Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1897-11-12

leap up at the prospect OF reformation
if society would only allow them way
into decency and respectability. "Oh,
you say, Il have no patience with these
rogues. ask you in reply how much
better would You have been under the
same circumstances? Suppose your moth
ct had been blasphemer and your IA
ther a sot and you had started life with
a body stuffed with evil proclivities and
you had spent much of your time in
cellar amid obscenities and cursing and
if at 10 years of age you had been com
PEELED to 90 out and steal, battered and
banged at night if you came in without
any spoils, and suppose your early man.
hood and womanhood had been covered
with rags and filth and decent society
had turned its back upon you and left
you to consort with yagabonds and
wharf rats, how much better would
you have beeny | have no sympathy
with that executive clemency which
would let crime run loose or which
would sit in the gallery Of a courtroom
weeping because some hard hearted
wretch is brought to justice, but do
say that the safety and life Of the COM
munity demand more potential infu-
ences in behalf Of these offenders.
The American Jail.
/ stepped into one Of the prisons OF
one of our great cities. and the air was
like that of the Black Hole Of Calcutta
AS the air swept through the wicket it
almost knocked ME down No sunlight.
Young men who had committed their
first crime crowded in among old offend
ers saw there ene woman. with
child almoss blind. who had been ar
rested for the crime Of poverty, who
was waiting until the slow law could
take her to the almshouse, where she
rightfully belonged. but she was thrust
in there with her child, amid the most
abandoned wretches of the town Many
of the offenders in that prison sleeping
on the floor. with nothing but vermin
covered blanket over them Those peo-
pie. crowded and wan and wasted and
half suffOcated and infuriated. L said
to the men, How do you stand it here!'
God knows, said one man; I'VE have
to stand It" Oh, they will pay you
when they get outl Where they burned
down one house they will burn three
They will strike deeper the assassin s
knife. They are this minute plotting
worse burglaries Many of the Jails are
the best place know Of to manufacture
footpads, vagabonds and cutthroats
Yale college is not 30 well calculated to
make scholars nor Harvard so well cal
culated to make scientists nor Prince
ton so well calculated TO make theolo-
gians as tho American Jail is calculated
to make criminals All that these men
do nst know of crime after they have
been in that style OF dungeon for some
time satanic machination cannot teach
them Every hour these Jails stand they
challenge the Lord Almighty TO smlte
the cities. | call upon the people to
rise in their wrath and demand ref
ormation call upon the judges OF our
courts to expose the infamy l demand
in behalf of those incarcerated prisoners
fresh air and clear sunlight and III the
name of him who had not where TO lay
his head a couch to rest on at night In
the insufferable stencil and sickening
surroundings Of some Of the prisons
there is nothing but disease for the
body, idiocy for the mind and death
for the soul Stifed air and darkness
and vermin never turned thief into an
honest man We want men like John
Howard and Sir William Blackstone
and women like Elizabeth Fry 10 do
for the prisons of the United States
what those people did in other days Tor
the prisons of England. thank God
for what Isaac Z Hopper and Dr.
Wines and Mr. Harris and scores OF
others have done in the way Of prison
reform. but we want something more
radical before upon our cities will come
the blessing of him who said, II was
in prison and ye came unto me
Untrustworthy onicisls.
In this class of uprooting and devour
ing population are untrustworthy ON
cials Woe unto thee, . land. when
thy king is child and thy princes
drink in the morning Ii Is great
calamity to a. city when bad men get
into public authority Why was II that
in New York there was such unparal
leled crime between 1866 and 1871; 1t
was because the Judges of police IN that
CITY for the most part were as corrupl
as the vagabonds that came before them
for trial These were the days OF hlgn
carnival for election frauds, assassina
ton and forgery We had the whisky
ring and the Tammany ring and the Erie
ring There was one man during thos'
years that got sl2s, 900 IN one year toi
serving the public In few years II
was estimated that there were 500, OOO,
600 of public treasure squandered. Ii
those times the criminal had only tC
wink to the nudge, or his lawyer would
wink for him. and the question was de
cided for the defendant. Ot the s,OOI
people arrested in that city IN one yeal
only 5000 were punished. These little
matters were fixed up, while the IN
terests Of society were fixed down ~
You know as we'll as | that crimlna
who escapes only opens the door OF othel
criminalities 1t is no compliment q
public authority when we have In al
the cities of the country, walking
abroad. men and women notorious toi
criminality, unwhipped of justice They
are pointed out to you in the street day
BIZ day There you find what are called
the fences, the men who stand De
, sween the thief and the honest man
, sheltering the thief and at great pric'
= handing over the goods to the owner q
1 whom they belong. There you VIII nnc
l those who are called the "sklnners'
: the men who hover around Wall stree
3 and State street and Third street. VIII
I great sleight of hand in bonds an'
. stocks There you find the tunera
Q thieves, the people who go and SIT dow
! and mourn with families and pick thei
pockets, and there you find the conn
' dence men. who borrow money OF yo'
l because they have a dead child in tn
house and want to bury 1t, when the
I N family Or fhQ