Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-12-15
BILL NYE IN JAIL.
Hc Gives . Description Of Ludlow Street
Prison.


He Gives . Description Of Ludlow Street
Prison.
As you enter Ludlow Street Jail the door is
carefully closed after you end locked By
means of an iron lock abous the size Of q
pictorial family Bible. You then remain on
the inside for quite spell You do not hear
the prattls of soiled children any more. AL
the glad sunlight and stencil condensing
pavements and dank haired children of Riv-
ington street are heard no more, and the
heavy iron storm door shuts out the wall G!
the combat from the alley near by. Ludlow
Street Jail may be surrounded by very
miserable and dirty quarter of the city, but
when you get inside all is changed.
You register first. There is q good pen
there that you can write with, and the clerk
does not chew tolu and read sporting paper
while you wait for room. He is there to
attend TO business, and he attends to it. He
does not seem to care whether you have any
baggage or not. You can stay here for days,
even if you don't have any baggage. All you
need is kind word and rlittimus from the
court.
One enters this sanitarium either as q
boarder or felon. If he decides to come in
as boarder be pays the warden SIS a week
for the privilege Of sitting at his table and
eating the Injuries Of the market. You also
get better room than at many hotels, and
you have good strong door with paddock
ON it which enables you TO prevent the sudden
and unlocked for entrance Of the chamber
maid After few weeks at the seaside at
$40 per day, think the room in which / anu
writing is not unreasonable at 81.
Still, Of course, we miss the sea breeZa
here
You can pay $50 to 800 per week here if
you wish, and get your moneys worth, too.
For the latter sun, one may live in the bridal
chamber, so to speak, and eat the very best
victuals all the time.
A boarder gets good sized room, with a
wonderful amount Of seclusion, plain bed,
table, chairs, carpet and SO forth. From his
window one can see as far as the eye can
reach.
Heavy iron bars keep the mosquitoes out,
and at night the rooms are brilliantly lighted
by incandescent lights Of one candle power
each. Neat shutters, consisting of the thumb
and forefnger polished on the hair, are TO be
found il each occupied room
Bread is served to the freshmen and juniors
in rectangular wads. 1t is such bread as con-
victs' tears have moistened many thousand
years. In that way it gets quite moist.
The most painful feature about life in Lud-
low street Jail is the confinement One can
not avoid a feeling of being constantly ham
pered and hemmed in.
One more disa9reeable thing is the great
social distinction here. The poor man who
sleeps in a stone niche near the roof, and is
constantly elbowed and hustled out Of his
bed by earnest and restless vermin with
tendency towards insomnia, is harassed by
meeting in the courtyard and corridors the
paying boarders who wear good clothes, live
well, have their cigars, brandy and Kentucky
Sec all the time
The McAllister crowd here is just as ex-
elusive as it is on the outside.
But, great Scott, what comfort it is to a
man like me who has been nearly killed by a
cyclone to feel the firm, secure walls and
solid time lock when he goes to bed at night
Even if cannot belong to the 100 here, am
almost happy.
Weretire at $50 o'clock at night and arise
at 6:3O in the morning, SO as to get an early
start. A man who has five or ten years to
serve in place like this naturally likes to
get at it as soon as possible each day, and so
he gets up at GEO.
We dress by the gaudy light Of the candle,
and while we do so we remember far away
at home our wife and the little boy asleep in
her arms They do not get up ut ESQ., 1t
is at this hour we remember the fra
grant drawer in the dresser az home where
our clean shirts and collars and cuffs and
socks and handkerchiefs are put every week
by our wife. We also recall as we go about
our stone den, with its odor of farmer corned
beef and the ghost OF some bloody handed
predecessors snore still moaning in the walls,
the picture of green grass by our own door
way ard the apples that were just ripening
when the bench warrant came.
The time from $50 TO breakfast is taken
up by the average OF non-paying inmate by
doing the chamberwork and tidying up his
5tateroom | d5 not know how others feel
about it, but l dislike chamberwork most
heartily especially when l am in jail Moth
ing has done more to keep me out of Jail, l
guess, than the fact that while there Ihave to
make up my bed and dust the piano.
We go down to the sink to wash our faces
and hands 1t is a pleasant sight, and re-
minds me Of herd of red legged geese in
mud hole
Breakfast is generally table dhoto, and
consists Of bread A tin cup of coffee takes
the taste of the bread out Of your mouth,
and then if you have some Limburger cheese
in your pocket you can with that remove the
taste of the coffee.
Dinner is served at Il O'clock. and consists
Of more bread, with soup. This soup has
in it except nourishment The
bead on this soup is noticeable for quite q
distance 1t is disagreeable. There is every
thing in this soup, from shop worn rice up to
meats foot oil Once | thought | detected
cuisine in it.
The dinner menu is changed on Fridays,
Sundays and Thursdays, on which days you
get the soup first and the bread afterwards
In this way the bread is saved.
Three days IN the week st dinner each man
gets potato with thousand legged worm
N it. At o'clock comes supper with toast
and responses, Bread is served at supper
time, together with cup OF tea. To those
who dislike bread and never eat soup, or do
not drink tea OF coffee, lie at Ludlow Street
Jail is indeed rksone. Nye in New Yorl,
World