The Butte inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1901-1912, 1901-10-12
WANT A JAIL PIANO
MR.. HAYES COMMENTS ON RE-
QUEST OF SPOKANE LADIES.
DESIRE TO BREAK M0NoT0NY
u
Women Find Life Dull Behind the
Bars and Make Strange Re-
rs quest of the County Com
missioners.

II have heard people back east talk
about the lack of refinement in some
western women" said John Hayes, q
Chicago travelling man at the Finler
this morning, but l am convinced now
that all that sort of gossip is wrong.
became fixed in this idea." continued
the speaker, as he pushed his hat back
on his head, while I was in Spokane
short time ago. In Spokane, as in
Butte the ladies are all right, according
as l look at the matter, but !; was in
Spokane that their tastes were evidenced
by something that is a matter OF rec
ord. That is why I ann talking about
the Washington city. Yon know there
is Jail over there in the Falls City, and
it SO happens that occasionally lady,
or at least female, GEES mixed up with
the offifficers and looks at the sun FIR I.
time through the bars.
"Of course the same sort Of thing
happens back east, but the Spokane
women in the Jail there demonstrated
that they were not dead to tn" world
If they were locked up. A short time
ago about half dozen of them sent in
a request to the county commissioners
to have a piano furnished for them at
the Jail Now is not that evi Hence oi
refinement among the ladies of the
west? Back east a bunch of injured fe-
males would languish in their cells for
months and lev.r think OF even asking
for little extra Jun n, Dus 1t Is differ
ent out here in the west. Those Spokane
ladies' as they expressed it, found life
very monotoncus' in jail and cast around
for way to do away with the dull
hours. They did not become indiscreet
and make roar in the Jail or break up
furniture and take chances on being
put in the dungeon. Not at all. They
just sat down and penciled short bust
ness note in a fine, slanting hand, tell
ing the county commissioners that they
We're up against it so far as amuse-
ments went and asked for a piano.
That is the way to do business. Just
ask for what you want and let the other
fellow do the worrying.
zone lady in the same Jail where the
committee of the whole of the female
department asked for piano insisted
that she should be given daily car
riase ride. She did not get enough ex-
ercise rushing down the corridors of the
lookup and, not wanting to take any
chances on soiling her skirts on the
sidewalks, she simply asked to be sup
piled with a carriage when she took a
notion that she needed some fresh air.
That again was very good idea.
II knew of a woman in an eastern city
who had great liking for living at
fine hotels. She would so to an elegant
hosiery with her maid, engage suite
of rooms have piano moved in, put
her jewels in the safe and proceed to
live like a queen. She would not think
of taking a street car-always car
riage. She would stay at a place for
say a month, running along on her
credit Then some fine day she would
order a carriage, drive down town and
laeve the cabbe to wait for her in the
street until he became convinced that
she was not coming back. The hotel
would catch on when she was gone and
find that the piano belonged to someone
else, that the Jewels were worth about
ten cents a pound and that the man
agement had donated service to high
class customer.
"Of course this woman was finally
caught, as most wrong doors are, and
she was coldly landed in the county Jail.
The reason I speak of her case in this
connection is that when she got into the
Jail she never thought of asking for
piano. This lady who was in the habit
of having everything that wealth could
lords, was satisfied with what the coun-
ty would give her when she became the
guest of the sheriff. That is the differ
ence between the east and the west. Out
here the ladies who go to Jail may not
be so particular about a piano while
they. are at liberty, but when they get
locked up they want things SO that they
will not suffer from mOnOtOny.
For hundreds of years a Jail has been
considered an undesirable place to pu
up, but if the Spokane method is to be
taken up that can no longer be said of
them. If the jails are going to have
pianos in them they should have
music teacher. All people who get locked
up cannot play the piano and conse-
quently there should be teacher to
help break the monotony for them. Then
the idea of the carriage suggests a sta
BILE. The sheriff should, by all means,
be empowered by law to have p.enty Of
horses and carriages so that he can
take the lady prisoners out riding
Perhaps this arrangement might not al
ways work we'll if the sheriff happened
to be married man. but he could ap-
point a bachelor deputy whose duty it
should be to drive the lady prisoner.
through the streets.
while we are dealing with the ladies
in the matter of Jail comforts l dom,
think we should forget the men entirely.
I believe it would be a good idea to
supply the men with bar in the cor
'ridor and have a bartender behind the
mahogany at the expense of the county.
The ladies want music to break up the
monotony of Jail life. 1t is a certainty
that the men would put monotony out
of the windows If they had access to
numerous high balls and cocktails
There is nothing like being humane to
our prisoners and the Spokane Jail ia