The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1885-05-24
/ NATIONS WARDS.
aL ~ s-Ia
Two Hours in the
Penitentiary.
HOW TIME rs KILLED.
The Mormon Inmates Of the
Prison.
qHEPEN'SRULES AND SYSTEMS.
4 Visit to the Six Men Serving Ont
Sentences fer COnvic-
tons Sake.

caa he taken at this time of the year is
the road which leads down into the
fields. past Liberty Park, the new Race
course (once better known as Wells
Farm), and up the slight ascent to the
east to the Penitentiary walls. All the
1oyeliness is along the road, however,
there is nothing left fit by the time
one reaches this destination. The
clnmsy mud structure stands as if ii
had been squatted as the boundary be-
ween everything green and the domain
Of the sagebrush; all the verdure and
waving fields lie on the side of it, GER
tainly enough, and one has no sooner
passed to the other than the dust and
the plant of the desert take possession
of his vision.
Fitted out with a permit from Marshal
Ireland. authorizing the warden to let
the bearer "see Cannon, Musser, Wat
son, Evans, Clawson and Pratt be-
tween the hours of and IL a. M, or
and 4p. M" we rode out to the Peniten-
tiarv on the last visiting day. A note
from the Marshal said the warder would
allow Us something more than the
usual half hour, If convenient for him,
but on no account could permission be
secured to get into the heart of the
prison: this, it appeared, was against
the rules of the institution, and every
one knows that the rules of the institu-
ton are never varied from-eXcept per-
Of 70 I'd
porter-who it is needless to say, does
not belong to The HERALD. The open
ing in the fence through which all We
hicles enter the Penitentiary yard, was
guarded by an inscription. No Admit
tance Without Pass From the U. s.
Marshal" As we looked up at the
dreary walls, and the general air of
cheeriessness everywhere visible, we
thought of another inscription said to
have adorned the portals of that inferno
pictured by Dante. and reflected that it
would not be amiss if scrawled at the
entrance of these walls. The Mormon as
suredly, who enters there may as well
leave hope long way behind him.
In the yard were a dozen or fifteen
vehicles of various kinds, some of
which people were just entering, and
others of which they were just dismount-
ing from. A guard stood at the large
gates which opened into the court yard
of the prison, and to him our credentials
were presented After scanning the
note he replied that we might remain
as long as we chose, and asked if we
desired to see the prisoners named at
once? He showed US through the
yard, narrow court bounded on two
sides by rooms, on another by the
entrance gates, and on the fourth by
huge black grating, which was easy to
see opened into the mysterious realm of
the inner jail at the left of this grating
was a small door through which our
guide conducted US into the kitchen,
where three or four men clad in bakers
or cooks aprons were idly sitting about
the large range, apparently awaiting
the hour for commencing their labors.
Passing through this room, the heat
and doors of which were not such as to
tempt one to linger, we entered the
reception ROOM" where, glance at
once showed us-the six Mormon
prisoners were holding their levee. The
room, a plainly whitewashed apart
ment sans carpet, was about 12x15, with
ceiling not more than 8 or 10 feet
high; il was at the present time filed
with crowd of people, mostly ladies, |
aud buzzed with the soHnd of chatting
as little like prison as it was possible
to conceive. As soon as we could work
our way into the centre of the room we
were enabled to see the manner in
which a Penitentiary reception is con-
Quoted. 1t is, of course, against the !
rules to allow any prisoner private
conference with anyone from the out
side, and the government has hit upon |
an ingenious method for assuring itself |
that no forbidden communication takes |
place between its wards and their /
friends. To-day, The holders of the re- |
eeptiOn being Messrs. Cannon. Musser, |
Pratt, Evans, ClaWson and Watson
one other there was, young man I
named Billingsly, in for some horse |
complication, and whose sister had |
called to see him-these gentlemen were |
seated on a bench in a row, with their |
backs against the wall, and with long
table, probably two and a-half feet in
width, showed in front of them as sort |
OF barrier to the confidential commu-
nlcations of their visitors. at the /
lower end of this table stood Mr.. Cot
trell, the guard, very obliging gentle
man, his sole duty apparently being TO
see that the five "hosts" did not leave
their seats, and that no guest SNUG
gled himself or herself around
the inner side of the table. All
greetings. salutations, handshakings
and conversation, consequently, were
carried on over this table. and the guard,
by merely keeping his eyes and ears
open can tell whether any whispering
IS being attempted. Rudger Clawson
by some means had been shuffied into
the centre of the room by number of
his friends, who presented him with
some flowers. The guard was obviously i
nervous at this breach of discipline,
and called out: "Mr. ,Clawson;" once or
twice. "Rud' took his yAlace again,
good-naturedly, and the guards com
posure was restored. When an OPP
portunity presented itself, we reached
over the table and shook hands with
the carefully guarded hosts, who ex-
pressed themselves as Hospitality as the
circumstances would allow. There was
very little about the appearance of