The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-05-21
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spare time. 1t is evident that they find
nothing so good to help them to forget, as
work of some kind; for to do work which
they are not compelled to do is something
like being free.
Here is very pathetic sight 1t is the
cell of man of education and cultivation.
The desire to be quickly rich, which has
ruined so many men and women, led him
to become a fOrger, and now he is a convict.
He had, in his youth, learned to paint
and was a somewhat Skillful artist; and
here is a canvas, on a rude easel, upon
which he has been occupying his spare
time in prison. 1t is a landscape. with a
river bank. cOpse of trees, meadow, and
beyond. Village with the churchspire ris-
ing high. The man is reproducing from
memory long remembered scene OF his
bOyhOOd and, in narrow cell of great
prison, where nothing green or growing is
to be seen, and where he lives among
felons, he spends his time in picturing a
landscape which breathes innocence and
freedom and goodness. Could anything
be more sad?
But let us look at the convicts themselves.
We find them in their workshops, with
guards overlooking them. They are in a
dress of dull. coarse cloth marked with
stripes. Their caps and short jackets or
''spencers" have dismal jauntiness about
them. which their loose. straight trowsers
do not possess.
These clothes bring the convict down to
a certain resemblance to moth miller or
some grOtesque and gigantic insect. They
seem to reduce the man to his lowest terms,
cOncealing any beauty or grace his body
may have. and rendering his appearance
hateful to the man himself.
Nearly all the men have an air as it they
despised these clothes and suffered within
them. Besides being badge of their servi-
tude and mark Of their crime, they have
distinct unpleasantneSs and even repul-
siveness of their own. Some of the men
are at work at harness making. some at
cabinet making. some at gliding; the Occu-
pations are various. Most Of them appear
liStless and melancholy, and work in a dull,
spritless way.
A few others work nervously and hur-
riedly, as if they killed the time better in that
way. But there is no cheerfulness in the
work of either kind.
If you may speak with them, you find
them talking of little else than the time of
their release, if they have release to look
forward to. One man who has the greater
part of twenty years. sentence before him,
knows exactly how many years. months
and days he has still to serve. making
allowance for the deduction for good con-
duct.
The great majority are eager to get out
of prison. They certainly do not like the
life SO we'll that they prefer it to freedom,
no matter what hardships, privations or
humiiations there may be in the free life
outside.
1.-THE great majority" have said. But
here is a man who. the keepers declare.
would not escape if he were left on the
street. but would come back into the prison.
Why? Because the prison life has
stamped out all the manhood that was in
him. 1t has dulled his senses and extin-
guished his normal desires. Shut up here
so long. seeing nothing of the outside world
except, now and then, from an upper win
dow of the workshop. the tOpmast of tall
ship being towed by in the river near. his
mind has preyed upon itself until little of
it is left.
HE is all imbecile." the keepers say,
land ought to be transferred to the insane
asylum" There are many such as he in
the prisons of the country.
There is nothing more melancholy, in a
great prison, than the way in which the
cOnvicts come to their meals, and eat their
food.
At twelve o'clock great bell is wrung in
the centre of the prison. The men leave
their work. pour out of the shops under the
eyes of their guards. and form in single file
along the side of the building. They stand
there, each man close behind his neighbor
so close that their bodies often touch
the right hand of each resting upon the
right shoulder of the man in front of him.
Then, at command, they advance, in step.
&c Sc %hog n1r roka
in snaky movement entirely around the
yard. their legs moving all together. and
each mans so close to his neghbor's that
the line looks like great. many.legged
reptile.
The march is peculiar to convicts, and is