Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-09

stantals SO it is a great boon 70 the poor
fellow in the cell who has a little money IN
the front office to his credit If be is per-
mitted to invest some of It in this way, and
as variety is the spice Of life and tends 10
health the privilege does good, besides
furnishing revenue to the Golfers Of Aunt
Buckeye.
The administration IS doing its double
duty in the protection Of society by the
reformation of the prisoner, and IN an
economical exercise Of its trust, In econ
omy II has increased the sources Of income
by adding new industries employing great
numbers of prisoners formerly idle. and by
cutting down expenses wherever possible.
But there is an economy that would let the
house fall down rather than buy a few ten
penny nails. Economy has been almost a
watchword in the institution for years and
nece ssary repairs have been omitted to keep
the figures of maintenance down to the
lowest notch In consequence of this policy
a great many REPAIRS so ed ul that they
could not escape the Argus eye that pene-
trates every crevice about the place, have
been undertaken, but not a day before they
were needed. When a whole loOr begins
to descend upon the heads Of people be-
meath, as was the case in the barn not long
ago, II is time to buy the ten-penny nails
As for material improvements, the record
has been phenomenal and the construction
department has not been so busy for years.
The glove factory was built and fitted Ap,
the buildings and appointments of Patton's
huge establishment were prepared, the
knitting works put in shape the annex re-
modelled, the guard room and kitchen also,
city water was introduced, new walks put
down in the yard the flooring OF the chapel
sloped, three new galleries put in the in
terror Of the female de partment remodeled,
and a host of other improvements were
provided throughout the prison. The shops,
where the hottest work is carried on, were
better ventilated than before, and the cleo
trocution chair was brought into existence
In line with his desire 10 improve the
character and condition Of his wards, SO
much Of which depends on their surround
ings, Warden Coffin has given anxious at
tention 10 their lodging, owing to the fact
that three out of FIVE Of the blocks Of cells
we're built great many years ago during
a period of less humane and far less en-
lightened as to hygenic architecture than at
present. The cells in these edi6ces are
much too small in fact their diminutive
size is a subject of surprise and frequently,
Of indignant comment on the part OF intel
ligent visitors to the institution The man
who built them for human beings TO O'occupy
seems to have imagined that prisoners were
like shell FISH and as Warden Coffin once
wittily said, he ought 10 have been shut
UP in one of the small cells for year or
two to find out what talent he had for
building" Probably NO Jail OF lookup in
Ohio contains a dungeon so small as any of
the one thousand cells referred to. The
halls in which these cell blocks stand were
until few months ago greatly deficient in
light, a very depressing circumstance in
view Of the fact that the greater part Of
Sunday was spent in semi-darkness by
prisoners lodging upon the upper ranges.
II is now a we'll known fact that light is as
necessary to health as good food and the
prison pallor. as il is called, is simply an
indictment of darkness and a symptom of
i'll health that no court or county has any
moral right 10 inflict The warden said;
Let there be light land there was light
Alive to the refreshing reflective power Of
white surface, he, through the superin-
tendent had the halls made almost as light
again as they had been by whitening the
inside of the roof, the reeesses Of which
we're formerly the haunting places Of deep
cious home of discouraging gloom aud
mysterious darkness.
The major domO or lord chamberlain of
this great household of twenty. four hundred
souls, who cares for his lodgers as the ord
does for the sparrows, finding each one a
local habitation and bed in a stone cottage
built of smooth ashlar, which no burglar
can break into-or out of--and no storm un-
] An r.r
bility He is the superintendent Of transfer
and halls, aud at any moment, by day OF
night, his books will show where a finger
can be laid upon any one Of the multitude
Of prisoners. No system of bookkeeping
requires greater care, or involves greater
responsibility, than this IN which the fig
ures are men; the numbers, souls The
superintendent is one of the best men
that was ever sent to the penitentiary by his
friends. He is a veteran of the war, as young
in feeling as when he. his father and three
brothers started out to do battle against the
stars and bars. During the present admin
istration he has, under the direction of the
warden, been instrumental in effecting
other beneficial changes, By judicious ar
rangements in lodging the various com
panies, the cell houses are emptied each
morning with wonderful rapldity, as the
men march out to breakfast and workshop.
One of the most formidable of the seven
celebrated tasks, known as the 'L.abors of
Herakles, " that were given to that ancient
worthy, was the cleaning of the Augean
stables, accomplished by turning a river
through them. But that was a slight feat
compared with one the superintendent has
put through He had the stone work Of
those vast structures, the cell blocks,
wherein the prisoners lock, tier above tier,
like the cliff dwellers, thoroughly scrubbed
from top to bottom. They are all stone,
and the wire brush and the scrubbing brush
travelled minutely over several acres of sur
face, an Herculean labor, truly The dor
mitories-that great new departure-are
also under his fostering care and he has
made all these details successes,
With the housing and accommodating
within the walls of several new and exten-
sive manufacturing establishments, largely
increasing the number of persons who have
to pass in and out compared with the foot
traffic previously existing, and the large
addition to the number Of prisoners the
duties and respousibilities of the CAPTAIN of