The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-07-03

ten, cOnSclenceleSS heart. 1t sufficiently am
pie in the gastrOnOmic region and decorated
| by massive, empty. brainleSS head barri-
| caded behind pair of gOld-rimmed specta-
cles, will ''cOver a multitude of SINS" Is
| the man who CANDLES in stock in Wall
street OF grain in Chicago, or bets Oh the re-
suit of a horse race or game of base ball,
| any better. morally speaking, than the man
who goes into saloon and CANDLES with
cards for money? Yet the card player is
punished. if caught and stgmatzed with
the epithet of gambler while his more OpJl-
lent and cunning brother is lauded, placed
| on the top Shelf" and perhaps given SEN
atorship.
Is the man who fastens his avariciOus
fangS upon some necessary of life and
boards it up amid starving millions. until
he can wrench from the poor the price he
demands for it. any better than he would
be if he should thrust his hand into their in
divdual pockets and take from them an
amount of money equal to the difference be-
tween his eXhorbitant price and the price
that the article would bring if subjected
only to the laws of supply and demand.
What bare-faced system of ''Y our money
or your life!' Yet IN the latter case, he
would be branded as villain, while in the
former he is simply styled shrewd bus-
ness man.
However, these facts are not brought for
ward as an argument against the prison. for
it is necessary institution, but simply to
show that all who deserve to be are not
within Its walls. and also as plea for the
poor WretcheS who were SO unfortunate,
blundering, and unskillful as to have been
caught in its clutches. Granting that we
must have prisons, let them be as refOrma-
tory as possible. Where is the fair minded
mo hn fhot ho, {hn,,
one tenth of the rascaIs locked up in our
prisons? Now. since we must so carefully
protect and tenderly care for the nine tenths
who are at large, why not 60 step further
and be more lenient with the one tenth and
make more of determined effort to reform
each individual that is put in prison. But. :"
you will ask. ''hOw can that be done?
these men and women are so utterly de-
praved morally and intellectually, that any
attempt to reclaim them would be like cast
ing pearls before the swine" l will an
swer that in the very brief but pointed re-
ply of Henry George who, after having de
livered an able lecture on social and pOliti-
cal abuses. in one of our western cities. was
asked, ''But how would you remedy all
these evils? in short, how would you bring
about these better times of which you
speak?" That man of sound judgment and
good common sense, simply raised himself
up in his chair and looking his inquisitor
straight in the eyes said, by education"
''Whatv' | hear my skeptical objectors say,
''WOuld you transform our state prisons
into schools-intO temples of learning? The
places in which the righteous wrath of a
just God is to be visited upon the heads of
offenders turned into the flowing paths of
knowledge! How unnatural and absurd!~
Yes. my would be judges, that is just what
[ would do. Perhaps l would not make
them so flowery as you imagine, for l do
not believe that the path of knowledge is
flOwery at best; for. on the contrary. in it
there is great deal of real downright hard
drudgery. Away with the old IsraeIitish
idea of retribution! Rather let us follow
the more benign example of Christ, when
he said, go, sin no more" If man is
fit to live at all. he is worth at least an ef-
fort to reform him. We should not abolish
the system of ''hard labor" but some of it,
at least. should be in the direction of i'm
proving the culprit's mind.
AS an argument against prison REFORM as
well as education itself. many advance the
fact that in our prisons we find lawyers,
minister's. doctors, and graduates of all the
great institutions of learning in our coun-
try. They say, eff education is a safe
guard against crime, why are these men
who are supposed to have received the very
best education, here groveling in the slime
of penitentlary." These self-invted crit
les show at once their ignorance of these
men and the true idea of education. The
idea OF education is three-fold in character
mental. moral and physical, therefore no
man can be said to be fully educated until
he is mentally. morally and physically de-
velOped. Though these men may have
tolled through great institutions of learning
and come out into the world armed with di-
plomas and certificates, yet they may not
have been educated, or if educated, extra