New Iberia enterprise and independent observer. (New Iberia, La.) 1902-1944, 1903-12-26
LOUISIANA CONVICT FARM.

hopeful events of my recent tr
4 through the South was my visit c
q a Sunday afternoon to Hope Farm
q near Jeanerette, a sugar plantatio
of some 220O acres, having on it
l sugar mill, the property of til
State OF Louisiana, now being use
as penitentiary and operated b
convict labor.
The day was a beautiful one, an
here on Hope Farm l found a per
itentiary without stone or bric
walls, without stockades, and wit
no inclosure, indeed, but ordinar
fences. Some two hundred an
odd men are employed at this plan
tation.
Being Sunday. there was n
work going on, as matter O
course, and | cannot express tn
surprise that | felt when | say
these men sitting abont the grounds
visiting, talking, reading, writing
playing cards, while others wer'
conducting religious meetings in
side the dining hall.
The prisoners were nearly al
negroes, and the manager, Mr.
Kent, told me that the religious
meeting is Continuous perform
ance," on Sunday, beginning In
the morning and closing in time
for supper.
went into the hall and listened
a short time to the prayers and
songs and exhortations Of the wor-
shippers, and the effect of the weird
music, almost altogether in the
minor strain; the exhortations and
ejaculations of these convicted men,
so unlike anything had ever be-
fore experienced; the shuf1ing of
their feet and swaying Of their
bodies as they would sing, seemed
to transport them to the realm
where prisons and prison keepers
are unknown, aud for the time be-
ing, at least, these men seemed to
experience perfect happiness.
But the thing that impressed me
was the large degree of liberty al
lowed, wholly unlike any treat
ment | have ever seen prisoners
receive elsewhere. It is true that
these men we under the surveil-
lance Of guards sitting in the boxes,
each armed with a Winchester rife,
and pack Of bloodhounds is kept
conveniently by to trail an escaping
fugitive; yet as | moved about
among the men and talked to them,
looking them over, | concluded
they were as healthy aud rugged a
lot Of men as,I had ever seen Of
similar age. There was none Of
the "prison pallor'' that is put
into the faces Of unfortunate men
who are shut up behind prison
walls.
Perhaps the most surprising
thing Of all about the place is the
sleeping arrangement. There are
two "camps, " as they are called on
the plantation. The buildings are
all one-story wood buildings, and
the men sleep, not in narrow coils,
where there is not air enough to
keep dog alive, as we imprison
men in Ohio, but more than one
hundred Of them occupy one large,
well ventilated room. They have
double-deck iroa bedsteads, with
clean liEen, and thsy are, Of course,
locked in the room when night
comes.
In short, the State Of Louisiana
seems to have awakened to the fact
that q "convict' 10 a human being,
aud that under the operation Of our
criminal procedure and
prison practice IN many places the
State is often a greater criminal
than the convicted man, and Louis
lana says to her "delinqnent and
defective" sons: lyon are GRIM
inal,. You are not we'll. 1t is
not safe for you to be at large.
Your liberty must be denied for a.
time: but We will put you whore
ycn can have all the liberty that
you are fit for: where you can
have access to the air, the sun
shine and the open sky, and where
y0n may by honest labor have q
share in developing the resources
Df this State, and we will do our
best to restore you again to such q
gtate Of moral health as will at
you 10 be again free man. -"
Mayor s. NJ. Jones Of Toledo, in
New York journal.
4 Costly Mistake.
Blnndcrs are sometimes very cx-
Densive Occasionally life itself
s the price Of q mistake, bnt you'll'I
never be wrong il you take DR..
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