1 Head of a Family for 9 94 1 -- do. -- -- 8 12-1/2 1 -- do. -- -- 14 00 1 -- do. -- -- 9 61 1 -- do. -- -- 11 68 1 -- do. -- -- 27 00 1 -- do. -- -- 7 75 1 -- do. for schooling } 11 25 his children, } 1 -- do. discharged 1 88!!! -----
Who among the opulent is willing to restore a _Father_ to his Family and Christmas Fire Side?
Sometimes debtors were not actually imprisoned, but were confined to what was called the "limits of the jail;" that is, certain streets within a specified distance of the jail. The writer distinctly remembers, when a boy, of having a man pointed out to him, of whom it was said he had refused to pay his debts, and so was only allowed to go at large "within the limits of the jail."
The law under which persons were imprisoned for debt was abolished in Massachusetts many years ago.
Somewhere about the year 1822 the tread-mill was introduced into England. It was recommended by the "Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline." It was the invention of Mr. Cubitt, of Ipswich, in England, and probably at that time or soon after it was used in this country. Some years since there was one, as we are informed, at the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown.
_The Tread-Mill_.--We publish to-day an interesting description of the Tread-Mill, (a new invented Machine to enforce industry in Prisons,) accompanied by a Plate representing the same, for the use of which we are indebted to the politeness of the editor of the Gazette. The introduction of these Mills into the English prisons is said to have produced much good, and the experiment is about to be tried in this country. The corporation of the city of New-York are building one in the yard of their Penitentiary. One of the late London papers announces the singular fact that on the 12th of September, at the Town-hall, Southwark, there was no charge, either of felony, misdemeanor, or assault, within the extensive district, of five parishes, from the night before. Crimes of all descriptions had lessened very much; and this decrease, it is said, is owing entirely to the heavy and tedious labor upon the prisoners at the mill. Orders had been given for the erection of several more in England.
_Recommended by the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline._