Sacramento daily record-union., 1888-11-17

compensated for by activity in the future.
the concrete expression of which is a home
! for boys, built Of such material and oecu-
pylng such proportions as will render it
worthy to take place among the most
sumptuous and imperishable of our State
monuments. In future years, when Cali
fornla may again be honored by a visit
from the National Conference of Charities,
do not let them carry away as mementoes
OF our solicitude for the young, visions of
an untidy and disgraceful Industrial
School, or the more orderly but still
wholly inappropriate penitentiaries but,
In place thereof, the recollections of a
granite-built reformatory, elvironed with
orchards and vineyards, and peopled by
warm-clad, happy boys, the more fortunate
successors of those whom Mr.. Wines this
time last year saw in San Quentin. The
building of moral Palo Alta should he
set about forthwith, or at anv rate not
longer deferred till the completion of the
Folsom Canal affords leisure for the con-
victs to quarry the stone for it. On lands
located near the Penitentiary, but as prac-
tically isolated from it as if separated
by the breadth Of county. bows re-
tormatory could be erected, durable as
Palo Alta, and only yielding to the latter
the palm of being more beautiful and Or
nate. We need something besides culture
and besides religion, than which the res
cue of our youths
FROM THE JAWS OF PRISON
Is much more important matter. The
erection of reformatory for BOYS, which
should be State institution with State
directorate, in the sense the prisons are,
Is imperatiyely demanded, and is the only
way OF saving to the community that holo-
caust OF little victims which month by
month IS offered up on the altars of Justice.
II their crimes (?) cry for punishment,
then their years and their future demand
that IN expiating it they should be re-
turned 10 society in the state of compar-
atlve Innocence in which they left it. The
State cannot arrogate to itself the right to
punish, without likewise incurrine the OBJ
legation Of seeing that the moral fiber of
those 1t adjudicates on, is not permanently
warped and injured by the process. How
can this happen, however, when the youth
full delinquent is plunged into am atmos-
phere the deadliness of whose drafts can
never be breathed with moral impunity
from the general contagion which they
breed? With the completion of the Fol-
som canal, an opportunity will very soon
offer for utilizing the natural wealth which
is stored in the hillsides adjacent for the
purposes OF building reformatory for
boys. By their peculiar training, the con-
vlcts at Folsom are practically guild of
masons, and the resources of their mex
haustible quarries could furnish each and
every stone needed for the erection of
such building as | have named. Ad-
vantage could be taken of the hilly nature
of the country to locate the building be-
low the horizon of the prisoners
WHILE THE BROWNING TOWERS
Of the penitentiary would serve the boys
as warning to remind them of the goal to
which the indulgence Of unhridled passions
leads. Meanwhile the BOYS inhabiting il
might be taught variety of useful trades,
and in time the institution be made to de-
fray the original cost of its establishment
By the latter's cooperation the prisons
and the retormatory could be rendered col
lectively autonomous, each furnishing its
pecnliar quota of those staples on which
the lives Of all could be maintained. Dur
ing the months which intervene before
the canal can be completed, and before the
labors of the convicts can be utilized in
new direction, discussion should be invited
and authorities interviewed as to the lines
on which this much-needed enterprise is
to be projected. That in some form it will
not be long delayed, it is insulting to the
public conscience to doubt Hitherto it
has been neglected, on the principle, we
presume, that "what is everybody's busi-
ness is nobody's business" but in the light
of what Warden Aull and Director Lut-
trell have said on the subject, excuse for
further proerastination on the subject is
indefensible. ROBERT ELsMERE III.
November u, 1888.