Origin of

LETTER VIII.

Sing Sing"-Statistics-Description of Sing Sing Prison-The Chaplain-System of Discipline-The Lynd System-Folger and Matthias'-Mount Pleasant Academy-Franklin Academy-The Newspaper-Public House, &c.

Sing Sing, Mount Pleasant, Feb. 6, 1856.

DEAR P.-"Sing Sing" is the principal village of the town of " Mount Pleasant," and is situated 34 miles north of New York, on the east side of the Hudson river. The name is derived from the Chinese, Tsing Sing, the title of a celebrated governor in China, of a city so called. It is said to be brought to this country by a Dutch settler who had traded with China. The whole town, the largest in point of population in Westchester county, con tains by the state census of 1835, four thousand seven hundred and fifty-eight souls, and more females than males by one hundred and twenty-eight. There are, it also appears, in this town, three hundred and ninety-eight soldiers, nine hundred and seventy-three voters, forty-nine aliens, one hundred and twenty-four natural abolitionists, or to speak more significantly, people of colour; five hundred and sixty-seven married females under the age of

45; four hundred and thirty unmarried females be tween 16 and 45; and one thousand and sixty-nine unmarried females under 16. The township consists of 23,605 acres of land, the largest number of 21 towns in the county, except Cortlandt, which contains 33,315 acres. So much for statistics. Sing Sing is pleasantly situated on an elevation gradually rising from the river to the height of 300 or 400 feet. The principal objects of interest or curiosity here is the State Prison. Through the courtesy of R. Wiltse, Esq. the agent, and Col. Sing, I visited the various departments, and was much gratified with the neatness, order, and regularity which prevailed in the several shops and workhouses.

The prison is situated on the east margin of the Hudson river, ten feet above high water mark.The prison grounds contain one hundred and thirty acres, and may be approached by vessels drawing twelve feet of water., The prison-keeper's house, workshop, &c., are built of rough dressed stone, or "Sing Sing marble." The prison is four hundred and eighty-four feet in length, running north and south, (parallel with the river,) and fortyfour feet in width, fronting westerly on the Hudson river, and communicating with the west yard by two doors, which open at the extreme north and south ends of the prison. The west yard is enclos

6

ed by two buildings forty feet wide and two stories high, which are occupied as the kitchen, hospital, chapel, workshops, storehouses, &c.; these buildings extend from the prison westerly to the edge of the dock; the south wing adjoins the prison, but has no communication but from the hospital. The north wing is connected with the prison by a wall twenty feet in height, running north and south ten feet, thus enclosing an area of four hundred and ninety-four by four hundred and twelve feet. This yard communicates with the east yard of the prison, which is enclosed, by an open arch-way through the centre of the prison, and an arched gate-way through the wall at the north end. There is no door leading from the prison into the east yard. In the centre of the west yard is a range of shops forty feet wide, fronting on the Hudson, and running parallel with the prison two hundred and seventysix feet, having wings which extend easterly towards the prison one hundred and forty feet, occupied as stone shops. The guard house is on the bank, on the east side of the prison, about 170 feet above the level of the yard, and commands a perfect view of the east yard, and most of the west. The prison is five stories high. There are two hundred cells on each floor, in all one thousand. There are at this time about seven hundred and eighty prisoners, and not more than ten or twelve

sick in the hospital. The largest number in this prison at one time, the keeper informed me, was nine hundred and forty.

The present chaplain of the institution, the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, of the Presbyterian order, has the reputation of being well qualified for the purpose of imparting religious instruction, and impressing upon the minds of the convicts the duty they owe to their God and to society. And if any situation in which men could be placed, who have discarded every virtuous principle, is calculated to soften the heart and render them susceptible of re ligious reformation, it is when confined to the solitude of their cells, where they cannot escape the reproof of their own reflections, and where their duties as men and Christians are clearly pointed out by their religious teacher. Mr. Dickinson re marked to me that he never preached the gospel with more pleasure than he had here, nor indeed with equal interest. Here men in general have not been in the habit of hearing it; it therefore comes to them with the advantages of novelty; and their peculiar condition helps and even urges them to its consideration. I found the chaplain a very affable, humane, and intelligent gentleman. He politely favoured me with a glance at his unpublished report to the inspectors of the prison. "From what I have been led to observe," says Mr. D. "it

seems to me that while there is no absolute security in education against crime, yet it must be admitted that it imposes a certain amount of restraint on the predominant passions and propensities, which, though broken through in some instances, remains useful afterward as a means of throwing light upon the darkness of a person's criminal course, and when brought into this state for reflection, he is the better able to see and to weigh the follies of his life." Several instances have come under Mr. D.'s observation, where men had prostituted the privilege of early pious education; but at this distant day, after a series of transgressions, its early influ ences seem to have arisen from a long sleep, and are now in this secluded state exerting a most salutary, reclaiming effect.

The system and discipline of the Sing Sing Prison at the present time owe their origin to Elam Lynds, for many years the agent of the Auburn prison. His system combines solitude and the advantages of profitable employment. The convicts are shut up in separate cells at night, and on Sundays except when attending religious exercises in the chapel. While at work, the prisoners are not allowed to exchange a word with each other under any pretence whatever, nor to communicate any intelligence to each other in writing; not to exchange looks, winks, laugh, or motion, with each