Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1883-1888, 1885-05-29

had spent years of preparation under
the training of old General Pilsbury
at Albany penitentiary, and was &C.
quainted with, every device Of the
criminal heart, and every resource OF
the ordinary prisoner. He has
finally elaborated for himself
and has put in successful
system which has all the good features
Of Maconochie's and of the Irish sys-
TEN, while it carries the education of
the convicts TO point that has never
been ATTEMPTED before, and that
proves to be potent influence in their
reformation. The old fashioned
prison school, dragging men painfully
along through primers and arith-
metics and Sunday school books, At
odd hours and without the hearty CO.
operation either of men or officers,
has been replaced at Elmira by all the
cagerness and proficiency that belongs
to an elective course Of study in an
enterprising college. | have seen The
Elmira students, as Mr.. Warner and
others have, and know this to be the
case. Their class in practical moral
ity meeting in the chapel, 200 IN all,
Oh luutlity IuOiutuSs uttCi tuV Saeup-
lie convic,s have had mass said, is as
interesting body of students and de-
baters as any college professor com
monlysecs.
The labor of the reformatory, mean-
time, goes on rs vigorously as If there
were no school about the premises; the
workshops are perfect hive OF i'll
dustry, and in themselves a school for
manual training, habits Of diligence,
self-reliancc and honesty, and the
backbone of the whole establishment.
But for the tinkcring of legislators on
the prison labor question, the profits
of this industry would almost support
the establishment and we should see
manual labor school in full course
which would be paying its own ex-
penscs. Asst is the 675 convicts now
al Elmira cost the state $25, 900 to $50, :
600 year; and no part of the revenue
of this great dominion is better ex-
pended. By a strict application of
the work system and by judicious en-
couragemcnt as well rs severity, the
convicts go ont reformed, in the ma
iority of cases, and earn their own liv-
ing honestly outside. There are three
main grades in the refOrmatory and
oue-the paroled men--outside, and
so well does this grading work that
the men help each other forward, in
stead of pulling one another down, as
in the ordinary prison. This is great
point in favor of Elmira
know that this will seem over
praise to many who have never Wis
tied Elmira but all who go there
/ and stay long enough to see what it is
doing will find that-the half has not
been told. There is no teacher or
ruler of men who could not learn
much from seeing the course Of life at
Elmira and the admirable cooperation
of one part of the city with another.
The reformatory itself stands in a fine
country, with noble hills about it and
on large farm which is cultivated by
the labor of convicts and is managed
by man who was once prisoner
himself Mr. Brockway makes much
use of reformed and hieh-grsde pris-
oners in the instruction and
discipline OF the rest; and has
ID his upper school class
in English literature taught by SEN
fenced man, which is something re-
markabIe in the extent 10 which they
study the subject. Music also is much
cultivated there, aud you can hear as
fine singing in the chapel as anywhere
in that part of the world Similar re-
formator;es for men under so are now
established in Ohio. PENNSYLVANIA ard
Massachusetts, and Illinois is this year
irving to begin such an experiment
which in the case OF New leik i an
experiment M longer. The records
of the past eight years show that 20
per cent of the Elmir' con, ici> do not
appc IT again rs criminals. and though
this rattle may noi po>~ihit hH kctt
up hereafter, there is nbihi4'-. as 'ri
t, Indicate any change for h "or =.
On the contrary, the >N>i"h wnTS :
better aud more easily ifo"l year l.,
/ wear.