, and they walke a li’tle way off. Flannery noticed that they each carried a bundle done up in a handh"rchief, and, taking them by surprise, be stepped in between them, secured both handles, and asked them what they had there They struggled so much that he could only hold one of them, and the other came be in ! with a large stone, which he attempted to strike the constable’s head with, bat failed, and he then made off, leaving his comrade and the two bundles in the possession of Flannery, who, with the assistance if Mr. P M’Nulty, brought the prisoner to the lock-up, though not until hr- b-.-i kick-’ 1 and otherwise assaulted Mr M'Nulty. The man, who gave the name of Thomas Jones, was brought up at the City Court, on We nes ny, an remanded till next day far the prodncriim of further evidence, a warrant in the meantime to be issued for the arrest, of his comrade, who has escaped. Both of the bind es contained nothing but ta acco, one being full of loose figs, while tlie other ha I in it a number of parcels labellc I with directions as to the Soldi r and intended receiver. An envelope found in one of the bundles had written on it the following instructions “Tommy llobinson, twenty figs from Bob; Broeky Hooky, three figs, from Boh; Handy Andy, three figs, from J mes ; Jack Meehan, three tigs from James ; Bill Popham, three tigs, from James; Charley Brower, six figs, from Frank ; Bal larat Jack, three figs, from Frank; Molt Gardener, fourteen figs, rom Spoak ; ’Began, twelve figs, from Killy O’Leary; Charley Rulherfor , six figs from Larry ; total, seventy-si t figs. There is none from Bi ly. I’ll son you some more as soon as I make some more mom v.” There was no signature to this interesting epistle, the “internal evidence’’ of authorship being no on t sufficient for those whom it was intended to reach. Though this ban some [-'■[ taka ll oii f bed !n get to its destination, it i iveqnently tbe case that the prisoners do nbtiim the roboacco thrown over, and it is 'her. can folly lin-banded and kept, coni' -a led i-i various extraordinary ways hy the n by possessors. Whether the apparently a-Hess imitation of tbe outside correspondent that he will obtain some more tobacco when he gets more money is another way of say npr that he hrs “spoiled a likely crib to crack,’’ cannot of course be guessed by the uninitiated, but there is a not very r mote probability that the article is obtam'd at Ics than wholesale price. The quality of the tobacco in the bundles apeared to he like the donors’ morality—a good deal mi .eil.