The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1895-12-26

| scrank" ward where partially DART
| prisoners are confined and very unruly
ones are shut up to be punished.
On the way back Warden Lynch
showed me the interior of cell and as
stepped inside he showed me how pris-
oners are locked in. Later l saw that
done as he does every night from small
| window in his Office.
As we passed through the corridor
stopped to talk to an cid man who was
evidently trusty.
said, "Why are you here? you don't
look bad"
He said, "Miss you would be
surprised if you found real
criminal wouldn't you? But I'm not
going TO talk of myself at all, and won't
attempt to tell you my own story.
81 will tell you what good man Mr..
| Lynch is. Why we just think the world
an all of him.
.One night not long after he came
here he heard a noise like some one
choking in the cell house and he just
rushed in. One of the guards was chok.
ing an old niger and had just finished
taxing his breath away entirely when
the warden got there.
"Mr Lynch looked just awful but he
didn't say nothin' there only he must a
done that when he had that guard took
in his Office. 'caus now an unruly man is
handled different. He is not hurt physi.
cally.
And then when Mr.. Lynch came
! here it wasn't safe for one
man to be alone on the crank ward.
There used to be devil in there who
would just tantalize the poor fellows by
doing such things as rolling an apple
past their cell doors, when they were
not allowed to have them to eat"
"Mr. Lynch allows the boys to have
apples occasionally now?"
"Oyes, Miss we are treated all right
but very few of US are very happy"
1t was we'll for me- that l felt no in
stiuctive fear of any of these people, for
wherever l went there was a striped suit
at my elbow. The man who waited on
me at dinner caught my name at once
and called me by it as he asked fer my
plate to be retilled. He wore the stripes.
And yon met them everywhere.
As l ran across colored boy in the
hall who did not look over sixteen
drew back shocked and said, What are
you doing here?"
He said, "too much foolin' business
miss, and I've got to stay three more
years. Do dey say l ought to be in the
reform school? But 1 behaves, and rll
git out on good time"
No work was done yesterday, and in
the afternoon the men were allowed to
write, as they chose.
They were locked in early
In some cells there are two men, and
when that is the case it is required that
each man stand clasplng one of the large
iron bars in the door until the docking
up is inspected. 1t is a serious and
punishable breach of discipline to neg
lect this.
The TRUSTEES are expected to go to their
| l. - - l. L.
locked up.
At O'Clock the bell is rung and their
lights go out.
1 talked to one other convict, the one
who drove the buggy in which rode to
the depot.
He said: "rll be here two months
yet. l need not have come if 1 hadn't
have wanted to, but man of moro in
kffuence and with higher position in the
community would have come if hadn't"
This was capable of more than one in
depreciation but he gave none.
retired to my room rather early, and
after writing awhile l turned out my
hit and went to the window.
The moon was shining on the frost
crusted snow and Il thousand white dia-
monds were reflected back by her pale
chances.
The evergreens in the spacious grounds
cast long dark shadows. The long win
dows of the cell house cleaned a
reflection from the glass through
their massive iron bars, but whis-
pered to the outside world, no sound OF
the misery within, now sharp, now new,
now old; now dulled, again remembered
anew, because of these forbidding bars
, themselves. All was quiet as if peace
on earth, good will to men were exem-
plified.
Away in the northwest star trem bled
as brightly as if no one of all these Sleep
ing hundreds had ever misinterpreted
Bethlehem's messenger. Sleeping? All
who knows, not even the guard can tell
how many one turns restlessly tonight
of all nights as he dreams of home and
mother and the Christmas of his child
hood.
AS drop my eyes to the ground my
heart stops; one of the shadows is NOV
ing! Is one of the evergreens moving OF
has a prisoner escaped? No it is only the
the shadow of the guard as he patrols
wall to see that all Is WELL
l turn from the window and go to bed
though l fad that my door does no
lock and sleep as soundly ss if there
were not nearly 800 desperate character;
, near by, many of whom would sacrifice I
: life if it would bring them liberty These
! are many of them who perhaps would bt
glad if their terms in the K. S. P. were
= as short and pleasant as niue.
BECKY SHARP.
: Bluff That Worked.
A good story on the late S. S. Merrill
cropped out in certain law Office yester
j