, 1889-04-09
T0ILERS IN STRIPES.
sHoEmAKINe IN THE KINGS COUNTY
N. " PENITENTIARY.

trand avenue, near Prospect Park,
Brooklyn, is the Kings County peniten-
tiary, one of the most widely known and
best managed institutions in the United
States. About seven hundred men and
women are confined there.
The most interesting part of the insti-
tuition is the big shoe factory, which is
situated on the eastern end of the build
ing. 1t is a T shaped building, three
stories in height.
Here 900 convicts are engaged in
making shoes for the Bay State Shoe
and Leather company, a corporation
which has made n vast fortune out of
convict labor. 1t gets its shop rent,
steam power, labor and all for about
$500 q month-about one-quarter of
what it would cost the employer of
honest labor.
The men and boys who work in the
prison factory range in age from 10 to
05 years. Some are ninety day men and
others are long term men. They wear
the rough, striped shoddy garb, the pop
ular fashion in all prisons.
MACHINES WITH BRAINS.
Each man gets n days task and he is
kept at it until 1t is finished. Some of
the inmates are very expert and finish
their share of the work IS early as 8
o'clock. Three thousand pairs of shoes
are turned out of the prison every day.
All the instructors and overseers are
citizens who reside outside of the peni-
tertiary. In passing through the shop
they can be readily distinguished from
the inmates, who are uniformed, shaved
and close cropped.
The factory is especially interesting. 1t
is arranged and managed like n big
factory of the kind. The machines used
are Of the most approved patterns. They
perform without exciting comment
things which would have been consid-
cred most wonderful n few years Ago..
They are especially adapted for the COM
mon work which the company manu-
features.
There is one little simple looking ma
chino which, as if by magic, chops and
changes thin little sheets of wood into
shoe pegs, and then drives them into the
soles of shoes at one operation in SO short
n time that the visitor is amazed. The
cold machirs works and throbs as If en-
dowed with a head, heart and intellig-
ence.
Another machine that is driving men
out of h business was working away,
guided by n convict mechanic. This
machine attaches n heel to q shoe and
then trims the heel as nicely as n human
hand could DO the work and much faster.
1t was n powerful implement, and every
lime it moved it looked as if it was going
to crush the shoe into pulp.
One or two blows fastened the heel to
tho shoe. The turn of n crank set the
trimmer in motion and it rapidly peeled
the rough edges off the heel and left it
ready for the burnisher-the man who
polishes the edges of the heels or soles.
The reporter saw another noisy little
machine in operation. 1t does a great
deal of work and does it well. The ma
him not only punched the holes for
laces, but drove eyelets into them ut the
Same time.
Another machine sent two needles
flying and they sewed n double row of
stitches at one time. This reduces vamp-
ing to one operation.
The reporter was shown every ma
chine. 1t is the custom of the prisoners
to show every visitor n sample of the
they are engaged upon. They
hand 1t without saying n word. The
rules forbid any conversation on the part
of tho inmates. The reporter passed
through the building without hearing q
single word. The citizen mechanics and
keepers alone are allowed to speak.
uENT AS THE TOMB.
Some of the men become experts ut
some part of the trade. None of them
eyer n learn it all through, because
machinery is s~upplanting hand work.
When they become free they frequently
manage to get good situations.
Two keepers guard each floor, but in
case of an outbreak, ascore of men would
be ready for action in q minute. The
prisoners there, however, as q rule, are
well behaved.
The keeper opened q door and the re-
porter found himself in n room filled
with bright, cheerful, chatting and neatly
dressed girls. They were bent over
machines or tables, working busily.
They are employed on fancy work by
tho company. They go to the peniten-
tiary every morning and leave it every
night for their homes.
The reporter was her escorted to u
low frame structure in the middle of the
yard. The scene here was altogether
different. The room was bright and
cheerful, but it was silent as q tomb, al
though forty women were In it. They
were prisoners. Some of them had very
hardened faces marked by an I-don't-
care expression; others looked as If they
had abandoned all hope. Only one
turned around to see who had come.
These unfortunate women were attired
in rough blue dresses. They were en-
gagged in shoemaking. They are, of
course, kept apart from the men prison
ers and isolated from the respectable
girls who work in the prison. Some of
them are life prisoners confined for
homicide.
There were desperate women in that
room-women who have terrorized men
In their time, but the discipline is so per-
feet there that order is maintained by a
single matron seated on an elevated plat
form which enables her to see all over
the room. Her only assistant is a lady
overseer.-New York journal.