The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-10-09
A Convict on Penal Reform.

A Convict on Penal Reform.
When Jean Vatican. the hunted convict
in HugO'S great novel. crawls out of the
black mouth of the Paris sewer only to con-
front the cruel majesty of the law in the
person of the police spy Javert-who has
not felt in his veins the numb horror that
seized upon the man? In the romance and
the play these things chill the very blood in
our hearts, but in real life how many of us
are unselfsh enough to be moved by them?
1t is strange fact that mankind, as rule,
begrudge even the gift of their emotions,
and, by one of natures contradictions,
those who are quickest with the words of
charity. are sometimes slowest with it's
deeds. Truth is stranger than fiction. but
far less attractive. Jean Vatican trans
planted from Paris to Minneapolis, his
background of romance swept away. his
magnificent Hugonian dialect exchanged
for the rude grammar of "Hell's Half
Acre." his name translated into plain Bill
or Pat-Jean Vatican standing before the
bar of our dingy and gloomy police court
barricade-Jean Vatican with the bad
smells of the slums about him, with bad
eye and reported by the police as an
incOrrigible vagabOnd or thief-Ah, that is
a very different thing!
1t was only the other day that he was ar
raigned before the criminal court in Chi
cagO, and told his story with a sort of elO
quence to the kind hearted judge Jean
admitted--we forget his American name,
and as he stands for type it is of no con
sequence-that he was an old offender; he
had been in prison before, and was about
to be sentenced again. But what could he
do? "A man comes out Of prison." he said,
with five dollar note in his pocket AL
most always he wants to lead better life. -
He begins to look for work. He can't go
back to the old place where everybody
knows he is an ex-convict, and everybody
shuns the eX-cOnvict. your honor" We
suspect that the reporters actually extended
to this miserable Outcast the same charity
they show to the grammar of the honorable
member from the-th ward or the distin-
guished chairman of the Board of Trustees
of the Jelleby Association. 1t is quite
probable that they were guilty of making
this poor jailbird's speech a little smoother
than it really was, but no matter. ''If he
finds work." he goes on to say, lin new
place, the police or somebody else give the
hint and out he goes. His money goes. and
he has no friends to 60 to- haven't a
friend in the world, Judge-and so he turns
back to the old life." Perhaps it was all
the hypocritical talk of an incurable old
scamp. and nothing more. Perhaps he was
merely trying to touch the heart of the
Judge. Perhaps he had been incorrigible
from the start. Perhaps it is fairly i'm
possible to reclaim man or woman who
has once been led into crime. All these
things which the practical man will suggest,
may be true-shOckingly true. Let the
State and the prison reform societies exert
all their power to prepare the criminal for
an honest life; let the usual machinery such
as it is. be put in motion to give him re-
spectacle employment when he energies,
and yet the chances are that by the inexor-
able operation of certain social laws. be-
cause of mans inhumanity to man." he
will be driven in spite of himself along the
road this eX- convict has travelled. and end
at the goal he had reached. There are
morals here in plenty; but for the present
let them go while we tell another story,
which may serve as sequel and argument
both.
This time Jean is woman. She had
served long sentence in the penitentiary
of a neighbOring State, and had determined
to lead a new life. After her release she
was enabled in some way to obtain posi-
ton in dry goods store where she did her
work faithfully, quietly and mOdestly.
But the social Fates were on her track.
Well bred morality learned that the woman