Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-02-18
SERMONS IN STONES.
A PENAL BUT PROSPEROUS SAT
HOMEv COMMUNITY.
Masons VS.. Worm-Eaters" = The
Testimony of the Rocks in
the Folsom Quarry
lREooep.UxLox correspondence.l


spectability hugs itself, or that the condi-
ton of the unfortunate possesses an in
trinsic interest for those who have the
leisure for studying it, the fact is incon-
troyertible that our sympathies are much
more easily excited by the seamy and
ragged side of human nature than by its
glossy and irreproachable diverse. For
the sake Of our common humanity, it is to
be hoped that none of us experience an
active satisfaction in the misfortunes of
our friends; but that we experience pas
sive satisfaction in contrasting the troubles
of Others with those of our own, is so true
that the thought has been embodied in
French proverb. "There is" saws Mon
taigne, " a feeling not altogether unpleas-
urable with which we regard the disasters
that befall our fellows. Prosperity in the
gross IS odious to US, and, when not casting
direct reflection on our status in life, I'M
interrupted enjoyment Of good things is
held to be incompatible with the posses
sion Of those heroic traits and virtues
found only IN the breasts of those who
have breasted the waves of adversity."
"There IS n soul of goodness in things
evil" by which / mean to say that the
happiness of the multitude is added to and
its complacency heightened by the knowl-
edge that thousands of its less happily cir
cumstanced fellows are
GRUNTING AND SWEATING UNDER A
WEARY LOAD,
Whose weight at times is all but intoler-
able. In this latter category we may
fairly rank prisOners-that unfortunate
class of beings who are taken in an evil
draft, and who enjoy the anomalous dis
tinction of being in the world and yet not
of the world and have no more part in
assisting at the latters enterprises, or
molding its destinies than if they were
so many ghosts and shadows As yet Cal
ifornia has not seen fit to emulate any of
the costly and convoluted systems of
treating prisoners which are on trial in
the East. | say on trial, and advisedly,
for it must be born in mind that neither
the experiment at Elmira or any other
equal and costly one that | am familiar
with, has Is yet given any indications that
it promises to be the model one for univer-
sal imitation. That some of them have
achieved a dubious success is true, but
pathological authorities are far from being
biAaiiihipt4o III ilSil dppIONdl vi any one
system Of prison discipline which has
hitherto been devised. Under these cir
.cumstances, the authorities of our peniten-
tiaries have acted wisely in introducing
such new reforms into their prisons as
have given unqualified evidence of sue
cess in other places, while refusing to take
entire pattern by any one system in par
ticular.
A description of the Folsom Peniten-
tiary may not possess much interest for
such of the readers of the RECORD L MON
as have paid it visit, though even they
may derive some entertainment from an
account of its industrial economy as told
by the pen of one who has had ample OPP
portunities of studying it. Surrounded by
barrier of hills, the site of Folsom is as
secluded and out of the way as if it lay at
THE BOTTOM OF SOME UNEMPLOYED
CRATER.
On all sides the prisoners horizon is
bounded, and while the breezes of heaven
fan his cheek his view of its vault is as
circumscribed as fortuitous combinations of
rock and scar can make it, The sun is
comparatively high in the heavens before
the convict sees it, and when of an even
ing it has retired from his view there are
at least three or four hours of daylight for
the outside world. To some there is a
sense of fitness in being cut off by nat
ural as well as artificial barriers from a
cold and unsympathetic world, while 10
others contracted landscape and the sui
len and frowning front of the everlasting
hills only serve to intensity the depression
which all must feel more or less who are
expatriated to this unhappy valley. In
Il h., l. l..
sterner or more forbidding than from the
grounds encircling the prison quarry. Yet,
in spite of an unpleasing appearance, Fol
som is undoubtedly healthy, and atones
for, by torrid but fairly genial climate,
what it lacks in picturesqueness and
beauty.
The impression which the first sight OF
the prison buildings make on the chance
visitor is startling rather than pleasing.
Yet considering the uses they are devoted
to, their tout ensemble is the reverse of
gloomy, and the eye rests with pleasure
on style Of architecture whose like is not
often seen in these degenerate days of GIN
gerbread and terra-cotta. Complaints are
often leyeled against Americans for their
alleged want of fertility in the domain OF
architecture, but here may be witnessed a
style,
UNIMtTATIVE, SIMPLE AND ORIGINAL,
Which appeals with delightful freshness
to those whose taste has not become cor
rupted by too frequent contact with the
reSurrected dry bones of Gothic and early
English. The prison buildings constitute
long irregular parallelogram, at the re-
mote of which abuts at an obtuse angle the
new wing, which has been constructed al
most entirely from designs furnished by
the present deputy at San Quentin, b. +.
Chambers. The Warden'S residence. office
and commissary department are at the
western end of the building, which here
branches out into something resembling a
contracted head to a capital T. Ascend
ing broad and commanding flight OF
stairs, the visitor enters spacious hall
way, on the right hand side of which is
the commissary department, and on the
left the suite of Offices occupied by the
Warden and his Secretary The view to
be had from the windows commanding the
quarry here is spirited and novel. and the
ring of steel on the stones that are being
dressed by the masons makes a melody
which harmonizes admirably with the
panorama displayed before the visitors
eyes The excavating and dressing oil
NNNliN - bAiS AANiuShir BNl9ttNo at piooiii "
which all others are subordinate Under
Warden McComb's regime it attained to
vast dimensions and notwithstanding that
the extensive Mare Island contract is all
bat completed, there are no indications that
under Mr. Aulls Wardenship the industry
will be abated any. And here is fitting
place for advancing an argument against
the insensate clamor raised by Trades
Unionists against the employment of con.
victs at productive industry. 1t is
CONTAINED IN A NUTSHELL.
Every convicted man who is received at q
State Prison was either producer before
he entered it or he was not. If the former
by working during his confinement he j:
no more competitor in the struggle fol
existence than he was while free; and i
the latter, his compulsory labor while in
prison is nothing more than q happy
method of wringing from him the payment
of debt which he contracted with society
while the latter supported him in state Of
idleness. If the community is advanced
by maintaining section of its members in