The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1903-12-04
Reformatory Population Is Increased
From This County.
LastgRe and Hicks Robbed Farm House
Near st. Cloud.
Boys From Blue Earth County and Else
where Made Industrious.
Sights and Ideas Gained From Visit
to the Institution.
From Wednesdays Daily.

From Wednesdays Daily.
The population of the state reforma
tory at st. Cloud has been increased
seven from the inmates of the BLU
Ec-1Tt-- ocahtS Jam WITHIN very shor
time, the last one, Roy Taylor, beins
turned over to the officials yesterday
by Sheriff Williams. The other six are
Lavinge, Hicks and Richards, the house
breakers, Ryan, the forger, Hugh Hern
don, the United States prisoner, and 6
prisoner from st. James.
The entire bunch of seven is at work
in the stone cutting department, where
all the later arrivals are started in
end where sixty-five are now at work
The din in this shop, which is a fine, large
new stone building, is something deaf
ening. The shop is equipped with a
travelling crane and all other needful
tools, and all of the cut stone used in the
various construction work on the grounds
is turned out here. Better work is not
done in any stone quarry in the state
than by the boys in this shop.
The stone is obtained from large
quarry within the reformatory grounds.
Gray granite is taken out, and mum
Der of the inmates do the drilling and
blasting and all other work. The quarry
is supplied with derricks and other con-
veniences.
All of the small pieces of granite are
carefully preserved and screened and
viii be used in matchmaking the
driveways through the grounds,
the eoarser layers below and the finer
above until granite sand is used on top
OF all.
Committed Another Robbery.
Since the three house breakers were
placed in the reformatory it has develop
ed that two of them, Lavigne and Hicks,
were mixed up with farm house rob-
berry near st. Cloud in August just be-
fore the trio came to Blue Earth county.
A farm house was entered not far from
the reformatory grounds, and between
$50 and $50 stolen. The two boys then
swung onto passing freight train and
went to Minneapolis, where they were
Joined by Richards, and they continued
their career of crime, resulting in their
being sent to the reformatory.
The three lads pretended to be selling
silver polish. Superintendent Randall
states that silver polish is badge of
crime, as he never knew of an honest
man who peddled it through the country.
1t is used as an excuse for approaching
houses, and where the family is away
the house is entered and ransacked. The
trio sent up from this county for this
crime is likely to stay behind the bars
for some time.
The writer had the pleasure of in
speeding the various departments of the
reformatory yesterday, and observing
the excellence of the system that is max
ing honest and Industrious men out of
boys who had started on the downward
path of crime. The state was wise in es-
tablishing the system, and is ahead of
some of the eastern states in this re-
spect. Yesterday, the state reformatory
commission of Connecticut visited the st.
Cloud reformatory, to gain ideas, as the
nutmeg state is about to build its first
reformatory. The members thought the
st. Cloud institution ahead of any that
they had seen, inasmuch as it seemed to
them to be more nearly carrying out
the true reformatory idea. There is only
one state in all New England that has
reformatory and that is Massachusetts.
The idea is spreading in the east, how
ever, and western ideas will no doubt
soon be adopted in many of them
Inmates Are Reformed.
The main idea carried out by the
management of the reformatory is to
train the inmates to have respect for
authority and habits of industry. They
are kept constantly at work, are well
treated and are well fed and housed. In
the cell of each is a bed and some simple
furniture, water closet and wash bowl,
and electric light. The buildings are
steam heated, and the plumbing is ex-
cellent The location could hardly be
more healthful, as the buildings are To-
Gated on a large mound or rise of ground
eighty feet above the surrounding
prairie The elevation is l,0l0 feet,
which gives a dry and bracing air. The
drainage is perfect and the air is always
pure The buildings are two and half
miles from the city of st. Cloud, which
lies stretched out in plain sight. The
view is a grand one, as the slightly UNI
dulating prairie stretches away for miles,
broken only with oak groves that abound
in that section of the state.
The reservation comprises 900 acres, of
which 255 are under cultivation. The in
mates do all of the farming, and none
have ever tried to escape while so en-