Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1894-03-23
The Harness Shop Does a Good
Business, and Is q Thriving
Plant.
Notes of What is Going on in the
Several Departments-Im-
provements Made.
Routine of Convict Llfe-Close of 8
Days Work, and Scenes at
Supper Time.

Days Work, and Scenes at
Supper Time.
The State and Its Wards.
The state of North Dakota has at the
present time 80 of the 1929 convicts
and inmates of ~penitentaries in the
United States. OF this number, all but
one are white. The one exception is a
negro, who is one of about $4,000 of his
race who are confined in the penitentiar.
les of the country. The managing of
any number Of persons who are deprived
of liberty because of various offenses
against the laws of a commonwealth, is
always a serious problem. All kinds of
dispositions are encountered among the
inmates of a penitentiary, and, of neces-
sity, there must be various modes of
handling them. Discipline and system
are pre.eminently important in the
management of an institution of any
description. Discipline first, for without
it there can be no system, and without
system in management, there can be no
satisfactory management maintained.
A TRIBUNE representative made the
rounds of the penitentiary a day or so
ago, and had opportunity to witness the
ann in which the ~convicts are en-
,ployed byday, the cessation of work just
before supper, the march to their cells,
sand the other routine of their existence.
To the convicts, and to the guards and
att endants, these circumstances of daily
life become altogether ~monotonous and
uninteresting. To IN outsider it is novel
and interesting, and affords an edifying
insight into the existence of the states
.sconvicts
A tour of the cell house at about 4
O'Clock in the afternoon, reveals an
apartment, scrupulously clean, light and
airy, and n which could not be other
than pleasant, were it not for the fact
that it's very existence is significant of
loss Of liberty. Most of the cells are
empty, the occupants being engaged in
and about the building. In one or two
cells, however, there are convicts, whom
indisposition prevents from going out to
work. These are reading in the ma.
.jority of cases. In one cell sits Reming-
ton, the boyish looking prisoner, whose
appearance is hardly reconcilable to the
fact that his is a life sentence for murder.
He sits, tilted back in his chair, just
within the cell door, and reads, never
looking out to see who is passing. His
face does not wear any expression which
might indicate regret or sorrow, and he
seems altogether engrossed with his
book.
Passing on past the long row of cells,
into the kitchen, the same scrupulous
cleanliness and neatness are evident.
The former author of~a burglary, or of
some other of the crimes forbidden by
the statutes of the state, stands, attired
in the striped garments of the institu-
tion, his head surmounted by a neat,
white cap, preparing articles Of food for
the supper, time for which is approach
ing. He has one or two assistants, who
are busy with the other work peculiar to
the culinary department., and all are
intent upon their work, not once looking
up, or betraying any interest in matters
foreign to their work. A glance into
the cooling room, the bread room, and
the provision storehouse, reveals a
liberal supply of meats, and other ar
ticlss Of food, all neatly stored away,
awaiting consumption. From the kitchen,
q walk into the laundry is taken, and
here are several ~convicts, busy with the
washing, ironing and sorting of garments.
The engine room is next visited, and
found5to be in charge of another striped
suited parsonage, who attends carefully
to his work, and looks after the proper
distribution Of steam to the various parts
otthe building-a duty which in winter
time is highly important, to say the
least.
Passing on out into the yard, the eye
lights upon Black Jack Venable, who
stands with the nozzle Of a line Of hose
in his hands, and is engaged in wetting
down the mound which forms the top of
the root house, and which in summer
is conspicuous for it's pleasing greenness.
Jacks former experience in the prison
has made him a model convict, and his
behavior is excellent.
The root house Is conveniently APP
pointed, and within are to be seen two
more of the inmates of the institution,
who r busy sorting over potatoes.
But a few steps away from this is the
blacksmith shop, and here, too, is IN air
OF business. The shop contains all Of