Bidwell's Travels, from Wall Street to London Prison: Fifteen Years in Solitude
cup, thus over-balancing it, causing the cup to drop, and simple mousie
would find itself also a prisoner.
Although there was an order that no prisoner should be permitted to have
any kind of pets, especially rats and mice, and as the prison swarmed
with these, the warders had become tired of being obliged to turn over
the cells and prisoners daily in search of these contraband favorites,
the loss of which generally provoked the owners to insubordination; in
consequence of which there was a tacit understanding that they were not
to be interfered with, provided they were kept out of sight when the
governor made his rounds.
Nothing could overcome the jealousy of my otherwise gentle rat when it
saw me petting a mouse, and it would watch for an opportunity to spring
upon its diminutive rival and put a speedy end to its career.
I had one mouse which to its other accomplishments added the following:
It would lie in the palm of my open hand, with its four legs up in the
air, pretending to be dead, only the little creature kept its bright
eyes wide open, fixed on my face. As soon as I said, "Come to life!" it
would spring up, rush along my arm and disappear into my bosom like a
flash.
I had a mouse trained the same as the one above described, and was in
dread lest a warder should see and destroy it. Therefore, in the hope of
getting a guarantee for its safety, one day when the medical officer on
his round came to my cell with his retinue I put my mouse through the
"dead dog" performance. The little fellow lay exposed in my hand with
one of its twinkling eyes fixed on me, and the other on these strangers.
Such was its confidence in me that it went through the performance
perfectly, and when I gave the signal in an instant it was in my (as the
poor thing believed) protecting bosom. The doctors laughed, and the
retinue of course followed suit--if they had frowned the latter would
have done likewise. The doctors appeared so pleased that I felt certain
they would order the warder, as was in their power, to let me keep my
harmless pet, the sole companion of my solitude and misery, unmolested.
They went outside the cell and lingered; in a moment then the warder
came in, and after a struggle got the mouse out of my bosom and put his
heel upon it. I am not ashamed to confess that I cried over the loss of
this poor little victim of overconfidence in human beings.
I once procured a beetle with red stripes across its wing-sheaths, and
trained it to show some degree of intelligence. This was for months the
sole companion of my solitude, but it was at last discovered in my
possession and taken away.
I made friends with the flies, and found that they displayed no small
degree of intelligence. I soon had a dozen tamed, and in the course of
my long observations I discovered, among other things, that the males
were very tyrannical over the fair sex, and tried to prevent them from
getting any of the food. In the Summer mornings at daylight they would
gather on the wall next my bed and wait patiently until I placed a
little chewed bread on the back of my hand, when instantly there was a
rush, and the first one who got possession, if a male, tried to prevent
the rest from alighting, and would dart at the nearest, chasing it in
zig-zags far away. In the mean time another would have attained
possession, and it went for the next corner, and for a long time there
would be a succession of fierce encounters, until at last all had made
good their footing and feasted harmoniously; for as fast as one
succeeded in alighting it was let alone. Sometimes a male would take
possession of my forehead, and, in case I left him unmolested, he would
keep off intruders on what he evidently considered his domain by darting
at them in a ferocious manner. On one occasion I noticed a fly that had
one of its hind legs turned up, apparently out of joint. As it was
feeding on my hand I tried to put my finger on the leg to press it down.
During three or four such attempts it moved away, after which it
appeared to recognize my kind intention and stood perfectly still while
I pressed on the leg. It may be unnecessary to add that I failed in
performing a successful surgical operation.
As the Winter approached the flies began to lose their legs and wings;
those that lost their wings would walk along the wall until they came to
the usual waiting spot, and as soon as I put a finger against the wall
the maimed creature would crawl to the usual place on my hand for
breakfast. Indeed, the long years of solitude had produced in me such an
unutterable longing for the companionship of something which had life
that I never destroyed any kind of insect which found its way into my
cell--even when mosquitoes lit on my face I always let them have their
fill undisturbed, and felt well repaid by getting a glimpse of them as
they flew and with the music of their buzzing.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE DAYS O' SUMMER MERRILY SPENT IN THE LAND OF THE HEATHER.
In the cell next to mine was a prison genius named Heep, who was one of
the most singular characters I ever met. As I shall have occasion to
speak of him frequently, I may as well give here a sketch of his life as
related to me by himself. He was born in the town of Macclesfield, near
Manchester, in 1852, of respectable mechanics, or tradespeople as they
are called in England. His father died when Heep was about 5 years of
age, and after a time his mother married a carpenter and joiner of the
place.
Young Heep was a lively child, up to all sorts of tricks, and does not
remember the time since he could walk that he was not in some mischief,
and, as he remarked, "took to all sorts of deviltry as naturally as a
duck to water." As long as his father lived there was not much check on
his mischievous propensities, but his stepfather proved to be a severe
and stern judge, and brought him to book for every irregularity,
thrashing him most unmercifully for each offense. His mother could not
have filled her maternal duty very judiciously, judging from the fact
that before he was 12 years old she set him to follow and watch his
stepfather to the house of a woman of whom she was jealous. The boy
possessed great natural abilities, and in good hands would have turned
out something different than a life-long prison drudge. He was handsome,
genteel in appearance, an apt scholar, though very self-willed and
headstrong, and as he grew up his naturally hot temper became
uncontrollable. At an early age he had discovered that by threats of
self-injury he could bend his parents to his wishes, but found in his
stepfather one who would put up with no nonsense; even when he cut
himself so as to bleed freely, instead of the coveted indulgence it only
procured him an additional thrashing.
At 15 he had become ungovernable at home, and his father had him put in
the county insane asylum, where he remained a year and a half. While
there he caused so much trouble that the attendants were only too glad
when he escaped and went to Liverpool. Here he succeeded in getting a
situation with a dealer in bric-a-brac, rare books and antiquities. In a
short time the proprietor placed so much confidence in his integrity
that he gave him the charge of his place during his own absences, and
young Heep was not long in taking advantage of his position to rob his
employer by taking a book or other article which he sold to some one of
his master's customers. This went on for some time until on one occasion
he took the book to a shop kept by a woman to whom he had previously
sold several articles and offered it for a sovereign. She examined it
and found that it was an ancient, illuminated Greek manuscript, worth
fifty times more than the price young Heep asked for it, and, suspecting
something wrong, she told him to come again for the money the next
evening. At the appointed time he entered the place and was confronted
by his master, who contented himself with upbraiding him for his perfidy
and discharging him from his service.
At this period of his career he had contracted vicious habits, the most
pernicious for him being that of drink, for when sober he was in his
right mind, but the moment the drink was in his common sense departed,
and he became a raving maniac, ready to fight or perpetrate any other
act of folly. Up to this time he had never been tempted to steal only in
order to supply means for improper indulgences.
Not long after being discharged from his situation he was found by the
police acting in so insane a manner under the influence of drink that
the magistrate before whom he was taken had him sent to the Raynell
lunatic asylum. Here, being perfectly reckless, he carried on all sorts
of games which made him obnoxious, although making himself very useful
in work which he liked, such as gardening, etc. He also took up fancy
painting and soon became a skillful copyist of prints of any
description, enlarging or reducing, and painting them in oil or water
colors. He also became a good decorator and scene painter, besides
devoting time to various studies, including music.
At last he found means to effect his escape and lay in hiding until
night; then as he had on the asylum clothes, which would betray him, he
went back and got in through the window of the tailors' shop, which was
in an isolated building, and exchanged the clothes he had on for a suit
belonging to one of the attendants. Thinking himself now safe from
recognition he started off across the country, but had not gone more
than twenty miles when, in passing through a small town, a policeman who
had just heard of the escape from Raynell arrested him on suspicion.
The Raynell authorities sent some one to identify him; he was taken
back, tried on the charge of stealing the attendant's suit of clothes,
which he still had on, was convicted by the usual intelligent jury and
sentenced to five years' penal servitude.
He finished his term of imprisonment at Chatham, and instead of being
set at liberty was sent under guard back to the asylum!
According to English law, if a person confined in a lunatic asylum
escapes and keeps away fourteen days he cannot after that be arrested,
unless he commits fresh acts of insanity.
After several futile attempts he at last made good his escape and
obtained work with a farmer, where he remained safe for thirteen days,
and was congratulating himself that in less than another day he would be
free, when his thoughts were broken off by the appearance of two
attendants who seized and carried him back to the asylum.
The events above narrated had driven him into a state of desperation at
what he felt to be gross injustice, and he carried on in such a way that
the doctor ordered his head to be shaved and blistered as a punishment,
the straitjacket and all other coercive measures having been of no
avail. The night watchman had orders to watch him closely, but he kept
so sharp an eye on the watchman that he caught him asleep, and, creeping
to the closet window, which he had previously tampered with, crept out,
and after climbing the low wall found himself on a raw November night,
with the rain falling in torrents, a stark-naked,
head-shaved-and-blistered but once more a free man. In this condition he
wandered on throughout the night, and just before daylight he entered a
cemetery to find that refuge among the dead of which he thought himself
so cruelly deprived by the living.
Beneath the entrance to the church there was a passage which led to some
family vaults in the basement, and he crept down the passage to seek