Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-12-09

~
himself shut up for few days; he would
get enough adventure and hear enough to
make many columns of exciting matter.
Some of the buns have left their names
and addresses cut in large capitals ON the
floor. Generally they are searched and
knives and everything else taken from
them. One lad produced contraband
deck of cards which he had smucgled in
and which are highly appreciated. The
face cards are worn almost into illegibii-
ty; the kings and jacks are undistinguish-
able. and the whole deck is dirty enough
for every card to be mistaken for the ace
Of spades.
. The Tuesday ration Of soup ought to be
ecOnomized and fresh deck supplied to
Bummer's hall.
: They dare not lave the daily papers.
The accounts of crime which they publish
are demoralizing.
Better dressed, better looking and ap-
parently more c!eanly disposed drunks
and disOrderlies are put into cell No. 80 in
the Jail proper but there are certainly
men showed into ''S1'' who arc not vicious,
lousy nor disposed to uncleanliness. One
of the old men now there is desperately
sick and needs attention. Another is .
jabbering lunatic. He butts like goat
and talks incoherently Of Canterbury"
''Peuysville'' and '.KniShts of the Golden
Cross" He ought to be in tho lunatic
asylum.
It is pathetic and speaks the bctter ma
ture of the inmates Of "S1 " that they ap-
prcciate and press upon the visitors at
tentiOn the condition Of these two men.
All in all, Bummer's hall is dis.raceful
looking place. Disgraccful to the county,
we mean. The sight of twenty -one men,
created little lower than the angels, in
one room, day and night, week after week.
and month after month, some lousy and
some not. some dirty and some with clean
instincts, with no chair nor bench, NO bed
nor cover, nothing but bread aud water
and not too much of tliem-fOr no greater
Offense than drunkenness and disOrtlerly
conduct-argues something wrong in our
machinery Of justice.
Go and see them for yourself
And then walk out West King street to
MIR. s. S. Spencer's fine stock farm; look
at tho manner in which his we'll bred pigs
arc housed and sec how much better it
is to be a sober and orderly hog than a
druken and disOrderly person.
People ought to 60 out and take = look
ut this Bummer's hall. 1t is not nice but
is instructive. The court ought to see it
before grand juries are charged. Magis-
trates ought to see it before they send
images Of their Maker there for ninety
days.
One thing is certain, those who get out
of it will not 60 back. When they get tired
staying out they will burn a barn or steal
horse so that when they get into Jail,
they will get good Jail accommodations.
Drunkenness is an Offense too terribly
punished for them to repeat it and in
course of time and after \ continuance Of
BummSr's hall we hope to sec it effectually
corrected.
The Jail is well filled. In fact, it over
flows. The seventy-scven available cells
have about one hundred and fifty in
mates. As far as possible tho keeper says
he carries out the sentences of the court
to separate and solitary confinement, but
it often gives rise to serious inconvenience
and sometimes demands impossibilities.
For instance. at the last court Judge Liv-
ingstOn sentenced nine tramps to nine
months each, separate and solitary con-
finement. They occupy nine cells while,
to make room for them, cOnvicts to the
county Jail, like the Columbia fishermen,
have to be crowded three and four into or o
cell.
Mr.. E. F. Frailey, who is now superin-
tending the cigar factory has four journey
men and eight apprentices at work. He
| is represented to be an excellent mechanic,
makes more and better cigars with less
waste than heretofore, but it is very doubt
full if there is anything in cigar making for
the county prison. Those industries arc
conducted with best results there in which
the chief value of the product consists i'm
the labor expended upon it. Manufactures
which involve the purchase of valuable
raw material and the risk of frauds or
stupidity in its purchase are not practic-
able
For example there are or have been late
ly about 40 cases Of tobacco in the prison
bought ut high prices and spoiled and
worthless.
Who is to blame?
Why don't the court or the grand jury
or the new inspectors or somebody else
find out who is to blame for this and make
somebody stand the loss {?
The prison makes good brOoms, baskets
and carpets.
The striped stuff that the prisoners wear
is made in the prison. 1t doesn't make
pretty suit. Our friend Benny Disraeli
might like pair of pants of it. But it
is rather loud for common folks.
Alonzo Hambright and Frankford have
their cell walls covered with bright pictures
in neat frames. They are making cigars
together in FrankfOrd's cell. Hambright
has a canary bird too.
The longest term prisoner in Jail Is
James Henry, who got twenty years for
firing Tommy Clark's barn in DrumOre
township. He gets very sick of it, and
about every six months has a spell Of
melancholy. But Jack Wcise cheers him
up.
The property taken from the prisoners is
put into the office safe. each package
marked with the name Of its owner to be
handed over to him when he leaves. When
poor George Welsh got there yesterday he
had s2.27, a purse, pocket-knife and rag
scales. They sent George to "SO." He il
a frequent visitor.
The outside wall is . rickety old affair.
The mortar was made without lime and the
mud-swallows build their nests between
the stones. You remember that q little
piece of it on the Orange street side Of the
wall fell down once, and it cost 81, 700 to
set it up. II the whole thing should be
re-erected some Of these days what would
it cost? Single rule Of three.
Frankford's two little girls come to see
him every two weeks and the keepers say
the new rule forbidding all visitation by
friends Oftener than quarterly will be
cruel to these children.
Too many people in the Jail. Too many
Of them suffer less by the Imprisonment
than their families.
The whole prison system needs reform.
The management should be more DerYna-