The evening light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1881-1883, 1883-03-16

bers, not from ignorance wholly, but the ami
mus which makes contagion. Therefore TIL
conscience is to be found and educated han'
in hand with the intelligence.
The child at school, il not permitted to &C
as he likes, will yet think as he likes. Hi
pockets may be searched for prescribed top
and marbles, but not his mind for rebelliou
intent. He will double lock the door Of thu
mental house wherein the treasure is secreted
Such conditions will prevail till the will il
trained to remove them. In prison:
and schools. alike, force, cruelty
severity are impossible agents o.
reform. The will must be educated up to the
point of duty. Under restraint self-imPosed
obedience becomes easy and the way is
opened to safety and usefulness.
We have repeatedly urged as grand ex-
pertinent in prison reform supreme comb-
nation on which the true principles and all the
elements would attend, the enclosure of a
tract of land, securely walled, adequate to the
cultivation and pursuit of all the industries
and arts known to our social life, in which to
employ prison convicts. This we hope will
yet, and before long, find expression in our
legislation. The forces to invoke are SYM
pathy, kindly greeting, gentle words, an edu-
Gated public sentiment among the convicts to
operate as corrective, remuneration for labor
in all departments fines and only penal pro :
visions that do not involve pain or degrade
ton for correction.
There are overwhelming influences now at
work which shut the door upon reform. A
youth, caught in his first fragrant act in any of
the large cities Of the Union, is hurried to a
photographer and his likeness is hung in the
"Rogue's Gallery" This anticipates GRIM
inal career, and is designed as guide for de-
tectives everywhere. Here is, at once, an i'm
mortality of infamy. All self respect, cour-
age, hope are gone-he cannot seek to be re-
claimed. The world has shut its doors upon
him; and, further on, new forms Of degrade
ton await him; the striped dress, the lock-
step and shorn hair, manaces.
Whatever reform government prevails it
should have stability, however derived, I'M
affected by, and kept apart from, and above,
partisan politics. 1t may embarrass the whole
question to involve it in series of political
reforms but, if there is to be any relief from
abuses, partisan politics must forego prison
management. Under no circumstances should
prisoners come under the control of any but
responsible and recognized authority that can
have no sordid motive for cruelty. And
there should be an alienation of the tenure Of
sentence OF all criminals, that will open their
way through industry, improvement and
moral reform, to release and discharge. This
is said to have been tried in Ohio and pro-
nounced successful. The thing needed in
prison discipline is higher alma treatment
which seeks to gain the will and not merely to
coerce the body. This principle lies at the
bottom of all progress in prison reform.
THE continuing decrease in the price of
books is an encouraging sign, for it shows
that publishers are becoming more and more
dependent on numerous sales, and hence that
more attention is being given to books by the
people generally. We are a reading people
and, as we devour great deal of reading
matter, we demand that our omniferous appe-
titles be satiated at as small price as posi-
BILE. Recognizing this, publishers have given
us the many Seaside" Lakeside" and
other cheap Libraries" But all other efforts
in that direction have been eclipsed by the
unique venture of John B. Alden, of IS Vesey
street, New York. This is the publishing Of
semi-weekly magazine called the "Elzevir
Library" each number OF which
contains some one complete IL
brary gem, a characteristic of the
best product of the author, and, though
handsome in typography and convenient in
form, is sold at price so low that il is start.
ling. At cents each we have Irving's
famous Grip Van Winkle," Canon Farrar's
brilliant sketch of 1.-The Burning of Rome, u
Wilson's ''Sea-Serpents of Science" Tenny
sons "Enoch Arden" the "Life of Sir Isaac
Newton" by Jsmes Parton, and others; at
cents each there are very handsome illustrated
numbers containing "The Life of Gustav,
Dore," by F. H. Norton, "Queen Mabel,
by Ellen Tracy Alden, and "a Half Hour il
Natural History" by S. H. Peabody; at
cents there is Life Of Washington Irving,