Sunday Washington globe., 1902-02-09
PART III.
FoRrY-FIRsT PAPER.

FoRTY-FIRsT PAPER
Fast bind, fast find" is an old saying
that might have been inscribed over prison
doors through all the past centuries Of
prison history. and it is as appropriate to
the prevailing plan Of keeping prisoners.
There are wardens of prisons whose hair
would almost turn gray If seventy-ive OF
one hundred of their wards were allowed to
sleep every night in an open room with no
body guarding them but one middle-aged
gentleman Of kindly disposition. Fast
bind, fast ind." means if you don't bind
you II not 6nd, but il depends on the kind
of prisoner you have and how you treat
him. A prisoner is a man. and being that
he may have some priuciple--he zOfH
have some principle and he sOfH show some
appreciation Of trust That is to say, pro-
vided he is not a fool and desperado.
There will be, among thousand prisoners
a few who are so reckless, so soured by
misfortune and perverted by evil associa-
tions, that the obligation Of a trust may be
lightly held and readily broken; but there
will be found the same proportion among a
thousand free men. Some humanitarians
contend that bolts and bars may be dis
pensed with in the majority Of cases-even
sttuted They contend that men are easier
reformed If not locked up; and that is true
no doubt. Confinement within a few square
feet Of space, like a Gagged animal, has a
strong tendency TO irritate the subject, and
instead of quieting his nerves, has an ex-
citing influence. Few men are like Roger
L'Estrange, who wrote, long before America
had a republic
That which the world miscalls a Jail
A private closet is to me-
Whilst good conscience is my bail,
And innocence my liberty
Locks, bars aud solitude together meet
Make me no prisoner but an anchorite,
There are such men as I'Estrange, but
they are few and far between The ma
jOrity of men, if Gagged like wild beasts, will
be tempted to feel like wild beasts, and it
takes all the strength of will and reasoning
powers they possess to retain the sense OF
personal dignity that we call manly feeling
The best behaved prisoner, and the one of
the most correct feeling, has his yearning
for home intensified by the bars and can
not convert the cell into a place OF content-t
ment He may say
At purple sunset, in my cell
It comes and whispers low,
And when the bars faint shadows
Seem ghosts Of the long ago.
And through my senses stealing,
With a thrill that is half pain,
7 feel the restless yearning
For the quiet home again.
Perhaps-the man who feels his imprson-
ment the least is the scholar of imaginative
power, for if he were at home he would
spend the most OF his time in the imprison-
ment of bis study or walking abroad,
would pre- er solitude to some trifing. gar
rulous companion. His mind, peopled with
the past makes him never less alone than
when alone"
Confinement has the least possible terror
for him. His body may be beyond the
reach and scope of habeas corpus, confined
in a little hall bedroom, FIVE by seven, but
his mind, the better part of the man, may
swell far beyond the bounds Of that strained
habitation, those narrow walls may expand
into the wide palace of thought, in the
kingdom of the ages where live noble ideas
and deathless names, and on which the sun
of truth never sets. Scholarship is the
lamp-not tabled one-that, when rubbed,
brings the genius OF the fancy to the owner
thereof, that he may travel the world over
hanging foliage of Polynesian islets; see
the sun rise like flaming topaz out of
tropical sea; gaze on the snowy whiteness
Of Agra's splendid pile; stand la Poets
Corner or gaze upon the Acropolis. He
can live in every age and consOrt with
every parsonage of the past; roam with
Baroun Araschid through the bazaar, or
ride with Alexander across the CENSUS;
sauuter with Plato in the grove OF Acade-
mus, deep in philosophical discussion; or
study the symbols of the mysterious Rosi-
crucians. His only is the free soul, but
even he cannot always be dreaming.
Warden Coffin has tried the dormitory
system and the results have been salts
factory. Prisoners we're thus domiciled
owing to the crowding Of prison, and could
not have behaved better If they we're locked
M in separate cells The necessity taught
the lesson that prisoners do not generally
need cells. and verified the theory tn II put
ting them on their good behavior is the
best guarantee Of prison government.
Prisons can be conducted on the dormitogy
plan without materially increasing the
number Of guards reserving the cells for
the refractory
ION Sunday they take us into the chapel
TO receive the gospel, and on Monday they
take US NNdeT the chapel ana pOunu X out
Of us with a paddle, " said a witty prisoner.
The remark shows how hard 1t is to reach
the prisoner with the gospel, whose min
ister Is the servant of the state, when
another of the states servants is employed
to administer assault and battery upon him
under the same roof Aud what Is a chap
lain for, anyhow Rightly interpreted,
there is no mission higher than his--no, nor
any so high--At least in the outside world,
while in prison the relation of man to man
and of man to the state is vastly different
But the chaplain, specially trained for his
high Office is to come to the prison and
preach to him that all men are equal in the
sight Of God and equally guilty as tried by
His law, whether bond or free, and that all
must believe on a certain Man who was con-
victed aud executed in order TO receive
that pardon thar alone can set them free;
that If executive clemeucy is not extended