The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-02
LIFE PRISONERS HAPPY.
THEY <IvE BUoYED UP WITH THE
HOPE OF ULTIMATE PARDON.

Model Pris pnerr, and Not Subject to tho
Nervousness of Men who VIII Get Out
of Jail sumo Day-The Life Men Mt Sing
Sing and tho Records of Some of Them.
The compos ure OF the life prisoner Ia one OF
tho many MY teries of prison life. 1t is difFl-
cult to under stand how such men can go
through the routine OF work smiling and
happy. and apr arently at peace with the world
SnthinR seems more horrible to the observant
Visitor to a large prison than the life OF its in
mates. For the first time no realizes not only
how long year Is. but how long day is. espe-
sially a day un broken by anything unusual.
Yet a moro placid, apparently contented lot OF
men than the life prisoners in large prisons It
would be difficult to find.
the effect OF pri son life on the life man Ia in
such contrast to tlut on the convict with whom
the law has dealt More mercifully that one be-
comes more and more amazed as he observes
II. Sing Sing prison furnishes as many. II not
more. illustrations vi these pecuiarites as any
prison In the county. Tho man who comes
there with a i've. ten or fifteen year sentence
to serve. be he a man experienced In prison life
or new to II, enters on his enforced stay within
four walls in a ferrnent OF nervousness. Il
takes weeks. sometimes months. to whip him
into shape. and then his agitation Is only sup
pressed. and he H. man who must be oon-
stantly watched. not because he is likolv to
make trouble-for long-term men rarely take
chance OF losing their comm utation--but be-
cause he is likely to make q mental or physical
wreck OF himself
From the day that limited sentence man
dons his suit OF stripes he begins to look for
ward to the day OF his release 1t may be
twelve. 4 may s be fifteen years o away but ne
will come. and knows almost to the minute
s ~ he VIII be 81. to the W"rden Of
few dollars his years OF toll have earned for
him. and to be told that he is free He doesn't
have a happy moment until that day rolls
The way the convict figures out his time ia
Few Of them have calendars on which to mark
off the days: they carry It in their beads and
where man lost track OF his count. 4 Keeper
at Sing Sing prison recently explained this pc,
visitor. The visitor WINS incrednlous.
po 20 any man n hi IBIS how long he has
The visitor was in the shoe shop. He put the
question to convict
prisoner without looking up.
Seven years and twenty-seven days" said
dozen other convicts answered. with equal
prromptness; They knew to the very day when
thHy ia w tSs . BE Tear Of farm that the
fSr IL bee IT, hs end he
will lose him the three or four years he has
makes that year almost unbearabie There i;
to-day In sing Sing prison a young man who
the Beau, Brummel Of the prison, He keeps
wears silk shirts and calf shoes which his
iamiy-said to be well to do-send to him.
ers ofloe. He went through ali the drudgery
OF the common convet's life up t, short time
tend to books Now that his To STen as
nearing an end his condition is rtifu Every
the, principal Keepers ONCE into the courtyard
and stands a watching the day disappear As the
back to the principal! keepers room. puts on
his hat. selects book from, the small library
Where until oIq ococi Wien s ss
out aver Tfers is little danger Of this
once he reGains Ills freedS don 'n'o prison again.
IT'S because most OF them have Just managed
they are a remarkably philosophical lot. They
game , to tie b ,n, dsspondent over the future as
signed to their fates as the days roll BY In
SnG ssg rrson Where 9day
best prisoners in the place. They have no COM
%1sa9G to earn BY S90d hSThsyor yst they
downcast and cry ont against their nes. e On the
they are 1924 ha4rsd it. The
e that they all hope to be, hardened sooner or
naughton. whose Twenty-Five years Of service
at Sing Sing has given him rare know-
Is deer rooted, in the mind OF every life pris-
day who began his term Of lie impriso rI N.
there on Oct, IL 1867. During all this tin.
man could reasonably base the hope OF a par Il.
don. Yet there hasn't been a minute in all
h9pe W be- %af
some day. and 1t is this belief that has buoyed
% al 81 h@ " fod m Ss fSs
there was no hope, for him; that he would die
IN the prison-a!s he probably. willard sue
truth. It would probably Kill him il Il didn't
jn the belief that they will one day walk out OF
the prison free men. The chances Of the ma
small It isn't because It Would menace s s So.
ciety TO turn them loose. for most Of them are
come charges on society than enemies Of it. il
freed and II isn't because they, haven't been
Is no such thing as punishment If twenty or
thirty years IN prison doesn't constitute It, I
these years. and the very people who threw un
their hands in horror at the time of their
It is TO these long term and life men that the
Is credited. No one has ever been able to
and @
prisons and prisoners is greater than that OF
any living man. nave never been able to un-
derstand It. 49, piece of news can travel from
one end OF Sing Sing prison to the other in
from fifteen minutes to half an hour. and that. |
toe. at night when the men are locked in their
cells and cannot even see one another with
Watchful keepers all around them. on the alert |
for the slightest signs of communication. a |
piece OF news can go the rounds. How it is |
done nobody knows but the prisoners them
selves. and they'd cut out their tongues before
Newspapers do not reach the prisoners.
visitors can only speak othem in the presence |
OF keepers and by special permission, and the
keepers themselves give them no news. Yet !
the morning after tho last Presidential election |
In 1895 every prisoner In Sing Sing prison
knew that William Mckinley had been elected.
Every prisoner knew almost as soon rs the |
outside world when FitzsimmCns whipped Cor |
bett, and even the result OF recent al event |
as the Jefferies- Fitzsimmons fight was known
AL over the prison the day following the fight. |
There are many ways; Of course; in which the
employed by the convict who first hears IL in |
transmitting It TO his compnnions is the thing |
that has never been explained That the sys- |
tenn was devised hr,a long-term or life man.
and has been steadily improved by others il |
the general belief of the keepers,
Vincent Cody. n life prisoner. has been in
aaNV