"REVENGE IS SWEET."

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 184, 8 September 1909, Page 4

"REVENGE IS SWEET."

THE GAOL EPISODE. It was with revengeful feejings rankling in his soul that Charles Mack, a compulsory resident of His Majesty's prison on Marsland Hill, marched on Tuesday last to the punishment cell, there to undergo three weeks' solitary confinement and to be fed for three days on bread and water. His offence Had j been a breach of the prison regulations, in that he had made false and frivolous complaints concerning the gaoler and! other officers of the prison. Towards the conclusion of his trial, exasperated by the alleged treachery of his partners h crime and their abandonment of him to take the punishment for an offence in which they had been concerned, he turned on a convict named Connell 'and j threatened revenge, charging him at the same time with having been the instigator of the whole plot. He also demanded that the gaoler should pi-*eec with an investigation of another offence against the regulations, Connell's clandestine correspondence with people outside the prison.

On the face of things, it would seem very improbable that a prisoner should send letters unknown to the gaol authorities, but the veteran of the Order of the Broad Arrow laughs at gaolers as love laughs at locksmiths. That clan destine correspondence is occasionally carried on by convicts is not open to doubt. How is it done? Their postal system is not elaborate. Neither is it inviolate, regular, or certain. Letters pre apt to be intercepted, for instance. Th« modus operandi is simple enough. The letter-writer deposits his screed in some place known to a fellow-convict whose time is nearty up. Upon Tiis release the latter secures the packet, and forwards it to its destination. One of these epistles emanating from the New Plymouth prison is said to have duly reached His Excellency the Governor. But another was intercepted recently. Still another, having been duly delivered, was returned to the gaoler, Mr. Coyle, who made it the subject of an inquiry. It should be pointed out that the prisoners) are given the privilege of communicating by letter with friends, these letters being subject to scrutiny 'by ihe gaoler before despatch. But when they want to do things "on the crook," to use their own phrase, the hidden post is resorted to. In larger gaols, where there is a floating scum always ready to "fetch and carry" tobacco and other illicit goods for prisoners), the secret letter servli i- is frequent. W-ton Mack had put in his three days last week on bread and water h e was ripe for revenge. He knew of Connell's clandestine correspondence, and he laid a complaint. His letter to the gaoler was as follows:-"I, Charles Mack, undergoing a sentence of two years and a half accumulative, do accuse one John Connell, undergoing a sentence of four years and a half accumulative, with conspiracy. I accuse him with being the instigator of the whole plot. He Suggested the writing of clandestine letters two of which he wrote himself, and got two men to sign them in conjunction with himself. The two men I allude to are Cooper and Simmonds. I believe you, sir, intercepted these letters. H so, please to produce them to assist me to prove my charge against this perjurer and traitor, who, alter getting his fel-low-prisoner to do his dirty work, after constantly inciting the prisoners with tales against Mr. Coyle, has the baseness to turn dog on them. This has learnt me the greatest lesson of my life, and I don't say this out of any cowardice, for I consider the punishment I have received is cheap compared with the knowledge I have learnt, and I believe there is a lot of gaol before me. The knowledge will be also useful to me. I don't mean it could ever make a traitor of me. But this is the knowledge I have gained, that a prisoner is far better by himself; he wants to keep dead on his own. I have been quite happy in this cell by myself; no one to bother me, no prisoner to be pouring venom into my ears', away from their miserable back-biting and spying. There is none of them like me for this reason—like my father before me, I speak my mind; I am too blunt. If I know a prisoner to be a sneak 1 tell him so at once. But most of the prisoners I have met seem to be afraid of them. I will give 'you, one instance to show you the cowardice of some men. A prisoner by name A came to me confidentially and told me he saw a prisoner by name B making out a report to you, sir. He was supposed to be making'out .1 list of tools. A swears he saw these words, 'Sir, I beg to report,' and said he could not see any more, as B covered it up on seeing himself observed. I asked A why he did not accuse him; but he said he was afraid of him, A day or two after this I saw A hobnobbing with B as thick as you like, so I could not stand it, but up and told them both my mind. Sir, what sort of men do you call these? Cunning, perhaps. Then in God's name let me remain a. fool, and let me do my time in this cell in peace. As regards your being a bad gaoler, I sincerely withdraw that charge, and humbly beg of you to accept my apology for having made it. I have come to the conclusion that you know the class of men under you better than I do, and I beg to state that the charges I made against you were not made out of malice or any personal feeling to yourself, but because I sincerely believed them to be true, otherwise I would not have made them. I am no saint; on the contrary, I know .myself to he a scoundrel, but scoundrel though I am I would not make a charge against any man I did not firmly believe to be tmc. You will doubtless think I am giving myself an awful gee, but if you will inquire from Mr. Cliing he will tell you I fully intended to state all I have stated here on my release, without dreaming of this opportunity. As regards what I said to Connell in the presence of the magistrate, I have been thinking it over, j believe it was this, that I would see 'him later and fix him. And I assure you, sir, that if ever I get the opportunity I will deal with him as all traitors should be dealt with. I will not, soil my hands on him either. I should glory in ' doing time for chastising a traitor and base conspirator.—(Signed) Charles Mack."

The charges against Connell were five in number. Tn consequence of the charges, Connell was brought before Mr. 11. S. Fitzherbcrt, S.M., in the Magistrate's Court yesterday, anil charged (1) with writing clandestine letters containin? false charges against the gaoler and officers, and inciting other prisoners to do likewise; (2) with conspiring with other prisoners to make false charges Against the other officers of the pnsoT, and (3) with inciting other prisoners to mutiny. Connell pleaded guilty to the first charge, and Mr. Coyle thereupon withdrew the two other charges, in order to save the trouble that would be involved in examining the large number of witnesses necessarv.

Mr. Fitzherbert pointed out to accused that it was his own .mult he was in gaol. As one of the visiting Justices, his Worship could say that the prisoners in the Now Plymouth gaol were treated humanely and kindly. There was really nothing for them to complain about, as far as he could see. But if they had any complaint to make they should mnke it in a proper way to a visiting Justice, who would investigate it. The prisoner must have known, from the regulations posted up in the 'gaol, that if be made false and frivolous complaints he would be liable to punishment. Accused would he treated similarly to Mack, and sentenced to close confinement for three weeks, with thre* days on bread and water only.