Ruled by the Rod (14 page)

It was served
by one of the prisoners, a young woman showing signs of having been
pretty before being brought here. But now dressed only in coarse
brown gown, she was bare foot and appeared to wear nothing else,
and kept her eyes fixed firmly on the floor, so we could see
nothing of animation or character in her face. The wardress seemed
to have instilled a very real fear in her charges, and we were soon
to see evidence of her methods.

We asked our
hostess what manner of offences had brought the women into her
charge, and how long most would stay. She told us that most were
there for offences against public morality; adultery, harlotry,
defiance of their husband's or family authority, and similar
heinous crimes in women. They had few felons as such, for thieves,
murderers and infanticides, and the abortionists that aided them,
either went to the gallows, or if they escaped the rope, were
usually transported, formerly to the Americas, now to the new
colonies in Australia.

After the tea,
we followed her through the various parts of the prison. First the
rows of cells where each inmate was locked up, when not working or
undergoing punishment, in a stonewalled chamber, perhaps five feet
by ten. Each contained nothing but a plank bed fixed to one wall,
with neatly folded blanket, and a pail with wooden cover for
natural functions. Light, such as it was, and air, came from a
small barred opening high in the end wall. The door was massive,
fitted with a heavy lock and a small barred opening through which
the prisoner could be observed at any time.

Set apart from
the main rows of cells, in a basement beneath, were a dozen more,
thick walled and well separated, where prisoners might be kept in
'solitary', not only kept locked continuously, with no work or
exercise periods, but not even able to hear the sounds of normal
prison activity.

At the time of
our visit there were five of these 'solitary' cells in use, mainly,
we were told, containing women who had been judged to have shown
too little respect in their altitude to the wardresses.

We went next
to one of the workrooms, where twenty or thirty women sat at long
tables, stitching more brown gowns, together with wardresses'
uniforms and, we were surprised to observe, civilian clothing of
all kinds. It seemed that the staff not only took care that their
own wardrobes were kept stocked, but took on work for local
merchants, that bought them little luxuries to soften the bleakness
of their surroundings. Naturally these luxuries were not shared
with the inmates, who had done the work that had earned them. These
women were here to learn their duty, and expiate their
misdemeanours, not to enjoy soft living.

In another
part of the prison, we were shown a similar sized group at work in
the laundry. Work was sent here by many local establishments; the
hospital, the workhouse, etc., and also by the more worthy and
wealthy householders. The women wrestled with blankets and sheets
and all manner of dirty linen. They doused them in great vats of
steaming water, rubbing them by hand on slatted washboards, wrung
them out before taking them to the lines. Others sweated with flat
irons, heated on an open hearth to produce immaculate creases and
gleaming starched collars.

All these
workers were watched closely by wardresses, mostly as large and as
grim as their chief, who moved amongst them pointing out errors in
their work, or reprimanding them for talking, reinforcing their
strictures with blows of the long black straps they all carried at
their belts.

We enquired
where the remaining prisoners might be, for we had seen only about
as many as would fill less than half of the long rows of cheerless
cells, and were told that, apart from a number undergoing
punishment, the rest were out on work gangs, and we would see them
that evening when they returned.

Punishments
were carried out either in the prison yard or the large square
building next to it, set aside for the purpose. The yard held a
whipping post and a block for birchings, where those women
condemned by the magistrates, but spared the indignity of a public
flogging, might be whipped away from the gaze of the crowd. At the
time of our visit, however, there was no such sentence pending,
much to the disappointment of our guardians, whose thirst for
knowledge in these matters was unquenchable.

That is not to
say that the yard was not busy. It was, in fact, a hive of
activity. A number of women, of all ages and figures, marched round
the perimeter, carrying on their backs large packs loaded with
stones. We were told that these packs weighed from forty to sixty
pounds, and were selected to be about one third of the bearer's own
weight. They marched relentlessly on round the yard, lifting their
knees high at every pace, their sweating bodies kept to their
arduous and soul destroying task by slashes of the overseers'
straps.

While the half
dozen unhappy marchers kept on their inexorable round of the yard,
two other offenders crossed it back and forth, back and forth, each
carrying a heavy iron ball on each crossing, until they had built a
pyramid of ten iron shot, each of about twelve pounds in weight.
When each had built her pile, six in the bottom set, three above
and the tenth on top, she had to dismantle it, one by one, running
back to rebuild the pyramid on the other side of the yard. I do not
know how many times each of them had completed this pointless and
backbreaking exercise, but judging by their exhausted appearance,
they had been straining under the heavy and unwieldy balls for some
hours. And only the constant crack of the overseers' belts across
their legs and backs kept them from collapse.

Nor were these
the only defaulters. In the punishment room, off the yard, there
were other devices for maintaining the strict discipline that was
the reformatory process for these women who had failed to observe
that docility and obedience so desirable in our sex for both our
wellbeing, and that of the men we serve. We went inside and the
first thing that struck our gaze was a great engine, or treadmill,
that filled one wall. It was constructed like a mill wheel, a
wooden drum about seven or eight feet in diameter, its surface made
from a number of parallel narrow wooden planks, like the treads of
a staircase wrapped around the circumference. A broad plank
platform ran along its entire length, about three feet from the
floor, that is, on the centreline of the machine, while a handrail
was fitted above its centre. There was room for several women to
work the mill at one time, and on the occasion of our visit there
were four women, gripping the top rail, and almost running in their
effort to keep up with the turning of the wheel. The effort of
constantly climbing stairs, as it were, was obviously very great,
for they sweated and heaved in their attempts to keep up, but it
was not their labouring breath or grunts of effort that struck us
into shocked gasps of our own, but their dress. The women were
naked!

Each of them
strained at her task as nature had made her. The sweat dripped from
their bodies, running down the hot red marks of the straps that
kept them moving, their muscles rippled and their breasts swung
with their efforts. I think our surprise must have shown on our
faces, for the wardress made a point of explaining the reasons for
the women's presence here, and their state of undress.

'That big slut
on the end is here to cure her of laziness. She could well do as
much work as a man, but she complains when sent on the work gang,
and the overseers spend more time than she's worth trying to make
her do her share. When she's spent a few days here she'll beg to go
back on the gang. These two sorry creatures,' she pointed to a pair
of under nourished young women tramping side by side, 'have spent
too much time in the laundry, gossiping rather than working,
although they know it's forbidden to speak in there.'

'And how long
do they serve in here?' the doctor enquired, ever ready to
accumulate knowledge.

'They work
from seven to twelve, with but a ten minute break,' the wardress
replied. 'At noon there is an hour when they may eat, and also do
their share of prison cleaning, including their own cells. It would
not do for them to feel that this substitutes for their duties; it
is an additional punishment. In the afternoon they walk the mill
from one till six, with a ten minute break again, mid-way.'

She gestured
at the sweating crew. 'Since the punishment hall is by way of being
a private place, and their efforts cause them to sweat like mares,
we have them leave their prison gowns aside, rather than rot them
with their sweat. Besides,' she added grimly, 'it leaves them bare
to the straps, which can encourage them the more.'

'And will they
finish tonight?' the judge asked in his turn.

'All but that
slut on the end,' the wardress said. 'She'll come back on the
morrow, and each day thereafter until she begs to go back on the
gang, and we judge her ready to work her weight.'

'Why is the
fourth here?' Charlotte asked, with her usual unfortunate
forwardness.

The wardress
gave her a look that seemed to suggest that she would enjoy the
tutoring of such a minx but, aware of our prestigious guardians,
kept her thoughts to herself and answered fairly instead.

We all craned
to hear, for the young woman was interesting, indeed. About my own
age, her nakedness revealing a very beautiful figure; curved
exquisitely, though with no suggestion of plumpness at any point.
Her hair was long and wild, dislodged no doubt by her exertions,
very draggled now, but obviously cared for quite recently. She had
a very beautiful face, firm round breasts, and long straight legs
supporting full rounded haunches. Her whole appearance showed her
to be a young woman of quality, despite the circumstances in which
we found her.

'Ah, an
interesting case,' the wardress answered. 'A very tasty piece, I
grant you, but handsome is as handsome does. What you see before
you is a bride that shirks her duty. She was wed a month since, but
the marriage not consummated yet. She claims her young husband is
either incapable or unwilling, for it was an arranged match as you
would expect, both sides being gentry of the highest quality. But
her mother-in-law has it that, in such cases, it is always the
bride to blame. She has only to work hard enough at bringing her
groom to the bed, all hot and hard, and nature will have its way.
But this creature,' pointing at the panting girl on the mill,
'would not have it, and said she had done all she knew, and the
fault lay in her son. Well, the noble lady was not having that, and
took mistress pink cheeks here before the magistrate, who happened
to be one of the family, and had her sent here for forty days for
slandering her husband and wilful failure to consummate the
marriage.'

'And what has
she done to be put to the mill?' asked I, emboldened by curiosity
and Charlotte's example.

'Why nothing,
miss,' was the reply. 'Her mother-in-law declares she is a lazy
slut, besides unruly, and asked that she be worked hard here,
mentioning the mill herself. And since she is a good friend of the
house,' I guessed that the noble lady had been generous to the head
of the establishment, 'we were pleased to fall in with her
wishes.'

Just then one
of the overseers barked a command to the young woman we had been
discussing, and she let herself fall back with the descending
wheel, letting go of the rail and stepping off onto the platform,
where she clung to the guard-rail, panting and trying to regain her
breath.

'I thought you
said they walked until six,' said the judge, 'and yet that young
miscreant has been taken off with more than an hour to go.'

'Taken off the
treadmill,' agreed the wardress, 'but she is not finished yet. She
has been let down to receive her birthday present.'

'What!
Presents in the prison?' roared his lordship. 'I thought this was a
house of correction, not cosseting.'

'Why so it is,
sir,' said the wardress hurriedly. 'Let me explain. Today the young
woman is twenty years of age, and her mother-in-law sends her a
special present. She is to receive one stroke of the cane across
her naked buttocks for each of her years, twenty in all. Perhaps
you would care to see it?'

Nothing could
have been better calculated to restore the judge's good humour more
effectively, for he was always eager to see justice done, and we
all followed the wardress to the far side of the room, where the
reluctant bride had preceded us. There we found her already
'horsed', her well formed body bent over a padded wooden horse, her
feet parted a little to secure them to the legs at one end, her
breasts lying on the leather top, her arms drawn down to secure
them to the feet at the other end. Since the far end of the horse
was significantly lower than the near, her hips and buttocks were
thrown well up, her toes but barely touching the floor, and she was
indeed very well spread for the rod. The chief wardress went to the
head of the horse to address the pinioned rider.

'Well, miss,'
she said, mockingly, 'such a thoughtful mother-in-law you have, to
remember that today is your birthday, despite your slights of her.
Since you are now twenty years of age, she has sent requesting that
we give you twenty reminders of her regard, and so we shall, across
these hinds, and with a penal cane.'

The young
woman obviously lacked neither brains nor courage. Though she had
only been in the prison for a few days, she had had the sense to
realise that any show of spirit or resistance would only make her
plight worse, and that she would do best to be obedient at all
times, and speak only when addressed directly. Accordingly she held
her peace, and the chief wardress signalled to one of the
overseers, who stood nearby holding a wicked looking length of
cane. It seemed to me much like that dire object with which papa,
and our other guardians, struck so much fear in my belly, and fire
in my buttocks. It was quite as long, thick and flexible, and I
could feel my knees tremble and my belly gripe at the thought of it
cutting into female flesh and, especially, mine.