Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-07-31

bVOVe-mdkluS VII GHc Ndy aA0Ct Alo
arrival at Sing Sing Crowley took his
station in the stove-moldng shops.
Keeper C%onnaughton expressed the
opinion that Crowley would give the
officials little trouble, and would
make a clever craftsman. Three hun
dred stoves Of various sizes and pat
terms 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 a 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 per day. Some
of the prisoners become wonderfully
expert ironers, and two or three out of
the hundred and thirty men employed in
this department are so deNterous that
their tasks + 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
stopping work they + allowed to re-
tire to their cells, where they can read
and smoke or go to sleep. Three hum
dred men are engaged in making boots
and shoes. They make two thousand
three hundred pairs per day. or nearly
seven and a half pairs per man. The
boots and shoes are all made with the
aid of machinery. One machinemakcs
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 a man
busy to supply this pegging-machine
with soles. Another machine makes
steel screws, cuts them off Il proper
length, and screws them in place in
countless soles in an hour. One mans
task Is to put heels on eighteen hum
dred pairs of boots per day. He begins
work at seven o'clock in the morning,
has an hour for dinner. and has gem
orally finished his task at three o'clock.
He does it with the aid of a machine,
which heels Il pair of shoes in less time
than an ordinary girl can wink, even
if she be in a great hurry and lisa last
chance.
The prisoners make theirown clothes.
They also make their own tobacco,
both smoking and chewing. The head
man in the tobacco department
among tho convicts is Steve Raymond.
He has the distinction Of being the only
man who was ever sentenced to i'm
pr;sonment for | fe in this State for for
gerry. He received this sentence for u
second ofiense. He is Il small, dark
skinned man, and moves about at his
work with Il step as light as a cats.
He is a good workman, and never
grumbles at his lot. There are atpres-
ent in Sing Sing sixty-tive m%urdercrs
serving life sentences. Two-thirds of
them Killed Their wives. Every woman
who visits Sing Sing wants to see a
'lifer." Not long ago a party of la
.es who visited the prison made the
keeper who acted as guide promise to
show them a ''lifer." Finally one of
these unfortunates passed within SIGHT.
The ladies were full of compassion for
1.-The poor fellow" until one of their
number asked what 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 spoheswoman of the party
savagely inquired: ''NVhy don't they
hang the brutep" One liter" has
served twenty-five years OF his SEN
tence. Seeing him at work in a Iocali-
ty whence escape was comparatively
easy, the reporter inquired # it were
not a little risky to place so much con-
idencc in a "lifcr." Not in that one,"
answered the keeper, you couldn't
drive the fellow away. He couldn't
live anywhere else" The impression
is pretty general that the moment a
prisoner enters Sing Sing his head as
well as his face is shaved. This is no
longer the fashion. The prisoners are
shaved every Saturday. The shave fol-
lows the bath. The men are compelled
to wear their hair moderately short,
but few wear it as short as the 'tough''
OF the outside world does, or even as
bre f as the style adopted BY the aver
age dude, if the bang is excepted. No
convict is allowed to wear a bang. In
fact, no convict would wear a bang.
An inmate of Sing Sing knows Just
what to expect thirty minutes after his
arrival in the prison. He is instructed
to obey the keepers and the rules, to
mind his own business and interfere
with no one, and to do an honest DAVIS
work. If these instructions are obeyed
his life W II be as com ortablc as it is
possible to make it under circumstances
not exactly cheerful, but whichmight
be worse. He rises in the morning at
six o'clock and breakfasts at half-past
six. The meal consists of hash, bread
and coffee. At o'clock he goes
to his work and sticks at it unit | noon,
when he marches into the huge dining
room, which is sixty by two hundred
feet. The dinner service is of tin. The
of the food is good, and no one
is stinted. The evening meal consists
of bread and coffee. 1t is served to the
men in their cells. The bill of fare for
dinner is changed each day. The work
Of the day stops at five o'clock.
Then the men are marched to
their cells. They march to and from
work with lock step and the right hand
placed on the shoulder OF the man in
front. In their cells prisoners have the
privilege of reading and smoking to
their hearts content. Each man is
furnished with two ounces of smoking
tobacco per week. AS many of them