Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1902-04-17
Growth and Improvement Are the Order
Of Every Day al This Model Penal
Institution.
G1A!ic.S 'HF KFn7 n!Isy


4 are the eyes of the penitentiary, New
Mexico's great penal institution, tina
, keep watch during the silent hours ol
the night. They are also symbols of the
progress and humanity of this iusti-
tuition that only few weeks ago wor
words of the highest enconium from
General Francis Torrance the chair
man of the board of charities and pen
al institutions of the great state of
Pennsylvania, student and authority
on what penal institutions ought to be
and what they very often are not. IT
has not always been thus, but since
Hon. Fl. O. Bursum, with quiet unas-
suming air, with corps of efficient as
sistants took charge of the peniten-
tiary it has entered upon new life, a
life that knows no standstill, life
that has been a steady growth and i'm
provement. There are no dark corners,
no filthy spots, at New Mexico's peni-
| tertiary.
Idleness and darkness have been
banished from the penitentiary since he
took charge. Work, good, wholesome
work, for the convicts has been the
ideal that Mr.. Bursum has pursued
and as consequence there has sprung
into life one Of the most complete in
dustrial plants in New Mexico at
which Improvements are constantly
being made and to which additions are
still under course of construction. That
Is the modern and model briclS-making
plant with its stupendous up-to-date
machinery that turns out 10000 of the
best brick made in the west every day.
If necessary, it can turn out 10000
brick every ten hours or 100000 every
twenty-four hours, or sufficient to fill
one of the large drying kilns which
have been lately built in addition to
the old kiln of $4,000 brick capacity. It
is bit Of education to make a thor
ough Inspection and investigation OF
the manufacture of brick by machin-
cry, from the time that the clay
brought from clay banks near Santa
Fe, is fed into the machine that grinds
it, until the finished brick of fine color
and resonance like that of a bell,
leaves the drying kiln. Between the
beginning and the end, the clay Is fed
into the brick-making machine proper
which discharges the stiffened. clay
from it's funnel in an endless ribbon,
the width and depth of brick and
which is cut the required thickness by
a knife of many blades. The brick are
then carried in trucks on tramway
to the steaming kilns from which they
go forth to the drying kilns. Several |
kinds of brick, from the common brick |
to the glazed fire brick, and more than |
one kind Of tiles, are manufactured |
and find ready market when not |
used for construction work at the pen
itentiary itself.
Construction work is constantly 60
ing on at the institution. Since the
central wing Of the main building was
every brick and every
stone of the great institution has been
laid by the convicts themselves. What
this means, may be CLEANED from the
fact that the solid wall and moat which
the yard contain 6,5OO,000
bricks. Then there is almost score of
buildings including shops,
boiler and engine house, hospital, hot
house, livery barn, lime house, brick
kilns and other structures. At present
many men are employed in rearing a
much needed massive second wing to
The main building to be used as cell
house. 1t is being built of stone and
the heavy, high, three-story outside
walls are almost completed, the stones
having all been laid by one convict who
has become an expert stone mason.
The placing of the brilliant electric
lights along the rear wall is another
which has been made by
H. o. Bursum and |
helps to make escape from the prison
we'll nigh impossible. In fact, since
charge, there has not been one escape
rom the penitentiary itself. The few
escapes that have occurred We're either
rom the stone quarry or clay banks
IN the other side of the city or by trus-
les when they were away from the
Prison.
There is no serious illness at present :
vt the penitentiary The cell house Is
veil ventilated and lighted and scrupu-
GUS cleanliness is observed in every
,art of the great Institution. Many Of
he cells are not only pictures of neat
less, but are beautifully adorned,
Mostly by the handiwork of the pris-
ners themselves. A good-sized lib :,
ary is maintained in the cell house.
But brick making is not the only in
lustry carried on at the penitentiary. ,
The convicts make their own clothing.
heir own shoes, in fact supply almost
IL their own wants. There is a black 9
NTH, a carpenter shop, barnyard
which supplies pork chickens, turkeys,
to-, for the penitentiary table. With
ood foresight, Superintendent Bur-
UNI has acquired the land round about
he penitentiary, to the extent Of thir- :
cen acres. and this Is being turned
nto model truck farm and orchard,
hat Is a pleasure to behold. The next