Portugal's "Prison of Silence."

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 18 September 1914, Page 2

Portugal's "Prison of Silence."

Republican Portugal still tolerates a prison ■ whose carefully-planned, diabolical torture is enough to make, prison reformers turn in their graves. In this prison, called the "Prison of Silence," in a grim castle on the outskirts of Lisbon, nearly everything that human ingenuity can suggest to terrify the prisoners is done. The corridors, piled tier on tier five storeys high, extend from a common centre like the spokes of a huge wheel. The cells are narrow and tomb-like and within each stands a coffin. The attendants creep about in felt slippers. No one is allowed to utter a word. The silence is that of the grave. Once a day the cell doors are unlocked, and the half a thousand wretches march out clothed ir. shrouds and with faces covered by masks, for it is part of this hideous punishment that none ma\ look upon the countenances of hi : fellow-prisoners. Few of them endure this torture for more than ten years.