HUMOUR AND PATHOS.

Shannon News, 18 November 1924, Page 4

HUMOUR AND PATHOS.

WRITING ON GAOL WALLS. MEMENTOES IN 'MELBOURNE

Scratched on,.the..walls.of. Melbourne gaol from which .the prisoners,,have just been transferred to Pentridge, as part of the reorganisation of the system following the recent troubles* are many curious little messages, both humorous and > pa'hetic, .from, hapless inmates. "All hope , abandoned," runs an inscription on the wall of a remand yard where at least two notorious murderers were confined. As the date given with the inscription is two days before one of, them was hanged it is believed ito be his message. The ifairly obvious i inscription, "Abandon hope all ye who .enterv here," has.occurred to several prisoners, as it is scribbled ill two or three yards. I Calendars are drawn on several of the walls, and the prisoners - have crossed off the dates, day by day, evidently deriving some satisfaction by noting' each day that they were one day /nearer release. At the bottom of one of these calendars a prisoner hat joyfully written; "Only one more day and I will have a pot at the pub." Presumably he enjoyed that pot, for another inscription in the same handwriting Istates: "Ending a five-years' stretch." (Prisoners concluding long sentences were sometime brought to Melbourne gaol for the last few weeks.) . "Two-years and a flogging for as- | sault and robbery, and I am not guilty," ; runs another inscription, i while on the opposite wall a prisoner I who had evidently got off much lighter than) he expected, remarks: "Only a sixer,; and I thought I was m for five years." Then a grateful tribute to the powers of a well-known barrister, whom he confidently recommends,"! though his "charges are a bit stiff." x , A One prisoner whiled av,ay tho time by writing down the winners of we Melbourne Gups from 1890 to 1923. "I will inot see / the next," he commented i dolefully. The list of winners, by the way, was quite..accurate. • A female prisoner put her story into verse, as follows:- — ; Poor Elma; she came from Bathurst Where the Bathurst burr grows, She wandered down to Melbourne town, To see the life so gay, And now she's doing ten months' hard To passi the time away. _ Tips for various - races which the tipsters, presumably, > never saw, are frequent, and one cheerful inmate prophesises that "South- will be premiers a,nd I will see them," "All aboard jfor Pentridge," proclaims another. 'fGood-bye; two years and the key,," says a man 1 who has evidently got an indeterminate sentence. There have been many political prisoners in the remand yard, and they have also left records. One man wrote a verse of the "Red Flag," while another consoled himself with the reflection that "It is all for the cause; Solidarity for ever.'" Several of the political prisoners, especially during the conscription 'issue, slept in the condemned cell, Which is right opposite the gallows. Despite i its depressing association this is a concession for the cell is comparatively bright and air>. Mr. Considine formerly member; for .Barrier in the House of Representatives, when under sentence for a political offence, was housed there. Political prisoners, of course, are allowed more liberty than ordinary prisoners, and have their own food, books, papers,, cigars, and ; cigarettes, etc.