Kansas City journal. [volume] (Kansas City, Mo.) 1897-1928, 1897-12-12
WHAT 1T is To Be LOCKED In
LAWYER AND REPORTER HELD
PRISONERS IN A COUNTY JAIL.
They Learn Something of Life Behind
Ii Bars Which the Reporter
Tells and Then Drops Into
u MOralizinE Vein.
"Where are you goirg?"
down to jail to see 4 man."

LIZ Sou 5oii5
"Down to Jail to see 4 nan"
TN go with you"
And both went, and like many a man
who has involuntarily Travelled the way.
they rued their going. The first speaker
was ]. l.. Carlisle, the attorney, and his
companion was a Journal reporter. Upon
arriving at the Jail the lawyer asked
Charles Fay. the jailer. to be allowed to
See one of the prisoners. The great iron
doors We're opened and they We're ushered
into, the Jail proper, where the jailer told
the attorney where he would find his man
and closed and locked the door.
As long as one knows the doors will open
when one desires to leave. Il person doesn't
feel bad about being in jail. and undis-
turbed the lawyer talked with his client
for about ten minutes and started TO
leave, but there was no bell in the
door. a large handbel is left OF i
shelf in the barred door. with which
the jailer is notified when some one
within desires to communicate with him.
This bell is taken away when the Jailer
leaves his post. Pounding on the door
end of the corridor all of the prisoners who
are favored by not being locked in their
cells. They all laughed heartily and guyed
the two men. A colored boarder. a knight
OF the chicken roost, generously informed
the lawyer. Now. ye hain't no better'n
nv IL IoliAlIlS u W IA q anu put
in the time as best they could. Time? II
seemed eternity. as the minute merged
into hours and the shadows on the wall in.
dicated the waning of the day. And still
the jailer didn't come. There was some
talk of habeas corpus. but the man whose
business it was to get men out Of jail
until the jailer got around to let him out.
But there was no dearth of amusement.
by prisoners in their efforts to break the
monotony of idleness. There were card and
dice games to watch, wherein everything
was staked from a hat to 4 slap with Il
pasteboard strip on the nose of the loser:
The latter medium of exchange prevailed
In the games of chance. Hour after hour
by the county will play pitch to determine
who will be the victim of ten, twenty. thir.
the other players. The loser places a card
over his eye to protect it. and whack, whacE!
as hard as strong men can strike. his nose
inches long by two inches wide. He is Il
stole. He bears il like a martyr. He does
not finch and grins to make believe he likes
icus to play again. merely for the eXhiiar-
atinE hope that he will be able to escape the
penalty.
Perhaps that is the hope which springs
eternal in the breast of him. who has been
br:nded as a criminal, and around whom
suspicion has wound her tolls, the hope OF
escaping consequences Chance is so inter-
woven in his existence that he cannot
even escape its enchantment in a jail. he
Is 4; gambler Win circumstances lie
knew the penalty of his acts which brought
hiEn into custody. but the one chance of
avoiding it was more lurid to him than
the ninety and nine of meeting with it.
Perhaps chance permeates the air of a
Jail. All sorts of offers We're made to gam
bic with the prison guests. but We're re-
fused. However, as time went on. and
the Joke became more serious to us. and
more enjoyable TO the other prisoners, We.
too. imbibed some of the spirit of chance.
and while specializing on the chance of the
l i1IlA~ nNA- y-nf uypv p rar AiU nfn
a card game for the drinks. Playing for
drinks in a Kansas Jail may seem strange.
but the scores are to be settled when the
players gain their freedom. AS 4 re-
suit of the game. the two prison guests
will be called upon in thirty. days to set
EN- up to one man. and buy cider or some
thing better some time next summer for
another.
The prisoners were profuse in their eff
forts to show the unwilling guests Il good
time. They seemed. too. 10 have a good
time at the expense of the guests. \ kan
CARGO court was mentioned. but the pris-
orers in the corridor emembere the warn
ing of the sheriff, that every one mixed
up in a kangaroo court would be locked
up in a cell. so that by the judicious use Of
a quarter. the charge of breaking into Jail
without permission was hushed.
The Jail is not exempt from humane i'm
pulses. Some of the prisoners challenge
the respect and veneration of their fellows.
while others are loathed. and some are
pitied. Cruelty and hardened conscience
is not all prevailing. as is evidenced by a
l TACT mat Il purse WIS IQIue up among Ine
boys and n pair of crutches sent for to be
presented to 4 poor negro whose foot
had been shot while he was e~ndeavoring
to escape from an officer. The books of
one may be read by all. Everyone'S to-
baccO belongs to everybody. and there is
no private property in cigarettes. 1t is
not lonesome there. Stiffness is not over
bearing. There is a conglomeration of
noises all the time. singing. badinage. rail-
lery. horse-wit. swearing. cursing. laugh
ter. the shuttle of the clog dancer on the
iron floor, and intermingled with it all the
soothing strains of the either now and
then. There is diversion enough. but still
one feels a longing to get away. Why?
Perhaps the two men answered the
question themselves. The attorney
harped on appointments broken and
work which had to be done. and
the reporter contemplated all sorts
of scoops in the contemporary pa
pers. 1t seemed to him as though every
thing was happening on the outside. He
imagined enough occurrences in the world
of which he was temporarily not 4 part
to fill a New Years edition of The Jour
nal. Possibly life in Il Jail or pen would
not be so bad after all. if it We're not for
the eagerneSS to try to do, the expectation
of accomplishing something. the realization
that hopes are languishing. ambitions I'M
attained. and that curiosity is hampered
and restricted. Anyhow. the grating of
the key of the jailer in the door was a
welcome sound.