The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1888-04-18
Phoenix Explains.
Editor Mirror:

when a person begins to write outside of his
own experience. he generally makes mud
die of it. l ali ignorant of True Re-
MORSE" never having had any experience
in that line, and consequently would have
made muddle of it had l written about it;
but did not. [ was writing about the
kind of remorse have seen since l came
here. 1 suppose [ have talked to about
nine tenths of the men in the last ten
months. and my opportunities for finding
out the state of the mems mind on the sub
iect of reform, has been better than the
average convict or even guard is afforded.
and assure you l have come to the conclu
sion that the percentage of cOnvicts who
have reformed is very small.
| believe take the criticism of IngOmar
in the spirit in which it was given, and l
certainly do not attribute it to "pinchng
shoes" as my former article had no refer
ence to him. l d. not intend to fiatter when
| say that | believe him to be one OF the
SINCERE writers for THE MIRROR. Some
great man has said that whatever else man
writes. he always writes himself. and | be-
lieve | can tell cant from the true ring.
In one of my articles some months ago l
said that when left here intended to live
square" This statement may lead some
to suppose that [ profess reformation; but
not SO. always did live square" l am
not a crook and do not intend to be. The
offence that brought me here and of which
| am guilty, have never looked upon as a
crime. 1t was against the law, certainly
but still believe any man of spirit would
have done the same. | state all this simply
70 b.,u no T writing ffrfV THE NIJD-
ROR with any idea of upholding crooked
ness. but like to put things as | find them;
and when | wrote my article on ''RemOrse'
| had not found any of the true article dur
ing my travels through the shops. | donOt
say that none exists. but have failed to
find it.
IngOmar says: 1.-The Best of people do
not like to be brought face to face with bare
facts if it so happens that in doing so you
force them to abandon their superficial line
of defence and lift the mask of diSsimila-
ton" None will agree with him sooner
than | on that point. Hard facts (as l
know them) are the only things 1 write
about.
There are some points in Ingomar's arti--
Gle q will not call it criticism. as he and
| were writing upon two different subjects,)
upon which do not argue with him; but on
the whole was much pleased with it. He
says: 'POverty may excuse man the first
time. or even the second. but after that it
ceases to shield him, and if he still persists
in crime he does SO wholly from free will
choice" Now, it is plain to me that when
man commits crime twice he is not very
careful whether he commits crime after
wards no matter what was the cause of his
fist crime. In fact the tendency is to con-
tinue in life of crOOkcdness; for people
toll tJnxy 10,
in making money by risk whether within the
pale of law or out of it. and it was my be-
lief in this that led me to say what did in
regard to the victims of circumstances and
the boot black question. / said that people
had the power to raise themselves from the
slough of vice, but the chances were they
would not do 50. While | do not believe
that stealing is legitimate. 1 know people
who are really proud of being first class
crooks This is natural. Most people like
to become famous or notorious. Very few
men OF intelligence care to remain in the
background. l do not mean to say that a
man never reforms while undergoing pun
Shment. but l do say, from my ObServa-
tons during the past ten months. that very
few reform in prison. and fewer still reform
from any other motive than worldly one.
L Go not believe 1t necessary to have any Of
the feelings OF WebSterS remOrSe in order
to reform in that way and when you take
into consideration that all my articles are
written from worldly standpoint. | be-
lieve that one on ''RemOrse' will make itself
clear. | admit [ went to extremes but |
am not original in that, and it was done
with the object of bringing out my ideas
with force. IngOmar did not understand
my article l was writing on sO-calld re-
morse. and he was writing about the gen
uine understanding it would be impos-
Sible for me to write about. as [ have no
idea what it is like except as l get it from
IngOmars article. do not offer this as a
reply to him. but simply as an explanation