The Sunday globe., 1901-05-12

/ NOllh Us lie uetIleu WOIluy Ol lue great
boon. During President McKinley's
administration as governor of Ohio he
issued pardons only on the recommen-
dation Of the State Board of PardOns,
but ii was noted that as a rule the pris-
ODers pardOned were either dead or had
been discharged at the expiration Of
their terms of imprisonment. In other
words, the Governor and Mr.. Boyle
neglected to act on the recommenda-
tions of the State Board until the pris.
Oners had been pardOned by higher
power or had, as stated, served their
time and been discharged. To such an
extent was this studied refusal of the
governor to extend clemency or act
upon the recommendation of his own
Board of Pardons that the president of
the board, Mr.. j. H. Kennedy, of Be
rea, resigned as rebuke to the inhu-
manity of the tender hearted executive
and to the Englishman who was his
private secretary, aud who is now the
American consul general at Liverpool,
England.
Things were different under the
Bushnell regime. This hard-headed
business man gave the State a business
mans administration and having Sc
lected his board of pardons promptly
acted upon their recommendations
This was helpful to the administration
Of the prison, as the covicts apprecia-
ted the humanity of the Governor and
the justice of the board. The present
governor, Hon. George X. Nash, a
professional politician Of mon COM
bative temperament, and outwardly as
mild and unassuming in appearance
as a 500 clerk, is discountng even
the Mckinley State administration as
he issues neither pardon nor commu-
tation, and men who have been twenty
years behind the walls have no more
chance of clemency than the new and
unTeformed prisoner just entering on
his eXpiatiOn.
The present governor and the writer
of this co-operated in one or two lively
| cam paigns under the Fo ter regime,
and if memory is not at fault we frac.
tured the laws Of the State to a degree
| which would be uncomfortable were
we to be tried 10y jury Of honest farm
! ers. A little mercy extended now to
fellow sinners might square things for
Governor Nash with tha Governor
who knows all--even the way things
were worked by Chairman Nash, of the
, Reput licap Committee, way back in
the S)s-"Nuh' ced"-at present
The discipline Of the prison under
! Warden Coffin, besides being humane,
was the most perfect and systematic
| the State had experienced. There
were no escapes, no fighting in chapel
by otiicers-as under the Mckinley
James regime The daily newspapers
were freely admitted to the enclosure
and sod in the evenings to the prison.
ers in their cells. The warden justified
this Innovation on the ground that his
prisoners had been and would again
become citizens and that they should
not be depr ced of a knowledge of cur
rent events, the trend of public affairs
and the conditions existing in the
world outside so that when they were
discharged at the expiration Of their
s1ntences they would be better equip
ped by knowledge Of affairs in again
bat le with the world He held that
to isolate men for years and keep them
in ignorance Of the progress of the outer
world was a mistaken policy and that
to suddenly thrust discharged prs
OnneTs out the gates in utter Ignorance
of what had tansp pired in tho world
since their incarceration was to invite
the manufacture OF recidivisOs; for as
suredly they would be utterly unable
to cope with the additional and new
problems confronting them before they
had again fallen by the way side in the
commission of crime. Hence the
newspapers were admitted and the
prison school encouraged, enlarged and
developed, until hundreds of prisoners
who entered the prison ignorant of even
the alphabet left the institut on fairly
grounded in not only the elements, but
many Of them proficient in a general
education.
One feature, however, of the modern
or humane prison management affords
! opportunities for lawyers aud their
agents to milk confiding convicts to
whom they offer their services as par
don brokers.
A notable case of this kind is a news
paper reporter named w. w. Bond,
! brOther-ln-laW of Congressman Charles
' GT.svenor. Mr.. Bond as the represen-
tatiye or reporter of the Columbus (O.)
Daily Dispatch had, and still has, the
' assignment of the penitentiary on his
route. In fact, Mr.. Bond made the big
prison his entire route and never at
| tempted to cover anything else His
| principal business while l. side the walls
' of the prison was to hunt up clients
among the U. :. prisoners for his
! brOther-in-,aw, Congre sman GrosVe-
nor. Mr.. Bond easily ascertained the
names of the prisoners with the biggest
rolls and as U. S. prisoners csnnOt be
pardoned by the Govern r, the Presi-
dent alone being empowered to pa don
| this class of cOnyicts, Mr.. Bond would
eloquently point out to the appli ant
for pardon the pull his brJther-in- law
had with the President, and the sure
! thug ii would be to hire him. OF
course, Mr.. Bond never let ii to be
known that he was the brother-in- law
of Congressman GrOsvenor, he only
knew him intimately as friend, etc.
! One day life prisoner from the Ter
rlt Jry came to I writer and asked to
have letter written to Congress nan
! GrOsvenOr The prisoners name was
William Sorter, and he stated that he
had been in neg tia ion with NJ. Bond.
He then exhibited letter which Bond
secured from Congressman Gr0svenor,
stating that for $500 he would procure
the Presidential pardon, but that the
convict must pay the sum Of $50 in ad.
vance. To this advance the convict
demurred, as he had been taken in be-
fore by other lawyers, whereupon Con-
gresham Grosvenor wrote sharp
le te to his brother-in.law Bond, in
which he very pertinently said:
"lf "a convict cannot trust me for $50 l
cannot trust him for $780, However,
by the advice Of the writer convict
Sorter paid over the $50 to Bond aud
Sorter deposited to the conditional order
of 1.-The go between the $3.50 The
pardon was to be obtained by Christ.
mas, and as Christmas had arrived
with ut the pardon Sorter solicited our
earr,;,ae 10 urrfta tnn E,,,rnsg,,,ot,