Darkest India Part 9

(3.) But some one else will say "They are thievish and will rob you.

They are roguish and will decieve you. You don't know whom you have to deal with." Well, if we don't know them, we should think n.o.body does! I would answer,

(a) Granted that some of them cheat us. All will not. And why should the honest suffer with the rogues?

(b) What if we do lose something in this way? It would be little in comparison with the enormous gain. I feel sure it would in no case exceed ten or twenty per cent, on the collections made, and that would be a mere trifle.

(c) Our system of regimentation would largely guard against any such danger and would be an encouragement to honesty.

(d) It is notorious that there is "honour among thieves." They would watch over one another. Among them "_nimak-harami_" or "faithlessness to their salt" would soon come to be regarded as a crime of the first water.

(e) The inducement for thieving would be largely gone. Very few steal _for the sake of stealing._ A man usually steals to fill his own stomach, or some one else's, whom he loves. But here all would be provided for.

(f) Besides he would feel that all he could earn was for the _common good_ and was not going to make any individual rich at his expense.

(g) Our experience in the Prison Gate Homes contradicts it. True, we have had some thefts especially at the beginning, but when I was last visiting our Colombo Home, the Officers in charge a.s.sured me that they were now of the rarest occurrence, while the gentleman who owned the tempting cocoanuts that were hanging overhead told me that he had never had such good crops from his trees, as since our colony of thieves and criminals had been settled there!

(4.) Some one else may perhaps object that we shall have thrown upon our hands a swarm of helpless, useless, cripples and infirm. Well, and what if we do? Are they not our fellow human beings, and ought not some one to care for them? We shall look upon it as a precious responsibility, and I speak fearlessly on behalf of our devoted officers when I say, that they would rather spend and be spent for such than for the richest in the land. If, as I have already shown, the effort can be made _self-supporting_ and _self-propagating_, the mere fact of their misery or poverty only impels us to love them the more and to strive the more earnestly for their emanc.i.p.ation.

CHAPTER IX.

THE PRISON GATE BRIGADE.

This has already been in operation for two years in the cities of Bombay and Colombo and a branch has been recently established in Madras. Now that it will be connected with other branches of our Social Reform, we may look for a rapid increase of this useful though difficult work.

The establishment of our Labor Yards will greatly help us in finding work for this cla.s.s, without branding them with the perpetual stigma of their crime. The chief difficulty in the working of these Homes consists in the almost insuperable objection of the men to be _known as criminals_ after their release from jail. This is of course perfectly natural. Besides, it is important that we should hold out before them hopes of bettering themselves by their good conduct, and earning an independent and honest livelihood at no distant date. When once our Labor Yards and Farm Colonies are in active operation, we shall be able to do this for our rescued criminals, continuing at the same time the fatherly supervision and help which they so very much need.

The following quotations from our last annual report will serve to explain this branch of our work, and to give a glimpse of the encouraging success with which we have already met in our efforts to reach and reform the criminal cla.s.ses.

COLOMBO PRISON GATE HOME.

Picturesquely situated among palm trees in one of the most beautiful suburbs of Colombo, within easy reach of the princ.i.p.al city jail, is our Sinhalese Prisoners' Home. Cinnamon Gardens, as the district is called, forms one of the attractions of Colombo, which every pa.s.sing visitor is bound to go and see. The beauty of the surroundings must be a pleasant contrast to those dull prison walls from which the inmates have just escaped. Still more blessed and cheering must be the change from the Warder's stern commands to the affectionate welcome and kindly attentions of the red-jacketed Salvationists, who have the management of the Home.

A bright lad who is on duty in the guard-room opens the gates and introduces you to the grounds in which the quarters are situated. There are groups of huts with mud walls and palm-leaf thatching, which have a thoroughly Indian and yet home like appearance. The first few of these are occupied as workshops or carpentry for the manufacture of tea boxes, and here from early to late the men may be seen busily employed, sawing, planing, measuring, bevelling, hammering and working with such a will that you might imagine their very lives depended on it, or at least that they must be making their fortunes out of it, whereas they are not being paid at all, and all the profits of the manufactory go towards the support of the Home!

"What I admire about your work," observed Sir Athur Gordon, the late Governor of Ceylon, "is the way in which your Officers identify themselves with these convicts, and live among them on terms of perfect equality."

But I was describing the little colony. On the left of this group of workshops is a neat little hut where Captain Dev k.u.mar and his young bride, Captain Deva Priti, reside. What a change for them form the English Homes to which they have been accustomed, to this little jungle hut, surrounded as they are continually by a band of ex-convicts, and criminals. Yet it would be hard to find a happier couple in the island,--in fact, quite impossible outside the Salvation Army.

"It is all our own work," explains the Captain. "Our men built the hut, and the materials only cost about Rs. 25!" Certainly this is the perfection of cheapness in the way of house building! A little further inside the enclosure you come to more huts, in some of which the men live, while others serve for quarters for the native officers who a.s.sist in the superintendence of the Home, and to whose n.o.ble efforts so much of its success is due. Then there is the kitchen, and a dining-room, and a stable for the bullock trap, in which the released prisoners are brought to the Home, to avoid the risk of a foot journey when their old a.s.sociates might hinder them on the way.

The spare bits of ground are all laid out in little plots of garden, where plantains and vegetables are grown, and in front of the Captain's quarters is a dainty little sc.r.a.p of a flower garden. The entire enclosure forms really a portion of the garden of a neighbouring house, the property of the late Mr. Ginger, who took a warm interest in our work, and leased the grounds to us at a nominal rent.

The following are the statistics of the work during the past year:--

Total number of admissions, .......................... 230 Found Situations, ................................... 115 Left, the Home and lost sight, of, .................. 103 Total number of sentences of imprisonment,............ 459 Number of juvenile convicts under 16 years of age, ... 40 Number of meals given,.............................. 15,774 Number of tea-boxes made, .......................... 2,880 Profits on same,................................. Rs. 350

The accompanying is the official report form sent in by us to Government every month showing the results of the work--

JAIL GATE BRIGADE--COLOMBO--ITS RESULTS.

Prisons.

A.--This Return for the preceding month shall be forwarded on 1st or 2nd of each month, by the Officer Commanding Salvation Army, through the Superintendent of the Convict Establishment to the Inspector General of Prisons, with columns 1, 6, 7, and 8, duly filled in.

B.--The Superintendent Convict Establishment shall fill in columns 2, 3, 4, and 5, and send on the Return to the Inspector General.

1. Name and age of Prisoner.

2. Nationality and religion.

3. Name of Offence.

4. Length of imprisonment in months.

5. General character in Jail.

6. Number of days maintained by the Salvation Army

7. How employed now, or going to be employed.

8. Result of action of salvation Army on prisoner, roughly estimated.

_Superintendent Convict Establishment._

_Commdt. Salvation Army, Colombo._

That the work of the Colombo Prisoners' Home is highly appreciated in Colombo is further proved by the fact that most of the leading Government officials subscribe to its funds, including the Colonial Secretary, Sir E. Noel Walker, the Chief Justice Sir Bruce Burnside, and many others. Again, it is not an uncommon thing for us to receive such letters as the following from the Magistrate:--

From the POLICE MAGISTRATE, Colombo, To the CAPTAIN OF THE PRISON GATE BRIGADE.

_Dated, Colombo, October 30th, 1889._

_Subject--Habitual Offender, Dana._

Sir,

I have the honour to inform you that a man named Dana, produced before me this day, charged with being a habitual thief, has expressed a wish to be admitted into the Prison Brigade Home.

I shall be glad if you afford him an opportunity to redeem his character.

I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, E.W.M., _Police Magistrate._