The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1898-03-01
Especial Correspondence.)

Especial COrrespondence)
Raleigh, y. c., February %.
A few months ago there was cease
less ridicule of the penitentiary. That
was during the reign of John r.. Smith;
gone, never to return. Families were
then quartered i'm the prison-a most
unseemly sight. Now there is a bust
ness-like air about things, and save for
a lack Of neatness in the rear enclosure
and the dangerous old log stables, it is
difficult to find fault with the appear
ance. Thursday afternoon your cor
respondent spent a couple of house in
the prison. 1t is a quiet place and the
Few now Quartered there seem
almost lost amidst the vast buildings.
While chatting with Warden Russell
a rattle of wheels is heard and a sheriff
and two convicts are driven under the
arch of the portal. The ~cOnvictS. ne
gro men, shamble in and stand
awarkwardly while the commitment
paper are examined. They are in
sharp contrast with a veteran convict
h stands near and who, in fact,
opened the door for them. The vet
eran, we'll set up, has in comparison
the air OF a soldier long used to barrack
life, while the new arrivals have all
the ~ungainlineSS of recruits. The
sheriff gets his receipt and slips off
the handouts. Behave yourselves,
boys" says he, in farewell. and the
last arrivals are marched into the
basement of one of the great tiers Of
cells. The barber takes possession Of
them. Off go their hair and moustach-
es, off go old clothes, which a veteran
convict, handling gingerly and holding
far from him ca rTipS 70 tho engine
room TO be thrown into the fire. Next
the new corners go into a hot bath and
then are given a treatment of mer-
curial ointment, to rid them of any
souvenirs Of their Jail life. The last
process is the DOMINIC OF new clothes
from head to foot, and there they
stand, cleaner than ever before and in
the stripes. They smile, even the young
er one grins, and he a murderer, who
gets fifteen years.
But the objective point Of the visit
is the new shirt factory. It is the last
of several prison enterprises. Years
ago, say twenty. there used to be a
large shoe factory. Later, there were
some making Of cells for jails, OF plug
tobacco, of horse collars and OF shoes
again. But the knights Of Labor, once
% powerful in this district that they
elected a congressman, but now not
wen a memory, stopped manufactures
in the prison by soaring officials on po-
litical grounds. The shirt factory is in
the chapel, in the east wing. It is we'll
lighted and spacious and lofty. In each
of it's two departments are twenty
eight sewing machines, operated by a
steam engine specially put UP
The beginning is in a small way and
only fifteen convicts are at work. They
are making negligee shirts, cOlOred.
with collars and cuffs attached, and
Mr.. Hall. who is the representative Of
the New York contractors, says the
convicts are learning as quickly as
any men he ever saw. One tiny con-
vict, a p~ale-faced White youth Of -
years, attracts attention. He Is found
to be Clay Mccartney, OF Asheville.
who murdered a young playmate at
Asheville. He operates a machine
which cuts and makes button holes
with wonderful celebrity and neatness,
but just now he is sewing on buttons.
After a while the shirts will be launder-
ed in the ~penitentiary, but for the pres
ent Hilderbrand & Co. ship them 70
New York. are scattered
here and there amid the whirring ma
chimes.
Observing that only male conyicts
are employed at the machines the ques-
ton was asked If women would not be
employed. In reply it was said: Mos
| probably not. Some of them are al
work in the garden. and some in the
laundry, and do you know that they
are better field hands than men, save
as TO p~loughing." Superintendent Hall
says that in a lite while 100 dozen
shirts a day will be made. The peni-
tertiary gets p cents a dozen for max
ing them
Leaving the shirt factory a stop is
made in two Of the cell blocks" The
| cells rise in tiers. five stories high, each
cell in a mass OF masonry, with, as a