The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1891-04-16

died Tor you. Look, and 1--we.
Vast improvements have been made
by introducing industries into the pris-
on, but we want something more than
hammers and shoe lasts to reclaim these |
people. Aye, we want more than ser |
mons On the Sabbath day. Society |
must impress these men with the fact |
that it does not enjoy their suffering, |
and that it is attempting to reform and
elevate them. The majority of Grim
inals suppose that society has n grudge
against them, and they in turn have n
grudge against society.
They are harder in heart and more
infnriate when they come out of Jail
than when they went in. Many of the
people who go to prison go again and
again. Some years ago, of fifteen hun
dred prisoners who during the year had
been in Sing Sing four hundred had
been there before In s house of cor
rection in the country, where during a
certain reach of time there had been
five thousand people, more than three
thousand had been there before. So,
in one case the prison and in the other
case the house of correction left them
just as bad as they were before.
The secretary of one of the benevo-
lent societies of New York says lad
of fifteen years of age had spent three
years of his life in prison, and he said
to the lad, What have they done for
you to make you betters" We'll, re-
piled the lad, ''the first time l was
brought up before the judge he said,
You ought to be ashamed of yourself
And then committed Il crime. again,
and was brought up before the same
Judge, and he said, You rascal! And
after while | committed some other
crime, and l was brought before the
same Judge, and he said, You ought to
be hanged" That is all they had
done for him in the way of reformation
and salvation. ''Oh," you say, "these
people are incorrigible. l suppose
there are hundreds of persons this day
lying in the prison hunks who would
leap up at the prospect of reformation
if society would only allow them a way
into decency and respectability. "Oh, y
you say, II have no patience with these
rogues." ask you in reply, how much
better would you have been under the
same circumstances?
Suppose your mother had been q
blasphemer and your father q sot. and
you had started life with body stuffed
with evil proclivities, and you had
spent much of your time in a cellar
amid obscenities and cursings, and i
at ten years of age you had been com
PEELED to go out and steal, battered an(
banged at night if you came in withou
any spoils, and suppose your early man
hood and womanhood had been Gov
cred with rags and filth, and decent SO
ciety had turned iS back upon yo1
and left you to consort with vagabond
and wharf rats how much bette
would you have been? l have no sym
pathy with that executive clemenc
which would let crime run loose, Q
which would sit in the gallery of
court room weeping because some har
NItGCiI W JAot1SC
but 1 do say that the safety and life {
the community demand more potentis
influences in behalf of public offender
FOULNESS OF PRISON LIFE.
In some of the city prisons the air
,, like that of the Black Hole of Calcutt:
, have visited prisons where, as the a
swept through the wicket, it almo
knocked me down. No sunligh
Young men who had committed the
= first crime crowded in among old o
= tenders. | saw in one prison u woman
with a child almost blind, who ha
been arrested for the crime of povert
who was waiting until the slow Ia
i could take her to the almshouse, whe
;. ;. she rightfully belonged; but she w
IL thrust in there with her child amid tt
most abandoned wretches of the tow
Many of the offenders in that prise
=" slept on the floor, with nothing b
% q vermin covered blanket over thel
y Those people crowded and wan al
u wasted and half suffocated and infu
u ated. I said to the men, ''Hew do y
u stand it herep God knows" said O
man, "we have to stand it." Oh, tn
70 viii pay you when they get out. VILE
. they barned down one house they "
II burn three. They will strike deeI
III u, the assassin's knife. They are this M
~ ute plotting worse burglaries.
II Some of the city jails are the b
e, places l know of to manufacture fo
AZ pads, vagabonds and cutthroats Y;
college is not SO well calculated
y make scholars, nor Harvard so W
~ calculated to make scientists, 1
J1 Princeton so well calculated to ma
- theologians as many of our Jails
=. calculated to make criminals. All Il
~ those men do not know of crime al
they have been in that dungeon
some time Satanic machination CAM
2! teach them. In the insufferable steI
and sickening surroundings OF 81
places there is nothing but disease
the body, idiocg for the mind q
death for the soul. Stitled air 6
ne darkness and vermin never turned
m thief into an honest man.
'An We want men like John Howard 6
~, Sir William Blackstone and won
~ like Elizabeth Fry to do for the p
-, ons of the United States what tn
u -, people did in other days for the prls
~ of England. | thank God for w
;on Isaac 7. Hopper and DR.. Wines
- MIR. Harris and scores of others Ii
~, done in the way of prison reform;
tha we want something more radical bel
will come the blessing of him who s
~ 81 was in prison, and ye came U
mi me-"
.-r Again, in your effort to arrest
A. plague of crime you need to cons
mt untrustworthy officials. WOE !
s;st thee, o land, when thy king Is
+ho and thy princes drink in the morni
- It is a great calamity to a city v
hi nrrfh ~