Sequachee Valley news. (Sequachee [Sequatchie], Tenn.) 1896-1952, 1904-11-17
THE POWER OF the SILENT
ILLUSTRATED BY AMERICAN PRISONS.
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BY B. N. BARTON.

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Looking for the true cause OF all that
is good, noble, and right, it is found to
be the outqrowth and influence Of that
part of the human family which is
known as the Silent Factor.
As the power of the silent and the
spirit Of humanity belongs TO all races,
and has been stimulated by many OF
the religions of mankind, and its div
isions are so numerous, the instinct OF
s4lfl,bness, the influence to human ills,
the hardness and cruelty, which have
come down from ages of barbarism and
thousands Of other divisions are all so
deep and extensive in their golden les
sons that the speed of time makes IT i'm
possible to do more than make a gener-
al remark about them all, and then take
a special case and show it is similar to
| each.
Humanity has attained its highest d.
yelopment and greatest power under
Christianity, and in modern society, its
silent influence has become so great
that even those who deny the supernat-
ural origin of christian religion and re-
iect its doctrines are often filled with
the spirit which it has especially Guilt
waited in the world.
The history of our own nation has
teen no exception to this silent and
powerful working of Christian Faith,
both through its organized and present
united forms, 80 the discussion will be
applied to the American prisons to see
the power of the silent, and its devel
opment,
How sad to think the American PEG
pie are so little acquainted with one o
the most striking and important phases
of our history, and where the rea
source of its power is.
: Notwithstanding even the horrors ant
,, inhuman treatment of the slaves or In
dams there has been no other equal t.
that of the prisoners.
Though there should be a place t.
keep the outlaws, as it would be un
wise. unsafe and demoralizing to hav
them continue their evils, therefor
the violaters should be punished, bu
q not in the manner they were during til
. first fifty years of our nation. For vi
der those conditions there were no class
v ifcations, and the accused, boys an
. girls, men and women, the black lun;
d tic and the thrice condemned convlc
. we're all placed heterogeneously in tn
same dark filthy crowded, inhuma
and ungodly dungeon, without disc
= pline, but with the privilege to Sc
g their clothes for liquor, to gamble
e indulge in other forms OF wickednes
;, until the prisons became not to TUT
:; devils into men and women but to mai
men and women deVils-a school
crime to turn out the accused, the CO
demned and the unfortunate, all,
> the end of their terms as thOroug
graduates in Drunkenness, gamblin
lewdness, and all that is evil.
They were then ten times more ski
ed than before to impart their sint
knowledge to the free American yont
Still the lunatic and insane are left
these dark, impure dungeons, whe
even plant life will cease to exi'
Much greater would be the destructi
effect upon animal or human, and thel
fore these poor, pitiful, unconscio
creatures are allowed to wallow in be
OF straw till death.
Now who would not say such thin
are inhuman, and that these crimini
should be placed in prison to keep the
from the rest OF the world not all
gether, but in classified divisions, 81
arating the men from the women,
sane from the insane, the young FRI
the old, the debtors from the thew
the unfortunate from the gamble
and the criminals and accused from I
condemned, all under strict discipiil
+ but with the privilege to moral enco
agement and moral instruction. TIL
should have separate cells, viii
should be kept well ventilated, Gle
: and light, instead of dark and filth
And certainly they should not be
lowed to lie there in ideness, but fC
ed to labor, thus becoming educated
d industry and pay the state for th
maintenance, for at first the expense
the prisons to each state might raj
from one million to six mill
F. dollars annually. They should be
warded with a per cent of the daily
| come, or a shortening of their sente
ed time, and citizenship be given
| those making certain records.
| sick and insane should be administe
to and cared for, and not allowed to
| without an effort made to relieve th
suffer,ngs, as we're the conditions
| more than fifty years. Then in accC
! auce with the laws Of nature the p
oners would become better, pay expt
| es, and the prisons would become
form schools, not schools Of crime
insanity.
In the expression OF Edward Livir