New-York tribune., 1905-11-19

the ordering of a prison regime, as the
automatic obedience, which, under the
rules, makes a good prisoner, goes far to
unfit him on release after a long term
to take a responsible place in this strug-
Cling self-assertive world. In all save
those who have cultivated a spirit of
resistance (however unexpressed) the
will becomes utterly paralyzed, and every
initiative dies of self-distrust. Shall
t. May l." Ought l. to do this, that
or the other thing? are questions that ever
haunt the mind, and resolution after
resolution dies still-born. Yet society
makes little or no provision for those who
after long years of automatic existence
are finally restored to freedom. Mere
erown-up infants now in the most
strenuous of worlds, with regulations
shattered and hardly anyone to say a
good word for them or a kindly word to
them, they are yet expected from the
start to make their way against what
would be nearly insurmountable obstacles
under the most favorable conditions
And then when failure ensues in spite OF
the best intentions (as is almost bile
except some friendly hand tides them over
the breakers into what is at best
troubled haven), society visits their
moral shipwreck with added penalties
How much we are creatures OF habit,
or rather of successive and of repeated
experiences, is we'll illustrated by my
inability compared with ante-prlson
davs} to remember details such as names
and dates. In all prisons to degree,
but in English institutions above most,
the individual wholly loses his IDENTIFY;
nor is there aught within his ken by which
to identify or remember the passing days,
weeks or months. No newspapers are
permitted, and even the innOcuous
almanac is credited with revolutionary
influences. The only chronological break
in an English prisoners existence IS
marked by the bimonthly letter that one
is permitted to receive, provided he
has not infringed some rule and so
forfeited this most highly priced privilege.
Hence all those minute subdivisions OF
time by which one regulates existence
in the outside world-suCh as stated
household dates and visits-are repre-
sented under confinement by an absolute
blank Every minute detail of this
existence in bondage is arranged, and as
to no single act need one take previous
thought, for your very rising in the
morning and lying down again at night,
as well as every other act of the days
routine, is regulated by the ringing of
a bell. 1t has, therefore, been by no
means an easy matter to take up the old
life wherein | must attend to my dOings
and goings myself
Much of life's daily routine is accom-
plished almost automatically or sub
consciously. because of frequent reiter-
ations But when one has no kind of
tine-experiences as background, one is
wholly dependent on memoranda and
the clock. Accordingly, it is not strange
that |, in these circumstances, am often
late in keeping appointments, or seem
careless about this or that, when l am
really not, or at any rate not through
needless inattention.
Shopping, which is commonly supposed
to be womans delight, was to me at first
the cause of such bewildering perpleXity
as to fill me with dread. During my long
seclusion from the seductions of fashion,