The southern sentinel. (Winnfield, La.) 1883-1910, 1885-08-14


arrival 1t Sing Sing Crowley took his
station in the stove-moldng shops.
Keeper Connaughton expressed the
opinion that Crowley would give the
officials little trouble, and would
make clever craftsman. Three hun
dred stoves of various sizes and. pat
terns are made every day in Sing
Sing. They are sent to all parts Of
the world almost. and every prisoner
engaged in making them is presented
with . plug of tobacco at the close Of
each week. This is customary on all
contract work. Two hundred dozen
of shirts are washed, starched and
ironed in the prison ger day. Some
of the prisoners become wonderfully
expert ironers. and two or three ont Of
the hundred and thirty men employed in
tn department are so dexterous that
Their tasks are invariably finished
before noon. When employed on GER
tain kinds of work prisoners are given
a task. They can work quickly or
slowly so long as the task is finished
when the whistle blows for knocking
off, If they finish their tasks three or
four hours before the regular hour for
SSOppuS WOIA tuCy dIC dioWCu " Ec-
tire to Their cells. where they can read
and smoke or go to sleep. Three hun
dred men are engaged n making boots
and shoes. They make two thousand
three hundred pairs per day, or nearly
seven and a half pa rs per man. The
boots and shoes are all made with the
aid of mach merry. One machine makes
wooden pegs and drives them into
place in the shoe or boot about fifty
times as fast as an expert workman
could do the work. 1t keeps q man
busy to supply this pegg ,ng-machine
with soles. Another machine makes
steel screws, cuts them of a proper
length. and screws them in place in
countless soles in an hour. One mans
task is to put heels on eighteen hum
bred pairs of boots per day. He begins
work at seven o'clock in the morn ng,
has an hour for dinner. and has ge :
orally finished his task at three o'clock.
He does it W. tn the aid of machine,
which heels pair of shoes in less time
than an ordinary girl can wink, even
II she be in a great hurry and lisa last
chance.
The prisoners make their own clothes,
They also make Their own tobacco,
both smoking and chewing. The head
man in the tobacco department
among the convicts is Steve Raymond.
He has the distinction of being the only
man who was ever sentenc. d to inn
prisonment for fe in this State for for
gerry. He received this sentence for a
second ofiense. He is q small, dark
skinned man. and moves about at his
work with a step as light as q cats.
He is q good workman, and never
grumbles at his lot There are atpres-
emit in Sing Sing sixty-five murderers
serving life sentences. Two-thirds of
them killed their wives. Every woman
who visits Sing Sing wants to see
.lifer." Not long ago a party of la
d.es who visited the prison made the
keeper who acted as guide promise to
show them = ..lifer. Finally one of
these unfortunates passed within sight.
The ladies were full of compass on for
1.-THE poor fellow" until one Of their
number asked wha. was the nature of
his crime. I'm for killing his wife, -
was the keepers reply. The flood of
pity was damned on the instant, and
as soon as she could recover from her
horror the spokeswoman of the party
sAvagely inquired: 'sWhy don't they
hang the brute?" One ..lifer" has
served twenty-five years OF his SEN
tence. Seeing him at work in Iocali-
ty whence escape was comparatively
easy, the reporter inquired If it were
not . little risky to place SO much con-
fidence in . sslifer. Not in that one. Il"
answered tho koov,0r ssv,u n~,lJ.s&