The Red Cloud chief., 1894-02-09

NV\WWNY>. their own making.
and they come and go year in and
year out, TO see beloved one whom
the world does not owe and has put
behind bars. The gray prison walls
hold all that Is dear in life to these
dear mothers, wives, s~weethcarts and
sisters.
The husband who has committed
crime that his wife may have luxurious
surroundings usually retains the af-
fections Of that wife, even when he
dons stripes and Is close cropped. The
professional burglar often is a model
family man and does not sever his
family ties when he ''docs time" The
man who kills his fellow man for tho
affections Of a woman and is paying
the penalty for that crime has surely
n right to expect that that woman
will care enough for him to remember
and visit him while he is the servant of
the state.
OThen there is mothers love, never
failing, never wen wavering in its un-
assailablc constancy, and that accounts
for one.half the visitors to the Sing
Sing convicts. Thirteen hundred men
IRE confined ut Sing Sing, and the
army of women-sad women who are
sad because of the thirteen hundred
must easily equal the convicts in num-
Der.
Many n romance brought to a tragic
climax by the merciless hand of the
law is suggested by these untiring Wis
itors. Even the ubiquitous hackmen
who infest the Sing Sing railway sta
ton seem to appreciate this, for when
these unhappy one alight from the
trains and look uneasily and self-con-
sciously about, the drivers realize in.
tuitively the nature Of their errand
and treat them with a Difference rarely
met with in their class. They APP
proach respectfully, and in subdued
tones say kindly, ITO the prison,
madamP' or, Right this way to the
prison"
About one visitor only is there any
mystery. Others give their IN and
go to see some convict who is known
to the keepers. This one goes yelled,
and no M knows who it is she goes
to see.
A tall, 1.-THE, graceful woman, at
tired all in black and wearing a heavy
black veil, occupied q seat in o car
directly in front Of and opposite that
OF the writer recently.
She was uneasy and restless, though
not obtrusively so; she carried herself
with the fine reserve of q woman of
breeding accustomed to do Just such
things. Sometimes she would look
aDxiously about the car, as if in fear
OF being recognized, though with her
veil recognition, even by an intimate
friend, would have been clearly impos-
sible.
An old-time hackman ut the Sing
Sing station approached her as shc
alighted. She got into his ramshacklc
conveyance Us If she had been in it be-
fore, and it ratified up the hill and
over the stony road along the bluff to
the prison q few hundred yards in ad-
vance of the equally noisy conveyance
Of the writer.
1t was the hour ut which the con-
victs, having finished their evening
meal in the great feeding hali-it
would raise the ghost Of Brillat Savarin
to call 1t o dining-room-march in
lock-step to their cells, in long, single
files. They come through the stone
tagged prison-yard with q steady,
machine-like shuttle of their heavy
prison shoes. Keepers stand about
with heavy sticks in their hands.
by the entrance to the long granite
building containing the tiers Of cells
are two great open boxes Of bread.
Each striped miserable reaches out and