316 THE HVALF-STRAFF. 



thus showing that the most lawless people cannot exist 

 without laws of some kind. Each casemate elects a 

 chief, who exercises great authority over his comrades. 

 But even he, if deemed culpahle, is equally suhject to 

 punishment with the rest. Equality is here fully 

 carried out, and democratic institutions in the highest 

 degree flourishing. We would respectfully suhmit 

 them for the guidance of those who are desirous of 

 gladdening our native country with a similar state 

 reform. It is not needful to refer to Ptomo, Greece, 

 Switzerland, or North America, as in the prison cell of 

 Carlsten it is to he found in all its purity. 



" Every offence, especially tale-hearing and theft, com- 

 mitted hy a convict against his fellows, is punished with 

 the so-called Hvalf-straff, or casemate punishment, than 

 Avhich nothing can be conceived more barharous. It is 

 always inflicted in the dead of the night, and consists 

 in forcing the head of the culprit between his knees, 

 whereby he assumes the shape of a ball; and when thus 

 bound, and with his head downwards, he is suspended 

 from a beam over the seat of the cloaca, in which terrible 

 state he is left until the morning. A severe and long- 

 continued cudgelling is generally added to the torture; 

 and if, as occasionally happens, the miserable man dies in 

 consequence, he is simply hung up by the neck in some 

 corner of the prison, when it is given out that he has 

 committed suicide. The convicts themselves have such a 

 horror of the punishment in question — as has recently 

 been exemplified — that to cause their removal to another 

 prison they have committed crimes, such as wounding 

 their officers with knives, to which the peiialty of death 

 is attached. 



" What a picture of the debasement of human nature," 

 says M. Holmberg, in conclusion, " does a glimjise of the 

 prison in question present. Behold the wretched beings 



