The evening times., 1899-12-11
A Chicago Idea.

There is shade of the altruistic il
the experiment which is to be tried by
Superintendent Sloan, of the Chicago House
of Correction. He proposes to undertake
the reformation of women prisoners in a
way that, to say the least, is decidedly
unique, for he will not hire anybody TO
lecture them, to preach to them on the
evil of their ways, to impress upon them
the low state to which they have fallen
and the miserable disgrace that has come
upon them because of their transgressions,
he will simply put them at work cultivat-
ing flowers and let the tender thoughts
awakened by contact with delicate bios
SONS work the hoped-for metamorphosis
in character.
spacious greenhouses in which to grow
roses carnations, and chrysanthemums for
the Chicago market. This is the more
practical phase of the project, for it is
evident that he intends TO make the enter
prise a self-sustaining one, and will not
for his interesting effort to rescue unfortu-
nate creatures from the tolls of sin. 1t is
stated that Mr.. Sloan will select as his
hothouse workers the most hardened types
of the feminine offender now in the big
prison. chershing the hope that an asso-
citation with growing plants will soften
their natures and make them susceptible to
better moral influences.
The shallow-minded may find wealth
Of amusement in this proposition; those
who carelessly glide from phase to phase
Of life, with superficial glance at each
and an abhorrence for anything that sug-
gests a problem or the solution thereof,
will not penetrate the possibilities of what
seems to be such a simple-they may call
it absurd-idea. There is something in a
sweet and fragrant flower that suggests
peace and goodwill, amity. forgiveness,
unsullied innocence, and all the finer at
tributes of the gentlest natures. Bios
SONS suggest the rosy-cheeked child in a
field of daisies, the gentle girl with violets
in her corsage. the bride with orange bios
SONS entwined in her hair and roses in her
hand the bright spot signifying loving
unforgetfuiness in the chamber of the in
valid, the quiet eternal peace OF a life
well spent.
Violence and wickedness seem as far re-
from pole, and the thoughts inspired by
the bud and the bloom are manifestations
of the best that is in man and woman.
What memories may be awakened by the
cultivation of flowers in the Chicago penal
institution none can venture, but the better
instincts OF those hardened by repeated
transgressions are more likely to become
aroused in this way than by hrooding In
the maddening monotony of bare walls
iron bars. and stern keepers. Who can
say that the odor of a rose will not revive
a dying conscience or that a simple carna-
tion, nurtured to its full beauty by an un-
fortunate creature, may not recall the
flower garden that once bloomed in homely
in some far away village that
for years has been but a dim memory?
An honest sentiment properly aroused will
prove the key to unlock more hardened
hearts than people are willing to admit in
this cynical age. And sentiment that will
into any human being, however degraded,
by the manipulation of a club or the infiex-
ible rules Of an institution for the wicked
Superintendent Sloan apparently recog-
nizes the fact that true reform must always
come from within. not from without. He
seems to be an official with ideas and not
a mere mechanism, which disposes OF each
unfortunate that comes along in the same
routine way and lets that end 1t. Although