Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1897-12-12

what 1t means to the average man to
be condemned to service in the pen
ltentiary. There is atstrong undercur-
rent III this life that with only such
opportunities, one cannot see. One
gets TO know only what lies on the
surface, Very important parts of the
institution are not open to visitors,
many things which the convict is most
anxious to say to his friends he dare
not write and the prison official in a
public address is not apt to hint at
what he may think the weak features
CT very costly system OF which he is
a part. 1t is an understanding of this
undercurrent that is the more hope
lessly depressing, but without 1t one
cannot measure the power OF the him
ORANGES to. all growth except that OF
degSneracy, which predominates in
prison life. When the ponderous
iron-grated doors of the administra-
ton building Of the prison close be-
hind a convict he is locked in to a
life Of neglCc. of evil associations and
surroundings which tend TO degrade
ton. At first if the life is new to him,
he is unfeignedly wrctched. His sens
bilities are on the edge he shudders
at ltit COlEpu DdiH' anu
hair cropping, at the baggy clothes in
which ne is arrayed, the stern COM
mands CT the officers ever him, The
shambling drag Of the lock-step
march to and from the shops, the man
III front cursing him for awkwardness
and the man behind stepping ON his
heels. Day by day the monotony OF
the life d5adens his sens1bilities. After
the first weeks of his Incarceration
are past it becomes a monotonous rou-
tire. He grows accustomed to the bat
tered pewter CT tin dishes on which
his meals are handed him and TO the
cheap and badly worn iron knife and
fork with which he eats them. Hum
ger is the best sauce, and he waits
for the food which at first he loathed.
He tries to live quietly with the cell
companion given him, who may be an
cxpert in crime CT neophyte hardly
freed from a good mothers influence
and feeling despiSed and rejected Of
men.
IF the English writer (The Criminal.
mage o4s-248) had been writing Of our
prisons instead CT those Of his own
country it is a question whether he
could have pictured them and their ten
denotes more trut1fuliy than when ne
said: ''Prigon life acts depressirgly on
man by its mcnotony and its want or
fresh impressions. 1t runs on through
years without any essential modifica-
ton. 1t reduces man to the stage OF
a machine which obeys without will OF
its own IT'S life begets an atrcphy OF
the best qualities OF man and a de-
velopment Of the worst, and II much
prolonged. renders him unfit TO live af-
forward in a society Of free fellow
creatures. 1t is destitute of discrimina-
tion. OF feeling. of sensitiyeness. 1t
deals with human beings. who are men
despite their crimes, in manner which
mechanically reduces them to a uni
form level Of discipline. II provides the
closest possible surveillance Of every
one in its power night and day. togeth-
er with an unceasing conflict between
every feeling in tie prisoner that is SUI
psrior to mere criminal existence and
the everlasting cc1lpu,sion to re-
| frajn from almost ALI that it Is natural
| to mar to do, and do what It Is to the