PROBLEMS 
 
 ifornia 
 
 mal 
 
 ity
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 IN MEMORY OF 
 MRS. VIRGINIA B. SPORER
 
 PRISON PROBLEMS 
 
 PROPOUNDED IN 
 
 PROSE AND POETRY 
 
 "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a 
 man soweth, that shall he also reap." Gal. 6-7. 
 
 "The thorns which I have reaped are of the tree I planted 
 they have torn me and I bleed! 
 
 I should have known what fruit would spring from such a 
 seed." Lord Byron. 
 
 COMPILED BY 
 
 FRED HIGH 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 THE PLATFORM 
 
 THE LYCEUM AND CHAUTAUQUA MAGAZINE 
 
 602 STEINWAY HALL, CHICAGO 
 1913
 
 Prison Problems 
 
 GUARANTORS. 
 
 Abraham Lincoln, then only a young- man, visited 
 New Orleans, stood before a slave market and saw 
 human beings sold at public auction, took this secret 
 vow: "If ever I get a chance to strike that insti- 
 tution a blow, I will do it." With Lincoln's view 
 fresh in his memory a gaunt, callow youth, on his 
 first real excursion into the big world visited the 
 Ohio State penitentiary where the sight of a horde 
 of lazy hirelings sitting with guns across their 
 knees, oozing out an existence as guards over their 
 feflowmen who slaved with down cast eyes, heavy 
 hearts and fettered hopes, not that they might be 
 reformed half so much as that greater profits might 
 be piled up for the contractors whose slaves these 
 prisoners were; contrasting the life of the guards 
 and keepers with the Simon Legrees of slavery 
 times, as that youth left that relic of the dark ages 
 he took Lincoln's vow : "If I ever get a chance to 
 strike that institution a blow, I'll do it." 
 
 This volume of Prison Problems was conceived, 
 compiled and is sent forth as an effort to hit that 
 inhuman prison policy that treats men as criminals 
 instead of looking upon them as brothers. 
 
 Being unable to strike this blow alone, this vol- 
 ume of Prison Problems is the co-operated effort of 
 the following persons who stood as financial guar- 
 antors and therefore deserve the credit for making 
 this effort possible: Edmund Vance Cooke, Poet- 
 Entertainer, 30 Mayfield Rd., Cleveland, O. ; Lou 
 J. Beauchamp, Humorous-Philosopher, Hamilton,
 
 Prison Problems 3 
 
 Ohio; H. \V. Sears, The Taffy Man, Waverly, 111.; 
 William Sterling Battis, the Dickens Imperson- 
 ator, 6315 Yale Avenue, Chicago, Illinois; 
 J. E. Brockway, Manager, Redpath-Brockway 
 Lyceum Bureau, Wabash Bldg., Pittsburg, Pa. ; 
 R. R. Hamilton, Pres., National Lyceum Associa- 
 tion, 122 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111. ; Lincoln 
 McConnell, Lecturer, Thomaston, Ga. ; Chas. W. 
 Ferguson, Pres. Chautauqua Managers' Association, 
 630 Orchestra Bldg., Chicago, 111.; Mrs. Nora Mae 
 High, Vocalist, Waynesburg, Pa. ; Ellsworth Plum- 
 stead, Entertainer, Birmingham, Mich. ; Frank M. 
 Chaffee, President, Century Lyceum Bureau, 122 
 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, 111.; Geo. P. Bible, Lec- 
 turer, 5212 Locust St., Philadelphia, Pa.; Wm. A. 
 McCormick, Entertainer, Onekama, Mich. ; B. F. 
 Pratt, Lecturer, 5126 Highland Ave., Tacoma, 
 Wash.; Wm. S. Sadler, M. D., Chautauqua Lec- 
 turer, 32 N. State St., Chicago; Nelson A. Jenkins, 
 Lyceum Committeeman, Conneaut, Ohio; Thos. 
 Brooks Fletcher, Lecturer, Marion, Ohio; Chester 
 Birch, Lecturer-Evangelist, Winona Lake, Ind. ; A 
 L. Flude, Manager Chautauqua Managers' Associa- 
 tion,- Orchestra Bldg., Chicago; Margaret Stahl, In- 
 terpreter, Fremont, Ohio ; Robert Parker Miles, 1433 
 Cordova St., Lakewood, Ohio ; Osceola Pooler, 
 Reader, Tustin, Mich. ; J. F. Caveny, 4806 Evans 
 Ave., Chicago; Henry Clark, Lecturer, Galesburg, 
 111. ; Strickland W. Gillilan, Humorist, Roland Park, 
 Md. ; Wm. I. Atkinson, District Manager of the 
 Mutual Lyceum Bureau, Clarksville, Iowa; I. N. 
 Kuhn, Lyceum Patron, Waynesburg, Pa. 
 
 2041975
 
 Prison Problems 
 
 OUR PURPOSE. 
 
 Only such principles, fundamental philosophy 
 and practical scientific facts as have been gathered 
 by men and women of authority (with one excep- 
 tion) have been given a place in this little volume. 
 
 There is no attempt to make a novel ; neither is 
 it a salacious romance ; nor yet is it a literary 
 journey thru the underworld. It is an attempt to 
 present crime and criminals as they are, and since 
 the state and the nation collectively and you and 
 your neighbor and me and mine are responsible for 
 the conditions that obtain, then it is only just that 
 we set to work to clean up our part of the appalling 
 maelstrom of vice, crime and corruption that seems 
 to sweep over the land in tidal waves. Can we 
 justify our acts in punishing our weaker brothers 
 and sisters when much of their weakness is the re- 
 sult of environment and the inexorable law of 
 heredity ? 
 
 What is at the bottom of most crime? Warden 
 Sanders, of Fort Madison, says it is "booze." 
 
 We, the citizens of a Christian nation, vote to give 
 the saloon-keepers the right to sell "booze" and 
 then in our piety and self-righteousness and morally 
 disinfected spasms of virtue we are horrified and 
 cry for the officers to pummel and punish the men 
 and women who fall victims to these very man- 
 traps that we helped to dig. 
 
 Each chapter is presented either as a study in the 
 cause of crime or as a factor in the reformation of 
 criminals. The poetic section is a study of the men-
 
 Prison Problems 5 
 
 tal viewpoint of the man behind the bars ; it is a 
 psychological cameo of the soul of the man in the 
 iron cage. 
 
 This volume was compiled to create discussion, 
 to cause its readers to stop and think, to create such 
 a moral resolve that out of this Stygian night will 
 come gleams of hope for a better day. The prob- 
 lems before us are as old as the human race; they 
 have the power of self-generation, and even if they 
 will be with us until the human race shall have run 
 its course, and old Father Time is asleep in the 
 abysmal night of oblivion, you and I must do our 
 little mite towards bringing about a better day 
 now for our fellows who have stumbled on the 
 rough journey and have stepped aside from the 
 straight and narrow path, where none save the 
 Master has w r alked. 
 
 Study the claims and assertions made by the 
 authors of the various chapters. Dispute their con- 
 clusions, dissect the figures and p#ss the volume on 
 to your neighbor and out of this will come much 
 good that must result in changed conditions, in 
 more humane treatment, in a search for the cause 
 of crime, rather than the improved forms of punish- 
 ment for criminals. 
 
 This little volume was compiled for the single 
 purpose of creating public sentiment that must in- 
 spire the soldiers of the common good who are now 
 engaged against such relics of barbarism as the 
 present contract system, that indefensible species 
 of human slavery that must be wiped out before 
 love can supplant hate, so that our penitentiaries 
 shall cease to be criminal factories and become re- 
 form institutions.
 
 6 Prison Problems 
 
 It is the urgent request of the sponsors of this 
 volume that it be not placed on any book shelf, but 
 that it be loaned to ministers, editors, lawyers and 
 educators, and thus be kept in constant use. Each 
 minister who reads it is requested to preach a ser- 
 mon on some of these mighty problems. 
 
 Mr. Editor, you are urged to read this volume, 
 and then make copious clippings from its pages; 
 use it as a press sheet, comment on it, review its 
 contents, then urge your readers to purchase a copy 
 to start on this endless round of agitation and edu- 
 cation that must bear fruit in righteous legislation. 
 
 Above all, we urge you noble women, who bless 
 every community with your unselfish devotion to 
 human betterment and moral uplift, to study this 
 little volume, talk about it at your clubs, at your 
 churches and in your homes. We would further 
 ask that the boys and girls in our high schools, 
 colleges and all other educational institutions use 
 one of these problems as a theme for your essays 
 or orations and after its delivery send it to the 
 guarantors of this little volume. 
 
 We further ask each person who sees a review, 
 news note, or hears any mention made of Prison 
 Problems, that the facts be communicated to Fred 
 High, Steinway Hall, Chicago, and don't forget that 
 we are our brother's keeper. 
 
 Maud Ballington Booth says : "In the 16 years 
 since the work of the Salvation Prison Reform was 
 started 20,000 men have been released from prison 
 under the Volunteer Prison League guidance. Dur- 
 ing the time 75,000 have been converted while 
 within the prison walls, and 12,000 have passed 
 thru the various league homes, coming from prison
 
 Prison Problems 1 
 
 to them and from them to the world of men, re- 
 habilitated." 
 
 As I stood before almost five hundred prisoners 
 at Fort Madison, Iowa, on Thanksgiving day, I 
 said : "Men, you probably think that as I stand 
 here and look into your faces, I am wondering 
 how so many of you got in here, but I am not. I 
 am wondering how on earth I ever kept out of here 
 this long. There is many a true word spoken in a 
 joke." 
 
 The man who, Pouter Pigeon like, struts around 
 the sanctuary of the Lord the most when the people 
 are watching him, and shouts thief, thief, thief the 
 loudest when people are listening to him, is gen- 
 erally the cuss who is too chicken-hearted to be a 
 real crook and too crooked to be even a ballyhoo 
 orator for a church raffle. 
 
 This is a queer world. Society will lie and perjure 
 its soul to keep a wrong-doer from going to "The 
 Pen" ; but, after one is there, that same crowd will 
 do all in its power to break the spirit, to crush 
 out hope, to humiliate the victim and his friends, 
 to maltreat, mistreat, beat and bruise the poor un- 
 fortunate object of its wrath. The slant-eyed suds 
 mongers of the city of Boston, who, according to 
 Tom Watson, "own fifteen thousand white women, 
 whom they sell and pass around among themselves, 
 at $15 and $20 apiece," receive more real sympathy 
 than our own fellowmen who are in durance vile. 
 
 The object of all prison work is twofold, to pro- 
 tect society and to reform the prisoner. There 
 isn't a man or a woman with the brain power of 
 a maltese cat but who knows that the past method 
 of mistreating prisoners made reformation almost
 
 8 Prison Problems 
 
 an impossibility. We judge institutions by results 
 just as we judge individuals, and the results of our 
 methods have been horribly bad. A righteous cru- 
 sade is now being made through the magazines and 
 public press against the barbarity of prison meth- 
 ods, the antequated cruelty of the prison rules, and 
 the inhuman methods of (mis) treating the prisoners 
 by those in charge. No man, no race, ought to have 
 unlimited authority over any other individual or 
 race of men. It has always bred tyranny, brutality, 
 and resulted in a rebound action that mentally, 
 morally and physically paralyzed the person or race 
 in authority. 
 
 In Chicago, during two years, 34 bombs were 
 exploded, destroying thousands of dollars worth of 
 property. Two brothers were tried for throwing a 
 bomb ; three men swore they all but saw them ; 
 one swore he helped make the bomb; a jury set the 
 men free because they thought the witnesses were 
 swearing falsely, to get the mammoth rewards that 
 ran into the thousands. Could you get three men 
 to swear to a lie for $10,000? It is common street 
 gossip that you can get them here for two dollars 
 a head. Then, on the other hand, can you fix a 
 jury? But why go on? Can't we see that the 
 chances for railroading a man to "the Pen" are 
 great, but don't the records of all institutions teem 
 with names of men who have been as much wronged 
 as they have wronged? 
 
 In this very prison at Fort Madison was enacted 
 a wrong that is not without its many parallels. Back 
 in '61 the cry of war was abroad in the land. The 
 president, in the name of patriotism, called upon 
 the young men to fight, to shoot, to kill. A young
 
 Prison Problems 9 
 
 man enlisted, he fought, he shot and he killed. A 
 generous government paid him $13 a month for his 
 services ; after the war the grateful people pensioned 
 him. At the front he learned to kill in deliberation 
 and years afterward it was charged that he killed 
 a man in a fit of passion. He was sent to Fort 
 Madison for life and his Christian friends asked 
 God to have mercy on his soul. They had none. 
 After thirty-one years of service, the great state of 
 Iowa turned this old veteran out of prison, and ac- 
 knowledged that the state had done him an irrepar- 
 able wrong. He was pardoned for a crime that he 
 had never committed. Don't censure Iowa; your 
 state and my state have done things no doubt worse. 
 
 In Maryland, adultery is punished by a fine of 
 $10, and in Iowa by three years' imprisonment in 
 the penitentiary. No one in Maryland would think 
 of the inhuman sentence of three years without the 
 privilege of speech. In most Pens, you are not al- 
 lowed to talk. Men have even lost the power of con- 
 versation. 
 
 When the sugar trust stole millions and were 
 caught, the thieves resigned ; but who ever heard 
 of the poor resigning? If a clerk in a store stole 
 $100, would his resignation keep him out of prison? 
 
 I have tried to make you see, dear reader, that 
 the difference between the wrong-doer who has been 
 sent up and the one who has escaped is nil. Now, 
 why all this harsh prejudice against the detained 
 offender? 
 
 Fort Madison has inaugurated a real school sys- 
 tem, whereby prisoners are taught to read and write 
 and the results of this effort are amazing. Some day 
 attendance will be made compulsory. At present,
 
 10 Prison Problems 
 
 the school is a night school only, for the people of 
 Iowa are dead certain that they would rather have 
 60 cents from one of the largest trusts in America 
 for the man's work than to realize that they are 
 working to help restore a weak brother. They 
 would rather send their money to christianize the 
 poor Japanese than to spend it humanizing the in- 
 mates of their prison. The people of Iowa would 
 rather pay the trust $1 for a steel rake than to spend 
 $1 to save a human rake from stealing. 
 
 The historical and literary society is a great, 
 growing and influential organization. The mem- 
 bers did me the honor to hold an extra meeting 
 Thursday evening, when about twenty of us met in 
 a large cell, without a guard or an attendant, and 
 spent what to me was one of the happiest and most 
 profitable two hours that I have spent for months. 
 Three papers were read, one on "Reading as a 
 Habit," "The Editor as a Political Boss," and "A 
 Sketch of France," and so well prepared, well- 
 written and informing were these papers that it was 
 more a reminder of college days than of prison 
 bars. 
 
 One of the reforms that all of this discussion has 
 brought about is to substitute a service of hope, 
 of faith, of good cheer for the old, whining harangue 
 on retribution. The rehashing of the husks that a 
 certain gentleman used in lieu of a bundle of shred- 
 ded wheat biscuits, and when his fodder gave out re- 
 turned to where the fatted calf had been patiently 
 waiting for almost ten years to be slaughtered in 
 honor of the spendthrift's return. 
 
 A word to preachers, lecturers and singers : Don't 
 expect an encore on "Where Is My Wandering Boy
 
 Prison Problems 11 
 
 Tonight." Common sense will teach you that he 
 sits right in front of you, and that he is not doing 
 much wandering, either. That bunch of crooks 
 know they are guilty, if they are guilty. Then, why 
 appeal to them to arise and go to their father's 
 house? Don't you know that the ordinary warden 
 won't allow them to go? 
 
 Now is the time to plead for the new idea, for 
 the advance movement. The lyceum is honored by 
 the work that Mrs. Booth is doing. Mrs. Maybrick 
 deserves great credit for her efforts. Caleb Powers 
 did a wise thing when he rushed to the platform, 
 and Cole Younger showed good sense in hiking for 
 the rostrum instead of the dime museum. 
 
 As a profession, are we pleading for humane treat- 
 ment for those on the inside of prison walls as we 
 plead for the brotherhood of man for all on the out- 
 side? 
 
 Isn't it worth our while to try and help solve this 
 problem? In Chicago last year there were 202 kill- 
 ings. In Canada there were 12 murders for every 
 million population. Last year there were 103 execu- 
 tions in the United States for 9,000 murders. It is 
 claimed by those who ought to know that the 
 chances are four to one that even our worst 
 criminals will not be apprehended in the United 
 States. The chances are ten to one that they will 
 never be convicted and twenty to one that they will 
 never go to the penitentiary. 
 
 What is needed is not less punishment, but that it 
 will be distributed a little more in accordance with 
 the square-deal principle.
 
 12 Prison Problems 
 
 THE PSYCHIC POWER OF MUSIC. 
 
 By H. Addington Bruce. 
 
 Belief in the efficacy of music as an adjunct 
 in the treatment of diseases is literally as old as 
 antiquity. At least one reference to it is found in 
 the Bible, in the episode of David curing Saul of 
 melancholia by his skill as a musician. The ancient 
 Greeks and Romans were enthusiastic advocates 
 of "musical medicine" as a remedy for all sorts of 
 maladies. Thus, Aulus Agellus particularly ex- 
 tolled the music of the flute as a cure for sciatica, 
 an opinion which Democritus also voiced ; while 
 Pythagoras is credited with having composed "cer- 
 tain divine mixtures of 'diatonic, enharmonic, and 
 chromatic melodies, which were designed as anti- 
 dotes to moods." 
 
 But it cannot be said that the medical profession 
 as a whole has paid much attention, until quite re- 
 cently, to the views advanced by the ancients; or 
 to the hints thrown out by individual physicians, 
 who, as a result of personal experience, have be- 
 come convinced that music has a therapeutic value. 
 In only one field, the treatment of mental disease, 
 is it today utilized to any extent, and there mainly 
 in the way of asylum concerts and dances, and as an 
 ameliorative, rather than a curative, measure. 
 Lately, however, as evidenced by the tone of edi- 
 torial articles in leading medical journals, both in 
 this country and abroad, there have been signs of 
 a rapidly growing interest in the subject and an
 
 Prison Problems 13 
 
 unwonted readiness to investigate it. Undoubtedly 
 this is due, in the main, to the amazing discoveries 
 that modern psychology has made with regard to 
 the influence of the mind on the health of the body. 
 
 It is not known, to mention one discovery of espe- 
 cial importance in connection with the problem of 
 the healing power of music, that the state of one's 
 thoughts and emotions exercises an appreciable ef- 
 fect in the circulation, the digestion, the respiration, 
 and, in short, the functioning of every bodily organ. 
 
 The distinguished Italian scientist, Angelo Mosso, 
 placed several of his colleagues and students, one 
 after another, on an apparatus constructed in such a 
 way that the body of a man could be balanced on it 
 in a horizontal position. Its mechanism was so 
 sensitive that it oscillated according to the rhythm 
 of the subject's breathing. Commenting on the re- 
 sults of the experiments, Professor Mosso said : 
 
 "If one spoke to a person while he was lying on 
 the balance, in equilibrium and perfectly quiet, it 
 inclined immediately towards the head. The legs 
 became lighter and the head heavier. This phe- 
 nomenon was constant, whatever pains the subject 
 took not to move, however he endeavored not to 
 to speak, to do nothing which might produce a more 
 copious flow of blood to the head." 
 
 Even in sleep the same phenomenon was evident : 
 
 "When all was quiet, one of us would inten- 
 tionally make a slight noise by coughing, scraping 
 a foot on the ground, or moving a chair; and at 
 once the balance inclined again towards the head, 
 remaining immovable for four or five minutes, with- 
 out the subject's noticing anything or waking.
 
 14 Prison Problems 
 
 * * * It proved by this balance that at the 
 slightest emotion, the blood rushes to the head." 
 
 Following up these experiments, Dr. William G. 
 Anderson, using a similar apparatus, and selecting 
 as subjects a group of Yale students, proved that the 
 blood could be sent to the legs by merely concentrat- 
 ing the attention and thinking of moving them, but 
 without executing any actual movement. The same 
 motor influence of thought and emotion on different 
 organs of the body has been demonstrated by other 
 competent investigators with the aid of various 
 scientific instruments, by which the effect of mental 
 states on the action of the heart, lungs, muscles, etc., 
 has been studied with the most delicate precision. 
 The results of their researches are conclusive 
 enough to justify Professor James's emphatic asser- 
 tion: 
 
 "All mental states (no matter what their char- 
 acter as regards utility) are followed by bodily ac- 
 tivity of some sort. They lead to inconspicuous 
 changes in breathing, circulation, general muscular 
 tension, and glandular or other visceral activity, 
 even if they do not lead to conspicuous movements 
 of the muscles of voluntary life. * * * All states 
 of mind, even mere thoughts and feelings, are motor 
 in their consequences." 
 
 Experiment has further proved that pleasurable 
 mental states have a distinct tonic value to the whole 
 organism, while mental states that are disagree- 
 able have a weakening effect. Accordingly, every- 
 thing that tends to expel "discordant" thoughts, to 
 allay worry, anxiety, grief, anger, fretfulness, de- 
 spair; replacing them with mental states of con- 
 tentment, hope, .peace, happiness, courage, must be
 
 Prison Problems 15 
 
 of medicinal usefulness. It is this that, in the last 
 analysis, accounts for the success of all "faith heal- 
 ing" systems, so far as they are successful ; and it 
 is this that warrants the utilization of music as a 
 weapon in the warfare against disease. 
 
 Beyond the slightest doubt, there is none other of 
 the arts that so strongly appeals to the emotional 
 side of man. In some measure everybody has ex- 
 perienced, and will readily acknowledge, music's 
 unique suggestive force in conveying ideas and feel- 
 ings, creating moods, and impelling to action. Who 
 of us can listen unmoved to the plaintive sweetness 
 of "Home, Sweet Home," or has not felt the blood 
 pulse faster at "Dixie's" exhilarating strains? It 
 is not hard to understand the magic in the Finale of 
 Beethovan's "Fifth Symphony" that caused the 
 Napoleonic veteran to leap to his feet in the crowd- 
 ed concert hall, with the cry : "The Emperor !" Nor 
 can we wonder that, during the wars of the French 
 Revolution, it was forbidden, on pain of death, to 
 play the "Ranz des Vaches" in the hearing of the 
 Swiss soldiers, as it was found that the familiar 
 melody inspired them with such an intense longing 
 for home that they were deserting by hundreds. 
 
 For that matter, experimental evidence has been 
 obtained demonstrating that music "suggests" men- 
 tal states of great emotional significance, and that 
 through these it acts powerfully on the physical or- 
 ganism. 
 
 Obviously, if music is helpful in time of illness, 
 by virtue of its power to influence the body thru 
 the mind, setting in motion those healing forces 
 latent in all of us, it is still more useful from a pre- 
 ventive and hygienic point of view. It is valuable
 
 16 Prison Problems 
 
 not simply as an aid to health, but as a powerful 
 auxiliary in the development of intellect and char- 
 acter. The ancient Greeks considered the study 
 of music indispensable to a proper education. 
 
 Today, in our schools, music is gaining increas- 
 ing recognition as an educational force. It still is 
 absent from too many homes. Yet it is incompara- 
 bly more needed in the home than in the school- 
 room, because it is there that its great suggestive 
 power may make itself most surely felt, to aid in 
 right thinking and right living. And nowadays, 
 since the invention of "player-pianos," and "talk- 
 ing machines," even those devoid of musical skill 
 can command in their homes all the music they 
 wish, and draw at will on its wondrous resources 
 as a giver of pleasure and an energizer of the body 
 and the mind.
 
 Prison Problems 17 
 
 THE AMERICAN COMMON SCHOOL. 
 
 By Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows, D. D., LL. D. 
 
 A sermon delivered at the request of the Na- 
 tional Educational Association at its recent conven- 
 tion in Chicago. 
 
 "John Stuart Mill once claimed that it would be 
 well to question an axiom so that the truth con- 
 tained in it might be the more clearly seen. It 
 would seem like arraigning an axiom in the educa- 
 tional world to call in question the value of a broad, 
 liberal public school system to the people of the 
 United States. Yet it has been done and is still be- 
 ing done. Richard Grant White fiercely attacked 
 the public schools a few years ago in the North 
 American Review, calling them a failure. Benjamin 
 Reece followed in the same track still later in an 
 article in the Popular Science Monthly. More re- 
 cently Rebecca Harding Davis took up the same 
 strain in a contribution to the North American Re- 
 view. 
 
 "Mr. White maintained that 'our large towns 
 swarm with idle, vicious lads and young men with- 
 out visible means of support. Our rural districts 
 are infested with tramps, a species of the genus 
 homo, unknown to our forefathers. Our legisla- 
 tures are corrupt, our great corporations buy them 
 up at will. The dominant political parties are 
 guilty of bribery at elections. The judges on the 
 bench have notably declined in learning, wisdom and 
 integrity. Dishonesty in business and betrayal of
 
 18 Prison Problems 
 
 trust are matters of common shame. Politics have 
 been largely handed over to the inferior men of love 
 of cunning. Divorces have fearfully multiplied 
 Filial respect has diminished; our young men and 
 young women have lost their modesty and ceased 
 to blush for the loss. 
 
 " 'Crime and vice have increased year after year, 
 corresponding almost exactly to the development 
 of the common school system. It has given us also 
 a nondescript and hybrid class, unfitted for pro- 
 fessional or mercantile life, unwilling and also un- 
 able to be farmers and artisans and who have left 
 both skilled and unskilled labor to be performed 
 by immigrant foreigners.' 
 
 "The arguments affirming that our common 
 schools are the cause of crime, are fallacious through 
 and through. From the statistics carefully gathered 
 by the bureau of education and revealed in the 
 history of our reformatories and penal institutions, 
 we learn that one-fifth of all criminals are totally 
 uneducated and that the other four-fifths are practi- 
 cally uneducated. We also learn that the propor- 
 tion of criminals from the illiterate classes is eight- 
 fold as great as the proportion from those having 
 some education ; and in proportion to the higher 
 education received in our own country does crimi- 
 nality decrease. 
 
 "The following statements prove this: Out of a 
 population of 2,616 convicts, in the prisons of Au- 
 burn and Sing Sing, 19 were returned as collegiates, 
 10 as having received a classical and 78 academic 
 instruction 4 per cent of the entire population. 
 Years ago the commissioner of education gathered 
 statistics from seventeen of the middle and western
 
 Prison Problems 19 
 
 states, bearing upon this point. These states re- 
 ported 110,538 prisoners. Of this number 25 per 
 cent were illiterate. The average illiteracy of the 
 population of these states was 4 per cent. There- 
 fore this 4 per cent furnished 25 per cent of the 
 criminals and the 96 per cent who could read and 
 write furnished only 75 per cent. Thus 1,000 il- 
 literates furnished on the average eight times as 
 many prisoners as the same number who could read 
 and write. 
 
 "The causes of crime are not education or the 
 common school, but unfortunate ante-natal condi- 
 tions, bad homes, unhealthy infancy and childhood, 
 over-crowded slums, promiscuous herding together, 
 industrial and social injustice and intemperances. 
 
 "I put emphasis on bad homes as the chief cause 
 of crime. The statistics of every reformatory show 
 that the great majority of inmates come from this 
 class of homes. It is easy to see how the work of 
 the teacher is hindered when pupils, however well 
 trained, are subjected continually to the malign 
 influence of evil home surroundings. 
 
 "It must be remembered that the average school 
 attendance is scarcely five years. It is not far from 
 the real facts in the case to say that the average at- 
 tendance at school the country through, of each 
 boy, is not much more than five months in the year 
 we may count it six months. The entire school- 
 ing of the average boy would be comprised, there- 
 fore, within thirty months or 120 weeks, or about 
 600 school days. Reckoning six hours for a school 
 day, the boy would be under direct school influ- 
 ence 3,600 hours. During that period he is within 
 the influence of the home directly or indirectly, 60
 
 20 Prison Problems 
 
 months, or 1,800 days, or 43,200 hours. Deducting 
 the 3,600 hours the boy is at school, leaves 39,600 
 hours. The school ratio, therefore, to the home is 
 one to eleven. 
 
 "This, remember, is the ratio for the average 
 American boy's school instruction. When the in- 
 mates of our reformatories are considered with re- 
 lation to the number of actual days or hours in at- 
 tendance upon school, as evidenced by the low grade 
 they have attained before entrance into these insti- 
 tutions, the ratio of their school hours to the home 
 hours will be 1 to 22 that is, for 1,800 hours spent 
 in school 39,600 hours will be those for which the 
 home is responsible. 
 
 "Bonjean says: 'We cannot sterilize with the 
 bouillon of culture the microbes of vice and crime 
 except by wholesale parental correction.' 
 
 "With regard to the direct influence of our Amer- 
 ican system, I unhesitatingly aver from a long and 
 wide personal and official connection with it, that 
 the spirit of the requirements of the Massachusetts 
 system of education is observed by the 440,000 
 teachers of our public schools. These requirements 
 make it obligatory 'that it shall be the duty of all 
 instructors of youth to exert their best endeavors 
 to impress on the minds of children committed to 
 their care and instruction the principles of piety, 
 justice and sacred regard for truth, love of their 
 country, humanity and universal benevolence, so- 
 briety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation 
 and temperance, and those other virtues which are 
 the ornaments of human society and the basis upon 
 which a republican constitution is founded. 
 
 "How can such schools foster crime? How can
 
 Prison Problems 21 
 
 they be godless with the inculcation and exemplifi- 
 cation of these foundation principles of a godly 
 character? 
 
 "I have earnestly claimed for many years, in spite 
 of the fact that in some of the states of the Union 
 the Bible has been excluded from the schoolroom, 
 the schools are not therefore godless institutions. 
 Mrs. Ella Flagg Young, our excellent city superin- 
 tendent of education, has just affirmed the same 
 great fact. I again emphatically affirm that our 
 schools are not godless. Sectarian instruction never 
 can be given in them. Forever must we keep 
 separate in every phase and form the American 
 church from the American state. The American 
 church is diversified, as its more than forty distinct 
 denominations indicate. The American Sunday 
 school, embracing the children of these various re- 
 ligious organizations is to supplant the work of 
 the common schools by giving specific religious in- 
 struction one day in seven. 
 
 "Almost as many children as are embraced in our 
 public and parochial schools are to be found in our 
 Sunday school classes. This fact must never be 
 lost sight of when we are considering the subject 
 of American education ; whether the reading of the 
 Bible by the teachers in our day schools shall be 
 permitted, we ail know is a seriously mooted ques- 
 tion. The book of books in its entirety has been 
 held to be in a broad sense a sectarian book by some 
 of our state supreme courts. It has not so been held 
 by supreme courts in other states. It is not so held, 
 I believe, by the Supreme Court of the United 
 States. 
 
 "The solution of the difficulty presented by the
 
 22 Prison Problems 
 
 decisions of these differing courts would seem to be 
 that of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which holds 
 that selections from the Bible, which teach the 
 fundamentally religious and moral truths that are 
 believed by the overwhelming majority of the people 
 of the United States, and on which rests the very 
 super-structure of our American civilization, may 
 be read in the schools of that progressive state. 
 
 "Such selections were made some time ago in 
 our city by the leading representatives of the Roman 
 Catholic, the Jewish and the various Protestant 
 churches for use in the Chicago schools. For some 
 reason, which I could not learn, they were not per- 
 mitted to be read by the board of education then 
 in office. It seems incredible that an indignity 
 should be put on this supreme book, which is put 
 upon no other commanding book in the world's liter- 
 ature, by denying even the reading of these selec- 
 tions, which lie at the very heart of all human prog- 
 ress to our school children. May we not hope for 
 a speedy wiping out of this shameful anomaly in 
 our educational instruction? 
 
 "As to the statement which has been made that 
 'the public schools turn out bad citizens,' I utterly 
 deny it, as a general proposition, but I do freely ad- 
 mit that they sometimes do turn out some bad citi- 
 zens, both literally and metaphorically, just as the 
 churches sometimes turn out some bad saints. 
 
 "But can any sane or well-informed person make 
 the above sweeping assertion? Sound the roll call 
 of the most illustrious dead of the American re- 
 public and summon those who are living to answer. 
 Let the scores of millions of the best men and wo- 
 men the world has ever contained, living or dead,
 
 Prison Problems 33 
 
 stand up with them, multitudes whose names are un- 
 known, but who have wrought their lives into our 
 nation's glorious structure, since the first rude 
 common school house was erected on the wild 
 New England shore. 
 
 "With equal reason can you charge religion it- 
 self with being the cause of crime as education in 
 the common school? The indictments against the 
 school are really indictments against the churches. 
 How is it possible to believe that the conditions 
 of things so lugubriously depicted by Richard Grant 
 White can be the result of common school instruc- 
 tion without believing that the thousands of clergy- 
 men and millions of communicants in the vari- 
 ous churches and the thousands of teachers and 
 millions of scholars in the Sunday schools, almost 
 equaling those in the common schools are just as 
 much to blame? 
 
 "Religion is a failure if the common school is JL 
 failure. Neither is a failure. Of course, it goes 
 without saying that it is not because of but in spite 
 of the common school and of religion that crime 
 prevails. 
 
 "The grandest school of democracy is the common 
 school. It is the main unifier of the forty-five or 
 more nationalities with their sub-divisions that have 
 been and still are crowding our shores. 
 
 "The night schools of Chicago tell an eloquent 
 story to illustrate my statement. Nearly 15,000 are 
 now in attendance and there was almost a riot in one 
 of them not long ago because of the crush of scholars 
 to get in. In another of these schools sixteen dis- 
 tinct nationalities were represented. 
 
 "Why this crush? Why this commingling? Were
 
 24 Prison Problems 
 
 these criminals that were struggling to gain admis- 
 sion? Were they rushing to be made criminals? 
 Were the self-sacrificing teachers that met them 
 with a welcome on face and lips and with patience 
 almost infinite in their hearts, a band of conscious 
 or unconscious criminal makers? I need not say 
 No. To make law-abiding, useful, honored Amer- 
 ican citizens is the aim of all this effort and it is 
 accomplishing the end desired. 
 
 "The common school is the great leveler, but it 
 levels up and not down. It practically enforces 
 equality and fraternity. Sharp angles are knocked 
 off, differences are rubbed down, class distinctions 
 are prevented, caste is abolished. The rich man's 
 son and the poor man's son meet together. Brains 
 and not money weigh in the scale of scholarships. 
 Merit and not the father's position sends the boy to 
 the head of his class. 
 
 "Religious animosity finds no fuel to feed it. 
 Nationality sees no barrier raised against it. The 
 young 'know nothings' speedily become 'know 
 somethings,' and they are not apt to forget the fact 
 in their future political life. 
 
 "The common school requires of the pupil an 
 arithmetical, geographical or grammatical reason 
 for the hope that is in him. His life afterwards is a 
 series of interrogation points. He carries the habit 
 of asking a reason in his dealings with all subjects, 
 with all measures, and with all men. 
 
 "The Mosley commission made its report some 
 time ago to the nation and the world. You will re- 
 call its origin. On account of the success of the 
 engineers of the United States, Mr. Mosley met in 
 South Africa, he desired to see 'what sort of coun-
 
 Prison Problems 25 
 
 try it was that was responsible for sending so many 
 level-headed men to the Cape.' He said : 'So far 
 as I was able to ascertain, the form of education 
 given in the United States was responsible for much 
 of its success, and I returned home, determined, 
 if possible, to get together a party of experts to visit 
 the country and test the soundness of my con- 
 clusions.' 
 
 "He succeeded in his effort, and a superb body of 
 men, representing the cause of British education in 
 all its various features, was organized into a com- 
 mission to investigate the relations between educa- 
 tion and commercial and industrial efficiency, or 
 phrased differently, 'to find out the educational 
 causes and conditions which have contributed to 
 the rapid industrial development of the United 
 States.' 
 
 "In this report Mr. Mosely sums up his reflec- 
 tions upon our general educational system as fol- 
 lows : 'My observation leads me to believe that 
 the average American boy, when he leaves school, 
 is infinitely better fitted for his vocation and strug- 
 gle in life than the English boy. And, in conse- 
 quence, there are in the United States a smaller pro- 
 portion of "failures" and fewer who slide down hill, 
 and eventually join the pauper, criminal, or "sub- 
 merged tenth" class.' 
 
 "Dr. Harris, in referring to that portion of the 
 report bearing upon the manual and industrial 
 schools of the nation and upon its industrial condi- 
 tion, justly states 'that the American boy is fitted 
 by the general course of the common school for a 
 successful directorship of machinery. The gradu- 
 ate of the elementary school is well fitted by alert- 
 ness and versatility to direct or "tend" the machine
 
 26 Prison Problems 
 
 in the textile manufactory, or in the machine shop 
 or in agriculture.' 
 
 "He further says : 'If we remember that the 
 manual training school does not cultivate alertness, 
 versatility, and the power of attention, any more 
 than, if quite as much as, the ordinary studies of 
 the schools in arithmetic, algebra, geometry, "nat- 
 ural philosophy" or physics, not to mention gram- 
 mar, and other language studies, we shall not be 
 surprised that in our country, where industrial ma- 
 chinery of every kind is almost universally used, 
 the American laborer is found to be possessed of 
 note-worthy skill and ability to turn out a large 
 amount of product, and that he is able to adjust 
 himself to new situations, for the common school 
 curricula give exactly the best training for this.' 
 
 "The American public school is not perfect by 
 any means, but with all its imperfections it is the 
 best system in the nation and for the nation that 
 has been yet devised. 
 
 "The spiritual training of our children must be 
 left to the church, as I have claimed. The state 
 must not usurp the function of the church in any 
 particular. The church must see that every child, 
 so far as possible, shall receive a distinct religious 
 education, and thus use this potent agency for the 
 prevention of crime. 
 
 "The months of common school education must 
 be increased each year from six to nine or ten, and 
 the years from five to seven or eight. Teachers 
 must be better trained and better paid. Parents 
 must come into closer relationship with the school- 
 room. Then will come the golden age of the public 
 school, and with it the golden age of the church 
 also. The millennium will then dawn upon us."
 
 Prison Problems 27 
 
 WHAT BELITTLES A WOMAN 
 SOCIALLY. 
 
 By Ida M. Tarbell. 
 
 "No other honest work in the country so belittles 
 a woman socially as housework performed for 
 money. It is the only field of labor which has 
 scarcely felt the touch of the modern labor move- 
 ment ; the only one where the hours, conditions and 
 wages are not being attacked generally; the only 
 one in which there is no organization or standardiza- 
 tion, no training, no regular road of progress. It is 
 the only field of labor in which there seems to be a 
 general tendency to abandon the democratic notion 
 and return frankly to the standards of the old aris- 
 tocratic regime. The multiplication of livery, the 
 tipping system, the terms of address, all show an in- 
 creasing imitation of the old world's methods. Un- 
 happily enough they are used with little or none of 
 the old world's ease. Being imitations and not 
 natural growths, they, of course, cannot be. 
 
 "More serious still is the relation which has been 
 shown to exist between criminality and household 
 occupations. Nothing indeed which recent investi- 
 gation has established ought to startle the Ameri- 
 can woman more. Contrary to public opinion it is 
 not the factory and shop which are making women 
 offenders of all kinds ; it is the household. In a 
 recent careful study of over 3,000 women criminals, 
 the Bureau of Labor found 80 per cent came direct- 
 ly from their own homes or from the traditional 
 pursuits of women !"
 
 28 Prison Problems 
 
 The ordinary servant girl in the home knows that 
 the standards and conditions of her work are a mat- 
 ter of chance ; that, while she may receive con- 
 siderate treatment in one place, in another there will 
 be no apparent consciousness that she is a human 
 being. She knows and dreads the loneliness of the 
 average "place." "It's breaking my heart here, 5 ' 
 sobbed an intelligent Irish girl, serving a term for 
 drunkenness begun in the kitchen, "alone all day 
 long with never a one to pass a good word." She 
 finds herself cut off from most of the benefits which 
 are provided for other wage-earning girls. She finds 
 the Young Women's Christian Association in some 
 quarters if not everywhere closes its rooms and 
 classes to her. She finds the girls' clubhouses gen- 
 erally are closed to her. She is the pariah among 
 workers.
 
 Prison Problems 29 
 
 THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL. 
 
 By Dr. Max Thorek. 
 
 Official W. R. A. U. Physician and Surgeon-in-Chief American Hos- 
 pital, Consultant Cook County Hospital. 
 
 Reprint from The Player, the Actor's Magazine. 
 
 A great deal of discussion has for some time been 
 going on in scientific as well as in lay circles with 
 reference to the effects of stimulants on the system. 
 Society seems to be divided into two classes, one 
 of which decries the use of stimulants in any form 
 and are waging war by organizing temperance so- 
 cieties and even build hospitals in which not a drop 
 of alcohol is permitted for the treatment of the 
 sick or for any other purpose. (Frances Willard 
 hospital, Chicago.) 
 
 The first effects noted when drinking beverages 
 containing alcohol are the following: There is a 
 short, temporary period of exhilaration, you feel 
 good, you become "a good fellow," and when taken 
 more and more you will begin to feel sleepy. This 
 may gradually terminate in actual loss of conscious- 
 ness. You are taken home. Then follows the stage 
 of depression or the well-known "Katzenjammer." 
 
 If taken in small quantities it is a heart tonic, in 
 large doses it is a heart depressant. A drink of 
 liquor makes the breathing freer and fuller, an over- 
 dose weakens the respirations and you will often 
 hear drunken men exclaim that they cannot get 
 their breath. This means that the center of respira- 
 tion in the brain is being poisoned. 
 
 The working man who rushes his pail to the
 
 30 Prison Problems 
 
 corner saloon for alcoholic beverages, in the belief 
 that it is a food and substitutes other foodstuffs is 
 digging his own grave. He is nursing the cumula- 
 tive effect of a deadly poision and from the point 
 of cost it has been calculated to be eight times 
 more expensive than bread. As a food alcohol in 
 any form is, therefore, an absolute failure. 
 
 There is nothing more degrading, there is noth- 
 ing that converts the best of men to beasts than 
 excessive drink. It is early in life that the habit may 
 be easily acquired. Those who yield to its seduc- 
 tions and become its slaves are usually weakened 
 either from inheritance or from some cause and it 
 i? in these neuropathic individuals that it works 
 its ravages. 
 
 For some reason or other, illness, disappointment 
 in business or love, worry over domestic felicity, 
 financial reverses and the like cause the individual 
 to feel an irresistible (?) craving for assistance in 
 the struggle of life, and, yielding to alcohol, is 
 wooed by blissful states of mind, which are tem- 
 porary and soon vanish. He wants this mock hap- 
 piness to continue he indulges more and more, 
 until the habit is finally acquired and he finds him- 
 self a confirmed drunkard. Some are quickly de- 
 stroyed by it, others again resist its ravages for a 
 longer period only to yield to it in the decrepitude 
 of old age or when his resisting powers have been 
 battered to pieces by the poison. After heredity 
 it is next as a cause of insanity. 
 
 No better picture can be obtained of the effects 
 of alcohol than from observing a drunken person 
 In the beginning, that is, after the first drink or 
 two, there is usually a feeling of exhilaration the
 
 Prison Problems 31 
 
 individual feels an increase of his mental and physi- 
 cal powers. This stimulation is of brief duration. 
 Soon thereafter symptoms of suspended function 
 set in and the toper loses his sense of propriety, his 
 moral tone is degraded, you cannot successfully 
 attract his attention and he is unable to do any 
 mental or physical work. This gets worse, his 
 speech becomes babbling and he staggers about 
 and is unable to perform co-ordinate movements 
 with hands or lower extremities. If at this stage 
 he pours more of alcohol into his system he will, 
 in common parlance, become "dead drunk," lose his 
 consciousness and not infrequently die from acute 
 alcoholic intoxication. 
 
 Not all people, however, act alike when "stewed." 
 Some of them are in a fighting mood and very 
 active, others again shed tears into the cup of artifi- 
 cial bliss and are very depressed. The depression 
 in some cases is so great as to lead to suicide. 
 
 Once the habit is acquired, the individual starts 
 on a downward path and sometimes slower at other 
 times quicker but surely lands in the realms of 
 complete mental and physical decay. There is no 
 organ in the body which is immune to the effects 
 of alcohol. The principal organs involved however 
 are the nervous system (particularly the brain), the 
 stomach (catarrh of drunkards), liver (cirrhosis), 
 and the kidneys. He begins to tremble, his stomach 
 refuses, he develops arteriosclerosis (premature 
 senility) and his mind becomes enfeebled. 
 
 Of the other effects we find disturbances of the 
 sensation, motion and the intellect. The victim feels 
 tingling, pricking or crawling sensations in certain 
 parts of his body. His eyes and ears become de-
 
 32 Prison Problems 
 
 ranged and as a result he hears strange noises and 
 sees things which are not there. He may develop 
 alcoholic epilepsy or paresis. 
 
 The mental changes are gradual but progressive. 
 The power of judgment is overthrown, the moral 
 sense annihilated and mendacity appears in most 
 bizarre forms. These people develop all sorts of 
 delusions, the most characteristic of which are a 
 certain jealousy and marital infidelity. A great 
 many divorce cases and homicides can be traced 
 directly to alcohol. The mind gradually decays and 
 the poor sufferer lapses into a condition of total 
 irresponsibility (alcoholic dementia). 
 
 The acute form of alcoholism known to all who 
 see these people is known as delirium tremens. 
 This is usually seen in cases where the drunkard 
 debauches and robs himself of sleep and food. This 
 condition may come on suddenly or develop within 
 a day or two. The individual usually awakens at 
 night trembling, he becomes sleepless, wants to get 
 out of bed and do some imaginary thing, talks con- 
 stantly and incoherently, looks about uneasily and 
 fearfully and he sees all sorts of animals (snakes, 
 rats, mice, alligators, monkeys, etc.) 
 
 Surrounded by these loathsome creatures and ter- 
 rified by the imaginary screams and noises he hears, 
 he presents a picture of abject horror. The horrors 
 may be so great that some of these people jump 
 out of the window and kill themselves. At other 
 times again he imagines the people about him to be 
 his enemies and attempts murder. During the at- 
 tack he is constantly shrieking and is evidently in 
 extremest agony and suffering. 
 
 In favorable cases the symptoms subside, the pa-
 
 Prison Problems 33 
 
 tient falls into a refreshing sleep and he recovers. 
 In other cases again, the period of excitement is 
 followed by one of depression, he goes into a stu- 
 porous state, becomes exhausted and dies. In some 
 cases he may die suddenly, from a paroxysm of 
 acute failure of the heart or from some complica- 
 tion rupture of a vessel of the brain, or pneumonia 
 may set in which carries him off promptly. 
 
 I believe that men who start on their "alcoholic 
 career" should spend an hour or two in the receiv- 
 ing wards of some large hospital and see the sights, 
 and pitiful conditions in which these poor people are 
 admitted. An object lesson of this sort will do more 
 good than reading of volumes on the subject. 
 
 It is a universally established fact that the im- 
 moderate use of alcohol will surely shorten the 
 life of the individual. It is asserted on good author- 
 ity that the mortality of the intemperate is from 
 four to five times greater than that of the strictly 
 temperate of the same age and in the same class of 
 life. 
 
 Many death certificates show the cause of death 
 to be due to, say for instance, disease of the liver, 
 stomach, brain or kidney when as a matter of fact 
 the individual died from alcoholism. This is fre- 
 quently done purposely out of regard for the feel- 
 ings of the relatives of the deceased. 
 
 All evidence points to the fact that alcohol, ex- 
 cept in strict moderation, is injurious to men and 
 women who exert themselves physically or those 
 who do a great deal of mental work. For all en- 
 gaged in athletic pursuits it has a distinctly dam- 
 aging influence on the heart and blood vessels. For 
 people in good health alcohol in any form presents
 
 34 Prison Problems 
 
 no advantages and for the young it is decidedly 
 injurious. 
 
 To condense the whole matter it may be sum- 
 marized as follows: 1. The abuse of alcoholic 
 stimulants, in any form (wine, beer, whiskey, etc.) 
 is largely responsible for physical deterioration, and 
 that it leads to diseases of practically all tissues in 
 the body. 2. Alcohol reduces the natural powers 
 of resistance to disease possessed by healthy indi- 
 viduals. It renders them liable to many inflamma- 
 tory disorders and causes them to suffer much more 
 from any illness they may contract and making 
 their recovery slow. 3. Intemperance predisposes 
 to consumption, venereal diseases and other affec- 
 tions. 4. Children of intemperate parents are ser- 
 iously affected. They frequently are subject to 
 paralysis, epilepsy and idiocy, which, if not leading 
 to death, render them permanently disabled. 5. The 
 increase of lunacy is largely due to intemperance. 
 
 Alcohol is the poor man's enemy and the de- 
 stroyer of society. Take a trip with me through 
 the stockyard district of Chicago and you can no- 
 where see a better picture of mental and physical 
 degeneracy than in this district. For blocks at a 
 stretch you won't find a house without a saloon. 
 (Some of them have two in one house.) The in- 
 mates, I cannot describe for want of space; but 
 suffice it to say that no human hand can depict 
 these degenerate animals in human form. These 
 are the breeding places of crime and misery and of 
 mental and physical decay.
 
 Prison Problems 35 
 
 HOW A EECITAL IS APPRECIATED 
 BY PRISONERS. 
 
 Copied from The Mirror, Stilhvater, Minn. 
 
 "On Sunday the members of the Chautauqua Cir- 
 cle were given a treat that will long be remem- 
 bered. Miss Elizabeth Hanson of Wisconsin, travel- 
 ing from the Lyceum Bureau of Chicago, was the 
 attraction. She gave several readings, every one of 
 them grand. None can be chosen as the best, yet 
 we want to linger over the reading taken from 
 Ralph Connor's story, 'Black Rock.' The scene was 
 in a Canadian lumber camp and the minister reads 
 the old, old story wherein The Christ is lifted up 
 so that the lumber jacks might see a new signifi- 
 cance in it. 
 
 "I would that I had the pen of an idealist, so that 
 I could pay a fitting tribute to Miss Hanson and 
 her art. I have listened to many a lyceum work- 
 er, but that story, as read by Miss Hanson, crowns 
 everything I have ever heard. The old, old story; 
 yet she told it so beautifully that it came to us in 
 a newer sense newer because this truth was driven 
 home to us. Heaven is still open to the worst of 
 us. The pure life as held up by Miss Hanson is 
 the secret of salvation. There is no substitute. We 
 have tried them all and found them all wanting. 
 And, now and again, we are forced to go back to 
 listen anew to the old, old story that tells of a lowly 
 Galilean being born, to give hope to the hopeless. 
 
 "Miss Hanson is gifted with a very pleasing per- 
 sonality, she does not have to rely solely upon her
 
 36 Prison Problems 
 
 art to win her audience. She has but to smile and 
 tell in a few simple words (as she does) her creed 
 of Sunshine 'of doing the best she can in all the 
 ways she can whenever she can,' and she has her 
 audience from the start. Her art keeps it. 
 
 ""\Ye do not know whether Miss Hanson has any 
 set religion, but we do know she has the religion 
 of life. She tells of a present, but in the telling she 
 brings, out of the past, the memories of white boy- 
 hood, and white prayer-times. Old wounds we had 
 thought closed and forgotten opened anew and 
 many misty eyes there were when she told the story 
 of the minister's hearing the old, old story from his 
 mother. 
 
 "The memory of Miss Hanson will always live in 
 our hearts, as one of the sweet and clean visions 
 of the better life. I cannot help but think of her 
 in connection with Owen Kildare's description of 
 his 'Mamie Rose/ She was not a queenly looking 
 girl ; all her queenliness was within. 
 
 "There are stopping places along the downward 
 path. Every man gets a dozen chances to stop and 
 meditate. These stopping places bear a sign. 'Halt ! 
 View thy life !' 
 
 "Did the speaker bring us to one of the 'stops?' 
 
 "How did the words appeal to you? 
 
 "Was the word of encouragement, of hope, spok- 
 en? 
 
 "Did the scales turn, even a tiny bit? 
 
 "If so, you may say with me : 'Last Sunday we 
 were given the chance to see such beauty of char- 
 acter in a girl, that we can appreciate and shape 
 our dreams of Heaven."
 
 Prison Problems 37 
 
 IS THERE A CRIMINAL CLASS? 
 
 By William Allen Pinkerton. 
 
 Republished from Hampton's Magazine. 
 
 I have been for more than fifty years in almost 
 constant association with crime and lawbreakers. 
 I may fairly claim to have had exceptional oppor- 
 tunities for the study and observation of the opera- 
 tion of the human mind and the motives that actu- 
 ate those whom society terms criminals. I have 
 reached certain conclusions which do not agree with 
 the theories of some eminent scientists nor altogeth- 
 er harmonize with the teachings of the sociological 
 schools. I have no new theory to advance, but it 
 seems to me some facts have been generally over- 
 looked. 
 
 No one can study criminals at close range and 
 believe in the existence of a criminal class, regard- 
 less of what Lombroso and his disciples may claim. 
 It should not require any lengthy argument to prove 
 this assertion. If there were a criminal class, sharp- 
 ly defined as such and differentiated from the rest 
 of 'the human race by ascertainable characteristics, 
 then it must follow that there would be a non- 
 criminal class, comprising the rest of the human 
 race and as sharply distinguished as the supposed 
 criminal class. 
 
 Humanity is not thus divided into criminals and 
 non-criminals. There is but one classification that 
 can be made the class of those who have commit- 
 ted crimes and the class of those who have not yet
 
 38 Prison Problems 
 
 committed crimes. Within certain limits, varying 
 with the individual, every human being is a poten- 
 tial criminal. I have seen this illustrated so often 
 that I am never surprised to learn that any man or 
 woman, however highly placed and however greatly 
 esteemed, has done something which the law for- 
 bids and for which society demands a penalty. On 
 the other hand, however and this is the bright 
 side of the shield every criminal is potentially an 
 honest man, and with the right kind of encourage- 
 ment from society will remain honest by preference. 
 It is my observation of hundreds of criminals whose 
 reform has been complete and permanent that makes 
 this conclusion a definite one. It is this capacity of 
 humanity to turn from evil ways to methods of 
 life which society recognizes as right and proper 
 that really proves my first conclusion, which is 
 that crime is an accident to which a moment's care- 
 lessness may subject any living person. If these 
 criminals who have reformed had belonged to a 
 different order of humanity from those of us who 
 have so far been fortunate enough not to have yield- 
 ed to the impulse to crime, how could they have 
 become members of the order to which we profess 
 to belong? 
 
 Men and women who have had every advantage 
 society can offer and whose moral training has 
 been at least up to the average standard, commit 
 crimes when the temptation and the opportunity 
 occur simultaneously. I would hesitate to say that 
 any man is temptation-proof. It is merely a ques- 
 tion as to what his particular temptation is and 
 how complete the opportunity to yield to it. Great 
 crimes are never planned by men of a low order of
 
 Prison Problems 39 
 
 intelligence and the better educated a man is the 
 more dangerous does he become when he turns 
 criminal. 
 
 The motive that inspires nine crimes out of every 
 ten is the desire to get money faster or easier than 
 it can be earned legitimately. It is everlastingly 
 true, as St. Paul said, that "the love of money is the 
 root of all evil." Not money, but the love of money, 
 which is quite a different thing. It is the love of 
 money that may make a criminal out of any honest 
 man, depending only upon how strongly he desires 
 the money and how easy it seems to get it. I do 
 not mean that there is no one who would resist the 
 temptation to walk away with his neighbor's purse 
 if he felt sure he could do so undetected, but most 
 of us would prefer not to be subjected to that kind 
 of temptation. Yet there are men who have been 
 criminals men classed by the police as habitual 
 criminals who do resist the temptation when it 
 lies at their hands. 
 
 What is the underlying motive in most criminals? 
 Is it the dread of prison that influences the ordinary 
 criminal to turn straight? Fear of the prison or, 
 rather, of the disgrace of exposure may keep some 
 men from turning criminals, but I have seldom 
 known the dread of returning to a cell to have much 
 influence on one who has served time. It is some- 
 thing deeper than that call it conscience, if you 
 will that makes men desire to reform. I think it 
 is experience and observation. The most hardened 
 crook comes at some time in his career to a realiza- 
 tion that the honest man has a better time of it 
 that the privilege of walking down Broadway in 
 broad daylight is worth making an effort for.
 
 40 Prison Problems 
 
 My sympathies are with the Jean Valjeans. I 
 regard the character of Javert, the police officer in 
 "Les Miserables" as the most despicable in all litera- 
 ture. If the escaped criminal continues to commit 
 crimes, that is another matter. But if a criminal 
 has reformed what could the prison do for him? 
 Our modern conception of a prison is as a place 
 where men are to be reformed. It would be sheer 
 vindictiveness to send back a man who has re- 
 formed outside the walls. 
 
 The whole question of crime and criminals is 
 one which our modern civilization hasn't yet got 
 to the bottom of. We are very far advanced be- 
 yond the ideas of even a century ago. We no 
 longer classify as crimes many things which were 
 so regarded in an earlier age, nor do we punish tri- 
 vial offenses with the same severity that once pre- 
 vailed. There probably are men yet living who can 
 remember when nearly one-hundred different of- 
 fenses were punishable by death in England. A 
 comparatively short time ago the theft of anything 
 valued at more than six-pence was a capital crime. 
 Nor has crime increased with the relaxation of the 
 penalties. On the contrary, crime is steadily de- 
 creasing, through various causes, and that is my 
 second general conclusion, drawn from a lifetime's 
 experience. 
 
 Society has begun to learn that one way of pre- 
 venting boys and girls from becoming criminals 
 is to give them proper care and attention when 
 young. The children's courts, that have been es- 
 tablished in several cities, are still only in the 
 experimental stage, but have already demonstrated 
 their usefulness as a means of diverting youthful
 
 Prison Problems 41 
 
 offenders from the downward path. Much remains 
 to be done in the way of improving prison condi- 
 tions. Long steps have been made, however, in the 
 direction of making our prisons and penitentiaries 
 agencies for moral reform rather than vindictive 
 instruments of punishment. The time is coming, 
 as enlightenment increases, when men will come out 
 of prison sounder in body and mind than they went 
 in and with hands and heads trained to useful and 
 profitable occupations. In this way we shall grad- 
 ually be able to eliminate the habitual criminal, 
 while better educational methods and a clearer 
 recognition by the state of its duty to the child 
 cannot fail to reduce materially the proportion of 
 first offenders. 
 
 But with all these moral forces at work, are 
 there not more clever and more skillful criminals 
 at work today than ever before, is a question that 
 is often asked. There are not more criminals, but 
 cleverer ones. The successful great criminal of 
 today has to be cleverer than ever before, not only 
 because he runs an infinitely greater chance of being 
 caught than did his predecessors in crime, but be- 
 cause modern methods of preventing crime are more 
 efficient. We hear a great deal of the scientific 
 criminal, but the scientific detective has more than 
 kept pace with him. 
 
 Hand in hand with the moral agencies which are 
 striving to make crime less attractive, or at least 
 to make honest labor more attractive, there are 
 constantly being developed new methods of pre- 
 venting crime and of making it more hazardous and 
 less profitable. Not only are means of protecting 
 life and property constantly being improved, but
 
 42 Prison Problems 
 
 there is no branch of science that cannot be brought 
 to bear and is not utilized on occasion in the solu- 
 tion of detective problems that would have been 
 unsolvable mysteries a few years ago. 
 
 A single hair may send a man to the gallows. 
 A single drop of blood in the hands of an analytical 
 chemist may spell life imprisonment for a criminal. 
 There is no poison the traces of which cannot be 
 detected, while the microscope has made success- 
 ful forgery almost impossible. The applicaton of 
 the mathematical law of chance has proved it pos- 
 sible even to identify the particular machine on 
 which any certain typewritten document was pro- 
 duced. The science of numbers has also been ap- 
 plied to the identification and recovery of stolen 
 property, making it increasingly difficult for the 
 thief to dispose of his booty. 
 
 Railroads, steamships, the telegraph, the tele- 
 phone, the wireless and now the aeroplane have 
 combined to make the world smaller and reduce 
 the chances of the criminal's successful escape from 
 pursuit. Canada and Mexico are no longer popu- 
 lated by defaulting bank cashiers from the United 
 States, for international extradition treaties now 
 cover almost the entire habitable globe. 
 
 It was once a very simple matter for the clever 
 criminal to change his identity so completely that 
 even when his crime was positively known he could 
 remain immune from arrest under the very eyes of 
 the police. First photography, then the Bertillon 
 system of measurements, which has lately been sup- 
 plemented by a system of classifying individual 
 characteristics, and latest and best of all, the finger- 
 print method of identification, are all operating to
 
 Prison Problems 43 
 
 reduce the criminal's chance of escaping punish- 
 ment to the minimum. In my opinion the finger- 
 print method will prove to be the most useful, as 
 it is the most accurate means of detecting criminals. 
 Photography alone does not furnish positive means 
 of identification. 
 
 Some years ago Chas. Schumacher, one of our 
 operatives, was killed by two criminals of the type 
 known as "yeggs," at Union, Mo. There, by the 
 way, is the most dangerous class of criminals now 
 in existence the "yegg." I do not know the deriva- 
 tion of the name, but every criminal and every 
 pursuer of criminals knows it to mean a class of 
 tramps whose specialty is safe-blowing, operating 
 in small towns and villages, robbing post-offices, 
 rural banks and similar easily opened safes. It is 
 characteristic of the "yegg" as of no other type of 
 criminal, that he will shoot to kill at the first sus- 
 picion of discovery. Every "yegg" is a murderer, 
 actual or potential, as well as a burglar. 
 
 The two "yeggs" who killed Schumacher, Wil- 
 liam Rudolph and George Collins, were arrested at 
 Hartford, Conn., and taken to St. Louis, where 
 they were confined in the Four Courts prison and 
 their Bertillon measurements taken. They escaped 
 from jail, and in the search for them every "yegg"' 
 captured anywhere in the United States was held 
 until one of our men could look them over to see 
 if they were Rudolph and Collins. Two "yeggs" 
 were captured in Kansas whose description tallied 
 with that of the fugitives, but when the Bertillon 
 test was applied their measurements did not tally 
 with the record taken in St. Louis. Fortunately, 
 the local authorities were able to hold the men
 
 44 Prison Problems 
 
 until some one who knew Rudolph and Collins 
 could reach the spot and the identification was then 
 easily made by their finger-prints. 
 
 It is surprising that the finger-print method for 
 purposes of identification was not universally 
 adopted long ago. It has been in use among the 
 merchants of the interior of China for untold cen- 
 turies, the thumb-print affixed to a receipt or a 
 promise to pay being more binding than a signa- 
 ture, because of the impossibility of forgery. No 
 two persons have been found whose finger-prints 
 are alike, and it is the one distinguishing character- 
 istic of the individual that, barring accident or muti- 
 lation, does not change from the cradle to the grave. 
 
 In this country the finger-print record has been 
 adopted by the police departments of the principal 
 cities and in every state prison and penitentiary. 
 It has been adopted by the United States Army, 
 which now keeps a record of the finger-impressions 
 of every enlisted man as a means of identification 
 in case of death on the battlefield, as well as for the 
 detection in case of desertion. Not long ago I was 
 asked by the War Department whether it was 
 necessary to take a new set of finger-prints at each 
 re-enlistment. I replied that this was unnecessary 
 unless the subject had received injuries that left 
 scars on his fingers. 
 
 The finger-print method requires no special opera- 
 tors, like photography, nor expert accuracy, like the 
 Bertillon system. Any schoolboy can take finger- 
 prints as well as a trained expert could do it. There 
 is no difficulty in indexing and classifying finger- 
 prints for rapid reference and comparison. Of 
 course skillful criminals now wear gloves or take
 
 Prison Problems 45 
 
 other precautions to avoid leaving traces behind 
 them, but once a man's finger-prints have been 
 recorded there is no way in which he can success- 
 fully conceal his identity. If the system is extended, 
 as it doubtless will be, until the finger-impressions 
 of substantially all the world are on record, many 
 classes of crimes will disappear from the calendar. 
 
 The finger-print alone, of course, will never detect 
 criminals. One cannot walk along the street study- 
 ing the finger-print of everyone whom he meets, 
 and there will always be work for the skillful de- 
 tective so long as crime continues and criminals 
 flourish. But the record will eventually make it 
 impossible for the criminal to hide, and consequent- 
 ly furnish another incentive to reform, while science 
 is making it more difficult for him to conceal the 
 evidences of his crime, modern protective measures 
 are making crime more difficult, youthful offenders 
 are kept from becoming criminals and those who 
 have erred are being aided, through diverse agencies, 
 to re-establish themselves as honest citizens. 
 
 I do not expect mankind to reach that state of 
 perfection in the near future. I do contend, how- 
 ever, that because of the causes I have outlined, 
 crime is decreasing, criminals are becoming fewer 
 and the number of those who really reform is con- 
 stantly increasing. After fifty years of experience in 
 the detection of crime and the pursuit of criminals 
 I am still an optimist.
 
 46 Prison Problems 
 
 THE MAN IN THE CAGE. 
 
 By Julian Leavitt. 
 
 Republished from The American Magazine. 
 
 When I first began my investigations into prison 
 life and labor I believed, as most of the readers of 
 this article probably believe, that the grosser cruel- 
 ties of the cage were a thing of the past. I was 
 familiar with the prison history of the last century, 
 when the lease and contract systems held sway 
 everywhere. In those days scarcely a year passed 
 without its sickening scandal. Men, women, chil- 
 dren, were systematically beaten, starved, and tor- 
 tured in the mad drive for prison profits. There 
 was no evil too wicked to be inflicted upon these 
 creatures who had fallen under the heel of society. 
 It was monstrous. Such things, I felt, could not 
 possibly exist today. And in this belief I was con- 
 firmed by all the students of penology to whom I 
 talked. 
 
 Genial wardens assured me that the reign of 
 brutalitarianism was over. Kindly penologists as- 
 sured me that the reign of humanitarianism was 
 already ushered in. Some even believed that the 
 pendulum had swung too far in that direction. 
 
 "We are coddling our criminals too much," a 
 judge told me; "no good can come of it!" 
 
 And external evidence seemed to lend color to 
 this protest. Clean cells, books, games, bands, even 
 prison newspapers and moving picture shows, all 
 seemed to indicate that revolution in prison meth- 
 ods was in full swing.
 
 Prison Problems 47 
 
 And yet the moment I began to probe below these 
 pleasant surface phenomena I discovered that pris- 
 ons were still prisons. In nearly half the States of 
 the Union today the basic industrial conditions in 
 the prison world are virtually the same as they 
 were fifty and a hundred years ago. Everywhere, 
 from Maine to Texas, we still sell prisoners to 
 outside interests for the profit they may take out 
 of prison. That is, men without rights are put com- 
 pletely into the power of men without feelings. 
 
 Let me tell briefly what the good people of Kan- 
 sas and Michigan discovered, almost inadvertently, 
 only a year or two ago. I must state plainly, at 
 the outset, that these two instances are selected for 
 description, not because they are exceptional in any 
 degree, but because they are typical and recent. 
 There are a dozen or more records of legislative in- 
 vestigations within the past decade which have 
 revealed worse conditions than are described below. 
 
 The first case is that of the Branch Penitentiary 
 of Michigan, located at Marquette. It is often 
 known as the Upper Peninsula Prison. It is a 
 small prison, as prisons go, yet it was the storm 
 center of the legislative session of 1911 and filled 
 thousands of newspaper columns with its story of 
 manifold horror. 
 
 Its population numbers about 300, of whom some 
 240 are employed by two contractors, one a box- 
 making concern with 74 men (its contract expired 
 July 31, 1911, and was not renewed), and the other 
 the firm of G. G. Shauer & Bro., overall manufac- 
 turers, of Chicago. As usual, the contracts are sold 
 for a song, the State giving factory buildings rent 
 free and tax free, heat, light, power, superintendence
 
 48 Prison Problems 
 
 and even drayage free and the labor of the men for 
 45 cents a day. 
 
 The warden, as usual, is a powerful politician. 
 He is also a friend of the Governor and owner of 
 a controlling interest in an influential newspaper. 
 
 For many years past rumors had been circulating 
 among the people of Michigan concerning Warden 
 Russell's institution ; yet he was powerful enough 
 to ward off any public investigation until 1909, when 
 the State Legislature appointed a special commit- 
 tee to probe and report, This committee made a 
 hurried visit to the prison, but found the convicts 
 unwilling to testify for fear of punishment a fear 
 amply justified, as later events proved; for one of 
 the few inmates who had been rash enough to 
 talk, a boy by the name of Johnson, was found by 
 the committee, in the course of a return visit, laid 
 up in the hospital as a result of the vindictive pun- 
 ishments which had been inflicted upon him by 
 the prison officers. Under these circumstances the 
 members of the committee, feeling that the truth 
 was not to be had, returned to Lansing and pre- 
 sented a fragmentary report which, everyone felt, 
 could not possibly end the matter. 
 
 Two years later a new committee was appointed, 
 with the fullest legislative authority. This time 
 the committee stayed a week, took two thousand 
 pages of testimony, and returned to the capital with 
 a report which stirred the State of Michigan to its 
 depths. "The debate on these findings," says the 
 Lansing Journal, "furnished one of the most sensa- 
 tional sessions ever held by the Michigan House 
 of Representatives. The galleries were crowded, as 
 well as the side lines when the House convened
 
 Prison Problems 41> 
 
 at 7 :30 o'clock, and the sympathies of the spectators 
 throughout the long argument, which lasted until 
 nearly one o'clock, were with the convicts ; and 
 gradually the House was wrought to a pitch of in- 
 tense feeling which threatened even more exciting 
 scenes." 
 
 Unfortunately it was impossible to keep politics 
 out of this affair, and the committee records, as 
 well as the legislative debates and the press discus- 
 sions, were largely tinged with partisan feeling. 
 The committee of five did, however, agree on all the 
 essential facts, splitting only on the recommenda- 
 tion affecting the warden a minority of two recom- 
 mending his dismissal and a majority of three favor- 
 ing his retention, but not without a curtailment of 
 his disciplinary powers. The House adopted the 
 adverse report, and called upon the Governor to 
 dismiss Warden Russell, but he ignored the resolu- 
 tion and the administration of the prison is, there- 
 fore, unchanged to this day. 
 
 In reporting the findings of the committee I shall 
 aim to present only the evidence which is indorsed 
 unanimously; otherwise the source will be expressly 
 indicated; and I shall use, as far as possible, the 
 language of the official report as published in the 
 House journal. 
 
 In its externals, the Marquette prison, like most 
 of our modern institutions, was found to be clean, 
 and even inviting. The corridors were spotless, 
 the cells light and even airy, and the food good and 
 plentiful. But in the prison factory, where the men 
 spend more than half of their waking hours, and 
 where visitors rarely penetrate, ruled a system of 
 exploitation that was perfect and complete. The
 
 50 Prison Problems 
 
 foreman of the overall factory which employed the 
 greater number of the inmates was William Rus- 
 sell, brother of the warden. He, it seems, was the 
 real power in the prison, and he was dominated by 
 the single ambition that dominates all foremen 
 maximum output. 
 
 It was found, says the majority report, that more 
 than three-quarters of the punishment reports orig- 
 inated in the overall shop, were signed by William 
 Russell, and the offense charged in the majority of 
 cases, "Not doing task," and in many more cases the 
 offense was something that grew out of this same 
 cause, "Not doing task." These tasks, adds the 
 minority report, were beyond all reason. 
 
 The punishments were varied and frequent, but 
 the most common was by the paddle, a scientific 
 instrument, carefully designed, it seems, to inflict a 
 maximum of suffering without infringing upon the 
 humane law of the State, which is very explicit 
 upon this point. It reads: 
 
 "The warden or deputy warden may punish the 
 convict for misconduct in such manner and under 
 such regulations as shall be adopted by the board ; 
 Provided, that punishment by showering with cold 
 water or whipping with the lash on the bare body 
 shall in no case be allowed." 
 
 Now the paddle is not a lash. It is merely a 
 piece of heavy sole leather shaped like a tennis rack- 
 et and fastened, with copper rivets, to a wooden 
 handle. It weighs about two pounds. The auxiliary 
 apparatus consists of a ladder, a barrel, chains, 
 handcuffs and ropes. The ladder is about nine feet 
 long and has a set of brackets in which the barrel 
 is held firmly, lengthwise. The barrel is small,
 
 Prison Problems 51 
 
 perhaps the size of a "half" beer barrel. The pris- 
 oner, stripped, is laid upon the barrel, his feet 
 roped to rungs at one end of the ladder and his 
 hands bound with steel cuffs which are chained to 
 the other end of the ladder. Two men then unite 
 their strength to stretch these ropes and chains taut, 
 in order to prevent the prisoner's body from moving 
 or giving at any point, thereby weakening the force 
 of the blows. In short, the man's body is by this 
 means so placed, anatomically, that every blow of 
 the executioner will yield its maximum result in 
 human suffering. 
 
 The formal preparations completed, the experi- 
 ment in reformation is ready to begin. The prison- 
 er's head is covered by a sheet, so that he may not 
 see his tormentors. Another sheet is placed upon 
 his back, so that the provision of the humane law 
 against punishment on the bare body shall not be 
 infringed. The warden is called in to superintend; 
 and the blows are laid on. Some men can stand 
 as many as sixty or seventy blows, it was reported ; 
 others collapse at the fifth or sixth ; most of them 
 faint at the tenth or twelfth blow and mercifully 
 remain unconscious. 
 
 This revolting list might easily be extended to 
 fill several pages. The volume of two thousand 
 pages of testimony is simply a volume of medieval 
 horrors. Nor are these tortures accidental or oc- 
 casional. They are the very basis of prison policy, 
 as we shall see, wherever the dominant force is 
 the contractor and his demand for maximum profits. 
 
 One would like to believe for example, that the 
 paddle is merely an accident of prison life; that it 
 was an instrument which was seized upon in a
 
 52 Prison Problems 
 
 moment of passion, and is clung to because it was 
 found convenient. Unfortunately, the evidence is 
 all against such a belief; rather does it point to 
 the paddle as a very cold-blooded invention of a 
 mind eager to inflict torture, but afraid to infringe 
 upon the law. It has too many refinements to be 
 an accident. One of these is peculiarly diabolical in 
 its intent. The piece of sole leather is perforated by 
 many small holes, perhaps an inch or two apart. 
 These serve a double purpose ; they suck up the air 
 which would otherwise cushion the force of the 
 blow somewhat, and they suck up the victim's 
 flesh as the leather comes in contact with it. Then, 
 says the report, when the paddle is pulled off very 
 slowly and carefully, each perforation, as it releases 
 the flesh which has adhered to it, sends its own 
 message of pain to the man on the rack, thus in- 
 tensifying the agony a hundredfold! 
 
 No, the paddle is really a social function of the 
 prison ; and a delicate touch is added to the cere- 
 mony by covering the victim's body with a sheet 
 soaked in salt water. An ordinary sheet would 
 have sufficed to evade the law ; but the sting of 
 the salt water, as it penetrates the lacerated flesh, 
 adds an exquisite touch of pain. Yet, curious to 
 see, one of the chief functionaries at the ceremony, 
 the prison physician himself, did not understand 
 the symbolism of the brine. Here is a bit of his 
 testimony: 
 
 "What do they wet the paddle in?" he was asked. 
 
 "Salt solution." 
 
 "Why in salt solution?" 
 
 "I do not know. From a medical standpoint it 
 might be that there would be less pain with a salt 
 solution than with plain water."
 
 Prison Problems 53 
 
 "Isn't it true that paddling is done to inflict pain? 
 Then why should they wish to ameliorate it by us- 
 ing salt water?" 
 
 "I don't kno\v. It has been the custom, and I 
 have never changed it. I cannot say why it should 
 not be used. I cannot say why it should be dis- 
 continued. Only in figuring from a medical stand- 
 point, I cannot see that salt water is detrimental 
 or harmful in the least." 
 
 The strait-jacket, once a favorite in most prisons, 
 but now rarely used, was also found at Marquette. 
 It is an instrument well beloved by the more brutal 
 keepers, I am told, for this atrocious reason: The 
 internal organs of the body, as every student of 
 anatomy knows, are packed as skillfully as only 
 Nature, with its millions of years of experience, can 
 pack them. But if the body be encased in a strait- 
 jacket and the straps jerked to the last notch, the 
 delicate internal organs may be permanently dis- 
 placed without leaving any external evidence. 
 
 A milder form of punishment or perhaps, I 
 should say, a less spectacular form of it, is the 
 "cuffing up" of men by their wrists with handcuffs 
 and chains to a staple in the wall or to the upper 
 bars of a cell gate in the "bull pen," a special pun- 
 ishment room. This was frequently used in Mar- 
 quette. 
 
 "It must be remembered," says the minority re- 
 port, already quoted, "that the hands of every con- 
 vict are drawn up to the same height. Such a posi- 
 tion allows some men a chance to rest their arms 
 somewhat on the cross bars, but it compels others 
 to raise their hands above their heads and subjects 
 them to most extreme torture. Men have been
 
 54 Prison Problems 
 
 chained continuously in this position for a period 
 of fifteen days, only getting relief at night when 
 allowed to lie on their cots. The handcuffs are 
 never removed. One can probably form some idea 
 of what it must mean to wait on oneself in such a 
 condition." 
 
 Parenthetically, I may remark that this is per- 
 haps the most common form of punishment in our 
 prisons today, especially in contract prisons. I 
 have never visited one of these without finding the 
 bull pen occupied. The filth and degradation of it are 
 indescribable. I can only suggest them by quoting 
 the words which the inmates of one such institution 
 bestowed upon a former warden of blessed memory, 
 in contrast to the harshness of his successor, "Now 
 there was a humane man !" they told me. "When 
 he cuffed a man up he would let one hand free so 
 that we could at least care for ourselves!" 
 
 But to return to Marquette. Its bull pen was 
 never without victims. One elderly man named 
 Myers, of excellent conduct, a leader of the band, 
 an eminent citizen in general, was strung up six 
 days for failure to perform task. George H. Hamil- 
 ton, strung up for seventeen hours consecutively, 
 lost the use of his left hand permanently. Earl A. 
 Thompson, a bookkeeper before he went wrong, 
 was unskilled as a machine operator. He could 
 only finish thirty-six dozens of the forty which his 
 task called for. He was strung up for two days. 
 
 They were punished for all manner of trivial of- 
 fenses. One man was punished for using black 
 thread instead of white, another for attempting to 
 send a letter out of prison against the rules, another 
 for breaking needles (a frequent and unavoidable
 
 Prison Problems 55 
 
 accident in overall manufacturing, as the hard cloth 
 offers an irregular resistance to the delicate, swiftly- 
 flying needles of the machine). But by far the 
 greatest number of punishments estimated by the 
 investigating committee at three-fourths was for 
 failure to perform the tasks assigned. What these 
 tasks were I have not been able to ascertain ; it 
 seems that there was no regular schedule, the fore- 
 man (who, you will remember, was the warden's 
 own brother) speeding the men individually to their 
 limit and punishing them for not exceeding it. 
 The legislative committee of 1909 reported that 
 "Conditions in the shops indicated that the men 
 were worked to the physical limit, far beyond that 
 expected in a free shop. It seemed as though every 
 man was exerting every atom of energy in his make- 
 up to perform the tasks assigned him." This is 
 emphasized even more strongly in the report of 
 the committee of 1911, both the majority and the 
 minority reports concurring, as a result, in the de- 
 mand that all contracts at the institution can be 
 cancelled immediately. But it was soon discovered 
 that one of the peculiar features of the contract was 
 that although the contractor could cancel the bar- 
 gain upon six months' notice to the State, the State 
 was tied for the full period of five years. The con- 
 tract, therefore, is still in force until 1913. 
 
 It would be unfair to close this chapter of the 
 story without giving the warden's side of the case. 
 His defense, briefly, resolved itself into this: (1) 
 Since the death penalty is not inflicted in Michigan, 
 its prisons house many degenerates who elsewhere 
 would have been put out of the way altogether; 
 (2) the men singled out for punishment were, as a
 
 56 Prison Problems 
 
 rule, among the most bestial of these ; creatures who 
 had committed nameless crimes while in freedom 
 and who were vicious and unruly in captivity; there- 
 fore (3) they deserved all they got; and (4) any- 
 way, he could not run the prison without corporal 
 punishment. 
 
 The last item in the defense was demolished, cur- 
 iously enough, by the warden's own friends in the in- 
 vestigating committee, who, although they fought 
 stoutly and successfully for his retention, neverthe- 
 less recommended that the power to inflict corporal 
 punishment be removed from his hands and vested 
 in the board of control; and, moreover, that in no 
 case should the paddle be used without the presence 
 of the prison physician, the chaplain, and one mem- 
 ber of the board of control. This last recommenda- 
 tion was an obviously impossible one, as the mem- 
 bers of the board would have to make a special 
 trip for every such function. The committee knew 
 this well; the recommendation as a whole may, 
 therefore, be regarded simply as a measure to "save 
 face." And since the use of the paddle has been 
 abandoned the necessity for its use seems to have 
 disappeared also. "Not a single convict has had to 
 be reported," admitted the warden lately, "and dis- 
 cipline has been of the very best." It seems, then, 
 that when need drives even a warden must; if cor- 
 poral punishment is flatly forbidden a prison may 
 be run without it, after all. 
 
 With the warden's own admission on record all 
 the other items of the defense break down complete- 
 ly; and yet it may be well to say a word upon them. 
 It is true that Warden Russell's prison houses an 
 unusually large percentage of murderers and life
 
 Prison Problems 57 
 
 men. But the "lifer," as every prison man knows, 
 is generally the best-behaved man in the community. 
 He may have committed his one great crime in a 
 moment of passion and may be, at bottom, far less 
 dangerous than the man who commits many small 
 crimes deliberately. At any rate, once he is put 
 away he adapts himself to his environment as sen- 
 sibly as most men do in freedom. He knows that 
 there is small hope of pardon so he "gets in right." 
 He becomes conservative, acquires a stake in the 
 prison world in the form of a superior cell, perhaps, 
 or some other trifling perquisite, and enlists per- 
 manently on the side of law and order. If then, 
 Warden Russell found his prisoners unruly, the 
 reason lay elsewhere than with his life men. 
 
 I have set down the facts relating to Marquette 
 prison plainly and without that comment which 
 its obvious lesson makes superfluous. I shall mere- 
 ly emphasize the fact that this prison is no worse 
 than a hundred others that might be named. It is 
 not an exception. It is a type. I have described 
 it at some length only because it happens to have 
 furnished the latest of our perennial prison scan- 
 dals. Within the last five or ten years there have 
 been a dozen similar revelations in other States 
 in Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Georgia, Texas, Kan- 
 sas. All of these were as bad as Michigan, Kansas 
 was even worse. The story of its clean-up at the 
 hands of Kate Barnard, of Oklahoma, is interesting. 
 
 When the young territory of Oklahoma was first 
 confronted with the crime problem it had no prisons 
 and no money to invest in these luxuries. It solved 
 this problem, however, by boarding out its convicts 
 to its neighbor, Kansas, which owned a castle of a
 
 58 Prison Problems 
 
 prison at Lansing that housed comfortably nearly 
 a thousand inmates and had room for more. Okla- 
 homa paid forty cents a day for the food and board 
 of its convicts and permitted Kansas to make what- 
 ever additional profit it might by working the men 
 in its own coal mine or in the contract shops. At 
 the time, this arrangement seemed reasonably fair 
 to both States. But it was not long before both of 
 these communities were to learn how dangerous 
 it is to play the game of convict exploitation. 
 
 Oklahoma became a State in 1907. By that time, 
 some of its people had begun to suspect that all 
 was not well with the Oklahoma prisoners in the 
 Kansas Penitentiary. Discharged convicts drifted 
 back to their homes with terrible stories of mal- 
 treatment. But the people as a whole were too 
 busy to listen; and even had they stopped to heed 
 there were no means of confirming the convicts' 
 stories. 
 
 But one day in the summer of 1909 there appeared 
 on the streets of Lansing a little, dark-haired woman 
 who was destined to make a stir in the two States 
 before she had finished her work. She found her 
 way to the prison, paid her admission fee, and 
 joined the visitors' line in the old castle. The well- 
 trained guide conducted the party through the 
 show-places which every prison care-stages for the 
 curious visitor the spotless kitchen, the library, 
 the short corridor upon which face the comfortable 
 cells of the favored inmates, and perhaps the Ber- 
 tillon room. When the trip was over, the little 
 woman retraced her steps to the warden's office. 
 To the trusty at the door she presented her card. 
 It read :
 
 Prison Problems 59 
 
 KATE BARNARD 
 
 Commissioner of Charities and Corrections 
 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. 
 
 Never did so small a woman and so simple a 
 card create such consternation. The warden met 
 her with scant civility. 
 
 "What is it that you want?" he asked her. 
 
 "I should like to go through this prison," she 
 answered, "in order to see how the Oklahoma pris- 
 oners are being treated." 
 
 "Well, I shall have to consult the board of control 
 about that." 
 
 The board happened to be in session at that mo- 
 ment. The members were furious. 
 
 "Who commissioned you to come here and spy 
 upon us?" one of them cried out. 
 
 "A million and a half citizens of Oklahoma," she 
 answered, with all the dignity that a small person 
 can sometimes muster. 
 
 "You may either show me through or show me 
 out, as you please." 
 
 The men blustered, but she stood her ground, 
 knowing that she had the advantage and that they 
 knew that she knew it. Finally they gave way 
 and permitted her to proceed with her investiga- 
 tions, putting only such obstacles in her way as 
 -eemed to suggest themselves at the moment. 
 
 The story of her adventures and of all that fol- 
 owed forms an interesting chapter in the prison 
 history of the United States. It is told in full in 
 the First and Second Annual Reports of the State 
 Commissioner of Charities and Corrections of the 
 State of Oklahoma.
 
 60 Prison Problems 
 
 She crept and crawled, she says, through the inky 
 depths of the State coal mine where many of the 
 Oklahoma men were employed. There were pas- 
 sages so narrow that if the earth were to sag ever 
 so little a large man could never get out alive 
 and often the supports were bent under the weight 
 of the earth above. The rumor of her visit went 
 through the silent prison like wildfire. Every Okla- 
 homa man felt that the hour of his salvation had 
 come; yet no one dared to approach her openly to 
 give her the information that all knew she was 
 seeking. But occasionally, in the protecting dark- 
 ness, some boy would rush past her and whisper: 
 "Look for the water-hole, girl" or "For God's sake, 
 don't go away without seeing the crib and the 
 dungeon !" 
 
 She stayed only a short while, but the sight and 
 sound of what she saw that summer day drove the 
 two States to appoint a joint committee to investi- 
 gate. The first session was amicable enough, but 
 friction soon developed, as might have been ex- 
 pected, and the joint investigation was brought to 
 an abrupt close when Miss Barnard challenged 
 the committees to investigate the financial manage- 
 ment of the prison as well as its physical defects, 
 which were all too obvious. The Kansas Committee, 
 so far as I am informed, never reported in full ; but 
 a brief abstract in' the Fourth Annual Report of the 
 Board of Health seems to confirm all the charges 
 that Miss Barnard made, so that I feel justified in 
 quoting freely from her own full report, which also 
 contains a stenographic report of the hearings held 
 by the joint committee. 
 
 The task in the coal mine, it seems, was eighteen
 
 Prison Problems 61 
 
 cars a week which, according to report, is reason- 
 able enough for a skilled miner, but impossible for 
 a beginner. The learners were, therefore, put with 
 the older men. Thus they were confronted by two 
 alternatives; either to put themselves completely 
 at the service of these older men, or to try the task, 
 as best they could, alone ; and since the second 
 alternative meant failure and inevitable punish- 
 ment, most learners were willing to serve the older 
 men. The fate of a boy who was thus made the 
 slave of a slave in a dark hole in a mine need not 
 be dwelt upon. Miss Barnard's report contains 
 some of the most sickening testimony ever printed 
 in the English language. 
 
 The punishments at Lansing were even more 
 murderously cruel and deliberate than those at Mar- 
 quette. One instrument was the "crib" or "alka- 
 zan," a heavy coffin in which the victim was placed, 
 face down, his hands and feet tied securely and 
 drawn up behind his back until they met, the lid 
 screwed down and the man allowed to lie for hours 
 tied in this knot! Or he was placed in an upright 
 position, tied immovably, his mouth plugged open 
 by a wedge between the teeth, his face and mouth 
 smeared with molasses, and the windows opened to 
 admit the flies and insects. Another punishment 
 was the familiar "water-cure," whereby the victim 
 is given all the torments of drowning by having a 
 powerful stream of water forced into his mouth, 
 ears and nostrils. And the more conventional pun- 
 ishments flogging, the dungeon, etc. were in con- 
 stant use. Here are a few cases from Miss Bar- 
 nard's record :
 
 62 Prison Problems 
 
 Bert Lewis, cribbed two days in 1907 for letting 
 fire die down in kiln. 
 
 Ellis Dillon, failing to get out his three tons of 
 coal daily, was cribbed four days one week, four 
 days the next week and six days the third week. 
 Released Thursday, died Monday. 
 
 Joseph Bruner, cribbed eight days in 1908. 
 
 Martin Bates, water cure, crib alkazan, 1907-8. 
 
 Clarence H. Green, 21 days dungeon, 1907 or 1908. 
 
 Ed. Carpenter, water cure and seven days dun- 
 geon, 1907. 
 
 Miss Barnard presented dozens of cases similar 
 to these and was ready to present fifty others. And 
 the testimony of all tended to show pretty convinc- 
 ingly that the Kansas Penitentiary was an elaborate 
 apparatus of torture; that the guards murdered the 
 inmates and the inmates murdered each other; that 
 the food was uneatable, the water undrinkable and 
 the life unlivable in short, that the State of Kan- 
 sas was spending something like a half million dol- 
 lars a year in the manufacture of monsters. 
 
 The prison administration made no defense 
 worthy of the name. "They burned the cribs before 
 the investigation," writes Miss Barnard. "I am in- 
 formed that they had intended to keep them and 
 undertake to demonstrate how harmless they were, 
 but, finding many blood stains on the woodwork, 
 they ordered the convicts to scrape and boil them 
 off, but the cribs had been used so much that they 
 were pretty thoroughly saturated, so that the stains 
 could not be removed." 
 
 There could be no defense. But the administra- 
 tion was powerful enough to fight without one, at 
 least for a time. The warden, as usual, was a pow-
 
 Prison Problems 63 
 
 erful politician. At the time of the investigation 
 he was State Senator ; and on the stand he testified 
 that he had been member of the school board, mayor 
 of his town, and tersely "all that sort of thing." 
 He was a personal friend of Governor Hoch. The 
 firm which held the principal contract in his institu- 
 tion, the Union Overall Company, also had power- 
 ful affiliations. Its vice-president was the Honor- 
 able D. R. Anthony, Jr., now representing the First 
 District in Congress. 
 
 Having no decent defense, the powers resorted 
 to an indecent one. "Tales were circulated," says 
 Miss Barnard, "that my motive for making the 
 charges against the Kansas Prison was 'that my 
 husband had been a convict !' When it was pointed 
 out that I am a single woman the tale was changed 
 to make me an ex-convict. When our committee 
 resented these preposterous stories they told that 
 the Assistant Commissioner had been a prisoner in 
 Lansing Prison. The five witnesses brought from 
 Oklahoma were designated as "Kate Barnard's 
 Band of Murderers." A Kansas City reporter 
 chided me with bringing such men as wit- 
 nesses. I retorted by asking him who but convicts 
 or ex-convicts could testify truly as to what took 
 place within prison walls. He confessed that no 
 others could, but ended by saying that he would 
 not believe such men under oath. This was an ad- 
 mission that he would allow horrors to exist in a 
 prison because of lack of proper witnesses. The 
 sentiment was a serious handicap, but you will ob- 
 serve by reading the evidence that not one bit of 
 the ex-convicts' testimony was disproved." 
 
 The evidence was strong enough to cause drastic
 
 64 Prison Problems 
 
 action to be taken by both States. The Oklahoma 
 prisoners were removed in the dead of winter and 
 set to building a prison for themselves in their own 
 State. Kansas, left to grope with its problem, threw 
 out the entire prison staff, cancelled the contracts 
 which had been the source of the punishments, and 
 cleaned and humanized the institution in many 
 ways. Mr. Codding, the new warden, is a big man 
 and impressed me, in the course of a brief talk, as 
 a strong man. With the aid of Governor Stubbs, 
 who has thrown himself heart and soul into the 
 problem, he has already accomplished great results. 
 
 The scandal which Miss Barnard raised has end- 
 ed well for two States. But its lessons may well 
 serve for the twenty-odd other States where con- 
 victs are still exploited for profit. 
 
 What has happened in the midst of two kindly 
 communities like Kansas and Michigan can happen, 
 and does happen, elsewhere. I cannot emphasize 
 too strongly the fact that these two cases that I 
 have described at some length are not exceptional. 
 It happened that, for a brief moment, their windows 
 were opened wide and we were allowed to see what 
 goes on in the name of the State. Other prisons, 
 no less guilty, have their windows firmly shut and 
 curtained. No outside investigator can possibly 
 get the legal evidence necessary to convict. Guards 
 will not talk; their bread and butter depends upon 
 silence. Prisoners cannot talk; for so long as they 
 remain in the cage they cannot reach the outside 
 world with their stories, for not a letter may leave 
 or enter the prison without inspection, and when 
 discharged they cannot talk for their liberty fre- 
 quently depends upon their silence. They are either
 
 Prison Problems 65 
 
 on parole or on probation ; or they are dependent 
 upon the charity of a prisoners' aid society which 
 is itself dependent upon the good will of the prison 
 administration. The warden need not talk for he 
 is all-powerful. He is the one public official who is 
 not accountable to the public in any effective de- 
 gree. He publishes annual reports; but no one 
 can check them or contradict them, for he holds 
 the keys to the prison. 
 
 To get legal evidence under such circumstances 
 is, I must repeat, well-nigh impossible; yet, I have 
 enough information to justify a dogmatic declara- 
 tion that wherever the contract system exists in any 
 of its forms either lease, piece-price or ordinary 
 contract there exist the same conditions that have 
 been exposed in Michigan and Kansas. I might 
 even say that, in judging contract prisons, it is 
 proper to reverse the usual laws of evidence and 
 to hold them guilty unless they can prove their 
 innocence ; and that the better the reputation of 
 such a prison is, the worse is its actual administra- 
 tion likely to be. 
 
 I have in mind, for example, one Eastern prison 
 where the contract system has operated undisturbed 
 for many years. The warden of the institution is 
 a leading penologist. He is a prominent member 
 of the American Prison Association. He has the 
 solid support of press, pulpit and public in his State. 
 Yet I venture to predict, on the basis of certain 
 evidence now in my possession, that if the Gov- 
 ernor of that State should appoint, tomorrow, a 
 committee consisting, let us say, of the deans of 
 the political science faculties of Harvard and Yale, 
 one or two perfectly upright prison officials of the
 
 66 Prison Problems 
 
 stamp of Superintendent Leonard of the Ohio Re- 
 formatory, and two or three well-known men of 
 the State; and if the Governor or the Legislature 
 should give this committee the power to examine 
 witnesses under oath, to audit the prison records, 
 and to make a thorough physical probe of the prison 
 I venture to predict that this committee would, 
 in the course of a week's investigation, uncover a 
 nest of horror which would make the community 
 gasp. 
 
 The reader who has followed the story to this 
 point has probably asked himself more than once : 
 "If this is a true picture of prison life, why do the 
 men endure it all? They are strong, desperate men; 
 why don't they revolt? Why don't they burn the 
 prison down? Why don't they kill their keepers 
 or themselves?" 
 
 The answer is simpler than one would imagine. 
 In the first place, the average convict, like the aver- 
 age human being, does not expect to share the gen- 
 eral fate. He knows that others are punished and 
 even tortured. Scarcely a day passes without a 
 whisper of it reaching him, in the voiceless lan- 
 guage which convicts employ. But he invents a 
 dozen reasons to explain to his own satisfaction 
 why they deserved what they got and why he 
 won't get it. And when his turn comes he is as- 
 tounded. 
 
 In the second place, most convicts are not des- 
 perate men. On the contrary, the average convict is 
 the most docile, spiritless creature in the wide world. 
 We must remember that of the great army of law- 
 breakers it is only the failures who land in prison ; 
 and this consciousness of failure crushes the con-
 
 Prison Problems 67 
 
 vict's spirit even more than does the iron routine 
 of the prison. 
 
 The tradition of the "bad man" which rules the 
 popular attitude toward the convict is both false 
 and foolish. It is fostered, largely, by two agencies, 
 neither of which is altogether disinterested. One 
 of these is the police ; the other is the daily press. 
 The police make their bread and butter by the pose 
 of social defense. It is true that many police and 
 prison officials are sincere in their simple convic- 
 tion that society, were it not for brass buttons, 
 would instantly revert to barbarism ; the majority, 
 however, understand their place fairly well and are 
 not above trading upon the fears of the timid citi- 
 zen deliberately, with an eye to increased appropria- 
 tions. The newspapers, on the other hand, foster 
 the "bad man" tradition indirectly, and perhaps in- 
 nocently. 
 
 It is only the more sensational crimes that have 
 sufficient news value to justify "scareheads" or 
 prominent mention otherwise. But the average 
 reader does not realize this. He is fed, daily, on 
 the exceptional in crime, and ends by accepting it 
 as the rule. Therefore he finally grows to associate 
 all criminals with sensational deeds of daring or 
 cruelty, forgetting that for every crime which is 
 striking enough to be "played up" on the front 
 page of his paper there are a thousand drab, stupid, 
 foolish, cowardly crimes which are too inane to get 
 an inch of space in the most obscure corner of the 
 sheet. Yet it is the perpetrators of these who are, 
 as a rule, the inmates of our prisons. 
 
 When a superior criminal does, by a fluke, land in 
 prison one of two things happens immediately.
 
 68 Prison Problems 
 
 Either he is broken by the routine and becomes 
 as spiritless as the rest or he worms himself into 
 the ring which rules the prison and himself becomes 
 a force for law and order. In either event he knows 
 that to attempt escape or mutiny is foolish ; for 
 success in either is, as a rule, followed by recapture 
 or defeat. 
 
 It is the common realization of this, rather than 
 the discipline of the prison, which makes concerted 
 mutiny impossible. 
 
 Concerted mutiny is doomed to failure; but indi- 
 vidual revolts are equally futile. Nevertheless, 
 there arise, occasionally, men of heroic frame who 
 resist to the end. These are probably recorded in 
 the physician's report as victims of heart disease or 
 fever. Some men will even mutilate themselves in 
 order to escape the daily task. This is mentioned 
 casually in many a prison report. In Missouri, for 
 example, where the contractors have full control, 
 the report of the State Bureau of Labor for 1909 re- 
 marks that "Some deliberately maimed themselves 
 by placing fingers under cutters or against fast-mov- 
 ing circular saws, to escape the daily task." But 
 these poor creatures miscalculated sadly. They were 
 simply turned over to a shoe-findings contractor for 
 twenty cents a day less than the standard price. 
 In some States the cripples and defectives are sold 
 for half price. Nowhere do they escape the task; 
 for the institution which is run by the contract 
 system cannot afford to trade fingers for freedom.
 
 Prison Problems 69 
 
 THE CONTRACT SYSTEM. 
 
 By Charles Edward Russell. 
 
 As a general rule, subject, of course, to some ex- 
 ceptions and modifications, where there is contract 
 labor there is corporal punishment; where there is 
 no contract labor there is no corporal punishment. 
 
 In these days, therefore, corporal punishment sur- 
 vives not for reasons of discipline, because disci- 
 pline is maintained easily enough without it, but 
 to extract from the prisoners the profits of specula- 
 tors in misfortune. And the men that are subjected 
 to the unspeakable degradation and pain of the lash 
 suffer not so much for their own misbehavior as 
 for the greed of those into whose hands the punish- 
 ment of our stumblers was never legally committed. 
 
 Long ago I suspected this to be the fact; now 1 
 am sure of it. Lest there be doubt of this detestable 
 fruit of a vicious system, I refer the incredulous 
 to the evidence that lies in the geographical distri- 
 bution of the evil. They will find that corporal 
 punishment and brutality are at the worst where 
 the contract system is most absolute (as in the 
 loathsome convict camps of Alabama) and lessen 
 as the contract system lessens, until all disappear 
 together in a modern reformatory like Fort Leaven- 
 worth. 
 
 The hearts of men are not naturally cruel ; cruelty 
 is the offspring of greed, and greed is born of the 
 social system that enables the strong to prey upon 
 the weak and one man to live upon another's toil.
 
 70 Prison Problems 
 
 PROFIT IN PRISON LABOR. 
 
 Leslie M. Shaw was four years Governor of Iowa. 
 He was for six years a member of the President's 
 cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury. He is at 
 present the influential president of the First Mort- 
 gage Guarantee and Trust Company of Philadel- 
 phia; also chairman of the board of directors of 
 the American Fibre Reed Company. With Mr. 
 Shaw, politics is politics and business is business. 
 
 We have received a copy of a recent prospectus 
 of the American Fibre Reed Company, enumerating 
 the advantages under which it operates, announcing 
 its plans for increased output, and offering $200,000 
 of its preferred stock at par to the public. 
 
 Mr. Shaw's prospectus is impressive. It says : 
 "The American Fibre Reed Company manufactures 
 fibre and reed furniture with prison labor. Its fac- 
 tories are located inside prison walls and it has, at 
 the present time, 800 prisoners under contract in 
 Maine, Illinois and Kentucky. Prison contracts are 
 usually made for eight years and generally con- 
 tinue indefinitely. This company pays for its labor 
 52 cents per man per day; its competitors who 
 employ free labor pay an average wage of about 
 $2.00 per day." 
 
 "There are no strikes or labor troubles in prisons. 
 This company is supplied free of rent with factory 
 buildings, storage warehouses and grounds inside 
 the prison walls, and with free heat, light'and power. 
 To acquire similar facilities as this company has 
 obtained free with its contracts would necessitate
 
 Prison Problems 71 
 
 an additional investment of approximately $1,000,- 
 000. Having to make no investment for factory 
 buildings, storage warehouses, heat, light or power, 
 the company's funds are kept actively engaged in 
 liquid assets such as raw materials, finished goods, 
 and accounts receivable. These are ideal conditions 
 for profitable manufacturing." 
 
 "Dividends of 7 per cent on the preferred and 
 10 per cent on the common stock are strongly as- 
 sured ; in fact, the company expects its net earnings 
 to be double these dividend requirements." 
 
 "The company's experience and organization 
 enables it to obtain these contracts and advantages 
 in preference to other manufacturers of fibre and 
 reed furniture who have not had prison experience." 
 
 "The demand for fibre and reed furniture, having 
 grown so rapidly, the company has decided to double 
 its output. This should give it control of about 65 
 per cent of the fibre and 50 per cent of the reed 
 business in the United States." 
 
 Meanwhile the movement against contract prison 
 labor is gaining headway. The states are beginning 
 to awaken to the evils and injustice of exploiting 
 prisoners for private profit. Twenty-one states 
 passed laws designed to protect imprisoned men 
 and women from being used as cheap labor to pile 
 up dividends for favored manufacturers. Not one 
 state legislated to give new powers of leasing or 
 contracting for the labor of prisoners, and one only, 
 Idaho, extended the field of its present leases. 
 
 What Mr. Shaw's company offers is undoubtedly 
 attractive to capital seeking high earnings and little 
 risk. It is what is known as a "cinch." But is it not 
 also an object lesson? Does it not emphasize the
 
 72 Prison Problems 
 
 public duty of protecting our prisoners from such 
 exploitation for the private enrichment of a few 
 manufacturers ; like those, for example, whose "ex- 
 perience and organization" enable them to get the 
 cheap prison labor and the free light, power, heat 
 and space, away from competitors with less of such 
 "prison experience?" Reprinted from La Follette's 
 Magazine. 
 
 PRISONERS SHARING PROFITS. 
 
 F. H. Tracy, Sheriff of Washington County, Vt. 
 
 "The work commenced under a prison labor law 
 passed by the legislature of this state in 1906, the 
 intent of the law being to work men under guards. 
 We tried this method for some months, but with 
 poor success, the men doing as little as possible 
 and with poor results. Finally, in the spring of 
 that year, I commenced the plan of giving the men 
 a part of their earnings. In other words, I gave 
 them all they earned above one dollar per day, and 
 the result has been wonderful. The men all have 
 to work as laborers, no matter what has been their 
 calling. We have had many a man support his 
 family from his earnings while serving time. The 
 men go to their day's work like any ordinary 
 laborer, sometimes five or six together, and some- 
 times alone, working cheerfully and saving their 
 wages and contented. Surely the time is fully ripe 
 when every state should give those confined a part 
 of their earnings. This means better work and re- 
 lieves many innocent people of the disgrace of 
 charity."
 
 Prison Problems 73 
 
 GOOD ROADS BUILT WITH PRISON 
 LABOR. 
 
 By Warden T. J. Tynan. 
 
 In four years we have built about 1,000 miles of 
 roads in Colorado with labor worth $2.00 a day, 
 but which cost only 28 cents. We now have 300 of 
 our 800 convicts engaged in that work without 
 armed guards, and many miles away from the prison 
 walls. One-hundred more are employed under the 
 same conditions on the 1,500 acre farm of the prison. 
 In other words, 50 per cent of our prisoners are 
 working outside the walls. This system has spread 
 in the last four years until it is now used with suc- 
 cess in Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming and 
 Nevada. 
 
 We build approximately $250,000 worth of roads 
 yearly. Prisoners are sent out to do the work. 
 They form a camp and are supervised in their work 
 by a skilled road man. For every thirty days of 
 good deportment the prisoner receives ten days of 
 "good time." One prisoner out of every 200 escapes. 
 Before they are sent out they give their word of 
 honor they will not attempt to escape and will pre- 
 vent others from trying. They get relatives and 
 friends to make like promises on their behalf, so 
 that when a man does escape he throws down his 
 best friends. 
 
 The public is against the contract system. The 
 labor unions have indorsed the use of convicts on 
 the roads. They build excellent roads, too.
 
 74 Prison Problems 
 
 The old system of prison management is funda- 
 mentally wrong from both the viewpoint of the 
 state and prisoner. Flogging is worse than futile. 
 It only tends to brutalize the victim and serves no 
 useful purpose. I have used it only twice in five 
 years. The contract labor system is the worst cufsc 
 of prisons. It is a farce. Two favorite industries 
 for the contract system are the making of brooms 
 and shirts. In making brooms the contractor is 
 often robbing the blind, for many of them earn their 
 living by making brooms. The contract system 
 teaches no trade to the prisoner, the state is cheated, 
 and the system is morally bad. It benefits only the 
 contractor. 
 
 "All nations seem to have had supreme confidence 
 in the deterrent power of threatened and inflicted 
 pain. They have regarded punishment as the shorc- 
 est road to reformation. Curiously enougn, the fact 
 is that no matter how severe the punishments were, 
 they did not cure crime. In our country there has 
 been, for many years, a growing feeling that con- 
 victs should neither be degraded nor tortured. It 
 is my belief that all the tortures inflicted in the 
 modern penitentaries have been caused through 
 physical fear, and when the average warden over- 
 comes that natural fear of the man who is impris- 
 oned, he will find that kindness and firmness will 
 go further toward reformation than the club or 
 whipping post. The convict who is doing right 
 should be encouraged. Every right should be given 
 him, consistent with the safety of society. He 
 should not be degraded or robbed. We have found 
 that by working a certain number of our convicts 
 on the public highways we have produced splendid
 
 Prison Problems 75 
 
 results, not only from a monetary standpoint, but 
 in the way of reforming the men themselves. Sinco 
 December 1, 1910, we have built over 1,000 miles of 
 good roads. I hope the sentiment of the state will 
 commend us to such a degree that we will be able 
 to keep our convicts on the highways, instead of 
 keeping them inside, because we know from actual 
 tests and experience gathered from other states that 
 ours is the most reformatory way of running a 
 prison ever conducted in the country." 
 
 BUT DOES IT PAY? 
 
 The man who gave his son a nickel to go to bed 
 without his supper then charged him five cents for 
 his breakfast had nothing on these prison officials: 
 
 Some few prisons pay a small stipend to those 
 prisoners who are actively engaged in doing the 
 work that serves to make the institution self-sup- 
 porting. From this amount the State deducts the 
 cost of keeping the prisoner. One great State in 
 the East pays its prisoners the munificent wages 
 of one and one-half cents for each working day, 
 irrespective of what their work may be, but even 
 in this case earnings were forfeited for each in- 
 fraction of the rules. Editor-in-Chief of Good 
 Words published in the United States penitentiary 
 at Atlanta, Ga.
 
 76 Prison Problems 
 
 A NEW PURPOSE. 
 
 By Warden J. C. Saunders. 
 
 "Thou shalt not kill" ought to be as binding on 
 the state as it is on the individual. Why should 
 the state set the example of killing a man, that he 
 may pay the penalty of a crime; kill another man 
 for slaying his comrade? We seem to forget that 
 any punishment is reserved for the Almighty to 
 administer. There are those who maintain that the 
 murderer should be killed as you would kill a snake 
 that bites you. I believe it is a mistake to send a 
 man to the penitentiary for life on circumstantial 
 evidence. What is the logic in killing a man who 
 never stands alone in this world, unless you punish 
 his accomplice and furthermore preclude the bad 
 social conditions and defective institutions that tend 
 to make him what he is? Every instance of a man's 
 suffering the penalty of the law is an instance of 
 the failure of that penalty in effecting its purpose, 
 which is to deter. To break away from custom 
 is always painful, no matter how barbarous the 
 custom, which is seen more in what we bear than 
 in what we enjoy; and yet a pain long borne so 
 fits itself to our shoulders that we do not even miss 
 that without disquietude. 
 
 Nature never made an unkind creature ; illusions 
 and bad habits have deformed a fair and lovely crea- 
 tion. Outlawed criminals often bear more hu- 
 manity in their hearts than these cold blameless 
 citizens of virtue in whose white hearts the power
 
 Prison Problems 77 
 
 of evil is quenched, and also the power of good. If a 
 man steals a ride on a railroad he is called a "hobo"; 
 if he steals the whole railroad, his name is emblaz- 
 oned in history as a financier. An outsider was 
 passing by the prison the other day when the men 
 in the yards were indulging in a game of baseball. 
 He remarked to the guard on the wall : "This is a 
 hell of a penitentiary." That man had just sold 
 fifty cords of wood that were three inches short of 
 being four feet long. Verily, I was led to exclaim 
 that the chief difference between the outsider and 
 the group on the inside was simply the stone wall. 
 To close a man's ears to the refining influence of 
 music is nothing short of criminal. 
 
 Men must be inspired with the idea that they 
 are men, entitled as men to the fullest of every 
 privilege which they can only lose by ceasing to be 
 men. Self-respect is recreated at once; there re- 
 turns a sense of personal dignity, and those are the 
 two kinetic forces of reformation." 
 
 It is my opinion that there should be more sys- 
 tem of earning devised for the prisoners, that they 
 may acquire the habit of not only making, but sav- 
 ing, during the period of their incarceration, and par- 
 ticularly those who have families on the outside. 
 This would give them a working interest in the in- 
 stitution, and it would cultivate the habit of dili- 
 gence, industry, etc., such as we would want them 
 to use on the outside when released. It is punish- 
 ment of the most cruel character to turn a man 
 loose from the prison with nothing in his pocket 
 but a five dollar bill. There is no question but 
 that the matter would be abused, but the abuse by 
 a few should not prevent the rewarding of one who
 
 78 Prison Problems 
 
 is really trying to make a man of what is left of 
 him. Exercise, as I have said before, is the law of 
 development, and the lack of that habit of saving 
 is what brings many a fellow in here, to think 
 and ponder over the past, and suffer. There is no 
 man so miserable as he who is at a loss how to 
 spend his time in his cell after his manual labor is 
 over. The divinest spirit that ever appeared on 
 earth has told us that the extension of human sym- 
 pathy embraces all that is required of us either to 
 do or to foresee. 
 
 Our prison lecture course, which carries with it 
 about $1,200 worth of the best talent on the lecture 
 platform, is a reward that cannot be measured in its 
 influence. The personal appearance of a prisoner 
 should be emphasized by a respectable suit of 
 clothes, tailor-made, laundered shirts and polished 
 shoes, for Sundays and holidays. Now, I know that 
 many laugh at this proposition ; but when you 
 consider that many of them have never had any of 
 these refining influences on the outside and have 
 subordinated their finer senses to over-indulgence 
 of passion, it is worth while to reward them. You 
 cannot make a man better, you cannot make him 
 think better or act better, until you first throw 
 around him the best influences there are. Further- 
 more, it does not cost any more to make a suit of 
 clothes shapely than it does to throw it together 
 and hang it on a prisoner as you would rags on a 
 scarecrow. 
 
 A man's food should be varied, not with ex- 
 travagance ; but he should have plenty of good 
 wholesome food. These men have eaten with their 
 hands in "hobo" clusters out of troughs, much like 
 the swine on the outside, and have failed.
 
 Prison Problems 79 
 
 Ninety per cent of the men in my institution 
 are there as a direct result of the booze proposition, 
 but I have very few bartenders who sold these 
 ninety per cent men the booze. I would abolish 
 capital punishment, and I am not sure that I shall 
 not eventually do away with the solitary, except in 
 the very rarest cases ; as I believe the mental pun- 
 ishment which a man gets is far in excess and much 
 more effective than any corporal punishment what- 
 soever. Prisons should be located in the country 
 where fresh air and God's out-of-doors can be in- 
 dulged in to the limit. Our medical department 
 would then have fifty per cent less service to ren- 
 der. Prisoners' health of course is a vital consider- 
 ation. The treatment of the eye, ear, nose and 
 throat is a revelation. 
 
 The beating of men will not be tolerated while 
 I am warden. I think perhaps the most effective 
 punishment we have is taking a man's good time 
 and depriving him of the privileges of fellowship 
 on holidays, and keeping him out of the dining- 
 room and from assembling with the men in the 
 yards and enjoying the little social privileges that 
 cost nothing to give. "Punish parents and not chil- 
 dren" was the caption of a column in a daily paper 
 the other day. If I were a Methodist I should say 
 "Amen." May the Lord save many children from 
 their parents before they get in the ways that lead 
 to the prison. A man or woman who brings a child 
 into this world ought to be compelled to raise it 
 right. 
 
 The cry is punishment, punishment, punishment. 
 Ah, my dear reader. God knows that the man is 
 punished more than human tongue can tell in the
 
 80 Prison Problems 
 
 words "convict" and "ex-convict." His punishment 
 never leaves him. There is never a moment in the 
 natural life of a man who has served in a prison 
 which is free from punishment. The world points 
 its finger of scorn and says : "There goes the 'ex- 
 convict'." God pity the "ex-prisoner," nobody else 
 does. There are sufferings that the world never 
 sees, and that courts and keepers cannot inflict. 
 
 Long after father and mother have sinned 
 through omission; long after the formative period 
 of life has passed and nothing but a wreck and a 
 shell is presented at the turnkey's office ; long 
 after the moral and religious instincts have been 
 decultivated ; long after every influence has been 
 brought to bear to weaken ; long after the miserable 
 jails of Iowa have stung them; long after the courts 
 and municipalities have given them the "gravity 
 kick" ; long after a few should have been sent to 
 Glenwood ; long after the inebriate should have en- 
 rolled elsewhere ; long after some have become in- 
 sane; long after hate, anger, judge, jury, mob, and 
 prejudice have placed their "fiat," we are asked to 
 reward and punish. When we contemplate the 
 psychology of a mob of intelligent people, we seri- 
 ously doubt our moral right to punish. 
 
 THINK IT OVER. 
 
 "We condemn their bodies to degeneracy, break 
 their spirit with iron bars, and, when their souls 
 are black and cankered, turn them out again upon 
 the world." Gov. George W. P. Hunt, of Arizona.
 
 Prison Problems 81 
 
 PRISON PROBLEMS. 
 
 Governor B. F. Carroll, of Iowa, appointed a com- 
 mittee to investigate prison conditions at Fort Mad- 
 ison and elsewhere. The committee consisted of 
 Hon George Cosson, attorney general, Hon. M. A. 
 Roberts of Ottumwa, who had long served upon the 
 district bench, and Hon. Parley Sheldon, of Ames, 
 who has served as mayor of his city for nearly a 
 generation, who at one time was the nominee of 
 his party for Lieutenant Governor. The committee 
 made a long and valuable report, its finds and recom- 
 mendations were unanimous. A few of them are 
 copied here : "Under any system in the manage- 
 ment of a penal institution there must of necessity 
 be loyalty, fidelity and co-operation on the part of 
 the guards and the subordinate officers. Their 
 conduct is inextricably connected not only with the 
 general welfare of a prison, but also abuses com- 
 mon to penal institutions. 
 
 We found that there were a number of guards 
 at the penitentiary who were not loyal to the war- 
 den, the board of control, nor the state. They were 
 conniving with prisoners either through sympathy 
 or for gain. 
 
 The evidence is absolutely convincing that a num- 
 ber of guards were passing letters in and out of 
 the institution, and not only that, some of them 
 were furnishing prisoners with morphine, cocaine 
 and other kinds of dope. It seems to be generally 
 accepted that in a number of the penal institutions 
 of the country, the guards themselves traffic in dope,
 
 8'2 Prison Problems 
 
 and it is claimed that many a young fellow who 
 never used dope when he entered a prison left it 
 an abject dope fiend. Evidence comes to this com- 
 mittee that such is true within this state. 
 
 We are advised that since the visit of this com- 
 mittee to the institution three or four guards have 
 been discharged. The committee recommends that 
 every guard and every subordinate officer in the 
 penitentiary at Fort Madison who is either passing 
 letters, passing dope or in any way planning and 
 conniving with prisoners should be promptly dis- 
 charged. Wardens in other prisons have attempted 
 to temporize with guards of this character and sus- 
 pend them or reprimand them. The result has 
 always been that the warden or superintendent has 
 found that he has a far more dangerous man in the 
 institution in the person of the guard than the pris- 
 oner himself. In this regard there should be no 
 expediency or temporizing. Summary and abso- 
 lute dismissal is the proper remedy. In this con- 
 nection the committee finds that the general stand- 
 ard of the guards at Fort Madison is not equal to 
 the high standard found at the Mansfield and Elmira 
 Reformatories and other model penal institutions. 
 
 It needs no argument to demonstrate that a man 
 of sufficient education, ability and character to prop- 
 erly fill the responsible position of guard cannot be 
 permanently kept at a small salary of fifty or fifty- 
 five dollars per month. 
 
 No institution can be properly managed without 
 capable, efficient, honest and loyal guards. There 
 was evidence to the effect that some of the em- 
 ployees of the contractors co-operated with the 
 prisoners in passing things in and out of the prison.
 
 Prison Problems 83 
 
 While our evidence is such as not to warrant us in 
 attempting to designate the particular employees of 
 the contractors, we feel certain that there is more 
 or less truth in the testimony, and that not only 
 information and letters are conveyed from prisoners 
 to persons on the outside, but that at least some 
 drugs and dope received by prisoners come through 
 that avenue. That abundant opportunities exist for 
 these evils there can be no question. 
 
 That in some states, prison officials of penal insti- 
 tutions have received financial benefit from the con- 
 tracts is certain, and that the opportunity exists in 
 any event is beyond question. There is no penal 
 institution in which the contract labor system exists 
 where prisoners do not claim that the officers of 
 the institution are controlled by the contractors, 
 from the superintendent, the warden, the prison 
 physician down to the most subordinate officer. 
 
 Inasmuch as the contractor is in the business for 
 profit and not for philanthropy, there is a great 
 temptation on the part of the contractors to keep 
 on harmonious relations with the prison authorities. 
 This may be done in various ways without trans- 
 gressing any law, and perhaps without the con- 
 tractors realizing that they are offending against 
 anything in the moral code. If, however, the con- 
 tractor is the kind of man that believes in getting 
 results and that the end justifies the means, there is 
 unlimited opportunity for corruption. 
 
 A letter was received by the attorney general from 
 an inmate in which he states : "I have been deprived 
 of my liberty and robbed of my labor for years. My 
 health and nervous system are broken down. I am 
 not a criminal and feel that I am held a slave to 
 the contract system."
 
 84 Prison Problems 
 
 The saying that "Whenever the contractor comes 
 in, the warden goes out" contains a sufficient amount 
 of truth to prevent it ever becoming obsolete so 
 long as the contract system is in use. 
 
 As before stated, the contractor is in the business 
 for what profit he can get out of it. He does not 
 pretend to be an educator, a reformer or philan- 
 thropist. He cannot be blamed if he makes long 
 term contracts for the prisoners' labor at from twen- 
 ty-five to eighty cents a day at the penitentiary at 
 Fort Madison twenty-five and sixty cents per day 
 nor can he be blamed if he receives as much control 
 over the prisoners as possible ; that is his end of the 
 bargain. 
 
 The blame should primarily be lodged against 
 the state. It is fundamentally wrong for a state to 
 exploit prisoners for profit. It is not only wrong 
 but foolish when this exploitation is delegated to 
 some private corporation. If any one is to receive a 
 profit it should be the state. If a profit can be made 
 by a corporation it can be made by the state under 
 efficient management. When the state assumes 
 control over an individual it is responsible for his 
 physical well-being and his social and moral wel- 
 fare, but no one pretends that a contractor is con- 
 cerned in any way with the social, moral or physi- 
 cal welfare of the prisoner. With the state, the 
 primary object in view should be the protection of 
 society and the reformation of the individual ; with 
 the contractor the primary object is and always will 
 be the maximum amount of dividends, and it is no 
 answer to say that the Thirteenth Amendment to 
 the federal constitution of the United States, in 
 which it is provided that "Neither slavery nor in-
 
 Prison Problems 85 
 
 voluntary servitude, except as a punishment for 
 crime, whereof the party shall have been duly con- 
 victed, shall exist within the United States, or any 
 place subject to their jurisdiction" at least indirect- 
 ly recognizes that each state may impose a form 
 of slavery upon its convicts. 
 
 The contract system is the worst form of slavery 
 because it is a delegated form of slavery. Authority 
 and responsibility should go hand in hand but this 
 cannot be with the contract system. The Outlook, 
 May 4, 1912, editorially in describing the difference 
 between the contract labor system and slavery as it 
 formerly existed, states : "There is, however, this 
 important difference between the contractor's rela- 
 tion to the convict and that of a master to his serv- 
 ant. The master owns his slave and hence has a 
 selfish interest in his life, health and efficiency. The 
 contractor does not own the convict, and hence has 
 no selfish interest in his physical well-being. If 
 the convict dies, it costs the contractor nothing, and 
 there are plenty more to take^ his place. Is it any 
 wonder that a leading prison contractor once ex- 
 claimed, 'This beats having slaves all hollow !' 
 Yes, this modern survival of slavery has a great ad- 
 vantage, from the dollars and cents point of view, 
 over the old form." 
 
 "The God given right to labor should not be 
 denied permanently or for any considerable period 
 to any human being. Numberless instances could 
 be given of the evil effects of enforced idleness and 
 of solitary confinement. Under an act of 1821, fol- 
 lowing an experiment in Pennsylvania, New York 
 adopted a scheme of grading, which proposed three 
 classes. The most dangerous and impenitent com-
 
 86 Prison Problems 
 
 posed the first class, which was doomed to constant 
 confinement in solitary cells with no companion but 
 their own thoughts and, if the keeper saw fit, a 
 Bible. The second class, to be the less incorrigible, 
 should alternate between solitary confinement and 
 labor as a recreation. The third, being the most 
 hopeful, were to work in association by day and to 
 be in seclusion by night. The first class were 
 separated from the others on Christmas, 1821, and 
 consisted of eighty-three of the most hardened 
 prisoners who were committed to silence and soli- 
 tude. In less than a year five of the eighty-three 
 had died, one became an idiot, another when his 
 door was opened dashed himself from the gallery, 
 and the rest with haggard looks and despairing 
 voices begged to be set to work." 
 
 A prison warden of one of the eastern institu- 
 tions who has held his present position for over 
 twenty-five years, told the attorney general of Iowa 
 that he could distinguish a prisoner who had for- 
 merly served time in the Pennsylvania penitentiary 
 by the looks and actions of the prisoner without any 
 other evidence. This experience, however, is not 
 confined to our own country. 
 
 Mr. Bailie-Cochrane says: "The officers at the 
 Dartmoor prison inform me that the prisoners who 
 arrive there even after one year's confinement at 
 Pentonville, may be distinguished from the others 
 by their miserable downcast look. In most instances 
 the brain is affected, and they are unable to give 
 satisfactory replies to the simplest questions." 
 
 "The evils of solitary confinement and enforced 
 idleness as described by prison officials are clearly 
 recognized by the greatest psychologists and phil-
 
 Prison Problems 87 
 
 osophers. Herbert Spencer in his unusually able and 
 prophetic essay on "Prison Ethics" after condemn- 
 ing the solitary system said : ''Our own objection 
 to such methods, however, has always been, that 
 their effect on the moral nature is the very reverse 
 of that required. Crime is anti-social is prompted 
 by self-regarding feelings, and checked by social 
 feelings. The natural prompter of right conduct to 
 others, and the natural opponent of misconduct to 
 others, is sympathy ; for out of sympathy grow both 
 the kindly emotions, and that sentiment of justice 
 which restrains us from aggressions. Well, this 
 sympathy, which makes society possible, is culti- 
 vated by social intercourse. By habitual participa- 
 tion in the pleasures of others, the faculty is 
 strengthened ; and whatever prevents this participa- 
 tion, weakens it an effect commonly illustrated in 
 the selfishness of old bachelors. Hence, therefore, 
 we contend that shutting up prisoners within them- 
 selves, or forbidding all interchange of feeling, in- 
 evitably deadens such sympathies as they have ; and 
 so tends rather to diminish than to increase the 
 moral check to transgression. This a priori convic- 
 tion, which we have long entertained, we now find 
 confirmed by facts. Captain Maconcochie states as 
 a result of observation, that a long course of separa- 
 tion so fosters the self-regarding desires, and so 
 weakens the sympathies, as to make even well-dis- 
 posed men very unfit to bear the little trials of 
 domestic life on their return to their homes. Thus 
 there is good reason to think that, while silence and 
 solitude may cow the spirit or undermine the ener- 
 gies, it cannot produce true reformation." 
 
 This is precisely in accordance with the conclu-
 
 88 Prison Problems 
 
 sions of the late Professor William James of Har- 
 vard set forth in his psychology on page 179 in 
 which he speaks of the effect of depriving a human 
 being of his social relation with his fellow man, 
 and says: 
 
 "No more fiendish punishment could be devised, 
 were such a thing physically possible, than that one 
 should be turned loose in society and remain ab- 
 solutely unnoticed by all the members thereof. If 
 no one turned around when we entered, answered 
 when we spoke, or minded what we did, but if every 
 person we met 'cut us dead,' and acted as if we 
 were non-existing things, a kind of rage and impo- 
 tent despair would ere long well up in us, from which 
 the cruellest bodily tortures would be relief; for 
 these would make us feel that, however bad might 
 be our plight, we had not sunk to such a depth as to 
 be unworthy of attention at all." 
 
 Emphasis has been placed upon the evil effect of 
 both the solitary confinement and enforced idleness 
 because it even now forms so large a part of our 
 penal system. Especially is this true with the pun- 
 ishment meted out to misdemeanants. The state in 
 eliminating one evil should not cause a still greater 
 evil. There is conclusive evidence, however, that 
 a substitute or substitutes for contract labor can be 
 found which is superior from every view point to 
 that of contract labor. In other words, we believe 
 that contract labor can be entirely abolished from 
 our penal institutions and that our institutions can 
 be so managed that every person confined may be 
 profitably employed at productive labor during every 
 working day, and we believe that there is something 
 radically wrong in any institution where any con-
 
 Prison Problems 89 
 
 siderable number of able bodied men are in idleness 
 or where any individual capable of labor is kept in 
 idleness for any considerable period of time. 
 
 Enforced idleness is not only a crime against the 
 prisoner and his family, but it is economic idiocy, 
 and this is true whether the idleness is a part of 
 our system of punishment of felons or misdemean- 
 ants ; in other words, whether it is a part of the 
 penitentiary system or a part of the jail system, ex- 
 cept where the jail is used merely as a place of 
 detention. 
 
 Prof. Charles R. Henderson of Chicago, United 
 States commissioner of International Prison Com- 
 mission, says in his introduction to Outdoor Labor 
 for Convicts : "The whole question of occupation 
 of convicts is connected with that of the reform of 
 our jail system, which, by the unanimous consent of 
 all competent students is the most vicious and cor- 
 rupt agency connected with our penal system. The 
 essential evil of the ordinary county jail does not 
 lie merely in its unsanitary condition, bad as that 
 often is, for this can be corrected by health author- 
 ities. The worst of the jail method is that it in- 
 volves idleness and base companionship. It is idle- 
 ness which corrupts young men, especially when 
 the unoccupied time is spent with depraved com- 
 pany. There is a large class of low-bred, degenerate, 
 alcoholic rounders who are now required to serve 
 short sentences for drunkenness or disorder and 
 who are made worse by the treatment given them 
 under present laws." 
 
 The fee system connected with our jail system 
 is absolutely indefensible and should be abolished 
 by the next general assembly.
 
 90 Prison Problems 
 
 Mr. Paul U. Kellogg, in reporting the proceedings 
 of the International Prison Congress at Washing- 
 ton, in the Survey of November 5, 1910, in speaking 
 of this question states that the imprisonment of all 
 persons awaiting trial and those under sentence for 
 minor offenses has been left in the hands of counties 
 and states, and says: "The fees to be gained by 
 their arrest, detention, feeding and incarceration 
 during the period of sentence, have made the 
 sheriff's office the center of county politics and in 
 some localities, a more lucrative post than that of 
 president of the United States." 
 
 A system whereby a sheriff has a distinct, per- 
 sonal, financial gain in the arrest and confinement of 
 prisoners, and no interest whatsoever in their refor- 
 mation is vicious and capable of no defense. 
 
 That being true, we agree with Prof. Chas. R. 
 Henderson that mere "petty tinkering with the 
 present methods is absurd and is a waste of time, 
 money and manhood," and that "this evil cannot be 
 corrected so long as the ordinary place for serving 
 short sentences is a county institute. The jail 
 should be reserved simply for prisoners presumably 
 innocent, but held for trial. A convicted person 
 should at once be sent to a district prison of some 
 kind and placed under state control until he is re- 
 stored to freedom." 
 
 And we also agree with Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise 
 that "America cannot help Europe solve the prob- 
 lem of dealing with misdemeanants until we recog- 
 nize that the petty offender is as much a matter for 
 state concern and control as the man under long and 
 indeterminate sentence." 
 
 Abundance of evidence from our own state which
 
 Prison Problems 91 
 
 is within the possession and knowledge of this com- 
 mittee makes it absolutely imperative that we should 
 entirely eliminate the county jail in so far as it is 
 used as a place of confinement or punishment of a 
 person convicted of crime, and that in all such in- 
 stances the offender should, in the event that he 
 has violated a state law and sentenced to confine- 
 ment, be sent to some district penal institution un- 
 der the absolute jurisdiction and control of the state 
 
 Hugh C. Weir in the World To-day for January, 
 1910, states that a man was sentenced to the Phila- 
 delphia city prison 201 times for the same offense. 
 
 The records of the Detroit House of Correction 
 show one man to have been committed 112 times ; 
 another, 59 times ; another, 58 times ; another, 57 ; 
 another, 40; and so on down. 
 
 We are informed by police officers in the city of 
 Des Moines that Polk county has one citizen who 
 has been sentenced on an average of from five to 
 ten times a year during the past fifteen years; and 
 one year this individual was committed to the city 
 or county jail seventeen times. It goes without 
 saying that any law under which it is possible for 
 a man to serve seventeen sentences in a year, and 
 an average of from five to ten every year, and from 
 100 to 200 in a life time is both archaic and vicious. 
 
 The amount of money annually spent in punish- 
 ing intoxication and inebriety and the resultant 
 evils inflicted upon the offenders' families by reason 
 of the present foolish and vicious form of punish- 
 ment is far greater than the public generally real- 
 izes. 
 
 The statistics of one writer show that one-half of 
 all the arrests in a dozen of the largest cities of the
 
 92 Prison Problems 
 
 United States during the year 1909 were for intoxi- 
 cation, and he states that during that year there 
 were approximately 786,000 arrests in the country, 
 and that over 350,000 of these were for drunken 
 men. During the same year the report for England 
 shows that of 90,000 persons who were committed 
 to prison in default of payment of fines, over half 
 were convicted of drunkenness. 
 
 Reports from every county in the state of Iowa, 
 and special investigations which have been made 
 by one of the members of this committee in some 
 of the larger cities, show that the ratio of arrests 
 for intoxication as to the whole number of arrests is 
 about the same in Iowa as the reports for the United 
 States and for England, that is to say, our report 
 shows that the arrests in Iowa for intoxication aver- 
 age from 46 to 52 per cent of the total number for 
 arrests, and in some communities arrests for intoxi- 
 cation are 60 to 65 per cent of the total number of 
 arrests. 
 
 Jane Addams and Katherine Bement Davis, Sup- 
 erintendent of the New York State Reformatory for 
 Women, have taught us that the scarlet letter may 
 be removed, that the women of the street convicted 
 of immorality are worth saving, and that it is pos- 
 sible to save them. 
 
 Summing up the evils of the jail system now 
 existing in Iowa, we cannot do better than to adopt 
 the language of the commissioners appointed by 
 ex-president Roosevelt to investigate the jail system 
 in the District of Columbia. They say : 
 
 "The evils of such a state of things are too 
 obvious to call for or even justify extended com- 
 ment. That men and women should be sent to
 
 Prison Problems 93 
 
 these narrow and crowded cells, the innocent with 
 the guilty, the first-offender with the hardened 
 criminal, in one promiscuous assembly, to corrupt 
 and be corrupted by each other, the lazy to be 
 humored and fostered in their laziness, the in- 
 dustrious to be deprived of every form of employ- 
 ment, to be fed like beasts and maintained at the 
 public charge, not only with no prospect of im- 
 provement in their condition, but with the moral 
 certainty that they will come out far worse than 
 they went in, is a fact that has become a stench in 
 the nostrils of the whole community and ought to 
 be felt as a shame and disgrace to the whole nation, 
 whose representatives are responsible for its exist- 
 ence." 
 
 Senate Document 648, p. 8. 
 
 In view of these conditions and the general de- 
 fects in our penal system previously referred to, 
 the question confronting our state is whether we 
 will continue to cling to a false economy and blindly 
 follow precedent in our method of dealing with the 
 large number of persons annually convicted of 
 crime, or whether we will have the larger vision and 
 adopt a plan both humane and scientific, in con- 
 sonance with the heart, the character and the cul- 
 ture of our people. 
 
 Warden Wolfer of the Minnesota Penitentiary, at 
 Stillwater, writes : "Our annual manufacturing ca- 
 pacity is now approximately eighteen million 
 pounds of binder twine. Our mills were operated 
 at full capacity as usual during the past two years. 
 Our financial statements show that we could now 
 pay back into the state a revolving fund to carry
 
 94 Prison Problems 
 
 on the business, and still have left a net clear profit 
 of $1,570,992." 
 
 The United States commissioner of labor reports 
 that there has been a saving to the farmers of three 
 cents a pound on binder twine, which saving in 
 view of the amount manufactured and sold to the 
 farmers of Minnesota amounts to $5,081,190. 
 
 "I also call attention to the farm machinery plant ; 
 after taking a careful, conservative inventory of our 
 assets, we show under the head of profit and loss, a 
 developing expense of $42,057.42." 
 
 "In my opinion the farm is the solution of the 
 labor proposition in the employment of convicts. 
 It is out in the open, gives recreation and the work 
 is varied. You can always find something to do 
 for most any prisoner on the farm whether he be 
 weak or strong. Our farm contains 7,000 acres, is 
 divided into two camps or stations and each is 
 well equipped with dwellings for supervisors and 
 guards, good cell houses and splendid hospitals. 
 We have a large brick plant on the grounds, but it 
 is not being operated now. Of course when we 
 operate this, our population will average about two- 
 hundred. There seems to be nothing that would 
 especially distinguish it from other prison manage- 
 ment, except possibly the farm feature, which has 
 been a part of our work for about twenty years. 
 However, I have observed recently that prison 
 management generally are turning to the farm for 
 employment of prisoners and no doubt will find it 
 wholesome occupation and profitable to prisoner 
 as well as to the management." 
 
 Governor George W. Donaghey of Arkansas, re- 
 ferring to the success of the state penal farm in
 
 Prison Problems 95 
 
 his message to the legislature in 1911, said: "We 
 have on the state farm 2,700 acres of open land. 
 When we took charge of the penitentiary two years 
 ago, and before we could make a 4 move to earn any- 
 thing for its maintenance, we found it was in debt 
 in the sum of about $130,000. $99,000 was appro- 
 priated by the legislature out of the general revenue 
 fund for the payment in part of that debt. The 
 balance remaining unpaid was left to the board to 
 work out. The first year, 1909, we bought supplies 
 on credit, paying what our creditors chose to charge 
 us, and we not only paid the debt to which we 
 fell heir, but made enough money over and above 
 all expenses to pay $30,000 of the state's farm debt, 
 and turned back into the general revenue fund 
 $50,000. For the past year we will do equally as 
 well if not better. The greater part of this money 
 was earned on the state's farm." Governor Don- 
 aghey states that less than one-third of the convicts 
 were used upon the state farm. 
 
 The state of Louisiana has purchased for its penal 
 institutions fifteen thousand acres of land at a cost 
 of $409,000, there being six separate penal farms 
 ranging from 400 to 800 acres in each farm. The 
 recent report for the calendar year ending 1911 
 shows that they have constructed on one of the 
 farms a sugar refinery at a cost of nearly $420,000, 
 "all of which has been paid for out of the earnings 
 of the penitentiary during the fiscal period, except 
 $170,671.00." 
 
 During the year 1911 the report shows an excess 
 of receipts over current expenses, $149,308.18. A 
 large number of the most able-bodied men are work- 
 ed on levees, and not on the farm. For 1912 the
 
 96 Prison Problems 
 
 report shows they will have 2,460 acres of corn and 
 3,160 acres of cane, besides the other miscellaneous 
 crops and vegetables sufficient for their own use 
 and also for sale. 
 
 Mr. Frank A. Fetter, in the Survey for February 
 4, 1911, referring to the Witzwil farm, Berne, Swit- 
 zerland, which contains 2,000 acres, states : 
 
 "This farming enterprise in which most of the 
 work is done by prisoners has proved to be a good 
 investment for the canton. There has been ex- 
 pended by the canton, all told, for land $200,000, 
 for building material, $100,000, and other cash ad- 
 vances (net, after deducting the so-called rent paid 
 to the canton), $50,000, a total of $350,000. The 
 present worth of the whole plant (land, buildings, 
 stock, cash fund) is at a low estimate $550,000, an 
 average gain for the time the institution has been 
 in full operation of over $13,000 a year. While the 
 care of the 200 (sometimes over 250) prisoners is 
 without cost to the public, the actual outlay on 
 new buildings and equipment has amounted to a 
 good return on the investment in grounds and build- 
 ings. Yet this has been done without the lease or 
 the contract systems of labor, and with no injurious 
 competition with, or protests from, free labor. With- 
 in the last year the land has at length been brought 
 fairly under cultivation, so that it would seem that 
 the results in the future would be still more favor- 
 able." 
 
 Director Kellerhals in his report states that the 
 open air employment has a peculiar value both 
 upon the health and the reformation of the individ- 
 ual. He states that much of the work done in 
 closed prisons is of no value to the prisoner upon
 
 Prison Problems 97 
 
 his return to society, but that "The conditions are 
 quite otherwise in an 'establishment in the open 
 air/ as Dr. Goos of Copenhagen, calls ours. Not 
 only can a debilitated young man recuperate better 
 and much more rapidly than in the unhealthy at- 
 mosphere of the workshop, but he can there acquire 
 in less time the practical knowledge which is de- 
 manded of a well-paid workman. Agricultural es- 
 tablishments are especially helpful to those prison- 
 ers who, after having undergone a long sentence, 
 approach the end of their term." 
 
 The reason given for this is because of the me- 
 chanical routine of the ordinary prison. He there- 
 fore states : "We cannot do better than to re-awak- 
 en this interest in them and prepare them for the 
 struggle for existence which awaits them, than to 
 make them pass the last period of their imprison- 
 ment in a penal agricultural colony. Agricultural 
 work more than any other occupation makes it 
 possible to keep an eye on lazy men. They are 
 placed in a work group and they must keep up with 
 their comrades. That is why the agricultural col- 
 onies are a horror to vagabonds and notorious slug- 
 gards, while the good workers find themselves rela- 
 tively happy there."
 
 98 Prison Problems 
 
 EXCERPTS FROM CHICAGO'S VICE 
 COMMISSION REPORT. 
 
 "The first truth that the commission desires to 
 impress upon the citizens of Chicago is the fact 
 that prostitution in this city is a commercialized 
 business of large proportions, with tremendous 
 profits of more than $15,000,000 per year, controlled 
 largely by men, not women. Separate the male ex- 
 ploiter from the problem, and we minimize its ex- 
 tent and abate its flagrant outward expression. 
 
 "In juxtaposition with this group of professional 
 male exploiters stand ostensibly respectable citi- 
 zens, both men and women, who are openly rent- 
 ing and leasing property for exorbitant sums, and 
 thus sharing, thru immorality of investments, the 
 profits from this business, a business which de- 
 mands a supply of 5,000 souls from year to year 
 to satisfy the lust and greed of men in this city 
 alone." 
 
 "First offenders, especially, instead of being fined 
 or imprisoned, should be placed on probation 
 under the care of intelligent and sympathetic wo- 
 men officially connected with the court. Old and 
 hardened offenders should be sent to an industrial 
 farm with hospital accommodations on an inde- 
 terminate sentence. Obviously, it is necessary that 
 some such measures of almost drastic control should 
 obtain if such women are to be permanently helped 
 and society served." 
 
 There is a protected and flourishing "vice trust" 
 robbing the people yearly of $60,000,000, destroy-
 
 Prison Problems 99 
 
 ing the souls and bodies of five thousand girls, and 
 spreading disease, debauchery and degeneracy 
 throughout every corner of the city. The systema- 
 tized official graft from this curse of Christendom 
 amounts, at the lowest conservative estimate of 
 the leading daily press of Chicago, to nearly $700,- 
 000 every year. 
 
 A code of "regulations" boldly adopted by the 
 police department, with the sanction of the mayor 
 and his party backers, deliberately setting aside 
 both state laws and city ordinances on this great 
 evil, and sustaining a system of so-called "segre- 
 gated" vice, the chief purpose of which appears to 
 be the maintenance of graft and the perpetuation 
 of the "white slave" traffic. 
 
 An organized influence of vice and drink so 
 powerful as to dictate instant rejection by the 
 political leaders and officials of the carefully out- 
 lined proposals for the total suppression of the 
 social evil, presented by the Vice Commission. 
 
 The Chicago grand jury probe, July 19, 1909, dis- 
 covered that : 
 
 1. A network of vice protection extends over 
 nearly all of Chicago. 
 
 2. Tribute is paid by nearly every denizen of 
 the "underworld," and an elaborate system of col- 
 lecting this money is in vogue. 
 
 3. An elaborate "vice trust" exists on the West 
 Side, and thru this "trust" tribute is levied upon 
 the resort-keepers. 
 
 4. The heads of this "vice trust" are wealthy 
 saloonkeepers and ward politicians. 
 
 5. The "vice trust" wields so strong a power that 
 witnesses are afraid to testify against any of its 
 members.
 
 100 Prison Problems 
 
 "How can these unfortunate women be helped 
 and saved to society? Some well-meaning persons 
 declare that they should be left to their fate; that 
 they are criminals, and should be treated as such. 
 The commission does not feel that this is an answer 
 to the problem. They are human beings still, 
 stumbling for a time in the depths of sin and shame, 
 but notwithstanding how low they have sunken in 
 the social scale, they can be rescued if by some 
 method they can be made to feel the touch of divine 
 sympathy and human love. 
 
 "No doubt, during the coming months many of 
 these women, now in houses, and in the streets, and 
 in the saloons, will be cut loose from their sur- 
 roundings by the effective operation of the law. 
 Some wise provision must be made to help them. 
 To put them in prison, with no provision for their 
 spiritual or physical needs, would only tend to 
 degrade them still lower and send them back to 
 a life of shame in some other community in a worse 
 condition than they were before.
 
 Prison Problems 101 
 
 WHERE CRIME IS A PROFESSION. 
 
 By Abraham H. Sarasohn. 
 
 Eminent Criminal Lawyer of New York. 
 
 The criminal law has proved inefficient to cope 
 with the growing element of law-breakers. Not- 
 withstanding popular notions, the professional 
 criminals of our large cities are seldom caught, and 
 if caught are rarely punished. Their safety from 
 detection and apprehension is due to an inefficient 
 police system, while their relative security from 
 punishment even when arrested is founded upon an 
 archaic and utterly deficient machinery of criminal 
 law procedure. 
 
 As a result of this situation crime has become 
 a paying profession. There are in New York city, 
 and, by parity of causative reasoning, in every one 
 of our cities of first rate size as well, thousands of 
 persons who earn a comfortable and in many cases 
 luxurious living by following a criminal career year 
 in and year out. 
 
 The entire success and prosperity of the criminal 
 classes depend upon their ability to keep immune 
 from interference or arrest by the police, and to 
 escape punishment when arrested. In our large 
 cities the criminal classes are notoriously successful 
 in escaping punishment even when arrested, through 
 the many loopholes and defects of our antiquated 
 criminal law procedure. 
 
 Such an alarmingly small percentage of profes- 
 sional criminals caught in the toils of the law is
 
 102 Prison Problems 
 
 convicted and punished that the average criminal 
 feels perfectly safe and secure from conviction. The 
 chances of a lawbreaker suffering punishment by 
 conviction are not much greater than the hazard 
 the average workingman takes of suffering personal 
 injury in his trade. To this amazingly slight ratio 
 of risk such criminal statistics as are available bear 
 eloquent testimony. 
 
 Few crimes are committed overtly. To hide 
 itself is of the nature of crime, which precludes the 
 idea of any records or statistics of crimes com- 
 mitted. Of course there are records of crimes re- 
 ported to the police authorities, but these repre- 
 sent only a portion of those actually committed. 
 
 But even the records of reported crimes are not 
 accessible to the public. The secretiveness of the 
 metropolitan police in this matter has recently been 
 the subject of severe and deserved criticism. The 
 public is kept unaware of the percential proportion 
 of arrests to the number of reported crimes. 
 
 Following the rumored "crime wave" in the early 
 part of last year the grand jury of New York county 
 made an extensive investigation, and its present- 
 ment filed May 17, 1911, contains some figures 
 from which a rough estimate may be formed of 
 the percentage of arrests for reported crimes in 
 New York alone. This presentment shows that in 
 the year of 1910 there were 10,288 complaints for 
 burglary and attempted burglary, and 14,091 com- 
 plaints for larceny. This number, however, is ex- 
 clusive of the complaints made at the police station 
 houses, which the grand jury found were 711 for the 
 period between February 27 and April 4, 1911, or
 
 Prison Problems 103 
 
 approximately twenty complaints a day, or 7,300 
 during the year. 
 
 Adding these 7,300 station house complaints to 
 the crimes reported at police headquarters, and to 
 the cases where arrests were made without any 
 previous report we find that during the year 1910 
 there were 32,679 reported cases of burglary and 
 larceny, and during the same year only 3,501 arrests 
 for those offenses, showing that in less than 11 per 
 cent of reported cases of burglary and larceny, ar- 
 rests are made. When we examine the printed re- 
 port of the police commissioner of New York 
 county we find a still more alarming state of affairs 
 as regards the small percentage of persons arrested 
 for serious offenses that are convicted and punished. 
 
 The report of the police commissioner of the city 
 of New York which covers the year ended Decem- 
 'ber 31, 1910, shows that during that year 20,377 
 persons were arrested within the greater city for 
 felony, but the convictions for felony during the 
 same year were 5,678. During the preceding year 
 there were 24,192 arrests for felony, with but 5,321 
 convictions, and during the year 1908 there were 
 25,209 arrests, with 6,"099 convictions. 
 
 On the strength of this showing only one out of 
 every four persons arrested for felony in the greater 
 city is convicted, which does not necessarily mean 
 punished, since 10 per cent of those convicted es- 
 cape punishment by appeal.
 
 104 Prison Problems 
 
 A PRISON LYCEUM. 
 
 Some Attractions That Have Appeared on the Fort Madison Course Up 
 to June 15, 1912. 
 
 Mrs. Florence Maybrick, Lecturer; Dr. Henry 
 Clark, two lectures; Ned Woodman, Cartoonist; 
 Rogers & Grilley, Humorist and Harpist; Schild- 
 kret's Royal Hungarian Orchestra; Chas. H. Plat- 
 tenburg, Lecturer; Robert Parker Miles, Lecturer; 
 Dunbar Quartet and Bell Ringers; Enderle- Wilson 
 Concert Company; Sylvester A. Long, Lecturer; 
 Keokuk Concert Company, two engagements ; Skov- 
 gaard Concert Company; Ellsworth Plumstead, 
 Characterist ; Maud Ballington Booth, Lecturer; 
 Fred High, Entertainer ; Caveny Concert Company ; 
 Edmund Vance Cook, Recital ; Strickland W. Gil- 
 lilan, Humorist; Thomas McClary, two lectures; 
 Dr. H. W. Sears, The "Taffy" Lecturer; McCor- 
 mick & Bronte; William Sterling Battis, Life Por- 
 trayals; John B. Ratto, Impersonator; Joseffy, 
 Necromancer; Slayton Jubilee Singers; Mauer Sis- 
 ters' Concert Company; Edwin Weeks Concert 
 Company, two engagements; Prof. E. Green, Lec- 
 ture-Recital ; Prof. Alonzo Zwickey, Cartoonist ; The 
 Spaffords, Cartoonists; Capt. Jack Crawford, The 
 Poet-Scout ; Germain, Magician ; Roney Boys Con- 
 cert Company; Burlington Ladies Concert Com- 
 pany.
 
 Prison Problems 105 
 
 THE HONOR SYSTEM. 
 
 By Oswald West, Governor of Oregon. 
 
 Oregon had all the vices in its prison system 
 that any other prison boasted. It had the "water- 
 cure" with its ingeniously horrible contrivance for 
 torturing a recalcitrant convict into submission. In 
 the bath-room of the same prison one may still see 
 the iron rings for tricing up men to be flogged or 
 tortured (to death in some cases) by the hose 
 grim reminders that ten years ago was as 200 years 
 ago in man's treatment of his wards. 
 
 Oregon had, up within the past few years, con- 
 sidered its convicts in the same light as had most of 
 the rest of the world as dangerous individuals, to 
 be punished, not reformed, and from whom the State 
 was to be protected at all odds. To regard them 
 as men was as foreign to the keepers of Oregon's 
 prisoners as to those of Old Ludlow. 
 
 Today you can take a trip over almost any road 
 out of Salem and pass convicts at work without 
 being able to tell them from the ordinary industrious 
 farm-hand to be met with in any country-side. 
 
 There is no "prison look" about them. The hang- 
 dog shift is lacking from their eyes. There is a 
 healthy tan on their faces. The feeling of satisfac- 
 tion that comes from a hard day's work out-of-doors 
 is noticeable. The cleverest forger, the most ac- 
 complished safe-cracker, the most daring of porch 
 climbers seem to have the unhealthy lure of their 
 crafts driven out of them. There is no room for
 
 106 Prison Problems 
 
 crime thoughts when there's a day's work to be 
 done in the country sunlight, with the knowledge 
 that they are as free from suspicion and surveillance 
 as the rich farmer, who is working his own fields 
 across the road. 
 
 They may be road building the roads of Marion 
 County are a grateful evidence of their employment 
 in that capacity they may be plowing, milking, 
 doing any of the jobs that a farm has to offer, per- 
 haps they drive back to the penitentiary at night 
 with their own team or perhaps, as is the case with 
 many, who are working some distance from the pris- 
 on, they camp out or are given quarters in a house 
 or a barn. No one has been found who has com- 
 plained of the quality of their work. For it seems 
 that the energy it takes to make a truly "successful" 
 criminal, if turned into other channels, is pretty apt 
 to make a most excellent workman. 
 
 There's little, if any, inclination on the part of 
 the people living in and about Salem to resent the 
 liberty given the convicts. One man complained that 
 he thought a road gang at work near his home 
 formed an unwarranted menace to his property and 
 safety. The gang was withdrawn, but all of that 
 man's neighbors and their wives got together and 
 gave the convicts a dinner. 
 
 It was held in a grove near Sublimity, where the 
 men had been working. The Governor and other 
 State officials were invited. The farmers sat at the 
 big table under the trees with the convicts. The 
 women of the neighborhood club waited on the 
 table and saw that everybody had enough to eat. 
 And when the tables had been cleared away there 
 were speeches in which the hosts thanked their
 
 Prison Problems 107 
 
 guests for the work they had done in behalf of 
 good roads, and the guests thanked their hosts for 
 an entertainment that demonstrated the days of 
 treating convicts as dangerous beasts had passed 
 away. It was probably one of the most remarkable 
 dinner parties Oregon ever saw. One of the two 
 convicts who spoke at this dinner said: "Under a 
 system like this, where we are treated as men, the 
 best we can do is scarcely sufficient. Under com- 
 pulsion, and guarded by cold steel and heartless 
 men, the least we can do is good enough. We ap- 
 preciate this dinner which the ladies have given us. 
 We feel that under such a system as the present 
 one that incarceration is a help and not a hindrance 
 in getting us re-established as beneficial members 
 of society." 
 
 It is this idea of treating the convicts as men who 
 have made a mistake and who are to be taught 
 better, that seems to be the keynote of the unusual 
 success the "Honor System" has attained thus far. 
 The men are watched as they enter the penitentiary, 
 their conduct, anxiety to work, willingness to obey 
 rules, are all taken into consideration. The bank 
 wrecker and the footpad enter on exactly the same 
 ground. But once a regular inmate of the institu- 
 tion, the convict naturally drifts into his own class. 
 The really vicious, so far as close scrutiny on the 
 part of the prison officials reveals, are a small minor- 
 ity. Many of the new men are indifferent. Most 
 of the so-called "repeaters" convicts who are serv- 
 ing their second or third term in a state's prison 
 are regarded with suspicion, and yet some of the 
 best men that are now out on the "honor gangs," 
 trusted absolutely with their own liberty and in
 
 108 Prison Problems 
 
 some instances, with the property and lives of oth- 
 ers, are "repeaters." 
 
 The penitentiary boasts a baseball team that, if 
 it were out in the world, would make many pro- 
 fessionals seek the seclusion of the "brush leagues." 
 On it are men who have played the game to the re- 
 sultant glory of their colleges, as well as others who 
 never threw a baseball outside an alley but who have 
 developed into players of unusual skill. The con- 
 tests of a Saturday afternoon, on the brick-enclosed, 
 Winchester-guarded diamond, with 400 or more 
 wildly enthusiastic fans recently divorced from 
 striped suits, to cheer them on, are curious but 
 inspiring. Love of sport, love of work, belief in one 
 another unlocked for flowers in a grim prison gar- 
 den. 
 
 There are other ways of occupying the convict's 
 mind. There is the library common to many prisons. 
 The readers are mostly men who are mentally or 
 physically unfitted for work. The proportion of 
 those who, of their own accord, would sit in the 
 library reading in preference to performing the hard- 
 est kind of manual labor out-of-doors is extremely 
 small. The recently-completed chapel serves as a 
 theatre several times a month in it are held con- 
 certs, lectures, and most modern of the outside 
 world's attractions moving pictures. 
 
 And so in work, sport and play, the boys and men 
 of the Oregon penitentiary are forgetting earlier les- 
 sons in law-breaking and learning fresh ones in 
 citizenship. No man is turned out with the feeling 
 that he is to become the prey of the first detective 
 or deputy sheriff who hears of his release, a con- 
 venient scape-goat upon whom to fasten a fresh
 
 Prison Problems 109 
 
 offense. He is made to feel that the friends he made 
 while at Salem are to be relied upon from first to 
 last. He has acquired a trade, or at least he has 
 "got his hand in" at working again, so that he need 
 not fear the necessity of going back to law-breaking 
 to gain a living that the world owes him. 
 
 The old system of turning away a convict upon 
 the expiration of his term with five dollars and a 
 suit of prison clothes is a thing of the past, too, and 
 for this "Honor System" can also claim the largest 
 share of the responsibility. The State does not con- 
 sider that the proceeds of a convict's labor belong to 
 it entirely it shares them with him. For the work 
 that is done about the State institutions he is paid 
 twenty-five cents a day. This money is saved and 
 he is given the cash upon his release from the peni- 
 tentiary. Those working in the stove factory are 
 allowed a percentage of their earnings, while the 
 men in the brick yards, through their willingness to 
 work longer hours, are each earning about forty 
 cents a day and have greatly increased the revenue 
 of the State. 
 
 Those brick-yards have been a part of the prison 
 for some time. The convicts employed there had 
 been turning out about 16,000 bricks a day. The 
 prisoners were told that the State was willing to 
 divide the profits of any brick in excess of that 
 number with the men in the yards. 
 
 They accepted this proposition and the next week 
 the number of bricks turned out averaged over 20,000. 
 From then on it has been between 20,000 and 23,000 
 daily. It meant money for the convicts and it meant 
 money for the State. It was a simple and effective 
 method of increasing efficiency in the brickyards.
 
 110 Prison Problems 
 
 The results would seem to justify my belief that 
 three-fourths of the men who are sent to the peni- 
 tentiary are not criminals at heart, are really not 
 any worse offenders than thousands who through 
 some turn of fortune's wheel, escape the stigma of 
 a penitentiary term. 
 
 People say that I am sensational in my dealings. 
 That may be true but I find their cases are sensa- 
 tional. To me it is sensational to know that there 
 are men in the penitentiary who do not belong there, 
 whose presence there may mean either that they are 
 shown the right road or the wrong largely as we 
 deal with them. Here's a young fellow who has 
 perhaps got in a little trouble through drink. I 
 find most of these cases result from whiskey. He's 
 been railroaded to the penitentiary. It is at this 
 point that he needs a helping hand. He is ashamed 
 to write to his family to let them know his plight. 
 He is in constant association with hardened char- 
 acters there are always a certain number of them 
 in a large prison. I' have been, and I propose to 
 continue, letting such a boy out to work on parole. 
 I don't believe that is sentimentalism. I think it 
 is good sense. 
 
 The practical proof of the "Honor System" at the 
 Oregon penitentiary, of course, lies in whether it 
 works or not. If it did not work it might be inter- 
 esting sentimentally, but scarcely desirable from a 
 practicable point of view. But it does work. In the 
 two years just preceding the adoption of the system 
 in the years 1909-1910 about thirty men escaped 
 from the prison. Some were killed, some captured, 
 some are still at large. Since the "Honor System" 
 went into effect three men have broken their pledges
 
 Prison Problems 111 
 
 and, taking advantage of the lack of guards, escaped. 
 One has since been recaptured. This, in spite of 
 the fact that the system was tried out through the 
 long summer months, when the wanderlust, if ever, 
 is at its strongest, when the temptation to break that 
 imaginary shackle called Honor is greatest, when 
 it is easiest to follow the trail through the woods 
 and over the hills, to sleep out-of-doors under the 
 firs, and to gather what food one needs to sustain 
 life until he is out of the danger zone. 
 
 In conclusion let me say that I believe in the 
 prisoners. They are savable. I believe in plenty of 
 wholesome, cheerful and useful labor. I believe that 
 Jesus Christ and John Howard and Abraham Lin- 
 coln were full of gentle sympathy and stern justice, 
 and did all they could to help the unfortunate. I 
 want to emulate them. 
 
 A PLEA. 
 
 Dr. Emil G. Hirsch, the eminent Jewish Rabbi, 
 in pleading for the victims of the white slave traffic 
 said: "I plead with the city not to lend official 
 connivance but to break up this form of vice slavery 
 which is not reproduced in the mines of Siberia. 
 Away with the segregated district and then we may 
 be able to help some of these victims of this ter- 
 rible vice. 
 
 "A segregated vice district is a constant tempta- 
 tion for the police to corrupt themselves and to be 
 corrupted. For the sake of the police, if for no 
 other reason, I say away with the segregated dis- 
 trict."
 
 112 Prison Problems 
 
 A PRISON LYCEUM. 
 
 By James Gordon Stell. 
 
 Iowa has attained a new distinction. In a field 
 heretofore deemed unworthy of development, Iowa 
 has worked out results that have placed its name far 
 in the van of states which in the past were acknowl- 
 edged leaders in penal matters. This new honor has 
 come through the intelligent, practical reforms intro- 
 duced into the Iowa penitentiary by Warden J. C. 
 Sanders. 
 
 Without question the greatest good, accomplished 
 by any one change made for the betterment of state 
 wards confined in the Fort Madison institution, has 
 come from the introduction of an entirely new form 
 of educational entertainment. Formerly it was the 
 custom to secure the low priced vaudeville troupe, 
 and thus keep the amusement expense within the 
 stipulated amount set aside for that purpose. This 
 appropriation, however, being but $25 for each holi- 
 day, could not command even the best of the poor- 
 est, and consequently the "comedy team" was doom- 
 ed to grace the penitentiary's stage no more by 
 the news of a reform order which spread among 
 the state wards with unbelievable rapidity. This 
 order was to the effect that, if sufficient funds could 
 be raised, a lyecum course of high class, refined 
 entertainments would be arranged and given. The 
 announcement made an instantaneous hit, its popu- 
 larity being manifested by numerous offers of state 
 wards to subscribe to the fund. This was encour-
 
 Prison Problems 113 
 
 agement of the right kind and when one of the wards 
 passed along the flag and gallery cells with a sub- 
 scription blank, the men in cells displayed an in- 
 dividual pride and anxious eagerness to sign their 
 names and set down opposite, the amount each wish- 
 ed to donate. When the list was finally computed 
 it was learned that the sum was more than enough 
 to pay for a full lyceum course of the first class. 
 And this desire to give toward the fund was evident 
 among the guards and friends who placed their 
 gifts without being requested to do so. 
 
 As all important events, which occur behind iron 
 bars and stone walls, leak out and become public 
 property through different channels, so did the news 
 of a "Lyceum course in prison" reach the alert news 
 writers of the state, who gave the fact much pub- 
 licity. Able journalists took up the subject with 
 much vigor. It was something new and catchy. 
 Pro and con it was debated and both sides indulged 
 in a slugfest of words without awaiting details or 
 results. Warden Sanders heeded not the anti or 
 enthusiast. After an extended correspondence and 
 carefully weighing, measuring and balancing the 
 merit of several organizations, contracts were signed 
 and the first number announced to a chorus of ap- 
 plause that must have echoed its gratitude to hea- 
 ven. It was a new "door of light" opened to the sin- 
 blinded, and even the "long-timers" and gray haired 
 life men voiced their appreciation by smiles and 
 nodding heads. Mrs. Florence Maybrick, whose 
 voice has touched the responsive sympathetic note 
 in countless American audiences, was the first num- 
 ber and it was a huge success in every way. Her 
 lecture, "The Story of My Life," unfolded her ex- 
 periences of twelve years' imprisonment in an Eng-
 
 114 Prison Problems 
 
 lish penal institution and her recital elicited the 
 closest attention. During this number which was 
 given in the penitentiary's chapel, the state wards 
 exhibited no sign of misbehavior or ungentlemanly 
 conduct. As was expected the conduct of the in- 
 mates was scanned closely at this first entertain- 
 ment, but no breach of discipline occurred and their 
 faultless conduct was commented upon freely and 
 approved even by those who had doubted the wis- 
 dom of the plan. 
 
 There are three remarkable facts revealed in 
 this new field of uplift ; first, the initiative, foresight 
 and business ability necessary to build, with no 
 precedent, a new institution of human endeavor to 
 "make a man understand himself" by examples 
 placed within his sight; second, the spirit of the 
 state wards to give financial assistance to help them- 
 selves out of the rut of mental darkness ; and, third, 
 the result. It can be stated with no fear for ques- 
 tioning that this entertainment feature is by far the 
 greatest educational and uplifting reform that has 
 as yet been tried. Every number has, for a funda- 
 mental keynote, an appeal which thrills the hearer 
 and leaves some principle of Christ's teachings in- 
 delibly impressed on the hearer. 
 
 One prisoner said: "I had to come to the peni- 
 tentiary to know the value of the lyceum course." 
 And many of the state wards confess they had never 
 viewed a lyceum number before entering this insti- 
 tution. Since the beginning of these entertainments 
 there has been a marked improvement in the mental 
 and moral tone of the wards evidence undisputable 
 that the future of these now wall bound men shall 
 be better and truer in the full sense of honest en- 
 deavor to "live within the law." Iowa may well be
 
 Prison Problems 115 
 
 proud of the new distinction. The first lyceum 
 course is a wonderful step forward in penal prog- 
 ress and toward the prevention and cure for crime. 
 
 "From the opening number, the Iowa Penitentiary 
 has slowly yet surely, changed, transformed. The 
 gloomy, sullen face is seen no more. Cheerful, con- 
 tented smiles are now evident on every face; the 
 short, jerked-out growls are gone pleasant, courte- 
 ous replies are given to every order, slouchy, unkept 
 appearances have passed away, and clean gentleman- 
 ly manners are the present mode; the men march 
 erect and soldierly instead of shuffling along with 
 averted, downcast eyes; the general conduct as 
 shown by the monthly reports, has improved until 
 there is a minimum of infractions ; the discipline was 
 never administered as fairly, as humanely as at 
 present; and it is through the messages taught by 
 the entertainments embraced in the lyceum courses 
 that these changes have been brought about. Every 
 number has opened some new door of hope, some 
 new window to light, and the lessons learned have 
 changed the life courses of many of the men. New 
 ideals have been presented to eager seekers ; new 
 thoughts, and new truths and the influence has 
 always been for the betterment of the hearers, and 
 must effect a like result on the little folks who shall 
 come to the homes of these now wall-bound men in 
 after years. 
 
 "As every good seed must in time, if sown in 
 fertile soil, make fruitful return, so should every in- 
 telligent person recognize the potency of the inspir- 
 ing, uplifting mental and moral tone of clean, intel- 
 lectual entertainments such as have been served 
 by the lyceum entertainers who have appeared in 
 the. Iowa Penitentiary."
 
 116 Prison Problems 
 
 THE DEATH OF THE PRISON-POET. 
 
 The greatest responsibility that ever came into 
 my hands was placed there on August 20th, when I 
 received a letter from James Gorden Stell, the Prison 
 Poet of Fort Madison, Iowa, who a few days after 
 he had penned this letter was a corpse in that same 
 prison where he had served the State for four long 
 years, and let us hope that he served humanity 
 while he served the state, for his insight into those 
 forms of grief, remorse, suspicion, fears, hopes, joys, 
 dreams and despairs that are known only to the 
 man behind the bars will serve to awaken a new 
 interest in those Prison Problems that are every- 
 where calling for a new solution. 
 
 Here is the letter that made me sit up nights : 
 Read it. 
 "Dear Mr. High : 
 
 "Don't write 'finis' to your 'editorial introductory' 
 to 'Prison Problems' until after coming here and 
 seeing me. If I am sunk in here for good, as indi- 
 cations and observations appear, I want to make 
 this book do a lasting good. Evidence tends to 
 show it is the real cause of my being detained and 
 I am willing now to pay a price of years that I 
 can look back and say, with satisfactory solace in 
 elder times : 'It is well.' 
 
 " 'Prison Problems' is too good to be wasted. 
 Ideas like it do not come to men every day. Praise 
 to men of now may prove a punch to men of tomor- 
 row. We are Punch and Judys after all. But I 
 want my 'stunt' to be worth the entry fee. Actors
 
 Prison Problems 117 
 
 only visualize. One 'ok'd' today is condemned to- 
 morrow. Old Omar was a sensible warbler. But 
 his song was not dictated. He sang the 'faded 
 flower' uncaged. I am gloriously glad to lose my 
 years of usefulness for a worthy cause if that must 
 be the price. My sherbet is a sunset. 
 
 "Arrange to overnight here soon. Deduct ex- 
 penses from book. Maybe we can arrange a settle- 
 ment and I believe it is the only way out. The game 
 is worth the candle. So come out." 
 
 But where did the triple tragedy come in? Well, 
 the following is taken from a letter from Warden 
 Sanders and it speaks for itself: "Replying to yours 
 of the 29th will say that Stell stays out after Sun- 
 day school on Sunday afternoons to clean up the 
 chapel. The photograph room is immediately east 
 of the chapel. Stell broke into this room and got 
 about a pint of what he thought was grain alcohol, 
 but it was wood alcohol and denatured at that. He 
 drank some himself and passed it around to several 
 other prisoners. As a result three are dead, Stell, 
 Dimmitt, the celebrated negro singer, and Louis 
 Busse, a life man. Stell had relatives whom we 
 advised of his death and they requested us to bury 
 the body here as they did not want to come. Stell 
 was born and raised in Cedar Falls and his right 
 
 name was . His father and mother are 
 
 both living in Minnesota." 
 
 That Stell felt himself slipping away was evi- 
 denced from the following letter which was received 
 only a few weeks before his tragic exit from the 
 stage of action. "Some days ago I forwarded to 
 you a few subscribers (to Prison Problems), to help 
 the work along. My limitations are so narrow that
 
 118 Prison Problems 
 
 I can do very little. In regard to the tenor of 
 Mr. Russell's and Mr. Leavitt's articles, I would 
 state that I believe anything they may state can 
 do me no harm nor good. If my host of friends 
 can do nothing, I see no reason to think anything 
 can be done by pen. However, though conditions 
 in regard to Iowa parole laws need harsh treatment, 
 there is one man who has stood by me and whose 
 name can only be justly mentioned with praise 
 Warden J. C. Sanders, my friend. I would ask you 
 to observe that fact, because I would have nothing 
 said or done that would in any way reflect discredit- 
 ably to him or tend to injure his kindness toward 
 me. Other than he, you have my approval to rip 
 into vigorously, as I now feel I am doomed to do 
 my full time. 
 
 "If there were any such thing as recognition in 
 Iowa of worthy effort to 'be square' I should have 
 been given a chance long ago. As it is the records 
 prove that a large majority of the few paroles given 
 are granted the worst characters among us. We 
 have come to look upon the 'called and chosen' with 
 disgust and contempt. 
 
 "I speak from the depths of my heart when I 
 say, 'I would that Warden Sanders were in a posi- 
 tion to measure out justice to me and all in my 
 position in Iowa.' As you know, my case came up 
 in April for action after several months of 'stalling.' 
 I haven't a pen-scratch since then. Such delay 
 fills the insane ward and you need not be surprised 
 if I am among the future transferred. It is inevit- 
 able as I feel myself slipping mentally every day. 
 Of course, I am fighting it, but each day brings 
 some new fact of broken faith and unfairness that
 
 Prison Problems 119 
 
 cannot be forgotten. I have been here over four 
 years a greater crime than I committed to come 
 here! One thing is certain, I have made my last 
 effort to get out because I know it is useless." 
 
 Immediately after the sad tragedy that ended the 
 life of the author of many of the poems in this 
 volume of Prison Problems there was a whispered 
 suggestion to drop the volume, but those poor weak- 
 lings who are either moral cowards, or mere oppor- 
 tunists seem unable to comprehend the fact that 
 this volume was never undertaken to help an indi- 
 vidual, it is to serve a cause. That cause is the 
 lyceum, as a help in the moral uplift of the men 
 behind the bars. 
 
 It is only fair to James Gordon Stell to relate 
 that there are many who by letter and by conversa- 
 tion have vehemently urged that Stell and his com- 
 panions either committed suicide, or the poison was 
 not labeled, in which case it was criminal negligence, 
 and not a case of suicide. They hint that his death 
 was perhaps a greater tragedy than the world knows 
 aught of. 
 
 But whether these are mere suspicions or are 
 facts we have no way of knowing, for the secrets 
 of all prisons are locked up and I have not the key 
 to more than the outer entrance. 
 
 James Gordon Stell has finished his life work. 
 Peace to his memory may he, in a measure, serve 
 humanity even as did the thief who gave up his 
 life on the Cross, who little dreamt that when he 
 spoke the comforting words to the crucified Christ 
 that he had thereby brought a last ray of life and 
 hope to millions of despairing men and women.
 
 120 Prison Problems 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 There be music-makers sitting in the sun, 
 Writing of their longings, of their love and fun; 
 But if night come on them, and the heavens fall, 
 Could they utter music, would they write at all? 
 
 We, the music-makers who have written here, 
 Know of heaven's fallen, and the hopeless tear; 
 Sit we in the darkness, singing of the light, 
 Singing as if sunshine glowed in halls of night. 
 
 JOHN NULL.* 
 JAMES GORDON STELL.f 
 Fort Madison, Iowa. 
 
 Colored. 
 tDeceased.
 
 Prison Problems 121 
 
 DIVOECED BY BAES. 
 
 The peopled din of Toyland thrilled 
 
 With shoutings of a fight 
 Between a host forever killed, 
 
 And baby's marshalled might. 
 Small crooner, he, of griefs and joys, 
 
 When visioned Toyland warred; 
 Commander of the clashing toys, 
 
 Their Spirit and their Lord. 
 
 A man of tin fought in the van, 
 
 To many battles shoved, 
 And sheltered, like a dauntless man, 
 
 A doll that baby loved; 
 Till on his mystic world of things 
 
 Where life and death were one. 
 Where spools were either queens or kings, 
 
 There beamed the setting sun. 
 
 Its rays slid through the open door, 
 
 And, with a noiseless tread, 
 They stole across the littered floor, 
 
 To touch the baby's head ; 
 They kissed his chin, his lips, his face 
 
 Then baby ceased his play 
 And gazed toward that soundless space 
 
 Where slips the end of day. 
 
 And while he gazed, shop-whistles blew, 
 
 Then all the world was still, 
 And what did little baby do 
 
 But babble with a will;
 
 * 22 Prison Problems 
 
 "Daa-da turn! Daa-da turn!" 
 
 The little one had learned 
 That stilling of the "shops 'at hum" 
 
 Meant that his "dad" returned. 
 
 Then there were sounds of passing feet 
 
 While workmen clattered by; 
 And baby's face was wistful sweet, 
 
 And wide each watching eye, 
 He looked beyond the open door, 
 
 His flower-face upturned, 
 His toys unnoticed on the floor, 
 
 The pet tin soldier spurned. 
 
 While baby watched, the world went still ; 
 
 And baby's watch was vain, 
 His outward eager stare was crushed 
 
 By inward baby pain ; 
 And baby, with a trembling lip, 
 
 Eyes wondering and wide, 
 Eyes with great baby tears adrip, 
 
 Ran to his mother's side. 
 
 "Oh, mamma, where is dada dear? 
 
 He used to turn you know, 
 An' now he never does turn here, 
 
 An' oh, I want him so!" 
 Then baby's eyes grew wider yet 
 
 Those eyes of mist and blue 
 He saw his mother's face tear-wet, 
 
 And whispered, "So does oo!" 
 
 The selfsame tender rays that beamed 
 Upon the babe at play
 
 Prison Problems 123 
 
 Shone in the place where men blasphemed 
 
 The spirit and the clay; 
 They called this place a prison men 
 
 Who knew it none too well ; 
 But they who knew it said, "the pen" ; 
 
 And they with feelings, "hell." 
 
 And there was one left well alone 
 
 By every man within 
 This place defined by walls of stone, 
 
 This bounded place of sin; 
 He lived as one who has no plan, 
 
 No dream of manhood's worth 
 They said he hated God, and man, 
 
 Himself, and day, and earth. 
 
 They said (the wise ones in this place) 
 
 That he was dull and blind ; 
 That his line-marked and scowling face 
 
 Betrayed a brutal mind; 
 Yet, in the sun's departing flame, 
 
 I saw his face aglow, 
 I heard his strangled voice exclaim : 
 
 "I want my baby so!"
 
 124 Prison Problems 
 
 BACKWARD TO PULSELESS CLAY. 
 
 Four times upon an iron gong 
 
 The keeper swings with might; 
 Four times it cast a clanging song 
 
 Of farewell to the night; 
 The echoes lingered, loud and long, 
 
 Then came a flood of light; 
 And all the sleep-drowsed prison throng 
 
 Saw rest and dreams take flight. 
 
 Then came the tread of heavy men 
 
 And clang of bolt and key, 
 And bars crashed back, till each small pen 
 
 On flag and gallery 
 Belched forth its thing and closed again 
 
 To hide what men might see 
 The shameful hole for sleep (and then, 
 
 On to work's misery). 
 
 He heard the clanging morning call 
 
 And watched, with wistful eye, 
 To see the men far down the hall, 
 
 In grim files marching by. 
 He counted shadows on the wall, 
 
 And dumbly wondered why 
 He was alone and had lost all 
 
 That he must die must die. 
 
 His hours were haunted with weak fears, 
 
 And when he tried to sleep 
 His dreams were nightmared by past years, 
 
 And tortured shapes would creep
 
 Prison Problems 125 
 
 About his bed and taunt with sneers, 
 The thoughts that he would keep 
 
 Unread by men his doubts, his tears, 
 His horror, hidden deep. 
 
 Always he looked toward the west, 
 
 Beyond the fast-barred door, 
 As if his soul was on some quest 
 
 Not found in crime's red lore; 
 Or yet, as if the dark cowled Guest 
 
 Were due to tread the floor 
 And lure his soul unto that rest 
 
 Where sin comes nevermore. 
 
 A noon-high sun; a curious throng; 
 
 A breathless, guarded, way; 
 And shuffling steps that pass along 
 
 To where the gallows sway; 
 And he who was condemned for wrong, 
 
 Whose life the debt must pay, 
 Went bravely, in his heart a song, 
 
 Backward to pulseless clay. 
 
 WEAKNESS. 
 
 How old one is, how great or wise, 
 Count not a whit if he have fears; 
 
 And still he sees from childish eyes 
 If they be blurred by passioned tears.
 
 126 Prison Problems 
 
 FRUSTRATION. 
 
 I am about 
 
 To turn a page ; perhaps, or linger on a line 
 Of artful wit or jeweled thought that seems divine 
 When, by the Rule, but of no will or wish of 
 mine 
 
 "The Light goes out." 
 
 When man's about 
 
 To turn the page; when eager, straining eyes, 
 
 would scan 
 
 The mystery of Life or Death, of God and Man, 
 I wonder if according to a Power's plan 
 
 "The Light goes out?" 
 
 ABOVE, BEYOND. 
 
 The sun-kissed walls reflect their borrowed light; 
 
 Beyond them is the world ; above, the skies. 
 The sun-kissed walls are things of awful might 
 
 I may but look Beyond, Above, with eyes 
 
 That fill with tears. 
 
 I know that the Beyond with sweet perfume 
 
 Is bathed; there man and nature, hand in hand 
 
 As comrades, work to bring forth bud and bloom, 
 And multiply the life of sea and land 
 
 Through countless years. 
 
 What once were wounds in Nature's troubled breast 
 Now fruitful are with fields of ripened grain
 
 Prison Problems 127 
 
 That seem to s^ek, in sleep, a noonday rest 
 
 Or wait for death the reaper's might and main ; 
 
 The doom that nears. 
 
 Above is that great deep of blue, cloud-draped 
 And filled with more to marvel at than man 
 
 Has builded with his bungling hands or shaped 
 In greatest dreams : There is God's mighty plan 
 
 Of suns and spheres. 
 
 Above, Beyond all mine ! Yet, I must linger where 
 
 The walls forbid the pathways that my feet 
 Would tread or my soul, in pathless air, 
 
 Would find and go to speak, glad, strong, com- 
 plete, 
 
 To God's wise ears. 
 
 Debarred from what is mine Beyond, Above! 
 
 God will that I may claim my own, may roam 
 On, on, away from walls and bars, till love 
 
 Has whispered to my soul: This is your home; 
 
 Have done with tears. 
 
 BRAVELY AND WELL. 
 
 Bring out your trophies from closet and chest 
 A sword, a gun, or a faded blue vest, 
 
 A moth-eaten blanket, a bullet-torn flag, 
 An old rusty buckle hid in a bag. 
 
 Then stand (if you can) and tell (as you may) 
 Of why tomorrow is Memorial Day.
 
 128 Prison Problems 
 
 Rebs to the left of us, Rebs to the right of us, 
 Rebs to the front of us, shooting like hell ! 
 
 None to the rear of us, God saw the fight of us, 
 Helped us to battle them bravely and well. 
 
 Soldier, Gray soldier, you fought with despair; 
 
 Where are the honors and glories you share? 
 What of the house that, divided, must fall? 
 
 What of the Watcher that guarded you all? 
 What of the words and what can you say 
 
 Of why tomorrow is Memorial Day? 
 
 Yanks to the left of us, Yanks to the right of us, 
 Yanks to the front of us, shooting like hell! 
 
 Yanks to the rear of us, crushing the might of us, 
 God helped us battle them bravely and well. 
 
 Soldiers, my soldiers, your battles are done ! 
 
 What, when the vanquished and victor are one? 
 What when the fields, once spattered with red, 
 
 Now peaceful are with green o'er the dead ? 
 To Man of the Gray, and Man of the Blue, 
 
 This is your comfort that you were true, 
 This be your glory the Master will say 
 
 "Bravely and Well" on Memorial Day. 
 
 Peace to the left of you, peace to the right of you, 
 Peace all around you has woven her spell, 
 
 God over all of you, He saw the fight of you, 
 Helped you to battle, men, bravely and well.
 
 Prison Problems 129 
 
 RESIGNATION. 
 
 The twilight's gray enshrouds me, 
 
 A prison cell entombs, 
 The hate of life beclouds me, 
 
 Mine is the gloom of glooms; 
 Yet, by some necromancy 
 
 My thoughts are led astray 
 Down paths of flowered fancy 
 
 To You and Yesterday. 
 
 Why do you come to haunt me 
 
 With dream-born face aglow, 
 With eyes that ever taunt me 
 
 With joys I used to know? 
 Past pleasures waken sorrow, 
 
 My hopes are crumbled clay, 
 So grief is all I borrow 
 
 From what is Yesterday. 
 
 Fade back into the essence 
 
 Wherefrom your glory came! 
 Back with your taunting presence 
 
 And leave me to my shame! 
 My longing, dear, I banish, 
 
 I dare not bid you stay! 
 With dawn my dreams must vanish, 
 
 And You and Yesterday.
 
 130 Prison Problems 
 
 A QUESTION BROTHER! 
 
 How would you like to wear such clothes 
 
 Where such clothes are the style, 
 With stripes like these and stripes like those 
 
 That run 'round all the while, 
 That circle 'round and 'round one's frame, 
 
 Until the ugly rings 
 Wind one so close to one's own shame 
 
 That to the shame he clings? 
 
 Oh, yes, I know that ancient saw, 
 
 "Clothes cannot make a man." 
 It's not by words but common law, 
 
 It's not by saws, but plan, 
 That nature makes or nature mars 
 
 Both soul and plastic clay, 
 And ugly stripes make ugly scars 
 
 That mark the shamed alway. 
 
 Say, if you wore such clothes as these, 
 
 Would you feel like a man 
 A pulsing life with one long lease 
 
 On God's eternal plan? 
 Could you breathe deep in noble pride 
 
 And call the Great One, good, 
 His mercy sweet, His power wide, 
 
 His kindness understood? 
 
 If you would pray, how would your speech 
 
 Untangle from these stripes? 
 How could your noblest yearnings reach 
 
 Beyond each ring that gripes,
 
 Prison Problems 131 
 
 Not flesh alone, but hopes and dreams 
 
 And all your heart may feel, 
 How could you look beyond this scheme 
 
 Of stripes and stone and steel? 
 
 One cannot be a man and wear 
 
 His sorrow on his breast! 
 One cannot be a man and bear 
 
 His longings, half expressed! 
 And, can one be a man at all 
 
 Held by these stripes of shame, 
 Entomed behind a prison's wall, 
 
 A number for a name? 
 
 SUPPLICATION. 
 
 Tell me if the half-infernal 
 
 Are denied the heavenly home 
 
 Is the brand of sin eternal? 
 
 Must the earth-marked ever roam? 
 
 Do the angels, ever seeking, 
 Meet the crimson at the door 
 
 Welcome blood, and in their greeting, 
 Make it clean forevermore? 
 
 Read me, O ye Wise One, read me! 
 
 Pierce me with all-seeing eye 
 Rend my heart and soul, if need be ! 
 
 Answer me then, let me die.
 
 132 Prison Problems 
 
 BEYOND THE BARS. 
 
 Beyond the bars my tired, straining eyes 
 
 Look out upon a garden no hands shaped, 
 That seems to mirror back to sapphire skies 
 
 In various shades of green and gold, the hills 
 
 flower-draped 
 With nature's gorgeous splendor, perfect planned ; 
 
 And thru its very heart earth's greatest stream, 
 Burdened with the harvest of the land 
 
 Rushes, on and on, but I must wait and dream 
 Beyond the Bars! 
 
 Beyond the bars the call of life I hear, 
 
 The luring voices echo day and night, 
 From that free world I ever love and fear, 
 
 Which ever hideous bars mask from my sight. 
 I know that all my dearest hopes are there, 
 
 Those child-pure dreams in which sin has no part; 
 Of men that win the love of women fair 
 
 And Truth and Justice are I nurse my bruised 
 
 Heart 
 Beyond the Bars. 
 
 Beyond the bars I feel that I may go 
 
 Some future day and claim my native right 
 To toil and earn a Free-man's wage, and know 
 
 The thrill that comes with free, unfettered sight 
 Of earth and sky. And, oh, the greatest hope to me 
 
 Is to forget forever that this plan 
 Of walls and bars and all its misery 
 
 Is but the scheme of heartless, greedy man 
 Beyond the Bars.
 
 Prison Problems 133 
 
 Beyond the bars I count each passing day 
 
 And sadly watch the fairest flowers fade ; 
 The reddest rose has paled to a deep gray, 
 
 And green has taken on a yellowish shade; 
 The mighty river shrinks, and dim the early stars 
 
 Twinkle and disappear; with tired eyes, alone, 
 I watch and wait and know, beyond life's bars 
 
 There is no thought of steel or walls of stone, 
 Beyond the Bars. 
 
 THE CRUCIBLE. 
 
 A child-man came complaining to 
 
 The stalwart God of sin, 
 Came with a plea unto the throne 
 
 Where none may mercy win. 
 
 "Oh, Satan, dear," he weakly cried, 
 
 "My punishment is great! 
 I ask you, beg you for relief 
 
 From this, my low estate?" 
 
 "Whence come you, Thing, that you can shrink 
 
 From tortures Hell may hold? 
 From earth ! Indeed, I thought that world 
 
 Spewed phantoms tough and bold." 
 
 "How can an earth-tried spirit come 
 
 To Hell and feel its pain? 
 I think you're shamming get, you Thing 
 
 Into the flames again."
 
 134 Prison Problems 
 
 THE PAST. 
 
 I am the past, the evil, the fiend of leering gaze, 
 The shape you dare not question, the ghost of 
 traveled ways; 
 
 I am that which you have hidden 
 
 But shall ever come unbidden, 
 
 To break the peace of solitude 
 
 And make you curse your days. 
 
 Wherever you may wander, your heart is mine to 
 
 guide ; 
 However bold your features, you'll fear me at your 
 
 side; 
 
 Though with men you may decry me 
 Or by silence may deny me, 
 You know my scorn can sear your soul 
 And blast your lofty pride. 
 
 The tenderer your conscience, the deeper sinks my 
 
 sting; 
 The dearer be your visions, the closer shall I cling; 
 
 I, that poison love and beauty, 
 
 I, who threaten hope and duty, 
 
 Shall make you writhe and know yourself 
 
 A doubting, craven thing. 
 
 I give a sickly pallor to what you dare to do; 
 I make your blood and honor and faith to flow un- 
 true ; 
 
 I flay, then turn and taunt you, 
 
 By night or day I haunt you 
 
 To goad you on unceasingly 
 
 From ancient grief to new.
 
 Prison Problems 135 
 
 I am the past, the evil; I smite you with a rod; 
 Upon your soul I trample, my feet are iron-shod ; 
 
 I shall jeer you ever, ever, 
 
 Shall forsake you never, never, 
 
 Shall go with you to the end 
 
 And mock you by your God. 
 
 BLOOM-TIDE. 
 
 Far to the East, and high, a flush of gold ; 
 
 Below, the earth-lines merge in black and gray; 
 Then, as the night-mists stir and float away 
 
 On perfumed breezes up from the dew-starred 
 
 mold 
 A myriad melodies are flung; earth-bold 
 
 They echo on and on. New buds and bloom dis- 
 play 
 Their glory proudly. Sun-pulsed comes the Day 
 
 And Man and Beast awake. Man, up! Behold, 
 Gone is the winter, and enthroned is Spring 
 
 Forever gone those cheerless cloud-tombed hours 
 Of yesterday. Arise, and swell the tune 
 
 Of kindled life until the echoes ring 
 Up to the sky, so He, who planned the flowers 
 
 And all, may hear your gratitude for June. 
 
 EFFICIENCY. 
 
 Life is but loss, and from it all 
 
 He gains the most who takes the best ; 
 
 Who looks for neither rise nor fall 
 But loves his doing for its test.
 
 136 Prison Problems 
 
 THE BALANCE. 
 
 On fancy's height in castled dream 
 I tried to build both strong and well ; 
 
 Beyond the night I saw the gleam, 
 That brought far heaven to my cell. 
 
 I wrought to score my humble name 
 In other than the sands of time, 
 
 To turn to gold the dross of shame 
 That law grinds out of common crime. 
 
 So I was free; each prison bar 
 
 Was spaced for me as star to star; 
 
 The muted silence of the cell 
 
 Held naught but flesh within its spell. 
 
 Now pause I near the iron-jawed gate 
 I would go singing on my way 
 
 Leap from this rock-ribbed pit of hate 
 Free both in spirit and in clay. 
 
 Yet, hesitant, I look beyond 
 
 For that which is, means much to me, 
 I weigh the worthy hearts here found 
 
 Against the heart I'll find when free. 
 
 And lo, the balance tells me not 
 
 Which weigh the more this sin-bruised lot, 
 Or those with sins, brought not to light, 
 
 Who dwell beyond this house of night !
 
 Prison Problems 137 
 
 LAHK I NEVAH CARE. 
 
 Always trouble, trouble, hoodoos evahwhere! 
 So Ah keep ah-movin' lahk Ah nevah care. 
 
 Soldjah in de battle, bullets flyin' fas' 
 
 Dohn waste time ah-duckin', hopin' 'at he'll las'. 
 
 Soldjah mighty busy lahk he nevah care; 
 Ain't no time foh dodgin', bullets evahwhere. 
 
 See de debil comin', ain't no use toh run, 
 He kin do de hot-foot, beat yoh jes foh fun. 
 
 Bettah stan' an' face 'im, lahk yoh nevah care; 
 Boun' toh get yoh sometime, debil's evahwhere. 
 
 Ef de sun ain't shinin', guess it shine some day; 
 Dohn b'lieve it nohow, sun kin go toh stay. 
 
 Whistle froo de dahkness lahk Ah nevah care; 
 Ain't no use in mournin' dahkness evahwhere. 
 
 Scholar mans dey tell me dat the worl' am roun'; 
 Can't side-step from off it, dohn care where yoh 
 boun'. 
 
 Spec dah's tears an' heart-aches mos'ly evahwhere, 
 So Ah totes mah trouble lahk Ah nevah care.
 
 138 Prison Problems 
 
 LYIN' IN DE SHADE. 
 
 Breezy on de margins, breezy all within, 
 
 Feel lahk God's foun' me, took ahway mah sin. 
 
 Bobolink ah-singin' "Phu tu-weet! tu-weet!" 
 Sunshine jas ah-sizzlin' ovah yondah wheat. 
 
 Wondah if Ah's lazy layin' in de shade, 
 Lookin' at de beauty dat de Lord's made? 
 
 Sunny on de margins, sunshine ovah all 
 Feel lahk God's nevah made ah man toh fall. 
 
 All de worl' am callin' askin' me toh dine, 
 Hush dah! Heah de cohnfiel'? "Brudder, won't yoh 
 jine?" 
 
 Leaves ah rustlin', rustlin', jes 's if dey say, 
 "Cohn am mighty lushus bout dis time o' day." 
 
 Yondah watah-millyun Golly ! how he grin ! ! 
 See de stripes ah winkin' lahk de eyes of sin. 
 
 Guess Ah go on farther, can't stay heah at all ! 
 By 'm by its darker, den Ah'll make a call. 
 
 Rooster he am crowin', "Ut-et-uu ! et-uuu !" 
 Wondah ef he's tellin' what Ah's gwine toh do? 
 
 Bet a silvah dollah rooster'll fin' de pot 
 Wen de night am sulky, an' de watah hot.
 
 Prison Problems 139 
 
 Howdy, Massah Johnson! Howdy, Massah Ted! 
 Wha dat? Massah Johnson! Heah each word Ah 
 said? 
 
 Lordy, Massah Johnson, Ah jes' makes b'lieve 
 Dat Ah makes up p'otry, da's all, jes' b'lieve. 
 
 Golly ! dat a close un ! Won't ask dem toh jine 
 Wen de meal am ready, w'en de things am mine. 
 
 JUNE. 
 
 When you see me listen, no one near at all, 
 June from breezy hilltops sends a throaty call. 
 
 Should I wear a stare and grin that's near sublime. 
 Know my soul is outward with the hymning-time? 
 
 If you hear me singing in a wordless croon, 
 Know my heart is talking to the heart of June. 
 
 June, the merry maiden, tiptoe in her glee, 
 Calling, calling, calling to the heart of me! 
 
 June and I have heard her ! That's the reason why 
 I am looking outward, upward to the sky. 
 
 June she courts a fellow as a maiden should 
 Brings so much of glory that she makes him good. 
 
 Never yields a promise ; hers are simply deeds 
 Gifts of love and kindness things a fellow needs.
 
 140 Prison Problems 
 
 Pansies for his garden, daisies for the field, 
 Clover in the open, violets concealed. 
 
 Juicy fruits for hunger when the day star gleams, 
 Scented breeze for kisses, spangled shade for dreams. 
 
 Like a vestal virgin, that is what she is 
 Knowing not, nor caring, what be hers or his. 
 
 Giving all for nothing if your heart be young 
 And you come to woo her with a singing tongue. 
 
 Oh, to be a laddie just to go along 
 
 Up to knees in clover, heaven-high in song! 
 
 Oh, to be a laddie with a soul of worth 
 Careless of the import of the heedless earth! 
 
 There would be no shadow hung between the sun 
 And the unblazed pathway that my life must run. 
 
 There would be no straining of the weary mind 
 For a faint reflection of the joys behind. 
 
 Living would be pleasure, summer would be joy 
 That's enough of import for a healthy boy. 
 
 June would be a present from the very throne, 
 Sent by the Great Father for my very own. 
 
 There would be no blackness at the hour of noon 
 Were I but a laddie and afield with June. 
 
 Little pagan lordling, singing in the sun, 
 
 I would live, not pray it, "Lord, thy will be done."
 
 Prison Problems 141 
 
 DE COOPAH-BONE. 
 
 Ah has ah premonition 
 
 Wha' dat ! why, say yoh fool, 
 What am de tings dey teach yoh 
 
 Up in dat prison school? 
 Ah premonition's sumfin' 
 
 A talkin' in yoh eah 
 Erbout ah ting toh happen 
 
 Befoh de ting am heah. 
 Ah has ah premonition 
 
 Dat on T'anksgibin' day 
 Ah'll prance in foh mah dinnah, 
 
 An' Ah'll be feelin' gay. 
 Ah'll sit down toh de table, 
 
 An' den Ah know Ah'll groan 
 Mah premonition tells me 
 
 Dar'll be no coopah-bone. 
 Mos' any part of turkey 
 
 Am worth yoh while toh eat, 
 But, u-um! foh juicy sweetness 
 
 De coopah's hard to beat. 
 An' Ah jes feels it, Buddy 
 
 Mah dice of fate am thrown 
 Ah'll round up on dat dinnah 
 
 An' miss de coopah-bone. 
 Now dohn yoh t'ink Ah'm kickin', 
 
 Foh Ah, Ah t'inks lahk dis: 
 No bit of use toh grumble 
 
 At all de tings yoh miss. 
 It's bes' toh grin at sorrow 
 
 Or leave yoh fate alone, 
 Although on all T'anksgibins 
 
 Yoh miss de coopah-bone.
 
 142 Prison Problems 
 
 KOLLIN' DE BONES. 
 
 Seben come 'leben roll 'long bones! 
 
 Hop-pah dice an-ah git 'im ! 
 Done throwed eight roll on bones ! 
 
 Hop-pah dice an-ah hit 'im ! 
 Little Jo! an-ah dime Ah come 
 
 (Fade me, fellah, quick!) 
 Money heah an-ah sure git some 
 
 (Ride me, fellah, quick!) 
 Di-se-dice an-ah hit 'im hard ! 
 
 Roll up seben an-ah bim 'im hard ! 
 Down in Georgia come again 
 Mama's due on de railroad train. 
 Big Dick dat? u-um Lordy Lord! 
 Hit 'im dice an-ah hit 'im hard! 
 Baby want ah-new shoes, 
 Baby want ah-new shoes 
 Eighty days an-ah great Big Dick! 
 
 Eighty git dat money quick 
 Hop-pah dice, an-ah Richard come! 
 Hop-pah dice, an-ah hit dat bum! 
 Hi yi Dice ! jes roll 'im dumb ! 
 
 Dice-ee-dice an-ah Richard come! 
 Eight she is! Dat's rollin' some! 
 
 Dime Ah Play. 
 
 TOH MAKE DE HOODOO GET. 
 
 Ef yoh shud go ah-walkin' 
 
 Aneath de open sky 
 Jes w'en de moon am drunk'n 
 
 An' not ah soul am nigh,
 
 Prison Problems 143 
 
 An' heah de night-owls hootin' 
 Jes lahk dey wuz toh die ; 
 An' heah de bullfrogs tootin' 
 
 An' yoh dat skeart yoh'd fly 
 Jes stop an' fin' yoh shadder, 
 
 Den mahk jes whar it stays, 
 Den stomp yoh feet upon it 
 
 An' cross yoh hands dis ways, 
 Den bow tohwahds er medder, 
 
 An' turn right whar yoh stand, 
 An' den, why, den doggone it! 
 
 Jes run toh beat de band ! 
 De hoodo den cahn't catch yoh 
 
 Jes run toh beat de band. 
 
 ECSTACY. 
 
 Voices in de tree-tops 
 
 Wen de breezes pass, 
 Whispers in de cohnfiel' 
 
 An' de humble grass. 
 What yoh 'spec dey's sayin- 
 
 Grass an' cohn an' tree?- 
 Sayin', Miss Lucinda 
 
 Gave her love toh me ! 
 
 Sunshine on de meadow, 
 
 On de hill an' wood 
 Jes ah golden glory 
 
 Dat am berry good. 
 Why yoh tink it's shinin' 
 
 Lahk it nevah shone? 
 Shinin' kase Lucinda 
 
 Said she'll be mah own.
 
 144 Prison Problems 
 
 REFORMED. 
 
 Ah hasn't jined no Temp'rance but 
 
 Ah's cut de licker out, 
 An' knows exactly why Ah has 
 
 An' jes' what Ah's erbout; 
 Ah's lahk de man de Good Book says 
 
 Declared de worl' is vain 
 Bekase he couldn't fin' ah way 
 
 Toh cheer his soul again. 
 
 Dey's hit mah solah plexus wif 
 
 Ah legal uppah-cut, 
 Dey's put me where de licker talk 
 
 Dohn have no if an' but ; 
 Dere's iron bars aroun' me 
 
 An' great thick walls of stone 
 Ah hasn't jined no Temp'rance but 
 
 Ah leaves de drink alone. 
 
 RAPTURE. 
 
 Nachur in de mornin' 
 
 Toots ah golden fife, 
 Keeps yohr feet ah-dancin' 
 
 Toh de song of Life. 
 Asks yoh, "Is yoh livin' " 
 
 On de edge of tings, 
 So yoh dasn't nevah 
 
 Cut no pigeonwings ?"
 
 Prison Problems 145 
 
 Nachur chuckles "Howdy," 
 
 Den she plays ah tune 
 Jes as ef she nevah 
 
 Knew ah ting but June. 
 Mebbe yoh dohn hear her, 
 
 Mebbe yoh dohn care 
 Bless me! Yoh's foolish 
 
 As er crazy hare. 
 
 Mebbe Ah hears music 
 
 From de Ian' an' sea 
 Kase Ah love Lucinda 
 
 An' de gal loves me. 
 
 BETROSPECTION. 
 
 A streak of dun and dusty road, 
 
 A ragged patch of green, 
 A bit of blue that God has sowed 
 
 Till tree-tops intervene. 
 A little gray, unpainted shed 
 
 The branches strive to screen 
 Ashamed, the thing has backward fled, 
 
 Like humble work and mean. 
 
 A corner of a house before, 
 
 A trellis by my side 
 This is the spot which I adore, 
 
 This is the "world so wide." 
 Beneath the trees a hammock swings 
 
 With whisperings by my side, 
 I sway into remembered springs 
 
 But God ! Oh, God ! she died.
 
 146 Prison Problems 
 
 SONNET I. 
 
 How now? Give thanks! This is Thanksgiving 
 
 day. 
 
 What are the mercies that have been bestowed 
 On us? When has our "Cup of Life" o'erflowed 
 
 That we should seek for words our thanks to say? 
 Go, friend, and offer thanks, if you have sowed 
 And reaped ; go, thank Him for the precious load 
 
 The harvest-fields have yielded ; go, obey 
 
 The promptings of your gladdened souls, and pray. 
 
 The scorching noonday suns, the bootless quest 
 In famine-stricken fields ; hands filled with chaff 
 With which to feed our souls now hungered 
 long 
 
 And ever, ever, seeking and unrest 
 
 These are the joys we find upon our path; 
 For these you ask a grateful prayer or song! 
 
 SONNET H. 
 
 "Oh, If we come," you plead, "just come and pray 
 Unto the One whose kindly grace will heal 
 The aching heart, the bruise we would conceal, 
 
 The fever of the woe that burns alway 
 
 Then would we learn how sweet it is to feel 
 Ourselves made glad how good it is to kneel 
 
 And from a humble, grateful heart to say: 
 
 'Dear Lord, all life is one Thanksgiving day.' "
 
 Prison Problems 147 
 
 Yes, if we come as long-ago we came 
 
 And knelt and folded little hands and said 
 "Now I lay." You, perhaps, may come like this 
 
 And, child-pure, whisper in the Father's name, 
 But friends, our white-robed innocence is dead, 
 We have no thanks to give for what we miss. 
 
 SONNET 
 
 BEHOLD, we come. Half-ashamed, we bend a knee 
 To render thanks for what our hearts may find 
 Is worth our gratitude. Half-shamed, tear-blind, 
 
 And faint from longing, Lord, to pray to Thee: 
 We thank Thee that all men are less unkind 
 Than men could be. We thank Thee that the grind 
 
 Of life has sometimes spared the weak ; that destiny 
 
 Holds hope, and slaves may dream of days to be. 
 
 Dear Lord, our shredded lives are splashed with 
 
 tears 
 
 We cannot read the writing on the wall ; 
 We walked with want upon a lonesome way 
 With memories clinging to those famished years; 
 Yet, Lord, we thank Thee, though remembering 
 
 all, 
 That others have a bright Thanksgiving day. 
 
 SONNET IV. 
 
 Within the prison place, where grievous rules 
 Deny the right of one to sing aloud 
 Or voice in trembling words the thoughts that 
 crowd
 
 148 Prison Problems 
 
 The mind which longs for speech with brother 
 
 fools 
 
 Within the bounded space where men are dumb 
 Or talk with guarded lip and cautious eye, 
 I learn that many are who overcome 
 The things that bid the soul of song to die. 
 
 I know not how or why this truth should be ; 
 I only know that he whose heart is filled 
 With strains of eloquence from earth and sea 
 
 And vagrant ways, escapes much misery; 
 He holds in keep a music rarely stilled, 
 And from the law he hates, is often free. 
 
 SONNET V. 
 
 Hold back the curtain for one moment, Death, 
 And let me gaze into your mystic land 
 Of silence. Let me but see the hand 
 
 Of God record eternity. A breath 
 
 Is life, and I would know, would understand 
 What means this little breath that we command. 
 
 If it mean much, I beg a shibboleth 
 
 A pass to Death, and to return from Death. 
 
 So pleaded poets, seers of bygone days, 
 
 When men could hope to wake a world with song 
 Or read the scroll that time holds ever furled. 
 
 My children, heed : We needs must go the ways 
 Of Life and Death, must go, both right and 
 
 wrong ; 
 If you would see and know behold the world.
 
 Prison Problems 149 
 
 SONNET VI. 
 
 MY FATHER, Lord, why should I call to Thee 
 With wild, impassioned pleas, for strength or 
 
 light 
 Or aid or grace? I look into the night, 
 
 And love, thy love is there and it is free ; 
 
 And eyes of faith can read the words I write: 
 "Mine is the hope about thy soul. By might 
 
 Of mine, and love for Thee, is held in fee 
 
 Eternity." This is enough for me. 
 
 So, Lord, I have no little prayer to say, 
 
 Nor plaint to make for change in anything 
 Which Thou hast made, and men call right or 
 
 wrong, 
 At times I start to murmur at the day 
 
 But, 'tween the heart and lips which call Thee 
 
 King, 
 The words that I would say are turned to song. 
 
 THE LASKEY. 
 
 They talked of him and said : "He tries 
 
 To be a faithful man" ; 
 They did not know his deeds were lies 
 
 He cursed them while he ran. 
 
 Yet, they who ruled approved of him ; 
 
 For power has no plan 
 Nor ways to get beyond the rim 
 
 Of man and to the man.
 
 150 Prison Problems 
 
 FAME'S COURIER. 
 
 Awake ! 
 
 The dawn is here! 
 And day waits near; 
 
 Make haste 
 Each moment lost 
 But swells the cost 
 
 Of waste; 
 
 Shake off the dreams of ancient schemes- 
 Awake ! 
 
 Awake ! 
 
 Up, lead the race 
 At such a pace 
 Men smile 
 Or cheer your aim 
 And shout your name 
 
 Worth while 
 To idly wait or hesitate? 
 Awake ! 
 
 Awake ! 
 
 Come, stake your all 
 For rise or fall ; 
 
 A guess? 
 No! For the man 
 Who leads the van, 
 
 Success 
 
 Waits to proclaim his honored name! 
 Awake !
 
 Prison Problems 151 
 
 SPBINGL 
 
 I sing of Spring! 
 
 But prison walls surround me, 
 
 The prison gloom is mine, 
 My brooding thoughts have bound me 
 To seasons where the wine 
 
 Of Spring 
 Is not a draught divine. 
 
 To sing of Spring? 
 
 With petty rules to trouble 
 
 The souls that mourn alone. 
 With cold, dead hopes that double 
 The chilling crush of stone 
 
 Of Spring? 
 When freedom lacks a throne! 
 
 To sing of Spring? 
 
 To chant in tuneful measures 
 
 Of life by laughter led, 
 When all of earth's young pleasures 
 Are dying or are dead ! 
 
 Of Spring? 
 When youth is dead ! 
 
 To sing of Spring 
 
 The heart and mind must answer 
 The speech of birds and grass, 
 Must be a gay romancer 
 Of miracles which pass 
 
 Of Springs 
 That come and pass.
 
 152 Prison Problems 
 
 SHADOWS. 
 
 I see gray shadows climb a hill 
 
 And sway toward the west; 
 I hear a song bird's plaintive trill, 
 
 He calls his mate to rest; 
 Warm breezes, cloyed with rose perfume, 
 
 Sigh soft from shrub to tree; 
 The sun sinks slowly to its tomb 
 
 Of time beyond the sea. 
 
 Just where the sun's last molten ray 
 
 Burns red across the brine, 
 And rose-hued shines upon the bay 
 
 So water glows like wine; 
 Two lovers in a boat adrift 
 
 Are blended with the scene, 
 And through a cloud-bank's narrow rift 
 
 They view their soul's demesne. 
 
 Soft lights, soft grays, and dreaming love: 
 
 "Oh," sighed I, "earth is fair ! 
 And hearts beat warm ; is God above 
 
 Always to curb despair?" 
 And then I turned ; my heart went sore ; 
 
 Where day was whelmed by night, 
 I saw an old man bowed before 
 
 A tombstone's ghastly white.
 
 Prison Problems 153 
 
 A FOOL'S ART. 
 
 Music? No, friend, I can't pretend 
 
 To know a thing about it; 
 But I revere its noisy cheer 
 
 Whenever children shout it. 
 Just boys and girls in shifting whirls 
 
 And streaks of play and laughter, 
 That seems to me like music free 
 
 The kind that God looks after. 
 
 A dirty face, without a trace 
 
 Of beauty as you see it 
 Can be a sight that's lined aright 
 
 By Art as masters see it. 
 Perhaps your creed and mine may need 
 
 To clash a bit together; 
 Artistic joys and girls and boys 
 
 Alive in any weather. 
 
 A little girl can set awhirl 
 
 My scanty hopes of heaven; 
 I hear her laugh and fail to scoff 
 
 And Lord ! She's only seven. 
 I don't despise the chunks of cries 
 
 And pudgy bits of trouble; 
 A baby's squall is never all 
 
 Its "goo" is pleasure double. 
 
 I'm just a fool of nary school 
 With little time for preachers 
 
 Don't need to look in any book 
 When wee folks are the teachers.
 
 154 Prison Problems 
 
 They're book enough, and tame or rough, 
 When one has learned to love them; 
 
 The slicked-up head, the tousled head 
 God guide the fools above them! 
 
 Oh, yes, I pray ; that's all I say : 
 "Make wise the fools above them!" 
 
 'Tis only fair that He should care 
 I can't do more than love them. 
 
 MEMORIES. 
 
 The new morn's sun, across the way, 
 
 Had turned night's tears to gold, 
 And blazed a path for blushing day 
 
 Across the dew-wet mold, 
 When I, with prison bars between 
 
 My earth, heaven, and hell, 
 Gazed out upon the rise of green 
 
 That lies before my cell. 
 
 A fair-haired boy of tender years 
 
 Romped on the velvet sod, 
 And as I gazed forbidden tears 
 
 Welled in my eyes and, God! 
 The morn, the child, the slope of green, 
 
 The sunlight's mellow glow, 
 Recalled to me a memoried scene, 
 
 And joys I used to know. 
 
 The memoried scene was of my youth, 
 My childhood, and my play,
 
 Prison Problems 155 
 
 When all my paths were paved with truth, 
 
 When life was ever gay; 
 When I, a child, unspoiled, unstained, 
 
 Dreamed life was but a song 
 But now Ah, now by sin profaned, 
 
 I know the price of wrong! 
 
 I steeled my heart (the night I came 
 
 Within the prison gate) 
 To pay my debt with voiceless shame, 
 
 To stifle love with hate; 
 To still my sobs, my hopes, my fears, 
 
 But when I saw that child, 
 I welcomed back love, hope, and tears, 
 
 I mourned, and, mourning, smiled. 
 
 GKACELESS. 
 
 To lie in a convict graveyard, 
 
 To mix with the graceless dead 
 No word of glory near me? 
 
 No marble above my head? 
 But there is the earth around me, 
 
 The arch of the sky above, 
 And how can a sculptured marble 
 
 Be sign of a greater love? 
 
 I smile at your words of pity, 
 For what is a stone to one 
 
 Asleep in the breast of nature 
 With all of his toiling done?
 
 156 Prison Problems 
 
 OPTIMIST'S MORNING SONG. 
 
 With joyful heart bid night depart, 
 
 Then greet 
 
 The victor, Fate, across the gate 
 Where manly toil wins honest spoil, 
 
 Life's sweet, 
 Cursed by no debt of dull regret, 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Blot out the thought that life has brought 
 
 But pain; 
 
 Forget the scars, the falls, the jars, 
 The foolish fears of woeful years 
 
 All vain! 
 And sing in praise of better days, 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Go breathe the air that's free from care 
 
 Or wrong; 
 
 And let your heart its joy impart 
 In kindly smiles, in laughing whiles, 
 
 In song 
 In heart-whole cheer for what is here, 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Arise ! 
 
 Oh, man or maid be not afraid 
 
 Of day, 
 
 Give it your youth, your soul of truth, 
 Your fearless life and reckon strife as play, 
 
 Arise !
 
 Prison Problems 157 
 
 THE KING'S CEY. 
 
 I saw a king the other day 
 
 I know he was a king, 
 Because he went along his way 
 
 As proud as anything. 
 His step so light, "his eyes so bright 
 
 And full of mischief-laughter, 
 So puzzled me, I turned to see 
 
 His court a-coming after. 
 
 But no; the king was all alone, 
 
 His troubles far behind; 
 There was no pomp to make him groan, 
 
 No flattery to blind. 
 All by himself, a trousered elf 
 
 So filled with his own glory 
 That I could read (and had no need 
 
 Of book to learn his story). 
 
 "The king," I mused, "is glad because 
 
 He's lost his court of clowns 
 The funny folk who make his laws, 
 
 And lord it in his towns. 
 He's now about " just then a shout 
 
 Came from the kingly rover. 
 And what he said sings in my head : 
 
 "Hey, Billy! School is over!" 
 
 ENERGY. 
 
 The uplift man is always one 
 Who's sawing fit to bust; 
 
 Who works as if he surely knows 
 That Rest is only Rust.
 
 158 Prison Problems 
 
 IN DEEAMS. 
 
 In dreams your eyes peer into mine, 
 
 In dreams I see you yet, 
 The loving one I should resign, 
 
 The maid I would forget. 
 
 You seem as young, as sweet, and fair 
 
 As when long years ago 
 I smoothed your wealth of tangled hair, 
 
 And kissed you so, and so. 
 
 We wander on a sunlit day 
 And come to hills and streams; 
 
 You gather violets by the way, 
 I watch you in my dreams. 
 
 Your curving cheek, a wisp of hair 
 
 That flutters in the breeze, 
 Your mingled, shy and care-free air, 
 
 I note such things as these. 
 
 Why must these prison halls be filled 
 
 With meadows, sunlit, wide? 
 Why should I be so strangely thrilled 
 
 When you are at my side? 
 
 Long since I wrote beneath my fate: 
 
 "Let love and longing die," 
 Yet, breathlessly, and, dear, too late, 
 
 I watch you passing by.
 
 Prison Problems 159 
 
 With wistful eyes I look again 
 
 To value love's sweet cost, 
 Nor can I make my heart refrain 
 
 From longing for the lost. 
 
 The vision fades and, lo! I sit 
 
 Within my prison cell 
 Where sorrows wait, and evils flit 
 
 Between my heart and Hell. 
 
 And yet, because I dreamed of you, 
 
 And walked where once we trod, 
 I nearer am to love, the true, 
 
 I closer am to God. 
 
 IDOL OF LOVE. 
 
 The Idol of love lies broken, 
 
 Its ruins are here at my feet 
 Kisses, and each joyous token 
 
 That once made worshipping sweet; 
 Soul, and a love-light tender 
 
 That beamed for me in her eyes ; 
 Hope, and a dear dream's splendor 
 
 Dead, and unworthy of sighs. 
 
 Idol of fire and glory, 
 
 Crumbled as time crumbles clay! 
 God ! and I told a heart's story 
 
 Unto this thing one day! 
 Spoke with my thrilled lips of passion, 
 
 Prayed with a boy's stumbling tongue- 
 O woe for the idols we fashion 
 
 If the heart of the maker be young!
 
 160 Prison Problems 
 
 The idol of love is broken 
 
 Thing that I worshipped as one 
 Who, thinking- his dear God has spoken, 
 
 Dreams that all heaven is won; 
 O, it had deep eyes of dreaming! 
 
 And love-light there burned for a day ! 
 No wonder I worshipped this seeming, 
 
 This idol that was only clay. 
 
 Idol of fire and glory, 
 
 Maid whom I thought was divine 
 Whose laugh was a musical story 
 
 Whose smiles could enthrall me like wine, 
 It is that your soul has departed, 
 
 The mystery of you is dispelled, 
 That I am as one broken-hearted, 
 
 With sorrow that will not be quelled. 
 
 THE "NEAB POET." 
 
 I have no storied thunder 
 That outward may be hurled 
 
 To wake, to startled wonders ; 
 This listless, working world. 
 
 Nor have I angel voices 
 
 Wherewith to pulse my song, 
 
 So he who hears rejoices 
 
 And smiles the whole day long. 
 
 Yet life, dear life, forever 
 
 I turn to poesy sweet; 
 And write lest I should never 
 
 Have coins for bread and meat.
 
 Prison Problems 161 
 
 A SHUT-IN'S SPRING SONG. 
 
 I love to watch the dawn's dream hush, 
 
 The turn of gloom to gray; 
 It comes so like a pure maid's blush 
 
 Too fair and sweet to stay; 
 It leaves the sky a crimson flush, 
 
 A smile for earth and day. 
 
 I love to meet the first-born breeze 
 
 That stirs the leafy boughs, 
 To listen to the birds and bees 
 
 Re-sing their matin vows 
 To sense the life of things like these 
 
 And feel my heart arouse. 
 
 I love to greet the new morn's sun, 
 
 Its kiss to gain, to hold 
 And have new strength for heights unwon, 
 
 Or find my heart more bold, 
 As I with lighter footsteps run 
 
 To work that brings no gold. 
 
 I love to live! the earth is fair; 
 
 There is God's mellow sun ; 
 A hint of flowers in the air, 
 
 And sounds of childish fun 
 I turn to look, but everywhere 
 
 My view with steel is spun !
 
 162 Prison Problems 
 
 A SPRING IDYL. 
 
 An alien song-bird in a tree 
 Sat singing to his alien mate; 
 
 Two lovers heard his minor key 
 
 And, lover-like, they would translate. 
 
 SHE 
 
 He sings, she said, of summers when 
 
 A day is fit to live in, 
 And, unafraid of gunning men, 
 
 One dares a song to heaven ; 
 One dares to sing his soul-self free, 
 
 Nor look alarmed at shadows, 
 Nor start at sudden booms of bee 
 
 Or cloud-shade on the meadows. 
 
 HE 
 
 He sings, he said, a boastful song 
 
 Of how he'll sing forever, 
 And how his love as life is long, 
 
 Though this be ended never! 
 Hear that? he chirps, "Tu weet c-cheet!" 
 
 It means "God's peace above you !" 
 And now, "Ee-eee !" "a fine day, sweet !" 
 
 "Tu Kee !" and "Oh, I love you !" 
 And when he pipes in little turns, 
 
 Our feathered music-spender 
 Tells to his mate how much he yearns 
 
 To be more kind and tender; 
 "Ti-ee," "I shall," "e-ees," "be true," 
 
 "Tucee!" "desert you, never!" 
 "Twikee cee chee," "I'll love but you," 
 
 "Ceeeee !" "forever !"
 
 Prison Problems 163 
 
 SHE 
 
 He sings, she said, no such a song! 
 
 How can you be so silly? 
 You talk as if he runs along 
 
 Just like a smooth-tongued Willie. 
 A bird may sing his soul away, 
 
 And do it well, and gladly; 
 A man may tell what song-birds say 
 
 But, sir, you've told it badly. 
 He sings um, stop ! he si quit, John ! 
 
 He sings You'll make me cuff you ! 
 He si Oh, you ! There, now he's gone 
 
 Why, yes, of course I love you. 
 
 LOVE NOTES. 
 
 Your love is vain and dead? Ah, well, 
 
 Go, dear, along your way, 
 Forget of the woven spell 
 
 Which was, for but a day. 
 I will not lie and say I weep 
 
 For love of yours, the dead, 
 May silence close around its sleep, 
 
 Deserted be its bed. 
 The quickened sense that droops and dies, 
 
 Be it of love or hate, 
 But proves it were a worthless prize, 
 
 Why should I mourn its fate? 
 For love or hate with death awing, 
 
 Or dead for days or years, 
 Was, living, but a tortured thing; 
 
 Arid dead, not worth my tears.
 
 164 Prison Problems 
 
 You write as if love goes amiss, 
 
 Or love that was had died, 
 That they who loved may never kiss 
 
 Nor wander side by side. 
 Is love a shape with eyes and hair? 
 
 A form to clasp and hold? 
 And, losing these, does love despair 
 
 And curse the spirit's mold? 
 Can it be love that makes complaint 
 
 To earth and moon and stars 
 Because its mate is pale and faint 
 
 And caged by walls and bars? 
 Love finds the bars, and to the place 
 
 Where waits the captive mate, 
 It calls and bids a heart take grace 
 
 And strength for any fate. 
 
 I cannot think that life or death 
 
 May alter love a jot, 
 That it is vain, is but a breath 
 
 Which comes and then is not. 
 If love were vain, a thing that seems, 
 
 What draws me to the light? 
 What gives a glory to the dreams 
 
 I dream by day and night? 
 How could I look beyond the haze 
 
 Wherein I wait, entombed, i 
 
 And have no sigh for vanished days 
 
 Nor know my future doomed? 
 How could I bear a soul of^song 
 
 With all my present pain 
 And bravely walk where shadows throng 
 
 If love, and life were vain?
 
 Prison Problems 165 
 
 It may be that your love is dead 
 
 Mine is unmourned as yet; 
 There is no sorrow in its stead, 
 
 No ashes of regret. 
 Nor can I sound a note of care 
 
 While spirit hands renew 
 The flame upon the altar where 
 
 I've placed my dreams of you. 
 
 A SONG. 
 
 Why should I harbor sorrow? 
 
 Does it make burdens less? 
 Bring new strength for tomorrow 
 
 Or enlarge tenderness? 
 
 A day or so a moment ! 
 
 Is all of life I hold ; 
 Why should I myself torment 
 
 With what the hours unfold? 
 
 Choose, you, the fretful morning, 
 The stern or worried gaze, 
 
 The attitude of scorning 
 The joy along your ways. 
 
 For me, the day of pleasure, 
 
 The way not overlong, 
 A child to spill love's measure, 
 
 My lilt a laddie's song.
 
 166 Prison Problems 
 
 EASTER LAY: TO THE HEN. 
 
 One year ago I did not know 
 Our prison bill of fare, ah, no ! 
 Nor did I then think that to men 
 I'd praise the humble cackling hen. 
 I knew that farms had rural charms 
 Such as the hen and her alarms 
 When in the haze of pleasant days 
 She cackles o'er her spheriod lays. 
 
 I knew of quests for hidden nests 
 
 Amid a storm of wild protests, 
 
 And how the meek may have a beak 
 
 With which to pick my yellow streak ; 
 
 And I could tell the thrilling spell 
 
 For one who holds a broken shell 
 
 That golden drips on pouted lips 
 
 When boyhood from straight nature sips. 
 
 But, oh, not then could I to men 
 Have said one word to praise the hen 
 Or mentioned how she beats the sow 
 Likewise the horned or muley cow 
 It took a year of dwelling here 
 To learn the homely hen is dear; 
 Took eggless days in eggless ways 
 Before I thought to sing her lays ! 
 
 Through all my years of doubts and fears, 
 Of busted hopes and warmed-up tears, 
 Is seen that I have made no sigh, 
 Until my pleasures passed me by.
 
 Prison Problems 167 
 
 So I relate it must be Fate 
 That palmed me off unto the State, 
 So that my pen might tell all men 
 There's poetry in the cackling hen. 
 
 THE HARVEST. 
 
 My eyes looked out, the harvest throng 
 
 Toiled in the summer sun; 
 I heard them sing a thankful song 
 
 After their task was done 
 I wondered why they all passed by 
 
 The prison, one by one. 
 
 The hills were robed in faded gold ; 
 
 The lowlands, bare and gray; 
 The harvest lay safe in the hold, 
 
 Stored for a winter day; 
 The reaper's meed, the miser's greed, 
 
 The toiler's honest pay. 
 
 The hills and fields woke memories 
 
 Dear to my brooding heart, 
 Of days before earth-miseries 
 
 Became of me a part 
 Fair days that fled, and hopes so dead 
 
 They hardly stir my heart. 
 
 The iron bars and walls of stone 
 
 Woke thoughts I dare not tell 
 Of how a soul must still its moan 
 
 And hide it in a cell 
 
 Woke thoughts that crawled and writhed and 
 sprawled 
 
 Like phantom things of hell.
 
 168 Prison Problems 
 
 All showed how void my days on earth, 
 
 How fettered by my fears, 
 How little idle hands are worth, 
 
 How weak are after-tears 
 All showed how vain the core of pain 
 
 In fruitless wasted years. 
 
 My eyes looked out! the harvest throng 
 
 Toiled in the summer sun ; 
 I heard them sing a thankful song 
 
 After their task was done. 
 I wondered why they all passed by 
 
 The prison, one by one. 
 
 INDIFFERENCE. 
 
 How can I care if evils loom 
 
 Along the darkened ways 
 And threaten me with awful doom 
 
 Of many bitter days? 
 
 What matter if the future state 
 
 Be one of ceaseless pain? 
 My heart is steeled for any fate, 
 
 My soul cannot complain. 
 
 Have I not lived and borne the life 
 
 Of life with other men? 
 Endured amidst their foolish strife, 
 
 And, striving, laughed at them? 
 
 Have I not watched and mourned beside 
 
 The spirit of my youth? 
 It died, betrayed, bereft of pride, 
 
 Ashamed of earth's untruth.
 
 Prison Problems 169 
 
 What matter if the future state 
 Be one of ceaseless pain? 
 
 This life makes welcome any fate 
 Except this life again. 
 
 BUDDING DAYS. 
 
 Where the poet worth the singing 
 
 Who has never made a lay 
 To the early bluebird's winging 
 
 "Feathered harbingers of May?" 
 If he's sent no words a-wing 
 
 Of the lilt and life and bubble 
 In the days of gracious Spring? 
 
 Has there ever lived a lover, 
 
 Worthy of the sacred name, 
 Who did not see skies above Her 
 
 From his own heart-throbs aflame? 
 Who has not thrilled with the passion 
 
 That the south-warmed breezes bring, 
 And, in his own stumbling fashion, 
 
 Tried to tell her "Love is Spring?" 
 
 When our life was worth our living, 
 
 When the day was filled with song, 
 When our thoughts were kind, forgiving, 
 
 To an evil or a wrong. 
 When we had fair words for others, 
 
 And a heart for everything, 
 Was it not when we were brothers 
 
 To the budding days of Spring?
 
 170 Prison Problems 
 
 THE CONVICT'S WIFE. 
 
 There are no happy children in the home of Shard 
 
 tonight, 
 There are no merry voices where they used to 
 
 sound so clear, 
 Nor shall I hear a tumult and a rush of footsteps 
 
 light 
 To tell me someone comes and that whoever 
 
 comes is dear. 
 
 The mother sits beside the stove, her face is sorrow- 
 gray, 
 
 Her eyes are strained as if they see some awful- 
 ness of hell ; 
 So did she look when I peeped in, and then I stole 
 
 away, 
 
 My heart so thick with pity that remembrance 
 is not well. 
 
 I wonder if the man now gone to prison for his 
 
 crime 
 Has felt one-half the woe she feels who only 
 
 loved in vain, 
 
 I wonder if he sits and stares, unmindful of the time, 
 His form without all calm and cold, but lashed 
 
 within by pain. 
 I wonder if he ever thinks how she who bears his 
 
 name 
 Must bear the burden of the deed her love could 
 
 not control ; 
 His hands alone have done the wrong, and his 
 
 should be the shame ; 
 
 Yet she, the wife who has not sinned, sees shame 
 upon her soul.
 
 Prison Problems 171 
 
 Oh, who can tell the measure of the sin that men 
 
 may do 
 When judgment strikes the lightest on the one 
 
 who is a beast? 
 How can we think the laws of men are wise and 
 
 good and true 
 While they who suffer most are those whose sins 
 
 are of the least? 
 
 It is a lie that innocence fears not the light of day, 
 That sweetest dreams are for the one who has 
 
 the laws obeyed ; 
 This woman when she walks abroad will shrink 
 
 upon the way 
 
 And what may come to her in dreams will make 
 her more afraid. 
 
 They've taken him to prison, but she has no place 
 
 to go 
 
 A grave alone could hide and hold the fearsome- 
 ness I saw; 
 O wide strange eyes and tight-clenched hands ! 
 
 hands clean and white as snow, 
 Tight-clenched on thorned eternity, condemned 
 
 by life and law. 
 The prison doors are high and wide, and farther in 
 
 is gloom, 
 And men go by these iron doors to rest within 
 
 the shade ; 
 His sin is taken to a place where it may find a 
 
 tomb 
 
 Her heart must bear the shadow and the Thing 
 will not be laid.
 
 172 Prison Problems 
 
 THE MOURNERS. 
 
 Hush a little while your tears and wailing! 
 
 'Tis wrong to weep because your babe has died ; 
 Tears, the mother tears, are unavailing 
 
 As vain as mother love, or dreams or pride. 
 
 Foolish one ! To mourn that death has claimed him ! 
 
 You should rejoice and sing aloud instead; 
 Sing, because your thoughts have never blamed him, 
 
 Nor almost cursed his birth nor wished him dead. 
 
 You shall never turn, with mother yearning, 
 And meet a strange and cold untrustful gaze; 
 
 Come to him, with mother kindness burning, 
 To be repulsed by chilly, sullen ways. 
 
 Never shall your heart, tormented, flutter 
 Because he lives and still his love you lack; 
 
 Never shall you kneel and madly mutter 
 A plea to God to bring the living back. 
 
 Oh, the joy the future years shall bring you 
 When you shall muse of him forever fair! 
 
 Sweet and fair and not a thought to sting you, 
 Nor burn your soul with anguish or despair! 
 
 God, oh God! If mine when young and tender 
 Had slipped away to follow voiceless death, 
 
 Memories of him had thrilled with splendor, 
 And throbbed with song at fancy's softest breath.
 
 Prison Problems 173 
 
 THE PEISON WALL. 
 
 A spirit breathes in what we build, 
 
 A presence haunts the deed, 
 No matter if the thing we willed 
 
 Be charity or greed. 
 Or work for good or work for sin, 
 
 Or work of simple fun, 
 A spirit smiles or scowls within 
 
 The thing that we have done. 
 
 As if some sullen shape of hate, 
 
 Gigantic, tried to hew 
 A record of his awful fate 
 
 So men may know it, too, 
 So seems the wall of gloomy stone, 
 
 A mightiness brought low, 
 A cursed thing that stands alone 
 
 To mock me and my woe. 
 
 Almost it seems to have a face 
 
 Of masked but leering scorn 
 When I look forth and try to trace 
 
 Life's glory in a morn ; 
 It scowls when in the noonday sun 
 
 Its face is swept by light, 
 And when I rest, my labor done, 
 
 It threatens in the night. 
 
 My heart is not complaining no; 
 
 I only wonder why 
 A wall should mount to heaven so 
 
 And blot fair earth and sky ;
 
 174 Prison Problems 
 
 And wonder if its heartless scheme 
 Was in the maker's plan 
 
 When into mud He wove a dream 
 And called the union man. 
 
 TODAY IS BEST OF ALL. 
 
 When winter came with storm-cursed days, 
 
 With biting winds and snow, 
 Did you not wish to tread the ways 
 
 Where nodding daisies grow? 
 Did you not long to see again 
 
 The lightning's zigzagged flash, 
 And hear the pelting of the rain 
 
 Go pitty-pat and splash? 
 
 Did you not wish, the same as I, 
 
 For things you may not hold, 
 Young love or aged, or hours that fly, 
 
 Or fading hope, or gold? 
 Or stared into the vanished years 
 
 Where priceless things are lost 
 And wondered through a mist of tears 
 
 If God knows what they cost? 
 
 But summers pass, and friends and gold 
 
 And loves and hopes depart 
 However much we strive to hold 
 
 Their dearness to the heart; 
 And so we learn, the learning few, 
 
 That, though the heavens fall, 
 Or Fate betray or Time undo, 
 
 Today is best of all.
 
 Prison Problems 175 
 
 A WOKD OF EXPLANATION. 
 
 The penitentiary at Stillwater, Minnesota, is 
 looked upon as being one of the advanced penal in- 
 stitutions where the criminal class in the great 
 school of life is being taught. We present here ex- 
 hibit "B" in the form of poetry, prose and pleas 
 that reveal the soul of that institution. 
 
 These pages, from 176 to 194 inclusive, reveal 
 the hopes and longings of the average man in that 
 monstrous cage. This was written by one who 
 signs his name : A. N. Apache, and is reproduced 
 here for the reason that we believe it better to study 
 the many sides of a type than it would be to have 
 a mere look at one angle of many individuals. 
 
 Much of this was written by Apache for publica- 
 tion in The Mirror, the newsy, breezy, well edited 
 weekly newspaper, issued by the inmates of that 
 state institution. Some of these verses have had a 
 rather wide circulation, and we hope to extend their 
 usefulness. 
 
 These papers are fair samples of what the pris- 
 oners prepare and read at their weekly chautauqua 
 meetings. 
 
 Some of these selections admirably lend them- 
 selves to the use of the lyceum and chautauqua 
 reader, and a hint to the wise is sufficient.
 
 176 Prison Problems 
 
 THE "CHAUTAUQUA CIRCLE" AT 
 STILLWATER. 
 
 One of the greatest educational features of the 
 Minnesota State Prison is the little "Pierian Circle" 
 of chautauqua work which has been successfully 
 maintained for over twenty-five (25) years. I be- 
 lieve the circle was organized under Warden Ran- 
 dall and favored and encouraged by each succeeding 
 warden until its influence has been felt even among 
 the members of the chautauqua movement all over 
 the United States. There has always been the most 
 intense interest manifested by its members and the 
 papers read and discussed at its meetings every two 
 weeks are as full of vital force to the every day life, 
 and as brilliant and full of genius and depth of 
 thought as any circle of the kind can show. Many 
 able writers of toda'y who are filling positions of 
 clerical work with credit to themselves and their 
 employers began their career in the M. S. P. chau- 
 tauqua. And it is a noticeable fact that its members 
 stand at the head of the Prison Roll of Honor and 
 deportment. The membership averages generally 
 from 20 to 35 members and ought to be far larger, 
 but the interest never flags, and has run its meet- 
 ings through hot summer months with as much in- 
 terest manifested as in the winter and early spring 
 and fall. The little circle was the first of its kind 
 in the United States and at once became a member 
 of the great chautauqua movement taking up its 
 regular course of studies, and using the same text 
 books. It was from the membership of the circle 
 that the first Prison Paper ("The Mirror") was
 
 Prison Problems 17? 
 
 founded, and which has become such an important 
 factor in the reform and betterment of prison life. 
 And its twenty-five years of successful operation is 
 due in a large measure to the talent developed from 
 the chautauqua students, while its entire staff of 
 editors, printers and contributors are with but few 
 exceptions, members of the little "Pierien" circle. 
 It is considered a very high honor to be the Presi- 
 dent, Vice President or Secretary and some of its 
 annual elections develop much interest. 
 
 Outside of certain privileges that its officers en- 
 joy in the prison, there is a certain feeling that its 
 officers have a distinctive standing of credit among 
 the members and officers of the Great Chautauqua 
 Movement. One of the most intensely interesting 
 and fascinating records that has ever been produced 
 is the recorded history of its doings by its many 
 gifted and talented secretaries during the twenty- 
 five 'years and over of its existence. 
 
 A PLEA, O MINNESOTA. 
 
 (The editor of the Thief River Falls Times gave 
 the "minor" staff an excellent "write-up" recently, 
 and this plea was inspired by the editor's closing 
 lines:) 
 
 "THEY MEET AGAIN, TAKE THEIR 
 PLACE IN SOCIETY, WELCOMED AS ONE 
 WHO HAS BEEN ABSENT ON A JOURNEY." 
 
 Fine stuff that, prose poetry. It has been clinging 
 to us ever since it was written. The machine in the
 
 178 Prison Problems 
 
 shop pounds it to us: YOU ARE ONLY AWAY 
 ON A JOURNEY. 
 
 Good, think that of us when next we meet, will 
 you? Ah, there's the rub. How do the lines ap- 
 peal to you, O Minnesota? For about a week or 
 more all sorts and conditions of men grasped each 
 other's hands in a spirit of good will. Shylocks for- 
 got their ten per cent and men forgave all injury 
 done them. The cold heart found joy in the fact 
 that it could love a little, and the ill-fed factory girl 
 dried her eyes and claimed it a good world after all. 
 A wanderer warmed his hopes by alien fires, he 
 found many a kindred spirit with whom he could 
 speak, heart to heart, and with the full assurance of 
 sympathy, without being misunderstood. 
 
 Hester Prynne trod the city streets, caught the 
 laughter and gladness of all that makes life fair and 
 she forgot forgot the Scarlet Letter. And why? 
 All because a little Babe was born in a barn over 
 nineteen hundred years ago. 
 
 From platform and pulpit the gospel of His Divin- 
 ity was launched forth to men. We were told of His 
 being born to save a blundering world ; were told 
 that His love was ceaseless, that He was a Man of 
 Sorrow. Told to forget our own pain, and to medi- 
 tate more on the pain of others. He was a man that 
 suffered pain. We were carried out of ourselves, 
 beyond our existence by the new significance put 
 into the words, "For unto you is born this day, in 
 the city of David, A Saviour!" 
 
 We have been thrilled with the intensity of their 
 meaning; thrilled so that we were forced to grope 
 back over our yesterdays and acknowledge to our- 
 selves, we had been living a lie.
 
 Prison Problems 179 
 
 We have been overwhelmed with His sublimity 
 and majesty; His brightness has shone forth in 
 flashes of lightning and it was impossible for us not 
 to have recognized some higher glory. Now we 
 have a question to ask you, Minnesota, a plea to put 
 before you. Is the atmosphere still laden with glad- 
 ness? Does He stand for your idea of an ideal man? 
 Does His creed of universal love mean anything to 
 you today? We would like to know, for our new 
 law proclaims a chance for each of us, and it will 
 send us out to mingle with you. 
 
 Are you your brother's keeper? We will not 
 ask much of you. We will not infringe on your 
 higher duties. 
 
 All we ask is this : don't whip us with the "has 
 been" lash. Take us for what we will try to be, 
 not for what we have been. Don't remind us of 
 what we have lived, boost us for what we are go- 
 ing to live. Don't harp about our past, paint to 
 us rather a glowing picture of our future. We are 
 children, gone astray, wa'yward and erring. We 
 felt the thrill of the Christ day, deep down in our 
 hearts. We want to profit by the story of Him who 
 lived and died to save such as we. 
 
 How is it with you today? Has the customafy 
 gloom settled over your towns and cities? Are the 
 streets lonely? Are you cold and self-centered? 
 Are you careless and indifferent to all beauty? Have 
 you so soon, lost the influence that emanated from 
 His birthday? Do you govern yourself by the law, 
 "Love ye one another?" 
 
 We want to know, for by these things we can 
 judge you, and by the same you will judge us. 
 There is always room for progress towards our
 
 180 Prison Problems 
 
 ideals, no matter what our conditions or environ- 
 ments may be, and if you see the glorified humanity 
 of Christ in the right light, then we, with our fail- 
 ures, may still look to you for encouragement in 
 our "building up" efforts. We know what life has 
 to offer in the way of misery, if we are scorned by 
 you we may once more find ourselves on the edge 
 of things where a flutter sways the balance. If you 
 tell us that our recommendation, with its term of 
 imprisonment, is not the best of references, then, 
 we may cry out against the cruelty of society, cry 
 out in the loneliness of a city supposed to contain 
 human souls. We have been wanderers yet we have 
 preserved some of our manhood. Don't sever the 
 link that binds us to you ; don't mock us in our 
 misery; don't see humor in our damnation. There 
 is in all of us a height, or depth, it depends on how 
 the chords are touched. Christmas day was an ap- 
 peal to you and to us, the something it stands for 
 met a something in you, and in us. It will be earth's 
 greatest triumph if you can, and will lift us up to 
 your heights, especially if your chords are attuned 
 with His divine strains. He who was born in a 
 manger. 
 
 We have stopped gazing backward; we have 
 shifted our point of view, and we look to you, O 
 Minnesota, for the word of encouragement and 
 cheer. We will not believe that we are lost, for the 
 book with its wonderful love, tells us that a man 
 cried out from his cross : "Lord, remember one when 
 Thou comest into Thy kingdom." Yes, even the 
 thief on the cross had a new birth. We will leave 
 here full of hope, but class pride can and may play 
 havoc with our hope. "It's up to us," you tell us,
 
 Prison Problems 181 
 
 but isn't it just a wee bit up to you? Shall we get 
 the lift or the shove, the boost or the knock? Shall 
 slander drive us away from the town wherein we 
 dreamed our beautiful dreams, from the place where 
 we forgot, and fell ; where we lost in a mad moment, 
 our manhood ; where we forfeited our right to live 
 and mingle with our kind? Or shall it be as a wel- 
 come, to one, "Who only went away on a journey?" 
 
 THE GREAT BLACK WAY. 
 
 THE GREAT WHITE WAY, it is called, and 
 yet I know at least three persons who can bestow 
 on it a better fitted name. 
 
 THE BOY who was unafraid after spending a few 
 short weeks on it, gave it a different name. THE 
 LITTLE COUNTRY GIRL who dared live on it 
 but a short time, called it by another name. WHILE 
 I, even I, who know it well, damn it and call it, the 
 GREAT BLACK WAY. 
 
 The great lighted way is to me a picture of dark- 
 est night. I see a great part of all the broken faiths 
 of humanity piled here in reckless abandon. The 
 gay throng wears a mask and the merry peals of 
 laughter are but artificial covering for hearts that 
 sob. All of the faces lie. Read them through the 
 mask and they express all the emotions of the hu- 
 man soul. 
 
 The momentous victories cannot efface the pain 
 and the sorrow and the defeat, defeat of worthy 
 ambition that was mired on the street of broken 
 souls. 
 
 THE BOY, who was unafraid, entered the Great
 
 182 Prison Problems 
 
 Black Way with quick, eager step, with a freedom 
 that bespoke the undefeated soul, free from the 
 blights of disillusion and discord. But after a few 
 months the Boy, who was unafraid, had seen it all, 
 and then he grew afraid, afraid of the day. He came, 
 he saw, and he was conquered. The juggernaut of 
 the Black Wa'y passed over him, and crushed out 
 all the fellowship. Now he is a broken husk, un- 
 lovable and impossible, yet with no outward, de- 
 jected mien. The head is not bowed in helpless- 
 ness; he laughs, and sighs and watches for the other 
 fellow who is seeing the bright lights for the first 
 time. But behind the mask is a c'ynic whom the 
 street has bandoned and now but tolerates. 
 
 THE GIRL who dared, made a shrine of the 
 Great Black Way. It was a golden way with its 
 days of enchantment and flower decked joys. She 
 laid her fresh, young soul down before the shrine. 
 Then came the juggernaut. Its wheels are not 
 padded, as the girl will know who places her faith 
 on the street of Broken Hopes. Now for the GIRL 
 who dared, the pink and white of the way looks 
 stale and void of all coloring. Bitter, defeated and 
 broken on life's road she passes on, and her laugh 
 rings out in the merry madness and some times she 
 sings, but she wears a mask for in the laughter 
 and song is a false note, brought there because of 
 the fear that some one will open the toll-gates of 
 memory some day and she will grow afraid. 
 
 Oh ! you poor, life-wrecked GIRL who dared, and 
 BOY who was unafraid, I pity you, for I recall on 
 my blue days and on days of gloom, the tempta- 
 tions and pitfalls to be found in that venturesome 
 and wandering life along The Great Black Way.
 
 Prison Problems 
 
 MICKEY. 
 
 Yesterday he died, a wee bit of a lad hardly six- 
 teen, just in the golden noon of his boyhood, and 
 he died a convict, and now sleeps in a convict's 
 grave. I do not know much about the lad, but what 
 I saw of him attracted me. He was one of those 
 quiet, unassuming chaps with a not unattractive 
 habit of minding his own business while his smile 
 was a sad, forlorn one, seen more often in a frail 
 girl battling for health, rather than in a convict. 
 
 We wonder if heart-ache did not help to bring 
 about his end, for he knew the sadness of a bleeding 
 heart before his time. Many a hard thought must 
 have found harbor in his breast, for through a mist 
 of tears, he saw himself an exile from all the joys 
 of fair boyhood, cast among the sternest realities of 
 life, that might have been turned into the never 
 can be. I would like to bring before all mothers, 
 the lonely grave where our convict boy lies, and 
 to bring to you the great big pity of it all, so that 
 you may awaken to the fact that there are other 
 boys on the road that leads to this prison. 
 
 There are hosts of boys who do not belong below 
 the dead-line. We do not want them to come here. 
 What are you doing to keep them from meeting 
 the fate of the boy Mickey who has just died? 
 There's a red headed boy making a trip in the 
 patrol wagon today, and tonight in a dismal cell, he 
 .will cry and moan all night long. The path before 
 that boy is a crooked one, as crooked as the check- 
 ered careers of those who went before him. 
 
 The police may call him Mickey, the thief, and
 
 184 Prison Problems 
 
 they may tell you he is a hopeless case, but it is 
 false. Ask Mickey why he doesn't behave and he 
 will answer: "Nobody gives me a show, they are 
 always pinching me, they think I do everything." 
 
 There's many a Mickey ends here because he was 
 misunderstood. Some deed is committed in St. Paul 
 at two o'clock. Mickey did it! At ten minutes 
 after two on the same day, some wrong is done in 
 Minneapolis. The same Mickey did it ! If you ask 
 the police how such a thing could be done by Mickey 
 with the distance so great they will answer : "The 
 little Devil is everywhere." Once in a while some 
 woman goes to the police station to comfort Mickey 
 and she gives him a tiact, then returns home with 
 the consciousness of a -luty well performed. 
 
 One does not know that the tract is on the "Evils 
 of Dancing." Mickey does not read it, for it's some- 
 thing else Mickey wants. He wants some one to 
 press him close, some one to love him. Perhaps 
 you had a boy in the long ago, just the age of our 
 boy and when he went out of your life, he left it 
 very empty indeed. You moaned over his grave, 
 and in after years you knew your life was incom- 
 plete. I want to bring up to you that lamplight of 
 long ago. I want you to creep back into that hal- 
 lowed past so that in your great sorrow you might 
 think of the sorrows of the many neglected Mickeys 
 on the dead-line of your town today. Your boy may 
 not have committed sin is that Mickey is sinning, but 
 they both dreamed the same dreams. 
 
 Your boy had a bright future before him. Mickey 
 has but a sorrowful destiny. I would that I could 
 bring the tragedy of Mickey's life to you; lay open 
 the little heart and show to you a thing bruised by
 
 Prison Problems 185 
 
 pain and agony, like as to a whip-lash on a naked 
 soul. 
 
 There's many a home today where a mother still 
 weeps for her son who died. Why not let some 
 wandering Mickey have his place in your heart. 
 Don't you think the boy up in Heaven would be glad 
 to know you are making some heart glad "in his 
 name and for his memory?" Let the mother in you 
 be ever in a receiving mood and we will not have 
 any boys dying in our prisons. I would like for you 
 to creep into a bedroom tonight and gather together 
 all the things your boy once wore. The sight of 
 them may open the old wound ; may pull upon your 
 heart-strings so hard that you will go out into the 
 highways and find some Mickey. You can put 
 aside all legislation and administration by a heart 
 throb. You can put to shame all machine made 
 charity by opening your heart to Mickey, only love 
 will win him. Tracts will never, never do it. Tracts 
 came from a machine; love came from God. Some 
 day we will awaken. We have been sleeping long. 
 We will get untangled from the worldly web of 
 false idealism, and then Mickey will come into his 
 own. Some day when he stands up to receive 
 sentence from a court there will be bands of white 
 souled women begging for the chance to take him 
 to their homes and we will bury no more children 
 in a convict's grave. 
 
 This article has little to do with the manner in 
 which Mickey offended the dignity of a great and 
 powerful state. Only this, an outraged people sent 
 the little boy to the great white prison to spend his 
 life and in so doing threw up their hands saying 
 "We cannot rectify the Great Cause so must put
 
 186 Prison Problems 
 
 all our energy into condemning the sequence." 
 "Little boys" are not for prisons any more than the 
 red-breasted robin is for a cage, and as the robin 
 beats out its short life against its prison bars, so the 
 little boy wearied of the whitened walls and long- 
 ing for the open, as little boys will, beat his soul 
 against the grated door. Thus the time came when 
 he lay upon his narrow cot, while far away the 
 church bells echoed over the hills and the last rays 
 of the setting sun fell across the floor, crept up and 
 rested for a moment on the head of the little boy 
 who bartered, in a mad moment, his birthright. 
 Above his head hung his striped coat, his badge of 
 dishonor. A nurse in grey knelt beside the cot and 
 moistened the little fevered lips with lumps of ice. 
 A long-time-sentence man, but with a heart, mum- 
 bled from the book of common prayer, while afar off 
 in the city a heart-broken mother sobbed out her 
 sorrow, knowing that her boy was near to death. 
 And there in the evening glow, with the sun sinking 
 down in the west and the bells faintly calling away 
 off yonder on the hillside, the little boy convict 
 clutched his crucifix, heaved a gentle sigh and died. 
 He had served his life sentence. 
 
 The tuning up of a violin is not sweet music, but 
 if you listen carefully you will hear sweet strains at 
 last. Mickey may not be an angel but if you care 
 to try, you will surely find much hidden sweetness. 
 Remember our boy who died, and that one time 
 from the burning sands of Galilee came a great 
 eternal 
 
 "Love ye one another."
 
 Prison Problems 187 
 
 WITH CLOSED EYES. 
 
 I closed my e'yes at noon-day and looked out upon 
 the world. I saw the torch of liberty, and free- 
 dom's flag, unfurled. And as I gazed, I saw strange 
 things which brought this thought to me, Which 
 of the twain are crucified, the bond slave, or the 
 free? I saw a mill belch forth its flame amid its din 
 and noise. I saw machines fed by the hands of little 
 girls and boys. I saw them crushed by cruel hours, 
 by routine and by rule, which made of "God's Sinai 
 Law" a source of ridicule. I saw young girls, with 
 tired eyes, ill-fed and scantily clad, in desperation 
 leave the mill, to mingle with the bad. No hand 
 held out to succor, ignored through mighty pride, 
 they go down to their shamed defeat, and Christ's 
 re-crucified. I saw the factory crosses, borne 'til 
 life is done, and on each cross I saw hung up the 
 bleeding form of one, who left a country farm-house, 
 a hopeful country maid; lured by flaring advertise- 
 ments that promised, then betrayed. I saw society 
 calmly look with an unseeing eye while men went 
 boldly through the land to shame and crucify. I saw 
 men crushed by labor's wheel ; young bodies marred 
 and slain ; some bore the look, O God, of Christ ! 
 Who bears the brand of Cain? 
 
 I saw the old-faced, little girls in tenements, ob- 
 scure, I heard the mournful cry of them, born but 
 to endure. No time for rest, for play, for prayer. 
 A life of toil, no ease, dividends must be piled up by 
 even "The Least of These." With toil their life 
 blood given to quench King Mammon's thirst. I 
 saw girls totter 'neath their load, by brutal drivers
 
 188 Prison Problems 
 
 cursed. I looked upon their helplessness and heard 
 their bitter cry to a blind world, to wake and probe, 
 love and rectify. And there I saw a mill-death, no 
 hearse, no funeral grand. The "potter's field," six 
 feet of earth, a barren unkept land, and then I 
 thought of the Christ creed : Sisters all, and Broth- 
 er, no matter what your station, Thou shalt love 
 one another. We look too high and care too much 
 for blue blood and its birth. Let's get a little closer 
 to the "white slaves" of this earth. They cry aloud 
 for help from us, cry sorely in their heed. Show 
 them that Christ still lives in you, show them your 
 faith, your creed. "Wanted a Man" the cry rings 
 out to you by tongue and pen. "Wanted a thou- 
 sand Women" also "A thousand men" inspired by 
 love and virtue who see their duty is to save the 
 little tot from a master that drives it as a slave, that 
 children may have some time for play between the 
 cradle and the grave. 
 
 A TRIBUTE. 
 
 Scum of scum they called him, offspring of out- 
 cast and squaw, gambler, loafer, thief, men sitting 
 before the night-fire spoke in whispers of the deeds 
 he had done, of the food and clothing he gained by 
 right of courage. Yet it was also told of him that 
 he had one virtue in all of his wild, mad career, he 
 had never wronged or insulted a woman. Men call 
 him outcast, but I feel that over the "great divide," 
 angels will take his one virtue into consideration 
 when fixing his punishment, for virtue of any kind 
 will not, and cannot go unrewarded.
 
 Prison Problems 189 
 
 f 
 
 THE MAN IN THE STRIPES. 
 (With apologies to Edwin Markham.) 
 
 Bowed by the might of prison toil, he leans 
 
 'Gainst his cell door and gazes at the stars, 
 
 The emptiness of life, shows in his face, 
 
 And on his back a suit of prison stripes. 
 
 Rapture is not for him, grim despair 
 
 Clings to him throughout the dismal years, 
 
 A thing that grieves, but ever, always hopes 
 
 That in the future, on some distant day, 
 
 He'll mingle with his fellowmen once more 
 
 And breathe the air of freedom and of God. 
 
 Is this the babe some mother suffered for, 
 
 Shook hands with Death to bring this life to birth? 
 
 Far better had he in his cradle died 
 
 Than live a victim of a penal plan. 
 
 Loves he the hand that put him where he is? 
 
 Does reformation's law appeal to him? 
 
 When he steps through those ponderous prison 
 
 gates, 
 
 Who is the one to guide his feet aright? 
 Society wants none of him, he's only prey 
 To all man hunters and for all the years. 
 Lonely he must ever stumble on 
 In alien ways, until he falls again, 
 Blundering, blindly through the dusk of years 
 Unsatisfied, forgotten and unwept. 
 O, lawyers, judges and grim jurymen, 
 How will you rate upon a final day? 
 Can you look straight into Eternal Eyes, 
 Speak truth before the Auditor above?
 
 190 Prison Problems 
 
 How will you answer for your thoughtlessness? 
 For in the balance many men you've weighed. 
 How will you weigh in that grand balance, when 
 Upon the scales depend Eternity? 
 
 CHEER UP. 
 
 Be a booster and a smiler, yes, you can 
 Tell, and prove there is a brotherhood of man; 
 Brag about the sun a-shining, 
 'Bout dark clouds with silver lining, 
 And on worry, fret and pining 
 Place a ban. 
 
 On the brightness of tomorrow lay your bet. 
 Never soul has ever lost it, not as yet. 
 If you do not trouble borrow, 
 You can claim that your tomorrow 
 Will not hold a bit of sorrow 
 Not a fret. 
 
 Preach aloud the creed of sunshine, good and true, 
 Take your brightness from the heavens, deep and 
 
 blue. 
 
 Go your way and sing a song 
 And you'll see as you go long 
 Folks will pause out in the throng 
 To smile at you. 
 
 When you see a brother down, a broken thing, 
 Say a word to comfort him and ease the sting. 
 Get to doing every day
 
 Prison Problems 191 
 
 Some good deed along the way 
 So the world may rise and say 
 Love is King. 
 
 XMAS MUSINGS. 
 
 Somewhere tonight some heart is made the lighter, 
 Somewhere a word of cheer instead of blame, 
 Somewhere a soul is now a bit more whiter 
 Because of something said, done in His Name. 
 Somewhere a girlie, sinned 'gainst more than sin- 
 ning 
 
 Creeps up to see the Baby in the straw, 
 Somewhere, tonight, a new life is beginning 
 Because of Him (not brought about b'y law). 
 Somewhere, tonight, a mother's tears are falling. 
 Somewhere an Ishmael kneels, and then a blur 
 He sends His voice, outward, upward, calling 
 To God for help and strength, because of Her, 
 Somewhere She kneels, Ah, who can unite the 
 
 Glory? 
 
 Bent with the toil of years, long used to prayer, 
 She sends aloft the oft repeated story, 
 Asks God to watch o'er him, out there, somewhere. 
 
 MY WISH. 
 
 Some day I must take thirty from the hook; 
 
 When that times comes, I pray you all, forget 
 
 The time I was an outcast; lived a crook; 
 
 For on that day I pray that you may let 
 
 Me lie in some charmed spot, where children go 
 
 To play and romp with happy laugh and song ;
 
 192 Prison Problems 
 
 I think, perhaps, that I might catch the glow, 
 The purity that I had missed, so long. 
 
 Oh ! Do not lay me where the wild winds blow, 
 
 I've had enough of wildness, let me rest 
 
 In some calm spot where only flowers grow, 
 
 And have some little maid, place on my breast, 
 
 With simple prayer, a rose of purest white. 
 
 A rose of white because by Angels kissed ; 
 
 Ah ! Yes when I have bid the world, good-night 
 
 I'll want at last the things I've always missed. 
 
 SUCCESS. 
 
 I do not know the end of all my planning, 
 The future wears a veil, I cannot see ; 
 But this I feel ; the Master in His scanning 
 Holds out some Hope for me. 
 
 I do not know what lies far in the distance, 
 I am content to watch today, and wait! 
 I know my path, the one of least resistance. 
 For I've been given Faith. 
 
 I cannot claim all world joys are denied me, 
 I have one boon to ask, one only plea ; 
 That I may live that those around may see 
 I claim some Charity. 
 
 I know not if my future holds more sweetness, 
 I only pray the watchful One above 
 Will strengthen me, so I may win completeness, 
 Keep warm my heart with love.
 
 Prison Problems 193 
 
 HOPE. 
 
 Rudderless like a derelict at sea 
 
 I rose and fell, 
 I drifted and moaned in my misery 
 
 My path a hell. 
 
 And yet a truth has been taught to me 
 Came into my red torn agony, 
 
 And all is well. 
 
 Into the depths you stretched forth a hand 
 
 One golden day, 
 And I who had scoffed now understand 
 
 The brighter way, 
 
 For the truth in your eyes I cannot forget, 
 That bids me put by all care and all fret 
 And kneel to pray. 
 
 Today I'm praying for what I've done 
 
 (In good cheer). 
 Life still is good at the set of the sun, 
 
 You taught me, dear, 
 That I can be yet what I want to be, 
 Last night a convict, today, I'm free, 
 
 The goal seems near. 
 
 You drove awa'y all hate from my eyes 
 
 No trouble I borrow, 
 I shall not bring you a bundle of lies 
 
 To cause you sorrow. 
 Nothing but truth and sincerity 
 Then hand in hand, dear, you and me. 
 
 Face our tomorrow.
 
 194 Prison Problems 
 
 THE PROBLEM OF THE REPEATER. 
 
 By.Rollo H. McBride. 
 
 The matter of handling men discharged from 
 prison in such a manner that they will not return 
 there is not to be mastered by maudlin sentiment. It 
 is a problem in economics. If the powers that rule 
 permitted live stock to be treated after the fashion, 
 and with as little mental direction, as convicts are 
 treated, public opinion would swiftly make itself 
 felt upon the subject. After a somewhat protracted 
 study of the subject, and carefully striving to under- 
 state rather than to overstate, I am justified in the 
 assertion that fully fifty per cent of the men and 
 women sentenced to imprisonment for trivial of- 
 fenses for shorter or longer terms should never be 
 locked up at all. I am not arguing the case, I am 
 merely stating the fact. Here is a frightful waste 
 of manhood and womanhood. The most expensive 
 blunder of the city of Chicago is the arresting of 
 seventy thousand persons annually. If a captain 
 of industry were to conduct a trust business along 
 such extravagant and stupid lines for the period of 
 a year it would spell bankruptcy for the stockhold- 
 ers. 
 
 My beliefs were not born of books. I myself 
 am a product of that Underworld of which the news- 
 paper men make "copy," and the preachers, text. 
 With despair in my heart, and the suicide urge in 
 my brain, I have tramped the desert of stone and 
 steel called Chicago, and knocked at the doors of
 
 Prison Problems 195 
 
 many "missions." Most of these are manned by 
 sincere men and women anxious to serve in all good 
 causes. They desire to help the unfortunate and 
 the fallen, and they do help them in ways often un- 
 seen of human eye. Heaven forbid that I should 
 take up the easy pose of censor of any of these 
 instruments for the alleviation of human misery. 
 All, all in their manner and after their kind, are 
 helpful. 
 
 But what is it a discharged prisoner needs when 
 he is turned out of the Chicago House of Correc- 
 tion with a nickel in his pocket? If he is friend- 
 less, without shoes, without clothes, food or lodging, 
 what is he to do? Where is he to turn? In a word, 
 what is his prime need? Clearly, his need is credit; 
 credit, the life force of modern civilization. No 
 starving man can be normal or sane. Picture for 
 a moment, if you please, the mental attitude toward 
 the world of the discharged convict with but a nickel 
 in his pocket, his feet sticking out of his shoes, his 
 clothes dirty, torn and frayed, without one available 
 friend to whom to apply, without food, or a hole to 
 crawl into to sleep, with the brand of the jail upon 
 him, and the haunting fear that he may not be able 
 to "make good" and as a result be forced back to the 
 practices that lead again to the Bridewell. Picture 
 that man's outlook upon life. If you who read these 
 words were in that position, would you wish anyone 
 to pray with you, or exhort you to be "good," or 
 invite you to come to Jesus and be "saved?" I have 
 been there. I have had well-meaning persons hand 
 me that kind of thing when I was starving, and with 
 a "God bless you, Brother." turn and leave me help- 
 less and hopeless in my desperate, despairing mis-
 
 196 Prison Problems 
 
 ery. And I say, with all courtesy, and with every 
 desire to avoid giving offence, that that is not Chris- 
 tianity. The authentic need, then, of the dis- 
 charged prisoner is credit. Credit for food, credit 
 for clothes, credit for lodging, credit with some em- 
 ployer that he is eager and willing to walk straight, 
 and a certification to that effect from some responsi- 
 ble individual in the community who is willing to 
 take a chance on the man. 
 
 Given these credits it is then up to the discharged 
 prisoner himself to make good. No one can save 
 his brother's soul to be sure, but he can give that 
 brother the opportunity to help save himself. When 
 that is done everything is done. 
 
 In November, 1909, some big hearted business 
 men of Chicago gave me the funds to open "The 
 Parting of the Ways Home" in Twenty-second 
 Street at its junction with Clark Street. This is the 
 centre of Chicago's vice district, the sordid section 
 with the sense of shame unknown. The Home was 
 rounded upon the basic idea that if a man is worth 
 saving he is worth treating like a gentleman. To 
 treat a man like a man is to trust him. To treat him 
 like an equal is not to preach at him or admonish 
 him to be this or that. The instant you begin to 
 preach to another that instant you arrogate to your- 
 self a superiority of virtue that quite naturally 
 arouses antagonism in the other fellow's mind. An- 
 other thing ; if you tell a man that you are interested 
 in him, and will not back the statement by DOING 
 something for him. the man knows instinctively that 
 you do not mean what you say. The person who 
 professes an interest in a man's soul but will do noth- 
 ing for his body is a first-class humbug. In this
 
 Prison Problems 197 
 
 light the word dis-interest must be eliminated from 
 human affairs. There is no such thing as disinterest. 
 To deny interest is to deny Christ, to deny Life. 
 
 "The Parting of the Ways Home" was opened 
 then in order to extend to the down and out chap a 
 new credit with the General Interest, with Society. 
 How has the idea worked out in practice? Admir- 
 ably, in all ways. I dislike statistics and do not wish 
 to inflict them upon the reader. But "The Home" 
 has to its credit the taking of several hundred dis- 
 charged prisoners fresh from the Bridewell and re- 
 storing them to lives of usefulness and self-respect. 
 In the first two years we received 1452 men and se- 
 cured positions for 1080. In each case, naturally, in- 
 dividual treatment is called for. I never preach at 
 the boys who come to me. And I do not permit 
 other people to preach at them, either. "The Home" 
 is neither a "mission" nor a church. We have never 
 permited nor shall we permit "The Home" to be 
 turned into a show place for the purpose of parad- 
 ing the boys before the professional philanthropists. 
 The boys are not associating with us for the pur- 
 pose of being made "good" but for the purpose of 
 being made good for something. Mere static "good- 
 ness" I have never been able to understand, any- 
 way. A man is good for something or he is not. 
 If he is not good for something, I fail to understand 
 how he can be good for anything. 
 
 The man who did more than any other in aiding 
 me to get "The Home" under way was the Hon. 
 McKenzie Cleland. When Judge Cleland was sit- 
 ting in the Municipal Court at the Maxwell Street 
 Police Station he became deeply interested in the 
 conditions of the men who appeared before him.
 
 198 Prison Problems 
 
 When Judge Cleland was on the bench he released 
 on probation some 1,500 prisoners upon their prom- 
 ise to reform. Only one man afterwards, so far as 
 learned, broke faith. About eight per cent violated 
 their pledge to stop drinking, but none of them com- 
 mitted crime. Judge Cleland is the father of adult 
 probation in Chicago. He is one with me in the 
 belief that fifty per cent of the men com- 
 mitted to the House of Correction for trivial offenses 
 should never be sent there at all. 
 
 John L. Whitman, the Warden of the House of 
 Correction, is the authority for the statement, based 
 on the figures, that since the starting of "The Part- 
 ing of the Ways Home" the number of regulars 
 being received at the House of Correction has 
 dwindled twenty-two per cent. 
 
 It costs the city of Chicago $9.00 to send a man 
 to the House of Correction, and only $4.99 to make 
 him a good citiz,en at "The Parting of the Ways 
 Home." Over 12,000 men are released from the 
 House of Correction every year. In nearly every in- 
 stance when these men are freed after serving their 
 terms their credit is exhausted in every direction. 
 In a majority of instances, of course, their credit was 
 exhausted before they were locked up. To open the 
 books with society again for these men and extend 
 to them a new line of credit that is the function 
 of such institutions as "The Parting of the Ways 
 Home." When "The Home" fails to give the down 
 and out man who seems deserving of it a fresh 
 credit, then the institution will fail of its purpose. 
 Such institutions are not working miracles. If a 
 man's nerve cells are broken down, we cannot re- 
 build them. Some men who come to me are past
 
 Prison Problems 199 
 
 the dead line of human hope or aid. For them there 
 is pity is sympathy, if you please but "The 
 Home" is not for them. This is a world of actu- 
 ality and Life is a march and a battle. It's a good 
 deal more than a dress parade at any stage of the 
 game. For the man who has dropped out of the ranks 
 and wishes to "come back" and has the red blood to 
 back his ambition, there should be a place for him 
 to take his first step in the procession. Such a home 
 should be distinctly not the place for the drone 
 the shirker or the coward. For the man who is 
 strong and wise enough to recognize that he alone 
 is the master of his fate and the "captain of his 
 soul," the latch-string ought to be always out. 
 
 Let us look a few facts in the face. If a man 
 is arrested on the Fourth of July for harboring an 
 overflow of patriotism in his system, he is sentenced 
 to seven months in the workhouse, serves his time, 
 gets a few days off for good conduct and on Christ- 
 mas Eve he is liberated. 
 
 When he was arrested he wore a summer suit, low 
 cut shoes, a straw hat and gauze underwear. His 
 clothes were stored away when he began his sen- 
 tence, and prison garb was provided for his use. 
 
 It is Christmas Eve, and all the world is looking 
 for Santa Claus, the children are gathered in thous- 
 ands of churches to sing and say speeches about the 
 Christ who came to bring "Peace on Earth, Good 
 Will to Men." 
 
 An iron gate creaks and a poor shivering, half- 
 scared stranger steps from the prison in a summer 
 suit, low cut shoes, straw hat and gauze underwear. 
 He has just been given five cents by the prison offi- 
 cials. He has been staked, it's up to him to make 
 good.
 
 200 Prison Problems 
 
 This is not the saddest part of our story, for per- 
 chance we may have a woman to deal with, as is 
 frequently the case. 
 
 Think of a woman, maybe your own flesh and 
 blood, turned loose upon society with five cents as 
 her available assets. Can we wonder that she gives 
 up the struggle, yields to the temptations of the 
 city's depravity, falls into the toils of the cunning 
 ones who live on the weakness of their fellows? 
 
 Some day the state will take care of its released 
 prisoners, just as the up-to-date church looks after 
 its new converts, or the business college looks after 
 its graduates. 
 
 If the National Harvester Company were to sell 
 farm machinery giving as little thought to repair- 
 ing and replacing the weak parts as society does in 
 dealing with the most delicate, intricate and won- 
 derful machine ever constituted man it would 
 go broke inside of a year. 
 
 If a doctor were to have a sick man come to him 
 a hundred different times with the same complaint, 
 he would be considered a criminal Quack if he were 
 to prescribe the same medicine continuously, when 
 he saw it did no good. 
 
 Yet that is exactly what the court does. It sends 
 the same patient to the work house for as many 
 as a hundred times. Each visit only weakens the 
 victim. It is the duty of the state to make it as 
 hard as possible to do wrong and as easy as possible 
 to do right. 
 
 We aim to drive out anger and revengeful 
 thoughts which corrode the heart that generates 
 them by instilling love, sympathy and hope, coupled 
 with material help for the ex-cortvict, who needs 
 help, to help himself.
 
 Prison Problems 
 
 201 
 
 Analysis of the first one thousand men received 
 at the "Home," showing countries and creeds : 
 
 Countries. 
 402 Americans 
 207 Irish 
 102 Colored 
 85 Germans 
 35 Polish 
 32 English 
 28 Scotch 
 22 Sweden 
 15 Jews 
 12 Bohemia 
 11 Norway 
 9 France 
 8 Austria 
 7 Italian 
 7 Russia 
 6 Denmark 
 3 Finland 
 2 Wales 
 2 Canada 
 1 Japan 
 1 Spain 
 1 Hungary 
 1 Ludwig 
 1 Holland 
 
 Church. 
 496 Catholics 
 127 Methodists 
 94 Baptists 
 89 Lutherans 
 71 Presbyterians 
 44 Episcopalians 
 18 Congregational 
 15 Jews 
 
 14 Ch. of England 
 13 Christian 
 
 5 Reformed 
 
 3 Christian Science 
 
 3 Unitarian 
 
 2 United Presby. 
 
 2 Disciple 
 
 Evangelical 
 Ch. Catholic Zion 
 Nazarine 
 United Bro. 
 
 1,000 1,000 
 
 24 countries ; 19 creeds. 
 
 P. S. Since this article was written a new Parting 
 of the Ways Home has been started at 32 Lacock 
 St., Pittsburgh, Pa., with Rollo H. McBride in 
 charge. Ed.
 
 202 Prison Problems 
 
 COURTS FOR THE POOR. 
 
 Any one who has ever attended a police court, 
 squire's trial, or watched the legal proceedings of 
 the officers that have to do with the poor, the needy, 
 the unfortunate, the down-and-outer has been 
 shocked at the speed with which the victims are run 
 through the legal mill. 
 
 The writer once saw a young man, who lived in 
 Piedmont, W. Va., arrested outside the corporate 
 limits, charged with stealing chickens at Luke, Md. 
 The Mayor of Piedmont was kept from sending this 
 young fellow to the penitentiary in West Virginia 
 for stealing chickens in Maryland only because it 
 was the Maryland officials who had arrested him and 
 claimed the right to try him in that state, so they 
 took him to Westernport, Md., and arraigned him 
 before a man whose sign above his so-called office 
 announced to all the world that he was a "Justice 
 of the 'Piece.' " At this hearing it was unmistaka- 
 bly proven that it was this young man's father and 
 brother who stole the chickens, whereupon the 
 Judge, who used his vest as an adjunct to a cuspi- 
 dor, sentenced his victim to serve a year in the 
 Maryland reformatory for living (in West Virginia) 
 without visible means of support. He served his time. 
 
 Compare his case with that of Harry K. Thaw or 
 any other rich or well-to-do man or woman who has 
 money to pay a lawyer to twist and untwist the 
 legal tangles just as long as the ducats are forth- 
 coming. 
 
 We have heard much of reforming the judiciary,
 
 Prison Problems 203 
 
 recalling judges and their decisions, but all of this 
 is only for the upper class. What is needed is 
 the abolition of the fee system whereby "artificials" 
 of every type are made to prosper by the misfortune 
 of others. 
 
 All judges should be elected at a salary to serve 
 the people instead of serving the ordinary under- 
 strappers who live by the lucre they coin from crime. 
 
 Kansas has made a start in the right direction in 
 establishing courts for the poor. 
 
 At least $3,000,000 in small unpaid debts is lost to 
 the poor in the United States annually because they 
 have not the means to bring prosecution, according 
 to Judge Eli Nirdlinger of the small debtors' court, 
 which was established at Leavenworth, Kansas, 
 May 1st. 
 
 The small debtors' court, the first of its kind in 
 the United States, was established entirely for the 
 poor, who are unable to deposit costs or to employ 
 a lawyer. Provision for the court was made in a law 
 drafted by the attorney general of Kansas, John 
 S. Dewson. 
 
 Mayors or councils of cities of the first class may 
 appoint a judge to sit in the court or, in the case of 
 counties, the county courts make the appointment. 
 Leavenworth is the first city to take advantage of 
 the law. 
 
 All that is required of a plaintiff in the small 
 debtors' court is to show that he is too poor to make 
 a deposit for the costs or to employ counsel. Upon 
 such showing, he is permitted to file his complaint. 
 The judge then summons the defendants. The serv- 
 ice may be oral, by mail or telephone. On appear- 
 ance of the defendant, the case is tried. The judge
 
 204 Prison Problems 
 
 inquires into the merits of the case and renders his 
 judgment according to justice of the complaint. 
 
 No lawyer or any other than defendant and plain- 
 tiff are allowed to take part in the litigation. The 
 defendant may, however, appeal his case to the 
 higher courts, providing that such appeal is accom- 
 panied by a bond in double the amount of the judg- 
 ment and $15 additional for the payment of a lawyer 
 to prosecute the case for the plaintiff in the district 
 court. 
 
 In the debtors' court no costs are assessed or 
 charged to either party. The defendant pays the 
 debt, if the judge decides he owes it, and is dis- 
 charged. 
 
 Since the establishment of the court forty cases 
 have been disposed of. Every cent paid into the 
 court was due unfortunate persons who were unable 
 to collect money due them for work, because they 
 couldn't afford to go into the district courts and 
 stand the expense of costs and attorney's fee. 
 
 The litigants included carpenters, plasterers, 
 house cleaners, washerwomen, dressmakers, cooks 
 and waiters. Judge Nirdlinger, who is a former 
 judge of the Leavenworth county district court, 
 serves in debtors' court without compensation. 
 
 "It is surprising," he said, "that people of means 
 show such neglect in the payment of the poor for 
 the labor they perform. Among the claims that 
 came before the court was one against a lawyer who 
 owed a poor washerwoman $18.46 for more than 
 two years. Upon notice from the debtors' court 
 the claim was paid promptly." 
 
 On the first day that Judge Nirdlinger sat in his 
 court, he had the folllowing cases before him :
 
 Prison Problems 205 
 
 Bill for $11.90 for painting barn and back of 
 fence. Paid. 
 
 Bill for $2.70 for washing for family for two 
 weeks. Paid. 
 
 Bill for 55 cents for washing for bachelor. Paid. 
 
 Bill for $20 of waiter in restaurant; $10 ordered 
 paid and case settled. 
 
 "According to the figures I have gathered, and 
 from the money paid into this court since its estab- 
 lishment, there must be at least $3,000,000 lost to 
 the poor in the United States annually in small 
 debts that simply go by the board," said Judge Nird- 
 linger. 
 
 "Every lawmaker in the country should see that 
 his state enacts such a law. It is the greatest thing 
 that ever happened in Kansas to protect the poor 
 working people from being cheated out of their just 
 claims." 
 
 Lincoln Steffins has said : "There will come a 
 time when crime will disappear, but that time will 
 never come or be hastened by the building of jails 
 and penitentiaries and scaffolds. It will only come 
 by changing the conditions of life under which men 
 live and suffer and die." 
 
 This move to establish courts for the poor is a 
 step forward and one that means a now and here 
 effort to bring about that very condition that Steffins 
 has foretold.
 
 206 Prison Problems 
 
 FORTY YEARS OF SOLITARY CON- 
 FINEMENT. 
 
 Forty years in solitary confinement! What for? 
 Picture will you a lad of only eleven years of age, be- 
 ing sent to the Reform School, and again we ask 
 what for? Because he and another boy were sup- 
 posed to have whipped a saloon keeper's son, and 
 this tender hearted agent of mercy, who had never 
 brought trouble into a home, this friend of the 
 drunkards' children, this orphans' protector, this 
 saintly bloat, who had made his money out of the 
 wrecked homes and wasted lives of his patrons, 
 offered $500.00 for the arrest of the boys who had 
 trounced his own dear, little weakling, who couldn't 
 take what every boy has had, a sound thrashing. 
 
 Everyone who has studied into the antiquated 
 methods of most of our present reform schools can 
 guess at what these juvenile crime hot houses must 
 have been forty years ago. 
 
 Still the record of the boy's service shows that 
 he was promoted and never punished while at the 
 school, and his own testimony is that he saw little 
 to criticise while there. But when he returned home 
 he began to pay the real price of his supposed crime.* 
 
 A young girl by the name of Kittie Curran sud- 
 denly and strangely disappeared, and of course the 
 finger of suspicion was pointed at once to the 
 Pomeroy boy as he had just returned from the re- 
 form school. 
 
 Then a boy was found murdered in the Boston 
 Marsh and soon the officers were certain that no
 
 Prison Problems 207 
 
 one could have committed these horrible deeds but 
 an ex-convict. The whole story is a revolting one, 
 and its details have almost been lost in the labyrinth 
 of time, but the verdict of that jury, as commuted 
 by the governor, still stands as one of Massachu- 
 setts' unfinished tasks. 
 
 The great state that gave the lyceum its birth and 
 its first real purpose, the state that wept over the 
 sins of black slavery in the South, the state that 
 morally gagged every time the word "bondage" was 
 mentioned, has for forty years maintained a worse 
 form of slavery than ever existe-d in South Caro- 
 lina and the New Orleans slave mart, which stirred 
 the soul of Abraham Lincoln to righteous wrath 
 was an altar of justice as compared to the den of 
 gloom where this human being, made in the image 
 of his Creator, has been confined for forty long 
 years. To me, Simon Legree was a merciful bene- 
 factor as comparel to Warden Russell, who for 
 twenty-one years has carried out the blind verdict 
 of a jury, perhaps long since dead. 
 
 There are only two conclusions that a thinking 
 mind can arrive at. First, this man, Jesse Pomeroy, 
 is a degenerate, unsound of reason, with defective 
 mental and moral faculties. If this be true, he 
 should have had medical treatment, he should have 
 been in a hospital, had fresh air, God's sunshine, a 
 mother's love in more constant potions, not a 
 monthly capsuled dose. Shame on the state ! Thrice 
 shame on the officials if Jesse Pomeroy is as de- 
 scribed! 
 
 Second, he is sane, fully equipped, mentally and 
 morally ; therefore responsible for his every act and 
 his punishment has been deserved.
 
 208 Prison Problems 
 
 More shame to the stupidity of those who wish to 
 be looked up to as reformers, who prate of their large 
 percentage of regenerated souls who have been 
 saved to the world after having tarried for a spell 
 in their paradise regained ! More shame to the 
 stupidity of those who are still administering the 
 same treatment that a dead jury, and perhaps a dead 
 governor, have prescribed. Surely this is another 
 case of "The Calf Path" described by Sam Walter 
 Foss. It is on a plane with the doctors who bled 
 George Washington to death to cure a cold "A 
 little vestige of that cold still remains," said the 
 medicine men, and again they let still more blood, 
 and the pow-wow was kept up until death ended 
 the farce tragedy. 
 
 If forty years of solitary confinement has failed 
 to cure Jesse Pomeroy, then in God's name, in hu- 
 manity's name, how many more years must this an- 
 tiquated, inhuman remedy be adminstered before the 
 patient is cured, or like "the father of his country," 
 dies in the process of being cured? 
 
 Either Jesse Pomeroy ought to be given the liber- 
 ty that he has earned, or he ought to be treated as 
 a sick man. Which shall it be? 
 
 Read, will you, this pitiful letter: 
 
 47 Pearl St., North Weymouth, Mass., 
 
 February 3, 1913. 
 Mr. Fred High. 
 
 Dear Sir: Your letter of January 14th came safe. 
 Should have answered sooner, but I am old and 
 feeble and there are days I cannot write. The book 
 of "Prison Problems" also came. I am deeply in- 
 terested in it and thank you and those with you that
 
 Prison Problems 209 
 
 are interested ; if you and your friends can do some- 
 thing for my son, you will have the heartfelt thanks 
 of a mother that has suffered all these years. I 
 have tried repeatedly for years in my son's behalf, 
 but you see I am only a woman and we have no in- 
 fluence so they shut me off. 
 
 \Yhen Governor Foss was elected I thought he 
 might do something. I went to him and he received 
 me very kindly. I talked with him over three hours 
 and I came away hopeful, but somehow there has 
 been nothing done. 
 
 I have never believed my son guilty of these 
 crimes, NEVER! I never had any trouble with him 
 until we moved to South Boston. It was there I 
 received my death blow. We moved to South 
 Boston the first of August, 1871. Jesse was born 
 in Charleston and we lived there. He went to 
 school with other children and lived in the house 
 with another son and never had any complaints of 
 him. He grew up as others did, was a happy and 
 bright boy. About a year before we moved to South 
 Boston, there was a liquor dealer's son in Chelsea, a 
 boy, beaten and whipped. It was said at the time 
 there were two high school boys that whipped him 
 and went in the direction of Everett. My boy was 
 only eleven years old then, but the father of the boy 
 offered a reward of five hundred dollars for their 
 apprehension. As I said, we moved to South Bos- 
 ton after Jesse commenced to go to the Biglow 
 grammar school. He only went twenty days. We 
 were strangers there and there were some boys 
 whipped and the police knew we were strangers. 
 Jesse says he was coming up Broadway and he 
 stopped and looked in at station 6. He said a police-
 
 210 Prison Problems 
 
 man came out and took him inside. They kept him 
 until about 6 p. m., then they came to my house and 
 asked about Jesse and said they thought he was 
 the boy that whipped the Chelsea boy a year before. 
 I told them he could not be the one for he was too 
 young, but they kept him and would not let me see 
 Jesse and the next morning he was taken to Bos- 
 ton. They did not give me time to get a lawyer : 
 there was no warrant served, they had it all their 
 own way and sent him to the reform school. I 
 have always thought if we would have had a lawyer 
 to have looked into this case that Jesse would not 
 have been sent to the reform school, and those offi- 
 cers who got the reward would not have had things 
 their own way as they did. 
 
 I did not know what to do. I was completely 
 paralyzed. I always had a horror of those institu- 
 tions and it almost killed me to have Jesse go there. 
 I visited Jesse at the reform school and they al- 
 ways spoke well of him. He never was punished 
 there. He was there over a year and they let him 
 come home. I can see now I should not have stayed 
 in South Boston when he come home. I ought to 
 have moved away, but I did not realize what was 
 before me. This was the beginning of our trouble 
 and I have written to you so you might know the 
 beginning. 
 
 Jesse came home in February and the 18th day of 
 March there was missing a girl eleven years old and 
 it was said she was carried away in a team. It was 
 talked in my place, as we kept a little store in Broad- 
 way across from where we lived. The store was 
 once a large store, but they made two stores by 
 putting a metal board partition through the center.
 
 Prison Problems 211 
 
 There was a family who lived overhead and two 
 men who kept the other half of the store on the 
 right, and one cellar under the whole. The family 
 upstairs kept their wood and coal in the cellar, but 
 I did not use the cellar, as I kept my coal across the 
 street where I lived. I did quite a little business 
 at dressmaking and everything went well until the 
 22nd of April it seems there was a small boy found 
 murdered on the marsh a mile or more from where 
 we lived. 
 
 Some one started the story that the Pomeroy boy 
 being at home he might have done the deed. There 
 was no suspicion against him otherwise than this. 
 The officers came and arrested him. Of course there 
 was great excitement and some went so far as to 
 say he had made away with the girl. There was so 
 much talk that they sent officers and searched the 
 cellar. They found nothing. There being so much 
 talk I closed up my store the last day of May. I 
 procured counsel for my son and we expected every- 
 thing would come out afi right and my son would 
 be proven innocent. I had plenty of work ; the store 
 was sold to a Mr. Nash, a grocery man ; there were 
 some repairs and had been nearly in the place nine 
 days when, on the 18th day of July, they found a 
 body supposed to be the gird, missing. Now they 
 had searched that cellar, I am told, a number of 
 times and found nothing, yet when this body was 
 found it was not utterly covered only a little ashes 
 strewn over it. \Ye did not put any ashes in the 
 cellar. Now if Jesse killed that girl she must have 
 been there four months from the 18th day of 
 March until the 18th day of July. I am sending you 
 a little pamphlet. It is very much worn, but is the
 
 212 Prison Problems 
 
 only one I have left, besides the original writing, 
 written by him after his trial. I am afraid it will be 
 hard for you to read it, but it is the best I can do. 
 You will see by this he was tried and convicted of 
 murder in the first degree. When arrested he was 
 fourteen years and four months old. Mr. Gaston, 
 who was governor, did not act in the case and left 
 it until Mr. Rice was elected governor. He with 
 the counsel commuted the sentence to solitary con- 
 finement for life. This is why Jesse is kept in soli- 
 tary confinement. He is not allowed to go to chapel 
 or have any of the privileges that the other inmates 
 have, subject to all the punishments but to none 
 of the privileges. 
 
 Warden Bridges has been warden here eighteen 
 or twenty years and he has carried out the sen- 
 tence to the full extent; there is no one allowed to 
 see Jesse but me. I go to see him once a month 
 unless he is not under punishment, and he is al- 
 lowed to write me once a month. He has been try- 
 ing for the last seven years to get the records of his 
 case, but they will not let him have them. He want- 
 ed a lawyer some three years ago. I wrote and ap- 
 pealed to the Suffolk Bar and told them he was 
 friendless, but no one responded. 
 
 Jesse was only a boy of a little over fifteen years 
 when he went to Charlestown States Prison. In his 
 solitude he put himself down to study and has 
 succeeded in educating himself. He has never been 
 punished for anything but digging out of his cell. 
 This he has done, the closer they kept him con- 
 fined the more he tries to get out. Jesse is not a 
 stupid man. He is a learned man and could do a 
 great deal of good if out. He has already served a
 
 Prison Problems 213 
 
 life-time and ought to come home, but you see 
 the people do not know the real "Jesse Pomeroy," 
 no one gets to see him and he is friendless with the 
 exception of his mother. I can do but little; I am 
 old, over seventy, and I feel my time is short here, 
 but through all these years I have cherished the 
 hope that before I passed away I might have my 
 son with me once more. He has just been under 
 punishment for getting out of his cell, what few 
 privileges he had were taken away and they put 
 him in the dark, solitary cell on bread and water for 
 six days. I do not know what he did do. I went 
 over to see him, but was told he was under punish- 
 ment and could not see him until after the fourth 
 of February. It was very hard for me as I am 
 feeble and it is quite a journey, a storm came up and 
 I had a hard time getting home. 
 
 I am very sorry this has happened. It has been 
 twelve years since he has done anything before this 
 last attempt. I only wish some one could get to see 
 him and they would find a very different man than 
 he has been represented. In one of my visits to 
 him I was talking to one of the officers about Jesse 
 and he said to me that Jesse is a most cheerful 
 prisoner, there is not a bit of harm in him. I have 
 prayed to God to raise up friends to help my son and 
 to keep him. I do believe He has heard my prayer. 
 I thank God that I have been spared to visit my son 
 and bring a little encouragement to him in his 
 silent life. 
 
 Please excuse this letter. Do not know as you 
 can read it. Thank you for your kindness and hope 
 and pray you may be able to do something for my 
 son and may God give you and those with you sue-
 
 214 Prison Problems 
 
 cess in bringing about the reforms of prisons and 
 those who have fallen by the wayside. 
 
 Very truly, 
 (Signed) Mrs. Ruth A. Pomeroy. 
 
 Harry A. Rothrock, a young minister, recently 
 made an investigation of this case and Warden Rus- 
 sell said to him : 
 
 "Jesse Pomeroy is an ordinary prisoner causing 
 no trouble, only trying to escape." 
 
 That disposes of one myth which always pictured 
 the prisoner as a degenerate, morally and mentally 
 unsound. Why is he held in solitary confinement? 
 
 The warden says that the people of the state are 
 so bitter against him that if they would let him 
 out, some one would kill him ; the people would 
 lynch him. 
 
 Is Massachusetts the state that is always railing 
 against the south for lynching negroes? Did you 
 ever hear of a southern mob lynching a negro forty 
 years after a crime had been committed? 
 
 Upon the warden's own testimony Jesse Pomeroy 
 should at least be treated as an ordinary prisoner. 
 This Simon Legree of cultured Boston outdoes the 
 famous slave driver that Mrs. Beecher set to the 
 task of killing Uncle Tom in that he gloats over the 
 fact that Pomeroy is given an hour every day in 
 which to fill his system with pure air. There is a 
 window in his cell, sayeth this kind keeper. There 
 are also electric lights in his den and the Boston 
 Theologic student was surprised at the cleanliness 
 and convenience of the cell-rooms. Sleeping in a 
 toilet room is certainly the acme of sanitary condi- 
 tions and ought to be conducive of great spirituality.
 
 Prison Problems 21. 'i 
 
 The reason why this prisoner can't even be al- 
 lowed to attend the prison concerts, as given by the 
 warden, is that he committed a number of indescrib- 
 able horrors when he was a boy, forty years ago. 
 Witches of the Pilgrims save us from such a for- 
 giving spirit. 
 
 Governor Eugene Foss was then appealed to as 
 follows : "Is Jesse Pomeroy mentally sound, there- 
 fore responsible for his acts? If so, don't you think 
 that he has suffered enough for the crimes that he 
 is supposed to have committed, and why shouldn't 
 he have at least the freedom of the penitentiary the 
 same as an ordinary criminal ? Will you kindly state 
 what the objection would be to giving him a pardon ? 
 Surely he has suffered enough to merit his release. 
 
 "If he is mentally unsound and irresponsible, why 
 isn't he given medical treatment instead of punish- 
 ment? It is our purpose to try to raise a fund to 
 come to the relief of this man and his aged mother, 
 and I would thank you very much if you would 
 give me any facts as you may have them." 
 
 The Governor answered : "Pomeroy's sanity has 
 never been questioned. He is a moral degenerate 
 of the worst type. It would be utterly useless for 
 you to try and raise money to come to the relief 
 of this man ; because public sentiment in this com- 
 monwealth is entirely adverse to his liberation, the 
 general feeling being that he is not a safe man to be 
 at large." 
 
 We preach in thunderous tones about the coward- 
 ice of Pontius Pilate who listened to the mob two 
 thousand years ago, but how many sermons have 
 been hurled at this political flip-flopper whose record 
 as a political turn-coat finally became such a stench
 
 216 Prison Problems 
 
 in the nostrils of the old Bay State electorate that 
 at the last election he was thoroughly repudiated as 
 a candidate for re-election, polling about one-tenth 
 as many votes as his own Lieutenant Governor 
 polled. 
 
 Ohio has had a case almost similar to the Pomeroy 
 disgrace. For twenty years a human being has been 
 pilloried and for three years his meals were passed 
 into his cell on a pole, but when Governor Cox was 
 elected he walked right in where the poor trembling, 
 cowardly guards were afraid to venture even when 
 armed with rifles, billies, and other accoutrements 
 of both the murderer and coward. 
 
 Today Ohio's incorrigible, her brutal murderer, 
 has the privilege of the yards, he is harmless under 
 kind treatment whereas he was a demon when 
 handled by demons. 
 
 Governor Cox said : "If there's anything that so- 
 ciety has tried and made complete failure of, it is the 
 old time method of dealing with so-called criminals." 
 
 Massachusetts has tried for forty years to crush, 
 torture, and brutalize Jesse H. Pomeroy and at the 
 end of this period we find her Governor sanctioning 
 the inhuman treatment that is still being inflicted 
 upon this man as a punishment for a crime he is 
 said to have committed forty years ago. 
 
 Pomeroy is even denied the privilege of attend- 
 ing the concerts. Even the religious services, which 
 in the light of the prison practices are the cheap- 
 est mockery, are for the others but not for him. 
 
 But think of a so-called newspaper like the Boston 
 Post stooping to the pusillanimous infamy of coin- 
 ing a mother's tears into pennies by the sale of a few 
 extra copies of its miserable sensational "Extras."
 
 Prison Problems 217 
 
 July 30th this miserable rag belched forth with 
 scare-heads that announced the blood-curdling news 
 that Pomeroy had tried again to escape. He was 
 foiled, ah yes, just at the psychological moment, the 
 guard woke up and found Pomeroy had two rusty 
 nails and a cotton string in his cell. With these 
 formidable instruments he would have sawed the 
 iron bars, murdered the state officials, surrounded 
 the National guard, and in the twinkling of an eye 
 he would have had the old Bay State shoved into the 
 ocean. Horrors ! 
 
 Governor Foss has said that much of this feeling 
 against this poor fellow has been created by the 
 yellow journalism of his state; that the sensational 
 reports about his attempts to break out have been 
 manufactured out of nothing. 
 
 \Yhat manner of man is Jesse H. Pomeroy? Let 
 us read one of his own letters written to his mother 
 for it is a good key to the whole mystery. 
 
 Charlestown, Mass., April 17, 1913. 
 Dear Mother: 
 
 I write you my usual monthly letter in the hope 
 that all is well with you, and that you are looking 
 ahead, with some expectation of a change for the 
 better, at no distant date. Your letter of April 4th 
 reached me, and I am greatly cheered to know that 
 some are thinking of my good, and that some effort 
 is being made in my behalf. We are grateful to 
 those fearless souls, who are moved to do and dare 
 for me, because my case has ever been misrepresent- 
 ed, and there is a determination to hide the true 
 state of affairs. Those friends have an inkling of the 
 truth which has been so carefully hushed up all 
 these years, and we must do our part to put them
 
 218 Prison Problems 
 
 in possession of our side of the case, to strength- 
 en their hands, that they may speak with confidence, 
 and act intelligently in the matter. This it is our 
 lawful privilege to do, no matter what anyone may 
 think on the subject. Our family affairs are in our 
 own hands, to be dealt with as we see fit. 
 
 For that reason we have a right to get a lawyer, 
 and we have a right to present our case properly to 
 him, so he may know what is at stake, and act ac- 
 cordingly. I trust that you have brought to the 
 attention of Mr. High and his associates, all that is 
 said of my case in my letter of March 18, 1913. It 
 will give them all the facts they need, as a determin- 
 ation is evident to deny to me an opportunity to 
 furnish a complete copy of the records in my case ; 
 but that fact need not cause any worry. Any one 
 can go to the State House of the Suffolk Co. Social 
 Law Library, and get copies of the records in my 
 case and Mr. High or any one can write to Mr. J. 
 Cronin, clerk of the Suffolk Co. Supreme Court of 
 Massachusetts, and get copies of all the documents 
 I filed in 1906, asking a writ of error. These will 
 put our friends in possession of every essential thing 
 except what relates to the charge of torture and the 
 testimony of the coroner Dr. Allen, which I did not 
 know of in 1906, and which I fully explained in that 
 letter of March 1st, giving a full list of all docu- 
 ments, which must be obtained from the State 
 House ; but first get those from the Supreme Court. 
 The numbers are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 737. The charge 
 will not be much, if anything at all, and I think we 
 should help our friends and get these things our- 
 selves, and then let Mr. High use them. I hope you 
 have laid this before Mr. Warren. Tell him I am
 
 Prison Problems 219 
 
 anxious to have him name a fearless man, who will 
 do this for us, and that I will pay the bill. It should 
 not take a week, and $5.00 a day, I can, and will 
 account for. Let me know at once what Mr. War- 
 ren says. It may not cost $5.00 a day either. 
 
 The misconduct of the chief justice at my trial, in 
 the underhand and whispered communications he 
 had with the jury, for which he was censured finally 
 by Judge Morton, his colleague, and the audible pro- 
 test by the audience, "you are taking advantage of 
 that boy," will clearly prove the unrighteousness of 
 the proceedings, in violation of law, at my trial, for 
 the chief justice had no excuse to act so. We need 
 a lawyer to investigate. 
 
 Tell my friends I am refused opportunity to get a 
 lawyer, refused the documents in my case, as per list 
 of March 18, 1913, have had no hearing, no decision 
 on the merits of my case, all of which is in violation 
 of the laws of Massachusetts. 
 
 I got the papers you left me. I hope Charles is 
 well and has seen you. My regards to all. Holiday 
 comes the 19th. I hope you will enjoy the day. Our 
 visit is due the 20th. 
 
 I trust the rain is over and that fair weather will 
 push spring time along that crops may have an 
 early start. Your son, 
 
 (Signed) JESSE H. POMEROY. 
 
 W r hy don't the guards, keepers, and state officials 
 treat Pomeroy with greater kindness? 
 
 Why didn't Tammany Hall reform before it was 
 knocked out? Why don't policemen throw away 
 their clubs? Why don't thieves reform while they 
 are stealing, why wait until they are caught?
 
 220 Prison Problems 
 
 What ask those men to say they have been 
 wrong all these years in keeping Jesse Pomeroy in 
 solitary confinement? Turn state's evidence against 
 themselves? It's too much to hope for. 
 
 But what is needed is for every one who reads 
 this story to write a letter to Governor David F. 
 Walsh and ask him to at least treat Pomeroy as a 
 human being, to give him the privileges of the yard, 
 the benefits of the entertainments, the blessings of 
 the chapel, and if it is not asking too much to give 
 ear to the pleas of this dear mother who has suf- 
 fered hell on earth. 
 
 How long does it take a lie to die? Dr. Frederick 
 A. Cook has spent a fortune, yea more, he has spent 
 four years trying to overcome that same brand of 
 manufactured public opinion that has been fed by 
 the yellow journals and venal press. Dr. Cook has 
 found that the battle with Polar hardships was 
 child's play as compared with his battle to maintain 
 his honor and self respect in the face of the on- 
 slaught that was forced on him by one of the mean- 
 est cowards of all time, the Sultan of the North. 
 
 What show then has poor Pomeroy when he 
 finds himself the victim of a cruel conspiracy and a 
 hungry mob of newspaper scribblers who are will- 
 ing to convert an aged widow's tears into slander 
 for scare-heads? 
 
 Why can't we try kindness, love and patience, 
 abolish brutality, and barbarity, and see if Jesse H. 
 Pomeroy is not a man who will respond to humane 
 appeals? Who knows but that he may even yet take 
 his place in the world of usefulness to comfort and 
 cheer his faithful old mother who has stood by him 
 through all these years, faithful and true ; watching,
 
 Prison Problems 221 
 
 waiting, working and hoping against hope that her 
 boy will yet be given back to her. 
 
 Clarence Darrow, Chicago's noted Criminal and 
 Labor Attorney, in that now famous Plea in His 
 Own Defense to the Jury that exonerated him of 
 the charge of bribery at Los Angeles, Calif., said : 
 
 "I want to say that, when you know the man, 
 no matter whom I have known men charged with 
 crime in all walks of life, burglars, bankers, murder- 
 ers when you come to touch them and meet them 
 and know them, you feel the kinship between them 
 and you. You feel that they are human ; they love 
 their mothers, their wives, their children; they love 
 their fellow man. Why they did this thing or that 
 thing remains the dark mystery of a clouded mind, 
 which all the -science of all the world has never 
 yet been wise enough to solve." 
 
 Do the guards, officials and whatnots of the Mass- 
 achusetts penitentiary and the yellow journals know 
 the same Jesse Pomeroy that the faithful mother 
 describes? How can they? You might as well 
 hand the score of a symphony orchestra to a band 
 of Hottentotts, and ask them to bring forth the same 
 soul vibrations that were born in the brain of 
 Mendelssohn. 
 
 Will you help, dear reader, to prevent this disgrace 
 from becoming a greater monstrosity and travesty 
 on justice?
 
 222 Prison Problems 
 
 MANUFACTURING CRIMINALS. 
 
 One of the most effective pleas of the temperance 
 orator has always been to show the drunkards by the 
 hundred thousand toppling into drunkard's graves 
 while at the recruiting office the young men and 
 boys were enlisting, 100,000 a year, in this army of 
 woe. 
 
 In the war on the White Slave Traffic, it has 
 been this same appeal to mothers and fathers, to 
 brothers and sisters, to sweethearts and friends that 
 has been so effective in arousing the public con- 
 science, always asleep but never dead. It's the cry 
 that 60,000 innocent girls must be brought into the 
 lives of sin and degradation each year to fill the 
 places made vacant by the horrible death of the 
 inmates, that has been the one most effective way 
 of reaching the public heart-strings. 
 
 In the days when Charles Dickens wrote, there 
 were schools of vice which were presided over by 
 the Pagans and recruited by the Artful Dodgers. A 
 crude clumsy system that soon gave w r ay to the 
 new modern method of having the state operate the 
 criminal factories with the police and officers of 
 the law as employment agents. 
 
 Let us look at a sample reform s'chool, taking for 
 instance the one at Pontiac, 111., where the horrors 
 of negro slavery, the unspeakable shame of the white 
 slavery, the tortures of industrial slavery, have all 
 been combined and heaped upon the shoulders of 
 the little children that were sent there to be re- 
 formed.
 
 Prison Problems 223 
 
 Here are some of the things the board of five 
 members appointed by Governor Edward Dunne re- 
 ported : 
 
 Physical punishment of the inmates by keepers, 
 guards, teachers and other officers was the rule 
 rather than the exception. 
 
 Dr. James A. Marshall, reformatory physician, 
 made a practice of beating up newly arrived inmates 
 with fists and squeeges and was brutal almost to the 
 point of ferocity. 
 
 Boys were black-jacked by enraged officials upon 
 slight provocation, and that in the chair-shop and 
 print-shop, the guards in charge beat up boys with- 
 out restraint, using fists, boots, clubs and hammers. 
 
 The present 600 inmates have been incarcerated 
 in the "screens" 1,731 times, nearly three times per 
 boy, each incarceration meaning the loss of a month's 
 time. The time taken from the boys in this manner 
 totals 150 years. 
 
 Boys placed in the "screens" were given but a 
 single slice of bread daily and one cup of water and 
 they frequently drank water from the basins of the 
 toilet. 
 
 Unspeakable practices have been prevalent 
 throughout the institution, much as the result of 
 the management not to give the boys a chance, and 
 part of which was forced upon the boys by torture. 
 
 A spirit of depraved commercialism had taken pos- 
 session of the management of the institution, caus- 
 ing the boys not only to be overworked, but unlaw- 
 fully deprived of their right to attend school. 
 
 The credit of the state of Illinois was extended 
 for a period of time to an unincorporated concern 
 that was a mere selling name.
 
 224: Prison Problems 
 
 Of 118 boys whose testimony is the basis of the 
 report, 97 had been the victims of or witnesses to 
 cruelties which are seldom inflicted on animals and 
 testified to depraved elements in the teachings of 
 the institution. Of the children attacked with clubs, 
 "billies" and pieces of furniture, many were cripples 
 and imbeciles. 
 
 The punishment records show that for the calen- 
 dar year of 1912, 3,233 complaints were made against 
 boy inmates. The prison management sustained 
 every one of these complaints. 
 
 The board recommends that "every vestige of the 
 system, the natural growth of years of corrupt prac- 
 tice and gross mismanagement, be wiped out." 
 
 Dr. Marshall, institution physician, seemed to be 
 possessed with the conviction that every boy who 
 came to the reformatory had been guilty of abomi- 
 nable practices. He asked each boy if this were true. 
 If the boy replied in the negative he used the squee- 
 gee or- his fists upon him. Marshall, during his four- 
 teen years as physician of the institution, has broken 
 through the armor of self-esteem and self-respect of 
 thousands of boys. 
 
 In viewing the situation within the institution in 
 the light of revelations of the investigation, the 
 board cannot repress a feeling of wonderment that 
 a considerable percentage of the boys have been 
 successful in preserving a slight vestige of the finer 
 feelings they have brought with them into the insti- 
 tution. 
 
 When confronted with these revelations that 
 shocked and horrified the public, the superintendent 
 of this "Reformatory" fled between two days and 
 never stopped fleeing until he reached the mountain 
 fastnesses of Idaho.
 
 Prison Problems 225 
 
 Why were those cruelties and barbarities tolerat- 
 ed? Why were under-strappers, lazy guards, crooks, 
 with the "r" dropped out, allowed to beat cripples 
 and imbeciles? It was the system of graft and greed 
 built up by the political hucksters who have de- 
 spoiled even the state eleemosynary institutions in 
 their greed to convert them into political assets. 
 
 Nine so-called salesmen were on the Pontiac pay- 
 roll to sell desks and other school furniture, manu- 
 factured at the reformatory, and from July '07 to 
 April '08, inclusive, the pay-roll was $10,010.35. The 
 sales by the salesmen were $4,925.29 and the sales 
 that strayed in through the mails were $11,001.98. 
 
 Now the ousted republicans bitterly denounce 
 the democratic state administration for playing poli- 
 tics with the children of the state and the democrats 
 are relentless in their warfare against the wrongs of 
 the political machine, built by the republicans, on 
 the wrongs inflicted upon the children. 
 
 The Truth is that the reformatory at Pontiac 
 has been the most prolific criminal factory in the 
 state as the records of our most notorious criminals 
 reveal the fact that most of them have first served 
 time in some so-called reform school. 
 
 Are all such schools mere criminal factories? Are 
 the heads of all institutions as barbarous as Ex- 
 Judge R. A. Russell, deposed superintendent at 
 Pontiac? These institutions and many of their 
 heads are victims of the system. Some are suffi- 
 ciently strong and brave enough to rise above their 
 environment and deserve all the more credit for the 
 good work they have done. 
 
 One of the most humane men that it has been 
 the writer's pleasure to meet, one who, in a large
 
 226 Prison Problems 
 
 measure, even unconsciously stimulated the deter- 
 mination to compile this volume of Prison Problems 
 is that prince of goodfellows, Pioneer Prison Re- 
 former, Col. C. B. Adams, now superintendent of the 
 Boys' Industrial School at St. Charles, 111. 
 
 Colonel Adams was formerly at Lancaster, O., 
 where, years ago, he was a great believer in the 
 efficacy of Lyceum entertainment as an adjunct to 
 education and religion in the process of reformation 
 and regeneration. 
 
 The common testimony of those who have the 
 children's real welfare at heart is, that at least seven- 
 ty-five per cent of all boys and girls who are sent to 
 the reform schools are victims. In most cases it 
 would be greater justice to punish the parents. 
 
 In Georgia a boy was sent to the reform school 
 for eleven years for stealing a five cent bottle of 
 Coco-Cola, and the only reason the judge didn't 
 make it twenty years was that the boy wasn't young 
 enough to serve that many years before he became 
 of- age. 
 
 What a crime against childhood ! 
 
 The cure of crime is education, just as the cause 
 of sin is ignorance. It is to the public school and 
 not to the reformatory that we must look for 
 our lasting results for betterment. The public 
 school holds the solution of our social evil problem. 
 
 If we will all quit fighting over whether the Bible 
 is or is not read in the public schools and get the 
 crime of sectarianism out of our systems, get down 
 to fundamentals, study the children's needs, and 
 provide for them, we will be better able to convert 
 all prison factories into reformatories, and not until 
 then will we be doing our full duty.
 
 Prison Problems 227 
 
 Cesare Lombroso, the noted criminologist, taught 
 us that criminals are born, not made. He tried to 
 throw the blame back on to nature. 
 
 Dr. Goring, for years a medical officer in a large 
 British Prison, shatters Lombroso's theory of born 
 criminals by a series of brilliant tests and experi- 
 ments that prove that there is not a definite criminal 
 type. He asserts that the men, now serving prison 
 terms as enemies of society, have not chosen a career 
 of crime, but have been forced into it. Most of them 
 are physical or mental defectives who needed assis- 
 tance rather than punishment. 
 
 H. Fielding-Hall, head of the largest prison in 
 the world says, "The cause of crime is 'general' not 
 'individual.' " He denies the existence of any such 
 thing as "criminal disposition." The unpleasant 
 and even inhuman qualities which differentiate the 
 criminal from the normal man are not innate. 
 
 "There is no use trying to exonerate society," says 
 Fielding-Hall, "by saying that criminals are born, 
 not made. They are made by society, by its careless- 
 ness and cruelty."
 
 228 Prison Problems 
 
 IT'S THE SYSTEM THAT IS WRONG. 
 
 The European system of "tipping" is grafting it- 
 self onto American ways until today it is almost im- 
 possible to get a meal or bed at hotels and restaur- 
 ants without bribing every flunkey, lackey, porter, 
 waiter, bell-hop, hanger-on, including chefs and 
 chambermaids. It's all a species of bribery. It 
 weakens the giver and degenerates the one who re- 
 ceives it. It builds up a system of graft that finally 
 becomes a license for petty larceny. 
 
 But already it has its fangs so deeply fastened into 
 our American customs that instead of its being a 
 gratuity, it is a protection, and is no different in 
 principle from the filthy bribe that the police wring 
 from the underworld in the form of protection. 
 
 Our penitentiary system is a vile travesty on jus- 
 tice, but it's a system just the same. 
 
 Warden R. McClaughry is perhaps the best 
 known prison man in the United States. He re- 
 cently resigned and, as he stepped from his office, 
 gave as his reasons for leaving: 
 
 "After having spent forty years of my life in the 
 management of prisons and fourteen years constant- 
 ly in charge of the Federal prison at Leavenworth, 
 I am convinced that the system is wrong. 
 
 "I am retiring from this position because of the 
 system. I want it understood that I have not one 
 word of complaint to make against the present ad- 
 ministration. I cannot say I have ever been mis- 
 treated by an administration. 
 
 "But the system that places the Attorney General
 
 Prison Problems 229 
 
 of the United States in direct charge of the Federal 
 prisons is wrong. His other duties are so important 
 that he should not be taxed with the petty manage- 
 ment of these prisons. And yet he is the only per- 
 son who has real authority. 
 
 "The system is wrong from another viewpoint. 
 The theory of the law is to punish the culprit. As a 
 matter of fact, in the administration of the law it 
 is not the prisoners who suffer nearly so much as 
 the innocent wives and children left behind abso- 
 lutely at the mercy of the world. 
 
 "When the breadwinner of a family is convicted 
 in the courts and he is sent to prison to pay the 
 penalty, his wife and children are left helpless. 
 
 "The scientists are taxed to provide the most im- 
 proved facilities for guarding his welfare. The food 
 he is given is always wholesome and scrupulously 
 clean. The task of the management is to provide 
 tasks for him that will fit him to battle with the 
 world when he emerges. 
 
 "But not one thought does the government give 
 to the despondent wife and the daughters who may 
 be entering womanhood and who until the head of 
 the family came in contact with the law may never 
 have had to struggle for a livelihood. 
 
 "Work should be provided in the prison walls for 
 all the prisoners, so that they could earn something. 
 The earnings, of course, should not go to them. 
 The earnings should be cared for by government 
 officials, and form a fund that should go toward the 
 support of the families of the men. 
 
 "Thus while the man was serving his time he 
 would know that the fruits of his toil were going 
 to provide for his family, deprived by law of his
 
 230 Prison Problems 
 
 help. He would know that not one cent would go 
 to enrich the coffers of the man, who because of his 
 influence makes a profitable contract with the state 
 or national government and for a ridiculously small 
 sum owns the output of the prisoner's labor. 
 
 "Of course such a plan would meet with disap- 
 proval of demagogues. But honest labor would not 
 object to competition such as this, when the fruits 
 of prison labor went directly towards alleviating 
 actual want and did not go to create the fortunes 
 of those contractors who wax fat on the prisoner's 
 labor. 
 
 "The Federal government proudly proclaims, it 
 does not tolerate prison labor. The institution at 
 Leavenworth is an example. Not one penny's worth 
 of work done in this great institution comes in com- 
 petition with honest labor. And this is true. 
 
 "But, if you inspect the theory again you will see 
 where the Federal prisoners do compete with honest 
 labor. The government needs larger prisons. We 
 have not room enough here to house all of the 
 prisoners. 
 
 "Factories should be established in the prison 
 walls. The prisoners, many of whom merely waste 
 their time on needless tasks, could be made to feel 
 that they were in reality paying the debt they owe 
 society by doing a work that would relieve want 
 and suffering. 
 
 "The system is wrong again when it permits the 
 sending of a young and inexperienced clerk, repre- 
 senting the Department of Justice to inspect and 
 ascertain the condition of a great prison. The 
 young men are eager and ambitious to accomplish 
 a great work and win a name.
 
 Prison Problems 231 
 
 "They may be ignorant of conditions, but they 
 will not hesitate to make reports and their untrained 
 eyes are not likely to penetrate the true condition 
 as are the men who have passed their lives in the 
 work of conducting such institutions and who are 
 familiar with workings of the minds of men over 
 whom they rule. 
 
 "A board of control, composed of eminent men, 
 one from each of the democratic, republican and 
 progressive parties would be the ideal manner in 
 conducting the Federal prisons. The questions of 
 detail that are now put up to the Attorney General 
 could be passed on by the board of control, and the 
 business of the institution would not be hampered 
 as it now is. 
 
 "Let us suppose that a prisoner needs to have a 
 tooth filled. The physician must first observe the 
 prisoner and must report to the warden. The 
 warden must take up the matter with the dentist. 
 It is found in a length of time that the filling of the 
 tooth will cost $1.50. The necessary papers must 
 be drawn and the entire correspondence submitted 
 to the Attorney General at Washington, more than 
 a 1,000 miles away. 
 
 "Before the order finally comes to fill the tooth 
 it is so badly decayed it must be extracted and an- 
 other proposition confronts the management. 
 
 "And should by any chance the dentist draw the 
 tooth without the official order, there comes from 
 Washington a long, tedious and expensive investi- 
 gation over a matter so trivial that a board of control 
 would set the matter right within five minutes." 
 
 On September 20, 1913, a booklet of seventy-eight 
 pages was issued by John Grant Lyman then in
 
 232 Prison Problems 
 
 the Los Angeles County Jail, charged with the crime 
 of being insane. 
 
 "In September, 1911, I had a beautiful home at 
 2068 Hobart Boulevard, Los Angeles, an office in 
 the Consolidated Realty Building, 6th and Hill Sts., 
 and a financial stake in the Panama Development 
 Company's business, 216 Mercantile Place. 
 
 "At that time I was growing cotton at El Centre, 
 California, with a view of proving costs and later 
 building a cotton mill in Los Angeles, if conditions 
 warranted it. 
 
 "I was also giving financial backing to an outfit 
 prospecting for oil in Wyoming, and had other busi- 
 ness interests in various parts of the world remuner- 
 ative and prosperous. About the first of September, 
 1911, I had gone to San Francisco for a short visit 
 and intended making a business trip to Portland, 
 Vancouver and Honolulu, where I expected to make 
 arrangements with the manager of a Hawaiian sugar 
 plantation to take charge of similar work in Panama. 
 
 "Without a word of warning or complaint on the 
 part of any one with whom I had business dealings, 
 the Panama Development Company's offices were 
 raided and all their books and papers carried away, 
 the offices closed by two postal inspectors. Simul- 
 taneously I was seized in my rooms in San Fran- 
 cisco without a warrant, by men not authorized to 
 make arrests, and placed in the dungeon of the 
 Eddy St. Jail, San Francisco, one of the vilest spots 
 mortal man was ever lodged in, the odor from the 
 excreta of former inmates being almost overpower- 
 ing. Here I was kept nearly twenty-four hours 
 without food or drink, denied all communication 
 with friends, and then taken out and arrested.
 
 Prison Problems 233 
 
 "Meanwhile, these men who had seized me, re- 
 turned to my rooms and stripped them of every 
 valuable, I possessed, taking all my books and pa- 
 pers and records of every description, warehouse 
 receipts, stock certificates, money, heirlooms, and 
 some trinkets that were priceless to me. Also some 
 wearing apparel and other personal property, all to 
 the value of $25,000 no part of which has been re- 
 turned or accounted for. 
 
 "Because of my repeated efforts to recover my 
 property through the letters which follow, and to 
 secure a trial (I have now been imprisoned more 
 than two years and have not yet had a hearing on 
 the charge under which I am held), it has been 
 charged that I am insane. Assistant United States 
 District Attorney Regan might have stated with 
 equal truth and more candor, that for many weeks 
 he had sent representatives here to urge me to 
 plead guilty, offering me a light sentence if I would 
 so plead, coupled with the threat that I would not 
 be tried for many months if I did not, until finally, 
 within a week I have been threatened that if I did 
 not plead guilty, the pending charges, the date of 
 trial for which has finally been fixed for October 
 14th, would be dropped and that I would be re-in- 
 dicted and held for another year before trial. 
 
 "Do you wonder that I am not insane?" 
 
 A series of letters follows in which he pleads for 
 a speedy trial. These letters are addressed to Hon. 
 James McReynolds, Attorney General, to Federal 
 Judges, Senators, Congressmen, editors, and even to 
 President Wilson, and yet only two of those ap- 
 pealed to thought enough of this man's pleas to even 
 answer them.
 
 234 Prison Problems 
 
 These two men were Hon. Wm. D. Stephens, a 
 representative in Congress from that district, and 
 Hon. Brand Whitlock, the well known humanitarian, 
 then Mayor of Toledo, Ohio. 
 
 On July 7, 1913, we find this prisoner pleading 
 with the United States Marshal to allow the jailer 
 to take him to a dentist's office. He wrote : "I am 
 suffering greatly from my teeth and am unable to 
 eat any solid food." In his letter of August 21st, he 
 pleads to the Editor of The Los Angeles Tribune as 
 follows : 
 
 "The federal physician as well as three dentists 
 have examined me and after giving me all the aid 
 possible, stand ready to make affidavit that the 
 balance of the work necessary to afford me perma- 
 nent relief must be done outside. Considering the 
 fact that there are several dentists who have offices 
 within the purlieus of this jail, it is absurd to offer 
 as an excuse for denying me treatment that 'Lyman 
 will escape.' 
 
 "I have been moved about 3000 miles and lodged 
 in nine different jails since my first arrest and have 
 not yet had a hearing. 
 
 "At times too I have been caged like a wild beast 
 and exhibited to the populace in chains, yet human 
 treatment that would not be denied a dog has been 
 refused me by United States Assistant District-At- 
 torney, Regan." 
 
 The last heard from Lyman he was still trying 
 to get a requisition, voucher, caveat, or permit or 
 some other form of red-tape folderol, so that he 
 could get his teeth attended to. 
 
 Warden McClaughry knew what he was talking 
 about when he said: "Before the order finallv comes
 
 Prison Problems 235 
 
 to fill the tooth, it is so badly decayed it must be ex- 
 tracted." 
 
 And still Lyman writes : "My case, while almost 
 unbelievable, is by no means exceptional." 
 
 The system whereby wreck and ruin can be thrust 
 upon an individual or an enterprise by right of 
 might or position, is criminal in its baseness. 
 
 We lash ourselves into a frenzy over the so-called 
 "Ritual Murders" of Russia, because in so doing 
 our politicians have an eye on the Jewish vote and 
 our editors see new or enlarged department store 
 ads in this campaign and sales of a few more pa- 
 pers. 
 
 We rave over the wrongs inflicted upon an Amer- 
 ican in any foreign country, but when the scene is 
 laid at our own door, we are silent. 
 
 Anyone who wishes to become more familiar with 
 the workings of the "The Spy System" that honey- 
 combed the administration at Washington under the 
 reign of "Theodoric" ought to get a copy of "The 
 Siege of University City" published by E. G. Lewis, 
 of St. Louis, Mo. There is a tale worthy of Wall 
 Street. Get House Resolution 109, 62nd Congress, 
 3rd Session, Report No. 1601, printed March 1, 1913. 
 
 This report was signed by William A. Ashbrook, 
 Ohio; Joshua W. Alexander, Missouri; William C. 
 Redfield, New York; Walter I. McCoy, New Jersey; 
 Richard W. Austin, Tennessee ; C. Bascom Slump, 
 Virginia ; Horace M. Towner, Iowa ; and from it we 
 gather the following facts: 
 
 "For nearly seven years the Government of the 
 United States, through the Post Office Department 
 and the Department of Justice, has been almost con- 
 tinuously prosecuting Mr. E. G. Lewis of the vari- 
 ous enterprises with which he is connected. The
 
 236 Prison Problems 
 
 action of the Government has included fraud orders 
 against the People's United States Bank, organized 
 by Mr. Lewis, and against Mr. Lewis personally, 
 and has involved repeated examinations into the af- 
 fairs of the Lewis Publishing Company and other 
 Lewis undertakings. Fourteen indictments or more 
 have been found against Mr. Lewis and, although 
 most of them have been quashed, three long and ex- 
 pensive trials have taken place two resulting in 
 disagreement, the other in acquittal on four counts 
 and a disagreement on seven counts. Some indict- 
 ments are still pending. Meanwhile proceedings re- 
 lating to the fraud order against Lewis and the 
 United States Band have taken place in Washington. 
 Inspectors in the employ of the Government have 
 scoured the country, hunting up parties who would 
 complain against Mr. Lewis or testify for the Gov- 
 ernment at the trials. Every effort that the organ- 
 ized power of two great departments could exert 
 has been used at enormous expense. As a result sev- 
 eral large business concerns managed by Mr. Lewis 
 have been ruined, among them the People's United 
 States Bank, the Lewis Publishing Company, and 
 the University Heights Realty and Development 
 Company ; many hundreds of small investors have 
 lost their savings ; and the sad example has been 
 shown the world of the powers of a great Govern- 
 ment exerted successfully in an effort to ruin a 
 single individual, and yet has not been convicted of 
 any violation of law." 
 
 "The Government has been ill-served in this 
 whole matter. The inspectors who did the detective 
 work were men who were neither accountants nor 
 experienced in the lines of business they were called
 
 Prison Problems 237 
 
 upon to investigate, and their methods, particularly 
 in the case of one Swenson were such as to merit 
 sharpest disapproval." 
 
 "The arrangement made by the post-office inspect- 
 ors with the postmaster at St. Louis, whereby a 
 large part of the edition of one of the Lewis maga- 
 zines, some 3,000,000 copies, was seized without the 
 knowledge of Mr. Lewis, goes far to justify the 
 claim of conspiracy to damage the business." 
 
 "The hearings in Washington before the Assis- 
 tant Attorney General for the Post Office Depart- 
 ment, prior to the issuing of the fraud order against 
 Lewis and the People's United States Bank, were a 
 travesty on justice, and in no sense were of a judicial 
 character, although they involved enterprises in 
 which millions were being invested." 
 
 "Lewis, having turned over everything he pos- 
 sessed, including his home, in an effort to save his 
 various enterprises for the benefit of those inter- 
 ested, is now a poor man." 
 
 It's the system that is wrong, and the individual 
 officers are often the victims of the system. In the 
 light of what we have just read, is it any wonder 
 then that Julian Hawthorne said when he stopped 
 out of the penitentiary at Atlanta, Ga., "I feel like 
 a man who has just come back from Dante's 
 Inferno."
 
 238 Prison Problems 
 
 IT'S A PROBLEM FOR THE CHURCH. 
 
 By Ex-Judge McKenzie Cleland of Chicago. 
 
 The church has been the greatest builder of all 
 time. It has built men and women ; it has built 
 communities and nations. But our jails of today 
 are destroying more human lives and souls, more 
 communities and nations than the church even can 
 build up again. Church services in prison are the 
 greatest mockeries the good people of the church 
 ever lent themselves to. It is like striking a man in 
 the face to preach the Golden Rule to him while he 
 is in jail. Our excuse, to our consciences, for build- 
 ing jails and imprisoning men and women in them 
 is that we want to reform the men and women 
 and reduce crime. But we now know that jails 
 make criminals and increase crime. 
 
 If our criminal system were even efficient, one 
 might at least be able to argue for it on that ground, 
 if not on humane grounds. But it isn't efficient. In 
 the last two hundred years murder has increased 
 two hundred per cent. Crime costs the United 
 States $8,000,000,000, which is more than it takes 
 to run the government. Yet there are now 100,000 
 murderers at liberty in the United States. 
 
 The church must do something to stop this. It 
 cannot stop it while society continues to make pro- 
 fessional criminals, and society now is' doing that, 
 by our jail system. We imprison a young man, 
 guilty of a first false step, and a hardened criminal 
 together. We say we jail the young man to reform
 
 Prison Problems 239 
 
 him. But we say we jail the hardened criminal to 
 punish him. Beautiful paradox, isn't it? 
 
 I went once to the million-dollar "reformatory" 
 at Pontiac, where we send boys under twenty-one 
 who have transgressed the bounds set by society. 
 I soon understood why they came out of there deter- 
 mined to wreak vengeance on society for locking 
 them up. Hardened, brutal-looking guards, ready 
 to kill at the first free move of an imprisoned boy, 
 hurried them at their work. At night they were 
 locked up in dark, evil-smelling cells. That is the 
 sort of atmosphere into which we send our boys, 
 for "reformation." You can't reform any one that 
 way. Can you imagine Christ approving this sort 
 of reform? Reformation is a thing of the heart. 
 Our way only turns these boys out as clever crooks, 
 ready and anxious to prey on an unjust society. 
 And you can't blame ; you don't dare. 
 
 The crime-teaching value of our jails is not the 
 only bad thing about them. Jails breed disease 
 and poverty. A healthy, moral man can't live in 
 jail without growing like his surroundings. His 
 surroundings are diseased, sub-normal ; so he be- 
 comes sub-normal, diseased in mind and body. 
 
 We are spending millions in America to fight 
 tuberculosis. Our jails are the greatest promoters 
 of tuberculosis. One out of every two men who 
 go to jail become infected. And it isn't the man in 
 jail alone. Sixty per cent of the men working on 
 stockings to be sent out to the public from the 
 South Carolina penitentiary were found to be suf- 
 fering from tuberculosis. It is the same every- 
 where. The man who said we have shopped send- 
 ing murderers to the gallows only to send them to 
 tubercular graves told the truth.
 
 240 Prison Problems 
 
 Did you ever stop to think of what is likely to 
 happen to the family of a convict? His family must 
 starve while he is in jail, and when he gets out he 
 is not fitted for work. Have you ever seen them 
 coming out of jail ; their spirits crushed ; their heads 
 hanging; terror in their eyes and fear in their 
 breasts? They go to their old homes, and they find 
 them broken up. They wander about trying to pick 
 up the threads of their old lives, and they are robbed 
 and beaten down on every hand. No employer will 
 take them unless it be some man who wants his 
 labor cheap and easily driven. And it's all our fault, 
 the fault of us who attend our church regularly, and 
 say we send men to jail to be reformed, and after 
 they are freed, refuse to believe they are reformed 
 and so will not give them a chance. You break 
 the man, and you rob his women and children of 
 his support ; you steal the man's life and you starve 
 his family. Do you think that's Christianity? Do 
 you think the Lord wants you to rob and steal 
 merely to teach other men NOT to rob and steal? 
 
 A year ago the governor of Arkansas pardoned 
 360 convicts. He said he did it as a protest against 
 cruelty, and he called the state prisons "revengeful 
 hells." No wonder he did, for he personally had in- 
 spected them and found convicts whose flesh was 
 falling from their bones being driven like beasts ; 
 found men dying of tuberculosis; found men dying 
 of every disease known. And one of the men he 
 pardoned was serving a thirty-six-year sentence, 
 not for murder, but for forging an order for nine 
 quarts of whisky ! Look at what Governor Sulzer's 
 commission found in its investigation of Sing Sing. 
 It found conditions there that made the lives of
 
 Prison Problems 241 
 
 the poor in the Dark Ages seem like lives of luxury 
 and ease. 
 
 Of course, there is a reason, a commercial reason* 
 that has nothing to do with reform or punishment 
 or humanity. For we run our prisons to make 
 money. The superintendent of Auburn prison, N. 
 Y.. testified to that at the recent investigation. The 
 mutiny in Michigan's hell-hole proved it. The state 
 prison of Maryland used to make more money than 
 any other, and the cruelties practiced there were 
 worse than those in any other prison. If a convict 
 there happened to pass a guard who was feeling 
 ugly he was sent to the "black hole," that later was 
 found to be a dungeon swarming with rats and 
 vermin and filth. 
 
 One day a humane man was elected governor of 
 Maryland, and he appointed a commission to inves- 
 tigate these things that long had been whispered of. 
 If you want to read a report on hell, read the report 
 of that Maryland commission. It found that two 
 hundred and sixty men were subjected to physical 
 torture in this money-making prison every six 
 months. It found men helping to make the prison 
 money-making who were dying of starvation and of 
 tuberculosis and of diseases even more loathsome. 
 I tell yon this, our prison system has done more 
 harm to the country than the saloon and the gam- 
 bling house combined ; that it has killed more men 
 than war, and caused more crime than Satan. It 
 is the duty of the churches to put an end to h% and 
 it cannot be put an end to by seventeenth-century 
 methods either.
 
 242 Prison Problems 
 
 THE REMEDY. 
 
 Strange as it may seem we have no remedy, we 
 offer a few salves, ointments and lotions that will 
 relieve the trouble, give immediate relief, but that 
 is all. 
 
 The prime thing is to awaken public interest and 
 this volume was compiled for that purpose. There 
 are great truths that need to be discussed for out of 
 these discussions will come the remedy. 
 
 Jeremiah Botkin, warden of the Kansas Peniten- 
 tiary, voices the common cry of all who have given 
 this subject any thought. He says: 
 
 "Conditions at the state prison cry to heaven 
 for a remedy. The fault has been with no previous 
 warden, certainly not my predecessor. When I 
 came into this office he frankly told me he was 
 'handing me a lemon.' Everything a warden could 
 do he and most of his predecessors had done. Yet 
 Lansing is today a blot on Kansas. 
 
 "The remedy does not lie in my hands. I wish 
 that it did. You cannot conceive how strongly 
 I wish that it did. It lies with the people of 
 Kansas and the press of Kansas. Legislators will 
 not spend the money unless the specific expenditure 
 is urged, and urged vividly, upon them by their 
 constituents. The constituents will not bring this 
 matter to the attention of their legislators until 
 they have had its paramount importance burned in- 
 to their souls. I welcome the advent of the press 
 into Lansing. It is the last forlorn hope. Every 
 unsanitary and uneconomic condition at the prison
 
 Prison Problems 243 
 
 can be remedied with money. All that sympathy 
 and good will on the warden's part can do has 
 been done. It is up to the people of Kansas to 
 give us the money lots of it and now. 
 
 "I have learned the value of publicity in getting 
 reform. But perhaps it is because I have served 
 most of my life as a Methodist parson that I ap- 
 proach the inmates of our penetentiary with the 
 idea that they are just folks. Something like the 
 folks in Winfield and Arkansas City and Topeka and 
 Kansas City, except that they are behind walls, the 
 others are outside, and they have sinned and must 
 be punished. The rights and statutes of Kansas 
 prescribe that. But also there is prescribed by the 
 laws of humanity an obligation on the state and 
 the people of Kansas as to the manner in which they 
 shall suffer punishment. When the state and peo- 
 ple of Kansas go beyond the statute of humanity 
 in punishing them they are the moral sinners. 
 
 "Every administration for years has brought be- 
 fore each legislature the shame of the cellhouses. 
 It is barbaric, brutal and furthermore, unwise to 
 condemn men in the awful places we have to con- 
 fine them. It manufactures criminals, sickly degen- 
 erates and tuberculars out of retrievable material. 
 
 "The prisoners are their own scavengers. There 
 is no running water of any sort. Ask the doctor 
 to tell you what disease the occupants have, in the 
 greatest proportion and how easily men communi- 
 cate it through the drinking cups. The state of 
 Kansas has sent many well men to this penitentiary 
 who have gone out afflicted with the most 'horrible 
 of all diseases. There is no ventilation. The air 
 which three hundred men breath in this cramped
 
 244 Prison Problems 
 
 space is, in summer still and stifling; in winter still 
 and sickly warm. How many men condemned to 
 be confined have been condemned to die of the 
 great white plague by the neglect of the state of 
 Kansas to install modern cellhouses can never be 
 known. The obtainable record is long and certain. 
 
 "I demand for these men at least new cellhouses. 
 I demand it in the name of common decency and 
 to remove the crime of contributory negligence to 
 manslaughter from the record of the legislature of 
 Kansas which has had this matter in charge. New 
 modern cellhouses, such as the federal government 
 has installed at Leavenworth, having ventilation and 
 sanitation and cleanliness, would cost $80,000. That 
 is five cents for each person in Kansas. There isn't 
 a person in Kansas able to, who wouldn't walk to 
 Topeka with their nickle if they could see the 
 conditions here. The spread of disease through 
 these cellrooms is a provable matter. The citizens 
 of Kansas might as well knock a specified number 
 of these men on the head with an ax as to continue 
 so to confine them." 
 
 How many of us realize the awful meaning of 
 what 'Dr. Alexander MacNicholl of New York City 
 had to say in a paper, entitled "Public Health, a 
 Question of Alcoholic Degeneracy," read before the 
 re-cent Congress of the American Medical Society 
 at Philadelphia, of which he is the vice president: 
 
 "A wave of degeneracy is sweeping the land a 
 degeneracy so appalling in its magnitude that it 
 staggers the mind and threatens to destroy the re- 
 public; numbering more victims than have been 
 claimed in all the wars and all the epidemics of 
 acute diseases that have swept the country within 
 200 years.
 
 Prison Problems 245 
 
 "Modern Scientific methods had reduced the mor- 
 ality from acute diseases such as typhoid, yellow 
 fever and the white plague, but such degeneracy is 
 shown in the increasing rate of morality resulting 
 from the spread of chronic diseases, that within thir- 
 ty years the morality from chronic diseases has 
 doubled and today chronic disorders of the lungs, 
 kidneys, heart and other organs are responsible for 
 more than half the deaths. 
 
 "What is the cause of this degeneracy? Statis- 
 tics compiled by the leading insurance companies 
 and represented by Sir T. P. Whitaker in a report 
 to the British Parliament show that of every 1000 
 deaths among the population at large 440 are due to 
 alcohol. This would mean a mortality from alcohol 
 in the United States of 680,000 a year." 
 
 "We annually drink," says Dr. David M. Paul- 
 son, "twenty-three gallons of liquor for each man, 
 woman and child in the land." 
 
 Dr. Bertillion, the eminent French expert crimin- 
 ologist, says : "The users of alcohol are twice as 
 likely to die from a dozen different diseases as those 
 who are temperate." 
 
 "30,000 new cases are admitted to our asylums 
 every year. Columbus, O., has 181,511 inhabitants. 
 There are more people in our insane asylums today 
 in this country than there are inhabitants in that 
 city." 
 
 To again quote Dr. Paulson : "Twenty per cent 
 of all the money raised by taxes in the state of 
 New York has to go to pay for the care of their in- 
 sane. Only one other item costs more and that is 
 their education."
 
 246 Prison Problems 
 
 When you stop to think that there are more 
 people in our insane asylums than there are stu- 
 dents in all our colleges and universities, one be- 
 gins to comprehend something of the problem. 
 
 What is the cure for this disease? What is the 
 solution of our Prison Problems? It is found in the 
 few words, that mean so much, Public Opinion. 
 
 Not long ago I read an editorial I think it was 
 written by Arthur Brisbane, in which he said : "Pub- 
 lic Opinion is the conscience and the intelligence of 
 the race. As the race progresses public opinion be- 
 comes higher, fairer, more consistent. It is difficult 
 for us to realize it now, but the day is coming when 
 public opinion, man's collective conscience, will do 
 away with courts, policemen, jails, detectives and 
 lawsuits. That will be the beginning of a real civili- 
 zation." 
 
 Brisbane gets $75,000 a year for writing just such 
 philosophy. If he got $1,000 a year what he wrote 
 would be anarchy. But it's the truth just the same. 
 
 As long as parents believe in whipping children 
 to make them good, the church has to scare Hell 
 out of the people to get them to Heaven, the com- 
 munity will lock men up and reform them by cruel- 
 ty and barbarity. 
 
 A full penitentiary is a better therometer as to the 
 state conscience than is a church filled with Holy 
 howlers. 
 
 Therefore, the first remedy is publicity. Editors 
 should be asked to write and publish editorials along 
 this line. Devote space to this question for we are 
 helping ourselves when we help our brothers. Let's 
 tell the world that Thomas Mott Osborn, after a 
 week's self-imposed term in Auburn, N. Y., prison,
 
 Prison Problems 247 
 
 said when he emerged, "The prison system is singu- 
 larly unintelligent, ineffective and cruel. It is ab- 
 solutely a form of slavery and all the great truths 
 enunciated by Lincoln and others against negro 
 slavery are just as applicable to prison slavery. 
 It takes from the convict his individual initiative and 
 freedom of action and he becomes an irresponsible 
 automaton. When he returns to the outside world, 
 therefore, he finds he is unable to resume his own 
 initiative and to be the guider of his own destinies. 
 This accounts for so many men who leave prison 
 and return as second termers. 
 
 "From the moment that a man arrives in prison 
 he is made to realize he is no longer an individual 
 human being. He is only one unimportant unit in a 
 community which is undergoing penance for cer- 
 tain crimes, and the penance differs only in the mat- 
 ter of duration. The next companion on my tier of 
 cells may be a forger, burglar, a murderer, defaulting 
 cashier; he may be a college graduate or a Bowery 
 tough, an intelligent Yankee or an ignorant for- 
 eigner, yet all are clothed alike, treated alike, fed 
 and housed alike, and each man ceases to be an in- 
 dividual and becomes a moving automaton in a gray 
 suit similar to all others. 
 
 "There is a frightful waste of human life and in- 
 genuity because the system is so bad that, while 
 there is some reform, the principle of the reforma- 
 tion is not used to anywhere near its measure of pos- 
 sibilities. Realizing perfectly the considerable num- 
 ber of degenerates and other undesirable citizens 
 included in the ranks of the prisoners, I was amazed 
 at the amount of splendid courage, fine feeling, and 
 neighborly interest displayed by the inmates toward 
 each other."
 
 248 Prison Problems 
 
 One of the most potent forces for the spread of 
 truth is the pulpit. Surely the church must lead in 
 this campaign of education. If each one of you who 
 read this book, will only take it upon yourself to 
 see that your minister is asked to preach a sermon, 
 or better yet, a series of sermons based upon the 
 contents of this little volume, you will be doing a 
 public and patriotic service. 
 
 Rev. Frank D. Adams, of Indianapolis, Ind., 
 preached a sermon on "Prison Problems" and by his 
 eloquent plea and hearty urging, so enthused his 
 congregation that the members bought forty copies 
 for individual use. 
 
 Rev. John Welsch, of Wilmington, 111., preached 
 forty copies into the hands of his congregation. 
 
 That noted and dearly beloved Catholic Priest, 
 Father P. J. Maccorry, of Wichita, Kans., is doing 
 a father's part in the spread of this new gospel and 
 the papers of his denomination have been filled with 
 the product of his pen, advocating a wider reading 
 of this volume. 
 
 The sermons that have already been preached up- 
 on this theme have made themselves felt in the 
 moral wave that is sweeping over the conscience of 
 men. 
 
 The men and women on the platform have a 
 golden opportunity to prove that Senator Robert 
 M. LaFollette did not over-estimate the importance 
 of this great and growing institution, when he said : 
 "I sometimes think that from the days of Wendell 
 Phillips until now, the lyceum has pretty nearly 
 been the salvation of the country." How? By fol- 
 lowing the example of Dr. John Gray who delivered 
 one hundred chautauqua addresses last summer, and
 
 Prison Problems 249 
 
 at every one of them he told the audience that 
 "Prison Problems" was the best book on the subject 
 he had ever seen. 
 
 Rollo H. McBride, the noted Prisoner's Friend, 
 drew rounds of vociferous applause by his endorse- 
 ment of this effort to arouse the nation to a realiza- 
 tion of the wrongs that are being inflicted upon 
 our brothers and sisters in the name of reform. 
 
 Out in California, Mrs. Mae Guthrie Tangier has 
 given the book a wide review, especially in temper- 
 ance and reform circles. 
 
 Down at Atlanta, Georgia, lives one of God's 
 noble women, Emma Neal Douglas, who placed 
 forty copies of "Prison Problems" in the hands of 
 the state legislators when the campaign was on for 
 legislation for the betterment of humanity. 
 
 Then there is the little woman in the home who, 
 after all, is the power that moves the world, what 
 can she do? Here is an example. At the Racine, 
 Wisconsin, Chautauqua, Mr. McBride gave his lec- 
 ture on "Prison Problems." There were in that 
 audience at least two people with a longing to do, 
 as well as to say, something for those who are in 
 trouble and so Mr. and Mrs. Frank Cherdron were 
 soon at work reviewing "Prison Problems" for their 
 local papers, urging their friends by letter and by 
 word of mouth, in season and out, to read "Prison 
 Problems," and it was through Mrs. Cherdron's ef- 
 forts that Mrs. Amy D. Winship, the eighty-four 
 year young 'varsity student, who is a national char- 
 acter in the field of co-education, became interested 
 in "Prison Problems." 
 
 Mrs. Winship is not only a student in the Univer- 
 sitv of Wisconsin, but she is a student of human
 
 250 Prison Problems 
 
 nature, one who says : "I haven't time to grow old, 
 besides there is too much to learn and too much to 
 be done to take the time to be old." 
 
 Mrs. Winship wrote the following review of 
 "Prison Problems" which appeared in the Wiscon- 
 sin State Journal, published at Madison. It was 
 widely copied throughout the state: 
 
 " 'PRISON PROBLEMS,' AN APPRE- 
 CIATION. 
 
 "Mrs. Amy D. Winship. 
 
 "Recent dispatches about the new experiment in 
 prison management and labor at Camp Hope, Ill- 
 inois, remind thoughtful citizens that there are 
 prison problems being solved well in some states. 
 
 "How about our own progressive Wisconsin? 
 Public sentiment and public judgment are slowly 
 being molded along the right lines of mercy and ref- 
 ormation for men and women in prison. Brutaliz- 
 ing confinement for the convict and expensive re- 
 venge on the prisoners are falling away under the 
 ban of public censure for such methods. 
 
 "Hardened, hopeless convicts, overworked and 
 not paid by private monopolies operating in prisons, 
 through dirty politics and their wardens, are but a 
 heavy burden to society. 
 
 "Mothers of men are beginning to see there is a 
 crushing waste of human life behind our prison 
 walls, but prison conditions are undergoing a great 
 change. 
 
 "Mr. Fred High of Chicago, the editor of The 
 Platform, has compiled a stirring book called "Pris-
 
 Prison Problems 251 
 
 on Problems," dealing with all these facts. It re- 
 views the prison situation from all sides. 
 
 "Ida Tarbell, Warden Saunders of Iowa, Detective 
 Pinkerton, and several students of this question, tell 
 of present conditions and opportunities and plead 
 for changes. 
 
 "As Dickens' works touched all England on the 
 prison question, so all America will yet be soundly 
 stirred by High's 'Prison Problems.' 
 
 "Social conditions today contribute to the crimi- 
 nal tendency. Citizens of all classes try to prevent 
 crime through many agencies. Society many times 
 abandons the released prisoners. So men like Rollo 
 McBride established 'The Parting of the Ways 
 Home' at Chicago to mercifully and sensibly save 
 the ex-convict from re-committing crime to obtain 
 food or shelter. 
 
 "Editors and teachers, tax-payers everywhere, 
 will be glad that such books as High's 'Prison 
 Problems' deal with the prisoner himself, and his 
 keepers and plead for free men to come to the aid 
 of prison slaves, in our viciously managed penal sys- 
 tem, to provide them outside labor, needed music, 
 education, medical attention in short anything 
 necessary to complete their reform." 
 
 We cannot publish the names of those who have 
 done service in this good cause, as they are really 
 too numerous to mention in a volume of this size. 
 The cases cited have been typical of what can be 
 done when there is a will. 
 
 It is with unbounded gratitude that we send forth 
 the second edition. The book has grown from 175 
 pages to its present size. 
 
 That America has taken mammoth strides for-
 
 252 Prison Problems 
 
 ward since this venture was first conceived, is only 
 stating a truth patent to the merest casual observer. 
 Several states have abolished the contract labor sys- 
 tem, prisoners are being recognized everywhere as 
 brothers, and as human beings. Hope is being writ- 
 ten into our laws, cruelties are being abolished, graft 
 is being exposed, barbarous practices are being pro- 
 hibited ; and to have played even a minor part in this 
 human drama of uplift and reform, is reward enough 
 to repay us all for the effort that we have made.
 
 Prison Problems 253 
 
 OUR GUARANTORS. 
 
 The second edition of "Prison Problems" has been 
 made possible by the generosity of the following 
 who have each given it their generous financial 
 support : O. J. Kloer, 345 W. 73rd St., Chicago, 111. ; 
 Harold C. Kessinger, Aurora, 111. ; Chas. W. Fergu- 
 son, 640 Orchestra Bldg., Chicago; Benjamin 
 Chapin, 237 E. 163rd St., New York City ; Fremont 
 S. Gibson, Charles City, Iowa; Thomas Brooks 
 Fletcher, Marion, Ohio ; T. J. Tjernagel, Story City, 
 Iowa ; Father P. J. MacCorry, Wichita, Kans. ; 
 Grace Hall Riheldaffer, 838 Collins Ave., Pitts- 
 burgh, Pa. ; Roy James Battis, 213 W. 61st St., Chi- 
 cago; Ewing Herbert, Hiawatha, Kan.; Leonora M. 
 Lake, 2354 Albion Place, St. Louis, Mo. ; Ross 
 Crane, Pine Lake, Ind. ; E. A. Wiggam, North 
 Vernon, 111. ; R. O. Bowman, 511 Railway Exchange, 
 Milwaukee, Wis. ; W. A. McCormick, Onekema, 
 Mich. ; Mrs. Emma Neal Douglas, 1225 Peachtree 
 Road, Atlanta, Ga. ; Montaville Flowers, Monrovia, 
 Cal.; Rollo H. McBride, 25 E. 55th St., Chicago; 
 Alexander M. Lochwitzky, 1200 E. 55th St., Chi- 
 cago ; J. E. Brockway, Wabash Bldg., Pittsburgh, 
 Pa. ; Prof. Louis Williams, at large.
 
 254 Prison Problems 
 
 A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 At the tenth annual convention of the Interna- 
 tional Lyceum Association, held at Winona Lake, 
 Ind., September 2 to 11, 1912, a resolution was 
 unanimously passed pledging the 1,000 members 
 of this, the first free forum of America, to work for 
 the Abolition of Poverty in a World of Plenty, by 
 studying how to eliminate waste. 
 
 Crime and criminals is one of the most gigantic 
 problems before the world today. Mr. Hugh C. 
 Weir, in the World Today for January, 1910, states 
 that "Our crimes cost us $3,500,000 per day, and 
 that the cost of crime in this country for 1909 
 equalled the amount realized from the wheat crop, 
 the coal mined and the wool, aggregating approxi- 
 mately about $1,373,000,000. 
 
 Surely the task is great enough to engage the 
 attention of a hundred such organizations, for these 
 few pages have only scratched the surface, but if 
 they will cause the stream of lyceum thought to 
 flow with a greater power through the channels of 
 reform, thereby enlisting the co-operation of the 
 scattered forces who now are swatting flies while the 
 pesthouses that breed the germs of vice and crime 
 are not only winked at, but actually defended, and 
 sometimes patronized by these same "fly swat- 
 ters," then its publication will have been worth 
 while. 
 
 The International Lyceum Association is com- 
 posed of one thousand men and women who are 
 engaged in the great work of spreading the gospel
 
 Prison Problems 255 
 
 of good cheer in song, story, literature, oratory and 
 music. We believe we are public benefactors, for 
 back of the lyceum and the chautauqua effort is 
 the spirit of helpfulness ; the purposeful message 
 finds here its greatest advocates. 
 
 In the World's Work for September are to be 
 found these words: "The chautauqua platforms 
 were used by the reformers and agitators for many 
 years with greater effect than the floor of the 
 senate, or the house, or than national conventions." 
 
 We believe the lyceum and chautauqua are the 
 institutions that can best solve the great prison 
 problem that confronts us at every hand. 
 
 The closing thought of this little volume is, 
 what am I going to do about these great problems? 
 Am I, as I read this, going to say they don't effect 
 me? Will I, right now, pledge myself to this great 
 work of bettering this world, of helping some 
 mother's boy, some waif of the streets, some beauti- 
 ful daughter, or maybe my own flesh and blood? 
 
 The one thing that has burned into my soul is 
 that no man liveth unto himself; the heavy hand of 
 retribution falls with greater force upon the inno- 
 cent than the guilty. There is one thing that I can 
 do send $1.00 for this volume, as it is not a money- 
 making venture. I will thus enable those who 
 have given their time and money to make possible 
 this venture to mail four copies to four more 
 editors, ministers, lecturers and legislators, and 
 thereby make this an endless chain to prevent 
 crime, rather than a spasmodic effort to punish a 
 few criminals, for I see this is the beginning and 
 not the end.
 
 University of California 
 
 SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 405 Hilgard Avenue, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1388 
 
 Return this material to the library 
 
 from which it was borrowed. 
 
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