The Saint Paul globe., 1897-10-26
USED A Table LEG
Continued From First Page.

resident of Ellsworth, Wis, but for
the period of sixteen years, commenc-
ing in 1876 he was employed as fore
man Of the erecting shop Of the
thresher company in the Saltwater
prison. During most of that time,
Frank H Lemon was the foreman of
the paint shop, and, in the course of
his duties, Mr.. Smith was obliged to
call at the paint shop fifteen or twenty
times day. The manner of Lemons
treatment of the convicts can best be
told in Mr.. Smiths own language:
Even while he was foreman, before he
was appointed deputy warden, Mr.. Lemon
was very brutal taskmaster, and l made
up my mind fifteen years ago that he was
wholly unfit to have charge of convicts. Both
he and l had convicts under our charge,
but in the course Of sixteen years l never
had occasion to send solitary one to the
dungeon; Mr.. Lemon had one or more re-
ported every Gay for that punishment.
If convict would happen to break a tool
by accioent-and that will happen to the best
Of workmen-or if he did not do quite as
much work Lemon thought he should,
Lemon would report the unfortunate, and
the fellow would be marched off to the dun
geon. Indeed, many times he never waited
TO report the fellow, but would strike the
convict over the head on the back Of
the neck with club. He used table leg,
a wooden piece of a threshing machine about
in the middle and tapering at each end. |
frequently saw him hit convicts with that
ugly weapon, and also poke them in tie
ribs with the point Of it. Sometimes the
effects Of the blows lows would be so severe that
the victim would be laid up in the hospital
for several days to recover On one occa-
son he struck convict on the head with
heavy iron bolt knocking him senseless. In
hone of these cases was there any provoca-
ton for the assault; Lemon just seemed to
delight in being cruel.
You probably wonder why the officials OF the
prison at that time would allow anything
Of the kind to be going on. The reason was
that Lemon and his business associates liter
ally the prison; they were the powers
there None of the guards dared to say their
soul was their they would have been
obliged to walk the plank; the same thing
also held good with the citizen laborers.
The question l want to ask, though, is,
why, if l could run gang OF convicts FOR
sixteen years and never find occasion to send
one man Of them to the dungeon, that he'
as foreman of another shop and with the
same class of men, should find it necessary to
have two to four in the solitary every day?
The answer is that there is not spark or
humanity in the man; he used to do as he
pleased and it pleased him to 1niict suffer-
ing.
After Lemon became deputy, warden he
was even worse than before. Convicts fre-
quently told me that when he had them
handcuffed to the doors of the solitary he
would beat them the head and shoulders
with his cane. l tell you the hundredth
part of the cruelty and disreputable methods
of the prison have never been told The
guards do not dare to tell what they see or
they would be nreQ lnlIneQlately, anu tie
convict who opens his mouth to complain of
the usage they receive signs his own death
warrant. I consider Mr.. Wolfer personally
as very nice man, but he didn't know what
was going on inside of the prison; he left
all matters of discipline to Deputy Lemon,
and did not know what Lemon was doing:
1t was Mr.. Wolfer's business to know, but
1 think he didn't-and that is all l blame
him for
/ want to say further that if the truth was
known about the burning of the paint shop
at the prison a couple of men VINO are at
liberty would have been wearing the stripes
themselves.
STATE OF MINNESOTA, COUNTY OF
Ramsey-ss.
John Smith, being first duly sworn, doth
depose and say:
That he has read the foregoing statements;
that they were made by him. and that they
are true in every particular. John Smith.
Subscribed and sworn to before me on this
25th day of October, 1897.
(Notarial seal.) H. +. Porter
Notary Public, Ramsey County, Minnesota.