Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 6 February 1891 — Watch Dogs in a Penitentiary. [ARTICLE]

Watch Dogs in a Penitentiary.

Each of the keepers in the ’Edinburgh (Scotland) penitentiary is the owner of a huge mastiff. These dogs are hugo creatures, ferocious as lions, muscular as oxen, wide-awake as the traditional weasel. They are let loose at night, when they roam about the penitentiary grounds, and are never spoken to or cared for by any one except their respective keepers So it is impossible for one to make friends with them. They are trained in many ways to attack convicts if the lattor should try to escape, aud perhaps the most horrible method is in the way they are fed. Once a day each dog is given a piece of raw, bloody meat. But the latter is tied up in the striped clothing worn by convicts, and in order to get at tho meat the brute has to tear this clothing to pieces. They are heavily chainod and the parcels are thrown down a hundred feet or so from each konnel. Then the koepers suddenly loose tho dogs and away they go, madly rushing for the prizes. The dogs grasp the striped parcel and tear tho clothing into shreds before they get at the meat.