The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1889-03-07
The Heather.

| was reading a short time since. in the
London Pottery Gazette, an account of a
visit to Japanese prison. and among other
things the visitor describes the work that
the inmates of the place are put to- When
the convict first reaches his prison home in
Toxin he is taught to do that at which the
limit of his natural faculties is reached
He is put at a certain high grade of
work, and if he can acquit himself he con-
tinues at that work, but should he prove
deficient he is tried at the next grade, and
so on all down the schedule until he reaches
that notch which nature has qualified him
to fit. He can keep going down and down,
II he can do no better, until he reaches the
rice mill, where all the mental abilities re-
quired are those which direct his arm
while he continually raises and lets fall a
stone into a mortar of rice. In this prison
were some of the best artiticers in the land,
who, ON their arrival were Immediately put
to intelligent work. and by their labor
help fill the Golfers of the state.
These ''benighted heathens" teach us
lesson on the prison question that we
would do well to observe. They have an
W
character. Should surgeon get arrested
IN that country and be sentenced to prison.
when he arrives there he is not put at
printing frame or boring hole through
plank, but at some work that is cOngenial
to him. and which will keep at bay that
dread fOe-prisOn apathy. He can bring
into play those faculties which he has de-
velOped by years of hard and constant
labor, and while employed can lose him
self in his work and thus forget his sur
rOundings. By getting outside of these,
by banishing them from his mind, he bene-
fits himself more than words can tell, for,
by continual brooding over them, they be-
come bug-bears of the worst form, and
enough to drive one distracted.
The other side: A man in this country
is sentenced to pass five years in durance
vile. We will suppose that he is intelli-
gent, even intellectual. On his arrival at
the prison he is put to work for ten hours
day, at turning crank or screw, in some
dark corner of dirty shop. What is going
to become of that man? 1t is ten chances
to one that he will be a crank of the first
water upon his release, or will have Jour
neyed to that bourne" etc.. before he has
served his time During his confinement
he has no chance to indulge in those studies
which he took such delight in when he
was free, except as he may care to study in
his little cell, with only his own energy as
Perchance he may get volume
that treats on his pet hobby, but it soon
grows stale by being read alone, and in a
stutfy, little cell: with no one to argue Or
demonstrate to; with no one to take the
negative SO as to give him a chance to bur-
nsh up his defenseS and theories.
A good evening school would do away
with this to a certain extent A liberal
school-mOre of a debating society, where
the leading questions of the day. and diff
ferent sciences could be discussed and all
be allowed to participate in the pro and
con of this or that subject. AS far as can
learn, they seem to have this system in the
Elmira Reformatory. n. Y. and it seems
to work with the greatest success.
And again, what we want is work; work
of such character that it will demand
little eXertiOn of more than our muscles;
that we can take an interest in,
and have knowledge that we are doing
for which we can get little
praise, and that the profits of the products
of the sweat of our brows. are not flowing
into the capaciOus pockets of the bloated
contractors who. heretofore, let drop the
sheckels to swell the pile with a sly Old
grin. but who growled like one o'clock
when he had to dip his hand in the pile and
eXpend it on those who were giving life and
muscle to surround him with all the pleas
ures of life.