Transcriber's Note:
A Table of Contents has been added.
A MODERN PURGATORY
By CARLO DE FORNARO
CARRANZA AND MEXICO
A MODERN PURGATORY
A MODERN PURGATORY
BY
CARLO DE FORNARO
NEW YORK
MITCHELL KENNERLEY
1917
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY
CARLO DE FORNARO
PRINTED IN AMERICA
TO
M. L. R.
"It is believed in this country that a poor man has less chance to getjustice administered to him than a rich man."
—Woodrow Wilson, in a speech in
Chicago, January 11, 1913.
CONTENTS
| PAGE | |
| INTRODUCTION | vii |
| THE TRIAL | 1 |
| THE TOMBS PRISON | 5 |
| THE PENITENTIARY | 29 |
| THE HOSPITAL | 69 |
INTRODUCTION
This book is a record of the prison experiences of Carlo de Fornaro,artist, writer, editor, revolutionary. It is a record of experiences inthe famous Tombs Prison, in New York City, and in the New York Citypenitentiary on Blackwell's Island—a record of the daily happenings oflife in a prison, of brutalities and stupidities and abominations; asordid record, from the pages of which gleam many fine human things, thesympathies and kindnesses and sacrifices of men thrust by society intothe dark of prison because society was afraid of them.
The book begins with the author's imprisonment, and ends with hisrelease or discharge from prison. It is the tale of his punishment, butit tells nothing of the "crime" that brought the punishment upon him.
It is a strange story, that of the circumstances that brought him toprison and an unprecedented proceeding in the United States, aprosecution for libelling an official of a foreign government.
Carlo de Fornaro came to America when he[Pg viii] was a young man. He was bornin Calcutta, British India, in 1871, of Swiss-Italian parents; and,determined to be an artist, he studied, first architecture in Zurich,then painting in Munich. But when he came to America he found a dearthof art, and when his talent for caricature was recognized, he turned toa newspaper career.
He began in Chicago, with the old Times-Herald, but the greatest partof his work was done in New York, on