The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1867-04-17
,r From the Intslligencer Of Tuesday.l
WEST VIRGINIA PENITEN.
TIARY.

TIARY.
The Lsse Bepsrt or The Dircetsry-
The Plan Of Building Adopted
Other Peaftentiaries and Thcir Csn-
\ vicis - Excessive, Appointments
Necessity, fer Thsrsush Rofern-
The Next Legislature.
Editors Intelligeneer: n, 81 aF -
/ The estimated amount of stone re-
quire.l to complete the Penitentiary, In
my remarks to the Herald yesterday, /
took from your paper of the 5th inst.
1t struck me at the time as large, but as
extravaganza is the order of the day,
with our public servants and your
statement SO uniformly correct, 1 ven
tured to take it as basis of calculation
mot having seen the Directors report,
which, it seems by your paper to-day,
was made for the last Legislature. For
some cause or other they don't send me
copies. But the advertisement they put
in your paper was for $500 perch of
dimension stone-1, 800 perch more than
their reported estimate; and before max
ling their report it appears they had con-
tracted for 1000 perch of stone of
of some kind. These facts show already
considerable enlargement of the esti-
mate made in the report, and with 9th
er facts that appear, may make the esti-
mate Of $1,000, as stated in your paper
of the 5th inst, not far from correct, in
reality.
But the plan which see is proposed
in their report. D CODY of which has
Just. been; handed me by friend, looks
to me very Objectionable in many re-
spects; and especially its size and style
Of finish. They say it is the plan
adopted by the State of Illinois which
now contains about 100000 of people
in constructing its Penitentiary re-
Gently built at Joliet, and which, in '63,
contained over 700 convicts. Why did
they not copy 80 far as size is concerned,
from some State containing o popula-
tion something near the number of
ours, as Maine, with a population, in
go, of 62S, ,266-nearly double that Of
ours-with one States prison only, and
that at Thomaston, in which, in 1861,
was an average number of 112
convicts, and conducted on the Auburn
plan; or New Hampshire, with a
population of 6,0S3, which has but
one States Prison, which is at Concord,
and has an everage of about 1l9 con-
victs; OF Vermont, with a population of
315, 116, and one States Prison, which
is at Windsor, and has an average of
about 95 convicts; or Connecticut, with
population of 460,147, which has but
one States Prison, and that at Wealth
ersfeld, in which are on an average 16O
convicts' The population of these last
named States approach most nearly
that of ours, (Which is. not more than
340, ,000,) and like Onrs, are rural and ag-
ricultural people. '''-
Let us now examine the plan the Di-
rectors report they have adopted. And
first, its size. 1t is the plan, as before
stated, recently adopted by the great
State of Illinois, which has six times as
many people as ours, and probably ten
times the wealth, and with all her other
public buildings built and paid for.
The Superintendent house is to be %
feet in front, and three stories high
above the basement. On the right and
left of the Superintendent house are
to be cell-buildings each 1S4 feet long
by 50 feet wide, and four stories high
above the ground, and each wing or
cell uilding to contain $40, or both 4SO
cells, which will accommodate at least
4SO convicts ut time. Is it to be ex-
pected that our population is to sup
DIV this number of convicts-four times
the number of the other States named
after expending the large amounts of
money and making the efforts to build
churches and school-hOuses that we
have and are doing' l trust not. Be-
sides these buildings, the Directors pro-
pose to inclose seven acres of ground
with wall 80 feet high, including the
portion below ground, foet, 9 inches
thick, which is to inclose the various
workshops. ....
But the Directors say the Superin-
tendent's house and one wing, with 24O
cells, is all that will be needed for some
time to come, and so propose to erect
the entire walls of the whole building,
and finish and complete the exterior
now, but to finish, fit up and furnish
for the present, only the Superintend-
ent's house and one wing, and leave the
other for posterity to finish and fill up.
What complimentary legacy to trans
nit to our pOsterity! The crumbling,
interiorially unfinished and nntenanted
wing of that Penitentiary. Besides
how profitable to the State will be the
Investment.
But. they propose to complete and fin
ish the entire exterior of the building
including the Superintendents house
and both rinqs in the "castelldted gothic
style." The word Consolidated" means
"adorned with turrets and battlements,
like castle'-a sentiment akin to the
one of our Legislature last winter on
subject it indefinitely postponed. Who
would not be convict with such en-
couragement and baronial accommoda-
tions provided for him The moral
sense and taste of the world heretofore
have been, to make their Bastiles and
State Prisons objects of terror and re-
pulsion, rather thaa ornamental, iD-
viting retreats like the plan proposed.
Who can doubt but that it is another
hospital folly or swindle !
Robert Hosea, ESQ, of Bethany, an
experienced stone mason, informed me
to-day that he is now engaged for the
Pennsylvania Railroad in building abut-
ments, composed of dressed stone,
which he furnishes, prepares and lays
for $3.50 perch.
| submit that our people have but one
course to pusue, which is to elect men
to the next Legislature who shall pledge
themselves in writing beforehand, and
whose established character shall be
their guaranty, to arrest at once the
present fatal course, clean out all cor
ruptionists and constitution-breakers,
of whatever party or religious denomi-
nation they may profess to be, take from
the Executive most of his present ap-
pointing power, obfige that department
to see that the laws are faithfully and
impartially executed against corpora
tions as we'll as individuals, compel all
public moneys, whether belonging to
State, county. city, township or school
district, to be faithfully accounted for
and accurate and detailed statements
of its expenditure published" and laid
before the people, and bring the State
in all respects back to its Constitution
and to the model Of purity, simplicity