The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-10
RAPS THE {" HOME"
Leavenworth Correspondent Says It
Is Mismanaged.
Leavenworth, Kas.. Sept. 8. 1903.

CCFCAWOLlAA, 1AciS-s sept. D ASUO-
To the Editor of the State Journal
The people Of Kansas, and especially
the intelligent taxpayers, are always
interested in their state institutions.
They have a right to know how all
these public concerns are managsd-
Properly manipulated they are bsne-
fetal to the commonwealth: otherwise
they become a detriment- They have
read of the brutal killing of an old man
inmate of the insane asylum, and how
the hoodlum employees pounded the SUI
perintendent: how the boys of the re-
form school are put in irons and fed
on corn molasSes- onions and vegetable
soup. a rich diet for vigorous, growing
lads just budding into manhood. when
the state pays well for the very best
and most nourishing: how at the Kan
sas state prison the convict band played
for a dance in an outside Joint: that
the management imported two Kansas
City toughs. who fought a mill, prize
ring rules. in the barber shop within
the prison walls; that the deVOut
lawyer-cha plain quit saying grace for
the naughty convicts long enough to
pettifog case and clear a bootlegger
in drunken brawl: how the superin-
tendent of the prison Irvine plant dis
ciplines his wife to the OBLIGATION of
the whole town: how the state still fur
nisheS water and light to the notorious
Elnora joint in Lansing. Then the small
deal in the Staiger island, or Swamp
The slice bought could not be used. SO
the enterprising prison officials bought
out SQuatter on a part of the Abner
Whitley claim. This fellow had not
the scratch of a patent. deed, or lease,
yet he was paid several hundred dollars
OF Quit money. and the effort to raise
swamp nubbins and celery went down
the river at the expense of the Kansas
taxpayers. The Lansing News says the
only thing new to residents in the State
Journal article was that coal was being
mined under the Missouri riVer-that
at the present rate it would be at least
twenty-five years before the convict
miners would reach the river But the
Bailey business administrat ton. be-
lleves in taking time by the forelock.
There IS one phase of this gross mis-
management that demands immediate
attention The vicinity is overrun with
prison TRUSTEES. who are constantly
escaDing-three in one day lately The
whole force turns out to hunt them
down. Compute the pay of sixty guards
and officials and cessation of work for
half 2 6av. and il runs into hundreds
and thousands of dollars in a short
time.
But we pass now to notice some things
about the National Military home. Per-
/ maps there is no institution in the state
of more absorbing interest to patriotic
men and women than this one, with its
5000 Old veterans of the great civil war.
The awful kansas Klondike' scandal
/
ley's Sunday school cultivation it has
| developed into very Moloch, a hideous
monster, Car of Jaugernaut and as
Little Cripple Creek" just within the
| limit and under the protection of Leav-
| enworth, is Dante's Inferno outdone,
robbing, beating and numbering the old
| soldiers. PlutO'S drear abodes would be
a paradise to this Pandora of crime and
pandemonium of iniquity. Nor are
| things what they should be inside the
| Home The Oanf06n alnnn
| is sight to behold. with its scores of
| drunken maudlin old men. 1t vies with
| the lowest drink holes in Leavenworth
in fleeing the inmates of their money
and manhood. Citizen or workmen ill
up on beer and free lunch. On Sundays
| to keep the business booming liquors
are sold in the restaurant The old boys
! are supposed to have plenty of time to
eat, as many are debilitated and tooth
less, but they are hurried and the dishes
cleared away. One the writer knows
eats the three so-called meals a day
and then is always hungry, looks hall
starved and eats lunches between meals
with citizen. They range the country
for miles looking for pawpaws, persim-
mon, apples, garden sass, buttermillx
anything for a change of diet and de-
Gently cooked. The government has
made ample provision for these old mer
and they should have it, Outsider buns
put on a blue coat and pants and eat
at the government table and get drunk
at the canteen.
Their moral and spiritual care is as
mismanaged as their physical. Men art
detailed to handle the car loads of liquid
damnation. The gamblers and demi-
monde ply their vocation early and late
and hundreds of these profane, vulgar
depraved old vets are no more capable
of self government than the boys in the
reform school. For sober. Christian
inmate to complain. is to get the gate
If conditions are ever bettered, it mus
be from the outside. Such management
makes the men dissipated, heartless
brutal When Governor Rowland was
a corpse, one member said gleefully
We'll the old devil is on the dump.
Good men cannot and the depraved dc
not respect such rule. A demented mem.
Der was ranging the highways the Other
day in shirt and drawers.
OBSERVER.