AMUSING INCIDENT OE PRISON LIFE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 1200, 27 February 1885, Page 3

AMUSING INCIDENT OE PRISON LIFE.

The following amusing incident is recounted in Michael Davitc’s “ Prison Experiences” :—"The hour of mid» nighf, had just struck from the belfries of all (he churches in the vicinity, St. Paul’s toning clown the jingling con cert with its thick mellow st,cokes ; while the rich bass of Big Ben came lumbering up the Thames and across the city with i's melancholy chimes of the ‘Old Huudreth,’ as if it were anxious to sing a'l other noises to silence and repose, when the signalbell in the cell next to mine sent its sharp warning through the whole corridor, as if it, too, had been sent in motion through a sympathy with the hundred bells that had just died out on the midnight air After a few minutes’ absence the signal was again struck, accompanied this time by some inch's* tiiicn muttering, as it the person who had pulled it was in a bad humour wi hj whatever necessity awoke him from slumber. Anon the slow tread of the guard passed by my eftor, and, pausing at that of the disturber, I heard a sharp voice say, ‘ Well, what is it? The reply was so inaudible that T failed to catch any portion of it but the word ‘ want,’ and from the answer it elicited from the guard. I guessed that some unusual request had been made by the next-door neighbour. ‘ Oh 1 is that all ? You have mule a slight mistake, my man, and come to the wrong place Go to bed.’ And after delivering himself ot this piece of advice, the guard i ('passed my door, and all was silent for a couple of minutes. Bang! goes the signal bell a,min; | and evoking no response, my neighbour, who had now recovered his voice, shouted loud enough to bo heard all ov r the prison ; ‘ Waiter, 1 ta •, waiter ! No reply, of course. Loud muttering by the voice as if he was ex pressing in anything but polite language his appreciation of the party for whom he was calling, when, bang! goes the signal again, while the impassioned individual followed it up with ‘ Waiter, 1 toil you I can’t find the matches ! I want a light and a glass of brandyond-water.’ A titter of half suppressed laughter from the adjoining cells told me that ray neighbour had enlarged Ir.s audience by his demands, when the signal was struck once more. No response. The voice, manifestly suffering from feelings of evident d sgust, shouted : ‘ la there no use my ringing or shouting—Waiter’! ! No reply. The voice again, this time ' as if moralising with himself: ' Well,

I have been in a good many hotels in mv lime in London and elsewh re, but such a d as this I never put up at heio'o. Waiter!’■ thundered at the c I 1 door, somewhere neir where the key ho e sh uhl hj . No response. Tie voice in a towering, rage and as if intended to penetrate to that sups posed region where mine host would be 1 kely to hear it —‘ Bring me mv bill! I won’t stop another hour in this d place !’ A shout of laughter from the whole of the corridor at this threat to dispatronize the ‘hotel’ Newgate brought the guard instanter again to the scene of the disturbance, and, after a few words as to ‘the slight mistake ’ into which my neighbour had fallen, the place resumed its former silence, the guard muttering, on passing the door, ‘ A fit of the blues.’ ”