The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-17
TWO HOURS IN JAIL.
(Second Paper.)
BY JAMES GREENWOOD.

to two wears imprisonment or less, and at the
present time the governor has four hundred
and fifty delinquents in his CUSTODY 10 pro,
vide receptaces at once oommodlous anu
secure for 30 many lodgers Is undouDteuiy an
essential condition, but another OF almost
eoual importance il so to arrange the said
reoeptacles that the ways thereto may con-
verge to one common centre, the latter afford
ing q stand point from which an uninterrupted
view OF the full number Of cell-doors may be
obtained by the warders on duty. Without
entering on architectural detail 1t may be
said, by an admirable arrangement OF
radiating corridors, these prime aids towards
successful prisen management have been at
tanned. II is needless to say that the whole esta
blishment, from EXTREMIST corner to corner,
and from roof to basement, is scrupulously
clean; indeed, 1t is glaringly so and paintul to
contemplate on that account. You look up
ward and round about and all is white, white,
spotless, and dead, and harmonizing exactly
with the frequent notice-boards enjoining
''silence' hung around. Under foot all is
black; IL cannot well be blacker for the floor
ing material is asphslte, and every morning it
is black-leaded till it shines like the face
of a kitchen-stove. 1t looks like STILL
black pool in the evening light, and is slip
perry as glass. The warders, conforming to
the grim rule of silence, glide about in
shoes, the uppers of which are white
canvas and the soles India-rubber. They shift
from this point to that so swiftly and noise
lessly that you would think that the still,
black pool was frozen to ice and they were
sliding on it, only that as rule sliders are
iolly-looking people, and these were solemn
men, resigned to their duty perhaps, but
overpowered by melancholy that dwells in
the atmosphere.
The City Prison is working prison, aud
the Governor taking advantage OF certain
facilities that perhaps are peculiar to the pri-
20 hnr oAu far
towards solving the long tried puzzle of how
to make enforced labor profitable. By the
way Of answer to a question put by us rela-
tive to this matter, there was placed in our
hands the 'labor roll'' for the day, showing
at glance how every capable prisoner Of the
four hundred and fifty had been employed since
morning. l wish that l had copied the roll
that might have presented it to the reader in
its exact entirety, but well remember that
it included painters, GLACIERS, smiths, car
penters, wood-choppers BARRIERS, wheel-tread-
ers, oakum-pickers, bricklayers, brickmak-
ers, and, last and most important Of all, mat
makers. There were between sixty and
seventy mat makers. We went into the mat
factory, where there are several looms, which
have been erected on the present Governors
responsibility. We were informed that
prisoner who had never seen loom before,
might be taught to make himself useful at one
in fortnight. The prison authorities are at
no risk as regards their mat-making. A con-
tractor provides all material, bringing it to
their doors, and carrying away all manufac-
tured goods; and last year the profits thereon
that were handed to the corporation out of this
branch of prison labor alone amounted to nine
hundred pounds.
have alluded to brick-making as figuring
in the labor-roll, and was as much surprised
as doubtless the reader will be to find it there.
Twenty five, think, was the number of pri-
son hands engaged at this branch of mauufac-
ture; but where was it performed! To make
bricks it is necessary to have at your COM
mand clay and "breeze" or cinders for burn
ing. "Come with me,'' said the governor,
sand you shall see all about it."
He conducted us out of the prison to the
grounds at the rear of it, enclosed by the high
prison walls, of course.
The ground pertaining to the Jail is about
seven acres in extent, and without doubt is
made the most of. Two acres and quarter
are in wheat-the very finest that can be met
for fifty miles round, owing, doubtless, to a
judicious utilization of the prison sewage in
the form of liquid manure. Besides the
wheat there are thriving plots of cabbage and
potatoes, and onions and leeks for soup, all
sown and tended by the prisoners. Never was
wheat so precious, thanks to its merciful
grower. 1t is a Jail regulation that every pr-
soner shall take so much walking exercise
each day, andin ordinary the necessary opera
tion is performed in a dreary flag paved
yard, wherein the prisoners tramp wearily to
and fro through the specified time-now much
exhilarated may be easily imagined. But just
now it is pleasant walking for the inmates OF
Holloway Prison. and it will grow pleasanter
until wheat-cutting time comes. In one of the
largest patches circular paths are left and this
is the exercise ground. TO be sure, to expect
to arouse wholesome emtions in the
breasts of certain set of Holloway
prisoners by 30 gentle a means would
be simply absurd; but they are not all
of this Sort There are scores and scores oi
miserable men, young and old, who under a
spell of devilry, have slipped from the path OF
reetitude once, and only once and who in the
confines Of their narrow, solitary cell drop hot
tears of remorse and penitence as their
thoughts wander home, and to wives and
children, and they yearn till their hearts ache
for the day that shall restore them. What,
- after the debasing drudgery of jail-labor, must
that hours tramping through the hopeful
green wheat be to themi
But il is not all tramping through green
wheat out in the prison rear-ward garden. II
is here that the bricks are made. The Gov.
ernor's severely economic instincts have led
him to argue that although no kind of crop
may be raised out of clay, such as abounds
on his estate, there is another direct anG
simple method of making the material ir
question productive. In a great pit thC
furnace and ordinary fire refuse of the prison
is stored, and with these two ingredients
he sets to work. There is q "pug- mill
worked by manual instead of horse power, and
''moulders" ano barrow-hands and stackers
all wearing the slate-colored skeleton suit with
the embroidered sleeve and the metal ticket witt
number on it about their neck. But silence
still prevails. You can hear the dull thud n