The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-02-10
FATHER AND SON
Prison Warden Receives
His Boy as a Convict.
In Connecticut-Toung Man Had
DefauIted as His Fathers Clerk.
Roman Virtue Shown.

An event recently occurring IN Con
necticut proves that the Roman virtues
still exist. and need only suitable
occasion for making themselves known.
They may Dc less talked about and
history will not take note of the latest
illustration. as IL does OF BTutus's Goa
demnatiOn OF his two sons TO death.
the refnements and luXurieS OF modern
life have not eradicated this virtue.
Jabez l.. Woodbridge has been War
den of the Connecticut State Prison
for five years. He has made good
Warden. and the prison under his
charge has been one OF the most sue
cesSfully conducted institutions 81 the
kind in the country. II has been stead
lily moderniZed and advanced along
the lines of the latest CriminpiJgical
event occurred which compelled his re
signation. although IL was the occasion.
on his part, of an act displaying the
highest Roman virtues.
Warden wcodbridge's son had been
his fathers clerk at the State prison.
Before his appointment he had shown
disposition toward a wild life and
a lack OF moral stamina. But the ia
Their hoped that by keeping the boy
under his own eye and with surround
ings constantly teaching the results
of crime his inclination toward wrong
would he corrected. He was disap-
pointed. however. One day small
irregularity in the prison books was
discovered and an investigation show
ed that the son had been systematical-
~ raising checks. tie was arrested.
tried. and convicted. and sentenced to
a term of four years in the State prison.
Last Wednesday. rs one OF a gang %
twelve convicts. he was taken to pris-
on. and when the van drew up before
the door the father himself swung open
the prison gates and stood stern and
unfinching while his convict son en-
tered
II was not an act which will receive
much public commentator for few viii
ever hear OF II. Great events on y
broader field are accruinE too rapidly
for the chronicler OF history to care
for an affair happening in an obsCuc
State prison. And yet this Warden dis
played all the virtues that made the
old Greek and Roman stoiCs famous.
He has probably never read Zeno.
Chrysippus. Cato. or Seneca. and the
PHILOSOPHY Of the Cynics and the Peri
patetics is a closed book To him. but
without any help from these. except
as their teachings have passed into the
everyday life and thought OF society
Warden Woodbridge exhibited stole
ism as great as theirs when he refused
TO respond TO the pleading glance o.
his convict son and gave no sign Of
leniency when he ordered his own OH
spring to the prison cell.
Perhaps il was an act OF mercy to
the Warden that the Directors OF Con-
nectiout's prison met ut once and ask
ed for his resignation, and that Il was
Immediately handed in. They doubt
less argued that IL would be cruel To
compel him To submit 10 the constant
strain OF managing a prison in which
his own flesh and blood was confined.
and that he should be asked 10 sur
render task which his own sense
of duty would not permit him to re
sign. And his resignation was the re-
suit. There are as heroic deeds per
= -.
field, and among them, to be recorded
somehow and somewhere. Will remain
inc Christian stocism o. warden wood
bridge which enabled him 10 open tse
gate OF the prison and stand u1mOysd
as his son entered. criminal.