Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-03
TIE STATES BARS.
A CONVICT COUNTING.HOUsE AND
HOW 1T Is RUN.
A Tenderfoot's Reception- Commit
ments and Comedy-Order
of the Bath.
Correspondence of the REcoRp-uyros

Correspondence of the REcoRD-UNIoN
intermediate between the quarry de-
| scribed in my last, and the interior of the
! Folsom State Prison, are the respective of
fees of the Deputy Warden and Captain
of the Guard, to neglect any mention of
which would seriously detract from the in
terest of this series of sketches. The
former is virtually counting-house, stored
with account books and stationery and all
the paraphernalia of amerchant's Office in
miniature. Consignments of infamv are
reducible to accounts quite as readily as
consignments of merchandise, the former
lending themselves to systems of classified
ton, which, in the case of Folsom. are
brought as near to perfection as possible.
! Although it is neither usual nor necessary
for the institution to open ledger accounts
with those who are its debtors to mainte-
nance, reckoning is kept with every pris-
oner, which on the score of minuteness
leaves nothing to be desired Not only
does every convict when he arrives figure
at least in dozen contemporary entries,
made in rs many books, but his influence
on the aggregate of the congregation con-
tinues to make itself felt throughout the
entire length of his sentence. Is he sick a
day, or does he change his cell? the event
Is ch:onicled with a faithfulness and cir
eumstantiality which imparts to the trans
action something of the dignity of a
| record.
TIE PRISONERS RECEPTIoN-RooM.
The offices, which group themselves
! round the main entrance to the prison
building are interesting for variety of
reasons, chiefly perhaps because here it is
that every incoming prisoner is surren-
dered by his Sheriff to the hands of the
prison authorities. To the latter the re-
ceipt or discharge of prisoner is a matter
of equal indifference, the forms attendant
on the ceremonies being gone through
with provoking GOODNESS in the estimation
OF those who form their subjects Repeti-
ton has robbed the transaction of all nov
city, and the freshman excites no more
interest in the breasts of his guardians
than if he were bale of hay. To those.
however, who can never witness human
metamorphosis without wonder, the receipt
OF prisoner at the Penitentiary and his
subsequent induction into the ranks have
features of interest about them which
amply excuse any attempt at portrayal.
A dyspeptic philosopher maintains that
the difference between the various orders
of mankind consists merely in outside
envelopes, and that king and a cobbler
In the water together present so many
points OF resemblance to one another, and
so few of dissimilarity, that it is impossible
under those circumstances to tell roy-
atty from leather. The same sage
has compared his species to so
many two pronged radishes, who if they
were Invested of their clothes and laid
side by side in some gigantic bed, would be
practically indistinguishable from one an
other. Persons who push the theory of the
equality of mankind to its furthest limits,
| Will in the case of convicts find their views
confirmed with forcibility that is not
pleasant. 1t is soothing to n mans vanity
to reflect that but for the trappings OF
| horse-hair and ermine he might be mis-
taken for Scion, but hardly so when he
contemplates long file of zebra-marked
| convlcts, and thinks that strip him of his
| broadcloth and invest his limbs in one of
the suits of infamy and he might be mis-
taken for Pistol Bill or a Shorty HAYES.
Shorn iowls and striped flannel
REDUCES HUMANITY To ONE DEAD LEVEL.
And theories of the blue blood and nobility
OF descent are made sad havoc of, when it
Is considered that shears and stripes are
capable of removing all traces of them.
The inequalities at Folsom are not
| grudged, but before a man can be adj
mitted to their privileges it is necessary
he should have done something to
deserve them, and be accompanied bv
some bona fdes attestlng as much The
latter are called commitments, and are
signed by an accommodating Judge, who
requires remarkably small persuasion to
this step on the part of the person in whose
favor the document is issued. What
money or baggage is to stranger seeking
lodging in large city, a commitment is in
the case of man applying for admission
to Penltentiary. 1t can no more be dis
pensed with than marriage license at the
solemnlzation of a wedding. 1t is about
the only instrument which has probably
never been forged, for while we are all IA
mlliar with forged checks, forged notes and
even forged pardons, the man who would
have the eiirontery to forge his own COM
mtment has never been met with as vet.
Armed with his credentials, our Sheriff
approaches the doors of the Penitentiarv
with his charge and deposits his paper and
his prisoner in the hands of officials who
are ready in the Deputy's office to receive
them. At this stage the responsibility of
the laws minion ceases and with the sur
render of his commitment his property in
the prisoner lapses.
THE PRISON ART GALLERY.
The freshman, calculating. NAV be. on
the sensation his appearance will create in
the minds of the prison officials, is rather
taken aback by the summary and disre-
spectful liberties taken with his person the
very first hour of his arrival. After the
deputy has satisfied himself that the in
coming prisoner is the person represented
in the commitment, the latter, accom-
panied by an officer, is taken over to the
photographers gallery to sit to the pilot
ographer for the first of series of pictures
whose complement will be furnished by
and by. The prison barber and the prison
clothier work such transformations in
mans appearance that the authorities at
Folsom have adopted the practice of tax
ing two pictures of every incoming man
one as he appears in the garb of liberty.
and the other as he poses in his convict
livery, and minus his natural fell.
At these twin ordeals the prisoner is usu-
ally too dazed to offer much resistance. and
the photographer generally succeeds in
making an excellent picture. Resistance,
however, is sometimes encountered, when
the prison officials have to accomplish their
object by strategem. In the literary
museum of the prison is to be seen the
photograph in profile of a subject. who, re-
fusing to submit to having his picture
taken, recourse was had to cutting a panel
out of the barber shop, and while the I'M
suspecting recusant was seated in the
chair, the process of immortalizing his
llnaments was happily gone through.
GREER OF THE BATH.
When the newcomer has sat to the pho
tographer, he takes bath, for long con-
tinement in a county Jail has covered him
with an incrustation of dirt which he must
shed before he can mix with respectable
society. At present, owing to the prevail
ence of the smallpox scare, the order OF
procedure is slightly departed from, the
prisoner being photographed and tubbed
Outside tho walls Dur;,c, .Lo l,.,o-,