Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-03-03

ance of blankets, and from which ante
room he makes his debut into the prison
proper. Here he becomes the ward of the
Turnkey, who allots him his cell and
makes him
The usage of depriving every newly
made prisoner of his hair, is at first sight
sufficiently explained by motives of clean
illness, but these alone are not sufficient to
account for the antiquity and almost uni
versal prevalence of this rite. Like many
another odd custom, it is a Survival in
culture" whose original meaning has be-
come obscured by n new use that gentler
civilization has found for the practice.
The act of sitting in barber chair, and
voluntarily suffering the deprivation of
that natural thatch which is commonly
held to lend beauty to the human eoun:en-
ance, IS held by moderns no less than it
was by ancients, to typify abject helpless
ness and submission. Having passed
through the last named ordeal with more
or less of dignity, the newcomer is per-
mitted respite, during which he Guilt
Yates acquaintances, and, if he is wise, en-
deavors TO reconcile himself to his new
surroundings. After the lapse of few
hours he Is in request again, and being led
out to the deputy's office, is questioned as
to his age, nativity, and antecedents gem
orally. The answers he returns to these
interrogatories are carefully iotted down
on printed fern, which likewise embodies
minute description of the prisoners caste
of countenance, his hight, weight, denti-
ton, and the various scars and marks scat
tered over the surface of his body.
THE ANTHRoroMETRIC SYSTEM
OF taking prisoners descriptions has not
been introduced into Western penitentia-
ries as yet, but no doubt it will follow after
trials in the East have sufficiently attested
its practicahility. BY NJ BertiIlon's pro-
cess, the taking of descriptions is reduced
to rule of thumb, where with nicely
adjusted instruments made expressly for
the purpose, conflict of opinion is made
impossible, except in the case of labelling
the color of the hair and eyes, in which
latter respects there seems to be as much
latitude for error under the new system
as under the old. In the descriptions
taken at Folsom of newly received prison
ers, not a scar, not mole or an ink punct-
ure but is faithfully reflected on folio of
the bound register kept for the purpose.
Tattooings on the arm and forearm are
very common modes of adornment among
prisoners, and take all manner of shapes,
from stars and Roman capitals to scenes
from the crucifxion. The coloring mate
rial is India ink and vermillion, and the
process is accomplished by means of two
needles which are dipped in the pigment
and their points inserted deep enough in
the skin to fetch blood. The process is
said to be very painful, but is submitted to
with a patience that would do honor to a
worthier cause As to the motive which
induces people to submit to its infiction,
it is sometimes aesthetic, sometimes super
stitious, as where the punctures take the
form of serpent biting its tail, a symbol
which is potent to ward off harm. The
description process over, the new man
gives the photographer a second sitting
and adds his quota towards charging the
bulk of
THE PRISON ALBUM.
This last is contained in three or four
volumes, and is collection as entertaining
as it is instructive.
Here shaved and shorn arranged in order due
Are grouped the denizens in every land;
Paddles from Cork and poems from Peru,
In this weird gallery immortal stand.
Viewed as a whole, the faces are by no
means repellant, and although the subjects
have been taken under every disadvantage
of uncouth clothes and sinister surround
ings, the latter are powerless to obscure
dignity and a manhood which is to he
traced in many of the linaments here dis
played. Comparisons are odious, and |
shall therefore refrain from making any,
but of the whole collection of portraits it
may truthiully be said, that had the
sitters been taken under more congenial
circumstances, they might have reposed in
the album of Morse without provoking
any detractive comments. | have by no
means exhausted the topics of interest
which attach to the twin offices on either
side of the prison gateway, but must defer
saying more about them till future occa-
sion, when, if the reader is so disposed, he
may accompany me on a tour propose to
make of the prison building. q. AS.