The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-03-05
LECTURE TO THE MEMS CLUB.
Hon. Edgar M. Warner at the United
 Church

Hon. Edgar M. Warner at the United Church.
 Hon. Edgar M. Warner of Putnam, prominent gubernatorial candidate, ad dressed the Mems club at the United
 church laet night on the need of state reformatory. He said in part:
 Few of the atrocities of former ages,
 as in the class of the prisoner of Chil-
 lou and the man i'll the iron mask, are
 left to-day. Stone walls and iron doors
 made men afraid of incarceration. To-
 day the problem is to keep men out, and
 men whose condition is pitlable in that
 they make from choice the jail their
 temporary or permanent home. New
 Haven finds 1t necessary to license over
 four hundred schools of crime, fraudu
 lently called poor mems clubs or sa-
 looms. She also finds it necessary to
 maintain a standing army to care for
 the finished product. The citizens of
 the place contribute three and half millions a year to maintain these sa looms. The law says to the rounder, Go to your, own particular cell which we kindly retain for you. Be washed fed and made comfortable. Work little very little-and come again when you like Two thousand a month is a con- servative estimate of the Connecticut commitments of rounders.
 "One citizen of New Haven county has been committed 220 times. He is forty-one years old and has spent the greater part of twenty-two years in jail. nt hA ovttD rr nyrpI Cj thousand dollars. Hartford has round- CT who has spent the greater part of thirty-three years in jail.
 And these rounders, physical and moral wrecks, are the logical result of the present system. To confine man for thirty days in steel cell 6xS, In idleness, without exercise, as is done in some jails in this state, is crime. New Havens jail is a better one; the men work little; but the fact remains that each drunk sent to jail costs the citizens ten dollars.
 Every one is to blame. No governor of this state has ever done anything to help this condition of affairs. In 1895 the legislature, under the leadership of Henry G. Newton, approached the sub ject magnfcently. Two years later the act, under a fraudulent cry of economy, was repealed and the clock of time was turned back twenty-five years.
 One thousand lawyers in this state have done hardly anything, and the clergy, until very lately, little more for the amelioration of the rounder's con- dition. Very few ministers visit jails. The rounder is an outcast. No one makes friend of him or gives him a chance, A rounder leaving jail is met by pals with liquor. Christians can't do better than to meet the rounder re- turning to liberty with offers of work
 The remedy is, hard work, purpose lees if need be, and the indeterminate l sentence The best way to save boy | from being rounder is to teach him l trade. Eighty per cent. of the Elmira l prisoners are saved. What | the rounder needs is spiritual consola- l ion. Every jail should have chapel, | md the best, brightest, largest -hearted | priest or preacher is none too good to fill | ts pulpit.
 ''We quarantine disease, but let the | Kill himself and others. It is lard to realize what an army of men | Ire being ruined, body and soul. As a let the avenues go to the alleys.
 approve of prisons, hard labor and in sentences but I know that 10 soul was ever saved for time or eter- iity without the close, personal touch if another soul. believe that no drunk- rd shall inherit the kingdom of heaven nd that life's sweetest joy is the rescue f a human soul. Inasmuch as ye have lone it unto the least of these, ye have lone it unto me"
 MT. Warner exhibited to those inter- sted specimens of useful work done in risons outside of Connecticut at an n- ormal reception held after his talk. The ttendance was very large.