ley. The last punishment I recollect inflicting on him was by the shower-bath. A rope was fastened to his hands; it was passed over the wall of the exercising-yard. One would hold the rope tight, and the water was poured down on his head from off the roof of the exercisingyard. It was poured out of buckets. We considered him an idiot." William Griffith, sworn.- "I have been employed in the Penitentiary as overseer of the shoemaking department; I went in 1831, and remained till 1833. I went there at the request of Mr. Wood. I knew Matthias Maccumsey; I think I did see Mr. Wood himself inflict personal violence once on Maccumsey. We went to his cell, found him in bed: Mr. Wood in going picked up a piece of board an inch or inch and half wide, and a foot or two long. Wood ordered him to get up and put on his clothes; he was a little slow about getting up. Mr. Wood pulled the clothes off him, and began to beat him with that board; he put on his pantaloons and, may be, jacket, and put the hood over his head-a cap that covers the whole headand we began to lead him to the dark cell. He attempted, in going across, to get the hood off his head; Mr. Wood then picked up a piece of board, probably three or four feet in length, and, whenever Maccumsey would attempt to get the cap off, he would strike him pretty smartly over the head, shoulders, and arms, with the board. When we got into the yard of the dark cell, Maccumsey was very much opposed to going in finally, we threw him down and dragged him into the cell. I came out first after getting him in, Mr. Wood came out second; when the watchman attempted to come out, Maccumsey got hold round his leg and held fast to it; he succeeded in getting his hands outside, and getting hold of the door-jam; I caught hold of his hand, intending to. break his hold and put him back again. Mr. Wood said, 'Let him come out, the rascal, he could fix him;' accordingly he came out, too strong for the watchman. Mr. Wood fell to beating him with the strip of board he had in his hand; I myself threw him down several times; as soon as he was down, the watchman would pounce upon him, and Mr. Wood would fall to kicking him and stamping him in the face: he would soon succeed in getting up again. After he had pretty well worried out himself, Mr. Wood offered me the board and told me to let the rascal have it well; I refused to take it, made no reply; this continued on for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes, till both Wood and watchman were tired out. Mr. Wood told the watchman to go and get a cowskin and more help, and said, 'I'll give it to the rascal; the watchman went, shut the gate. As soon as he had gone, I caught hold of Maccumsey, knocked up his heels, dragged him into the cell, and shut the door on him. His face next morning was as black as my hat, his eyes entirely swelled, shut; he was deprived of eyesight for several days. He did not strike any of us to my recollection, he had no weapons of any sort in his hands, or within his reach. I think he was kept in the dark cell two weeks or more on eight ounces of bread and water.” water. This witness then goes on to describe the death-scene of Maccumsey, which agrees, in every particular, with the foregoing evidence. He then speaks of Seneca Plimly, and says, " One excessive cold morning, the latter end of December, or beginning of January, the man who was directed to do this came to me, and said he had been ordered to cuck that man. They took the prisoner out into the yard of his cell, stripped him naked; they attached a rope to each wrist, the two ropes were then thrown over the yard-wall; one of the men outside took hold of the ropes and held the man up to the wall, the other took up a bucket of water, went up the ladder, threw it over the man, and then came down and took another: they went on to twelve or fourteen buckets of This water froze to his hair-icicles hanging to his hair. After they got through it, they were going to put on his dirty, filthy clothes they had taken off. I went up into the centre building, asked Mr. Halm and Mr. Blundin, and I think Isaac Cox was there, whether they intended that man should have his wet clothes put on (I think nobody in particular had charge of that block); they answered me it was Mr. Wood's orders, and they could not interfere with it. I went immediately and got dry clothes for the man, saying that he should have dry clothes if I was forced to leave, the establishment in an hour's time. I recollect a convict by the name of Kling, No. 77. I recollect his being taken out of his cell into his yard in the beginning of October, perhaps before, by John Daily and Dom. Keating; they scrubbed him with cold water, soft soap, and a hand-scrub; he had not been for some time before that able to get out of his bed; they carried bed and him both out; he was from there taken into another cell without a yard attached to it. It became necessary for the man who had charge of him to put clothes under him at different times; in moving him to do this he used to holloa most tremendously and awfully-his holloaing on one or two occasions brought Wood into his cell. I recollect Mr. Wood's taking the sheet, or part of it, and holding it over his mouth to prevent his holloaing; he could not effect it, and he took the towel and put a part of it in his mouth; he died shortly after that. At the time he was scrubbed he was very filthy and dirty, being unable to get out of his bed. I should suppose the dirt on him could have been taken off with a cloth and a little warm water. "I saw the gag applied to a yellow boy called Sam; it was applied by Mr. Wood's orders. Sam was mischievous; he was employed at winding bobbin, and wasted his yarn. I was also sent in company with one John Harvey to put it on a black boy, No. 96: Mr. Wood sent me. He was in the habit of wasting his thread and leather at shoemaking, and the more particular offence was, he was in the habit of holloaing and singing. We drew it upon him, if my recollection serves me, to the fourth link: I held the boy and Harvey put it on. As soon as I let go of him he fell, and began flouncing about the floor, similar to a chicken with its head cut off. I got hold of him as quick as possible, and held him while Harvey took it off; he appeared to be strangling, the blood and slabber began to run out of his mouth pretty freely. "In the course of my examination before the inspectors, I think I was interrupted and prevented by two of them at least. Mr. John Bacon was the first to interrupt me; it was in answer to some questions put to me respecting Mr. Wood and Mrs. Blundin. In mentioning it, Mr. Bacon observed to me, 'Beware, sir, you are now impeaching my friend, Samuel R. Wood; bringing in question his moral character:' that ended then. In going to answer another question put by some one of the board, Mr. Bradford objected to it. After some conversation of the board, in which I thought the matter was settled, I went on to answer the question: Mr. Bradford turned round to me and said, • How dare you, without my permission, answer that question?' That was all that I recollect. Judge Charles S. Coxe, sworn. "I have been an inspector of the Eastern Penitentiary, and do not know but that I am still; I have tendered my resignation to the Judges of the Supreme Court, but have received no notice of its acceptance. I am unable to say when or how, exactly, I first became acquainted with the existence of the gag. The first person I ever saw under it was the name of Nameless; he had refused to give his name. On seeing him with the gag on him, I asked the reason, and was informed that he had spoken through the empty privy pipes to a prisoner adjoining; he had given his name to the other prisoner as Hunter. The man, when I saw him, could not, of course, speak; he was walking up and down: I observed a smile upon his countenance. Afterwards I asked to see that gag; it was shown to me by Richard Blundin. I remember intimating to Mr. Blundin that such an instrument should not be used without the authority of the physician; he told me that Dr. Bache had seen it; that he did not think it sufficiently efficacious. My impression is that this information was corroborated by the warden. I saw the body of a man on whom it was alleged the gag had been used; after his death I asked for the gag, and was told that it had been thrown away. I don't know how I can describe his face other than by comparing it to the face of a man who had hanged himself with a hank of yarn in the Penitentiary; the appearances were the same, particularly above the mouth; his eyes protruded from his head. I was the presiding officer of the board at the time William Griffith was examined. This occurrence took place when he arrived at that part of his evidence in which he spoke against the warden; he was interrupted by Mr. Bacon, one of the inspectors, who addressed to him language to this effect- Sir, Mr. Wood is my personal friend, and I will communicate to him anything that you say; I will not hear him abused:' something to this effect. I can't recollect in answer to whom Griffith was replying. I remember turning to him -he appeared a good deal abashed and agitated by the remark-and I said to him, Remember, you are on your oath; speak the truth, and fear no man.' It somewhat re-assured him. "I opposed the form of proceeding, on the 7th July, 1834, as to acquitting the warden. I considered the investigation in the nature of an information given to a magistrate, or of an examination preliminary to an investigation, and not as a trial; and that our proceedings were to ascertain whether there ought to be a trial of those charged, and not whether the party was guilty or not guilty: that is, whether there were probable grounds for trial. The form in which the question was proposed was, substantially, whether Mr. Wood was guilty or not guilty. I had not heard Mr. Wood's defence, for he had not been put upon his trial, and therefore I could not pronounce upon his guilt; and I was of opinion that the charges were of sufficient importance to put the accused on his trial, and to bring him and the witnesses face to face; I therefore proposed this resolution, which had been proposed on a former occasion:- Resolved, That a fair investigation, under oath or affirma tion, into the abuses alleged to exist in this institution, be entered upon, and that the witnesses and the accused be allowed to be present, and meet each other face to face.' This was offered as a substitute for the one offered by Mr. John Bacon. I was prepared, and thought it a duty to the committee, myself, and to all concerned in the institution, that such an investigation should take place: it was therefore that I offered that. Nobody seconded it, and on that ground it was disregarded. I asked to have it put on the minutes. I was told that it could not be done. They spoke of parliamentary rules, and that the only way I could pronounce my opinion was to say, whether Wood was guilty or not; and I would rather have cut my hand off than say he was guilty without hearing him. Dr. Franklin Bache, sworn.-"I am the physician; have been so since the institution was opened, in October, 1829. I recollect a prisoner who had something the matter with his hip-joint. The one I allude to died in the prison. I think he was confined constantly in bed. He came to the Penitentiary in a state of lameness that required his being carried to his cell. He must have been all the time on the sick list. I don't recollect; indeed I might say that I at no time authorised his being taken out of his bed into the yard of his cell, and scrubbed with a handbrush. I made a post-mortem examination of Kling. I think his back was excoriated or ulcerated, which is very common in patients that have been bed-ridden for months. I recollect that I saw a man whose head bore the appearance of being extremely beaten or bruised.. "I do not recollect ever to have directed or sanctioned that cold buckets of water should be thrown upon a prisoner from a height, when he was fastened to the wall, in winter. I remember an idiot of the name of Seneca Plimly. I understand that he was treated in that way, but did not see it. I did not at any time before that authorise that treatment. I disapprove of that mode of treatment. On the occasion that that prisoner was ducked in very cold weather I happened to be at the Penitentiary. My feelings were very much excited, and Mr. Bacon being at the Penitentiary I spoke to him on the subject, stating to him how cruel and unjustifiable I thought the course was. I wished him to speak to the warden on the subject. Mr. Bacon agreed with me as regarded the procedure, and said it would never do, or words to that effect." Isaac Cor, sworn.- "I was employed in the Penitentiary as foreman of the carpenters. I knew Seneca Plimly. I was present at one time when he was ducked. It was a very cold day-as cold as I ever recollect it. I heard Mr. Wood tell one of the prisoners, or a man who had been a prisoner and was kept there to work, to go and duck him. His name was John Curran. Curran was very unwilling to do it, it was so dreadfully cold. Mr. Wood was going into town, and Curran ran after him, between the centre house and the front. I was coming up from front as they came in contact. John asked him if he was to duck Seneca that morning? He replied: ' Go, and do as I tell thee;' and then he went and brought the water, to the amount of not less than twelve buckets. I stood by the ladder; ordered Curran to take the ice out so that it should not injure the man: there was ice in them, pretty thick on some of the buckets; icicles were hanging on his hair, all round his head, about one or two inches long; I helped to untie him after the buckets were poured. The ropes were so frozen, and the wet together, that we had a difficult job to get them off at all. In the course of my examination before the inspectors I was interrupted. When Judge Coxe put the word to me, whether I knew anything about Seneca being ducked, Mr. Bradford spoke and said, 'Judge Coxe, we know all about that.' Then I was also interrupted by three of the Board when I was on questions about the lumber. Mr. Wood got up and went to the window, making a kind of whistle to himself, and looking out to |