A. Yes, sir. Q. About how many in the shop that you are in wanted to appear before the committee? A. I don't know how many. Q. To the best of your recollection? A. I should judge about twenty-five to thirty. Ald. LOMASNEY. That is all I care to ask. Q. (By Mr. PROCTOR.) Well, Mr. Felton, you were sent here for larceny from the person? A. Yes, sir. Q. Committed in Boston? A. Yes, sir. Q. Had you ever been here before? A. Yes, sir. Q. For what? Three months. Q. How many times? A. Well, I hadn't until this year been here for the last seven years. Q. Yes. Where have you been? A. At Concord. Q. At the Reformatory? A. Yes, sir. Q. For what? A. Larceny. Q. Of what? A. From the person. Q How many times have you been sentenced for larceny from the person? A. I couldn't tell. Q. Do you mean that it is so many that you cannot tell? A. Yes, sir. Q. Well, you have been here now since what time? A. The 9th of June. Q. And the punishments which you have received consist of three nights with your bed out? A. Oh, I have been punished more than that; but that was unjustly. Q. I understood you to say that two of those nights it was just, but that the other one, it wasn't. A. It was out three nights that it was unjust; but the other two times that I was punished was just. There was nine nights, altogether. Q. Well, we won't say anything about those two times. If you admit that the punishment was all right, I haven't anything to say about that; but these three nights you say it was unjust? A. Yes, sir. Q. What was it that you were punished for? A. Talking in the shop. Q. Who said you talked? A. Mr. Hazen. Q. Hazen said you talked? A. Yes, sir. He said it wasn't the first time that there was two or three times. Q. To whom did he say that ? A. To me; and then he reported me to the deputy. Q. And then your bed was taken out? A. Yes, sir. Q. Now, there have been a good many days, of course, when you have been in the shop and have talked ? A. Yes, sir; and there has been a good many days that I haven't talked. Q. You talked when you thought they weren't looking? You knew what the rule was? A. I knew what the rule was; yes, sir. A. Q. A. I understand; but whenever you could, you broke it? No. A. Certainly. Q. That is what I thought. Then, you talked enough during the time you have been here since June, so that if you had been caught, you probably would have been punished by having your bed taken out three nights? A. Oh, no. Q. What? 4. Not at all. I have talked for two hours sometimes Saturday night. QI am not talking about the yard, because they let you talk there. You mean talking in the shop? A. Q. Yes. I say that since you have been here, since the 9th of June, you probably have talked enough in the shop so that they might have punished you by taking your bed out for three nights? A. No, sir. Q. Then you haven't wanted to talk much, have you? A. No, sir. What I done, I done by writing. Q. That is, you have passed notes? Q. Well, you are pretty clever about such things? You don't get caught very often? A. Well, sometimes. Q. Well, how often have you been caught sending notes? A. I haven't been caught at all yet. Q. But you have been doing it right along? A. Well, sometimes- frequently, yes. Q. And the injustice that you complain of is those three nights that your bed was taken out? A. Yes, sir; that is, with myself. Q. And you never saw an assault made upon any prisoner while you' have been here? A. I heard the cries of the men, and a man wouldn't cry unless he was in distress. Q. Well, that may or may not be so. You didn't see the assault? Q. You don't know, then, strictly, whether the man was assaulted or not? A. No, sir. Q. The most you know is that you heard cries ? A. Yes, sir. Q. And of course you don't know what the man did, if he was assaulted? A. Well, the man was talking out loud. I was necessary; he couldn't help it. Q. Well, you are speaking now of this man Sheridan ? A. Yes, sir. Q. Did he stop his talking? A. Well, yes; but he would break out once in awhile. Q. That is, he had been talking along to please himself, and I suppose they had told him to stop? A. Well, he couldn't help it. Q. But he didn't stop? A. Well, he couldn't help it. How could he? Q. Well, don't ask me questions. I have plenty to do to ask you. That is the only one you heard assaulted? Q. Yes, sir. Q. And that was when? A. Q. I don't know when. I don't know the day or month. And you say that Officer Clark said that he would choke you? A. That he would shut my wind off. Q. You thought he meant choking by that ? A. Yes, sir. Q. And you had made considerable talk when they took you in there? A. Yes. Mr. Clark came along and pulled down the blanket, and I told him to leave it alone, and he said, "If I had you out in the corridor, you rotten bitch, I would choke your wind off." Q. You had no business to put the blanket up there? 4. Yes, sir. Q. You knew that was a breaking of the rules? A. He had no right to call me a rotten bitch. Q. That is what you complain of ? A. Yes, sir; certainly. Q. The rest of it was all well enough? A. Yes, sir. Q. (By the CHAIRMAN.) What have you to say in reference to the food here ? 4. Well, they have soup six times a week here. Sometimes they have soup on Sunday, when the grease is floating on the beans. Q. Is the soup good A. Well, no not to my liking. It may be to some thirty-day men or three-months' men. Q. Well, in what respect is it not good? 4. Not when you have it for a year steady-have soup six times a week. Q. What did you have on the seventh day ? A. Well, we have beans on Sunday sometimes bean soup, it is so greasy. Q. Then you have soup six times a day and beans the other day? A. No, not six times a day six times a week. Q. Six times a week, I should say. What kind of soups do you have? A. Beef soup and mutton soup. Q. Ever have any fish? A. Yes, fish chowder- that is a soup, isn't it? Do you ever have any meat? Meat in the soup. A. Yes, sir. Well, what kind of meat is it? Q. A. Q. Outside of the soup? A. Pork on Sundays, in the beans. A. No, sir. Or any roast beef? A. No, sir Q. had roast pork Christmas. (By Mr. PROCTOR.) Was it good? Certainly, it was good. (By the CHAIRMAN.) Have you had your dinner to-day? A. No, sir. Q. Do you know what you are going to have to-day? A. No, sir. Q. Then they don't have a regular dinner for Thursday? A. Oh, they have mutton soup; yes, sir. Q. Well, then, you expect to have mutton soup, do you? A. Yes, sir; yes. Q. A. And you have plenty of it, as a rule ? Oh, plenty of it. I don't eat very much of it. Q. What do you have to-morrow ? 4. Fish chowder, with three half-crackers in it—a cracker and a half. Q. Do you ever have any salt fish ? A. No, sir. Q. Then the main fault you have to find is that they give you soups? A. Yes, sir. We would like a little dry feed once in awhile. Q. They give you all the potatoes you want? A. Certainly in the summer. Q. Well, don't they give them to you outside of the summer? A. No, not in the prison. In the arsenal they do. Q. Are the potatoes peeled? A. Yes, sir. I peel my own potatoes. Q. You peel them? A. Yes, sir. Q. Then they don't put them into the soup? A. No, sir, Friday they put them into the chowder, and Thursdays. Q. And you could have the potatoes without the soup, anyway, couldn't you? A. Oh, yes. Q. (By Mr. PROCTOR.) What do you mean by saying they have mutton soup to-day is really that they have mutton stew? That is, there are meat and potatoes in it and some other vegetables? A. Yes, sir. Q. That is the same sort of soup that you have Monday, only that it is beef soup then? A. No, beef soup Monday. Q. There is meat in it? A, Yes, sir. Q. And potatoes ? A. Yes. A. No, sir. Q. (By Ald. LOMASNEY.) Did I understand you to say that you hadn't been here for seven years before this time? A. Yes, sir. Q. Is that right? A. Yes, sir. Q. Do you know of any other prisoner being assaulted except this Sheridan while you have been here? Q. How long have you been in the hospital? A. Well, I have been in the hospital since last Sunday night, this last time, but for four months before that. Q. How long have you been in the hospital the other four months? Q. Do you find frequently there prisoners who are insane and crying out and acting as if they were being choked? A. No, sir. Q. This Sheridan is the only case, is it? A. Yes, sir. Q. And you imagine, as I understood you, that you saw a man in front of your cell door? A. Yes, sir. Q. And that is why you put the blanket up to the door? A. Yes, sir. Q. (By Mr. PROCTOR.) One question more. It has been said that you have testified that on Tuesdays you have bean soup. Isn't it a stew? Isn't there meat in it? |