Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-05-05
CONVICT BREAKFASTs
ARE PALATABI
Journal Reporter Takes Anothe, NJ.
the Prison and Discusses Food Ss.s', -
With the Men

A 6 o'clock breakfast with the con-
victs at the Oregon state prison was
the experience of Journal reporter,
who, day before yesterday, took sup
per with them. There was no notice
of his coming, and the 300 prisoners
filed into the congregated dining hall,
with the turnkey, the reporter and one
guard in the iron cage, armed with a
Winchester. The reporter was served
with the same food out of the same
big boilers and steamers and on the
same plates with the rest of the
"cons," and 1t was not even handled
with a silver ladle, but the liver was
picked up by convict with his bare
hands and thrown into tin plate
The coffee was what Mark Twain ie-
scribes in "Roughing 1t in the Ne
vada Mining Camps" as "slumgul-
lion," and none too good at that, The
prisoners are not given strong coffee.
1t is drank as the French say cafe au
noir," but 1t is coffee, and, sweetened,
it does not taste bad and in fact is as
good as many cheap boarding houses
serve. 1t tasted good so early in the
morning, and some of the men took
several big cups. A part of one did
the reporter. 1t was prison coffee all
right enough.
The Breakfast Menu.
There was a slice of beef liver on
each plate, and about a quarter of an
inch of good brown gravy, seasoned
all right, and first-rate to dip bread in
to. There was rice with hot sweet
ened milk, slightly favored with va
Mia, and potatoes with the jackets
on. Plenty of everything.
rs this the regular thing?" was
asked of a prisoner.
1T wouldn't be any different if
Christ had come" Aaid the guard.
1T is a little different from day to
day and the year around anybody will
get tired of any boarding house bill
Of fare. The only difference here is
the boarders don't change around very
much"
The breakfast was hearty, the food
abundant, and well prepared. There
were no griddle cakes and maple syr-
up but half the workmen in Marion
county don't get as good a breakfast
as these prisoners got The Journal
reporter proposes to go out and eat
dinner with the prisoners some day,
and see what they have for the main
meal of the day. So far as he has
gone, the newspaper stories of the
men being underfed don't pan.
TRUSTEES Get the Same.
The TRUSTEES working on the county
road are fed the same breakfast, and
the statement that they got three bet
ter meals made in this paper yester-
day was not correct, as they only cook
their own dinner, and that may be a
little better but not much than the
dinner served in the prison. Some Of
the guards on the state road work eat
with the prisoners, and eat the same
food they eat, and so it couldn't be
very bad or the free men wouldn't be
eating it. The cold, naked truth is
that the newspaper reports to the eff
feet that the prisoners are underfed
are pretty near lie made out of
whole cloth, but none of the news
papers, except The Journal, will take
the pains to verify or correct their
own statements once made. And the
people and the prison employees seem
to like that kind of newspapers pret-
ty we'll, so the people and the prison
employees should not complain too
much at misrepresentation as the al
legged papers give them about the kind
of papers they like and are willing
to take and pay for.
Constant Misrepresentation.
The state prison and the Salem In
dian school have been the victims of
constant misrepresentation in this
matter of mismanagement. The press