St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-11-11
WHAT SHALL Be Done
The Minneapolis Workhouse
Is Only a Place OF Pun
iShment.
How the House OF the Good
Shepherd Does Its
Work.
Kindly Influences Brought to
Bear on All the In
mates.
Judge Emery's and Matren
Taylor's Sensible Talk
About Reformation.

tic CITY vi mluutdpOllS 10 lOlOu lui
and wide for its many charitable or
CARNATIONS; and its philanthrOpic citi-
zens have, in the emergencies which
have appealed not only TO their hearts
but to their pocketbooks. been ever
ready to respond. and to lend helping
hand to the needy. A cyclone, a plague.
fire or flood in district, even though
remote from the metropolis of the
Northwest, has never appealed for aid
which was not quickly given.
Charitable organizations exist in
all of the churches. Hospitals
are open for the sick or disabled. and
the municipal government annually ex-
ponds thousands of dollars in relieving
the wants of the poor. There is one
class, hOwever,t to which so far, with but
a single exception, even charity has
turned deaf ear. That class consists
of the men and women who are daily
discharged from the workhouse or city
prison. This statement is borne out by
the fact that many of the inmates have
served several terms in that institution,
The books of the workhouse show that
James Kelley, who was the first in
mate sent to the prison at
Single creek when that place was
opened in 1856, has been committed by
the judges of the municipal court to
that refOrmatOry no less than eighteen
times, and he is now serving sentence
of ninety days for drunkenness. James
Cunningham, young man who was
sent up from the lookup yesterday for
being drunk, vas discharged the day
before after having completed SELL
tence OF fifteen days. The very fact
that man has served a term in the
WOrkhOuSe counts against him when he
goes to seek employment, and but
few people care to take the risk
of having such man around
their places of business. A man
who is beSmirched by a prison record
certainly has a hard time of it. The
doors of society are closed against him,
and in majority of cases it is only a
question of time when he shall re-enter
the place charged with perhaps great
er otfense than before.
All the prisoners who are sent to the
wOrkhouse do not come from the class
designated by the police as ''bums."
There are at present 125 men in the in
stitution: manv of them are skilled
wOrkmen, and represent variety of
trades. A few are professional men
who, after making the first false step,
and finding the doors of decent society
closed against them, have gone from
bad to worse until they have become
regular habitueS of the city prison.
What is true of the men is equally
true of the women. How quick il is
that the one mistake woman makes
forever brands her as an outcast. A
young girl who perhaps has just started
on the downward path is arrested and
taken before the municipal court. She
is convicted Of the otfenSe charged or
it may be that she pleads guilty. The
outraged law cries for vengeance and
it sentences her to pay fine. She has
no money. She is deserted by her false
friends and she is sent to the work.
house. The terrors of night in a
station house cell have not been lost
to her. She feels her degradation
as only a woman can, and If there is
anv time woman would try to reform
and lead better life it is after her first
conviction in the police court. She is
sent to the wOrkhouse. Here she is
turned over to the matrOn Mrs. Taylor.
She is given plenty to eat, ana receives
only the most motherly treatment from
the matrOn, whose long experience has
taught her just how to treat these cases.
But her room is narrow cell, with its
uncarpeted floor. narrow iron bedstead,
and grated doors, continually remind
ing her that she is paying the penalty
for violating the laws of the land.