Waterbury evening Democrat., 1907-09-13
CONNECTS FAvoRITE BOOKS.
Most Popular Volumes in the Library
 at the Connecticut State Prison.

 ally cultivated among the convicts in the Connecticut state prison. If the prison library of 1000 volumes were abolished many felons who now de- vote their spare hours to the reading Il of fiction and stories of adventure or to the study of more serious works would become morbid and depressed. H Scores of prisoners develop warm friendship for particular authors. A library catalogue Is placed in each cell and a convict has the privilege of drawing books twice week.
 Behind the bars, as in free life, fic> tion is the favorite brand of litera- ture. Thirty-five per cent of the books in the library are works of fic- tion, but 50 per cent of the circula- tion represents novels. The volume of fiction which last year was drawn more frequently than any other was David Harum' The breezy fun and | horse -jockeying in Westcott's popular novel appeal immensely to the con- victs. Many of the prisoners had experience with horses before they had experience with courts. Timothy Shay Arthur's highly moral tale of "Ten Nights in a Bar Room" Is called for frequently. It will per haps please Alice Hogan Rice to know that the delicious humor of Mrs Wiggs of the Cabbage Patch" makes the work one of the most highly ap- preciated novels among the Connectt- cut felons.
 These particular works had larg- CT circulation than any other volume of fiction last year. But various other story writers were very popular too, and their plots and dialogue and yarns fascinated the penal imagina- tion.
 Naturally many prisoners find keen enjoyment and diversion in the pe-
 rusal of works of travel and adven-
 ture. The book of this class which l last year was read even more often
 than the most popular novel was Col
 onel Cody's Adventures of Buffalo
 Bill" Whatever may be the literary
 qualities of this book the exploits
 which are recounted in it have caused
 many a prisoner to forget all about
 locks and bars for awhile. It is the thrillers that take. Another eagerly
 drawn book of this class is Hough's
 Story of the Cowboy" The strenu-
 ous life, as exemplified in Roosevelt's
 Hunting Trips of a Ranchman," is
 a favorite of it's kind, while the stir
 ring tales of the volume called . Scouts, Spies and Detectives" natur- ally finds many readers. Avary's "A
 Virginia Girl in the Civil War" is
 another book whose pages are steadi-
 ly thumbed by the offenders at Weth-
 ersfield.
 The circulation of history at the
 prison is practically the same as that
 of travel and adventure. The three historical works which commanded
 the largest reading last year were
 Senator Lodges War With Spain,
 w. J. Abbott's "Bluejackets'. and A.
 o. Abbott's Prison Life in the South"
 Cautiously enough the proportion of biographical works drawn is only slightly more than half the percent |. Iage of this class of books in the li- lbrary. Nevertheless, some of the bio- , graphical volumes are in frequent de- tmand. The lives of Jerry McAuley, Abraham Lincoln and Helen Keller,
 in the order named, were the best lik- , ed works of biography in the state H. brary at Wethersfield during the past year. The careers of these three per ' sons, strikingly unlike in their main . features, appeal keenly to the convict , mind.
 The humorous work which has the
 largest circulation among the prison , CTS is Eli Perkins's Thirty Years of |, Wit" Following 1t closely comes Mark Twain's Extracts From Adam's lDiary"-a volume which evokes many a smile behind the thick walls Two books that were edited by Tom r Reed-"Anecdotes and After Din - ner Speeches"-are greatly enjoyed. One of the most widely read books r of the whole library is Maud Ealing 3 ton Booths work on After Prison i What?" This volume is rarely found !. idle on the library shelves. Mir , Booth, who is magnetic orator, ant . who is deeply interested in discharged convicts, has spoken in the prisoI chapel several times, and consequent y ly the prisoners feel the touch Il l. her book.
 8 The religious section of the librar, l. doesn't lack readers. Pilgrims Pro gress" has an undying attraction 10
 prisoners and last year 1t was tn
 most read book of its class. Other re ligious volumes that are called fo ' are Bonar's How Shall Go to God? n Challoner's "0ld and New Testa , ments," Augustine's Confessions d and Hepworth's Hiram Golf's Reli d gion." A copy of the bible is par l, of the equipment of each cell.
 It is interesting to note what tn i. prisoners like to read in the realm , social science. The book in this clas z which is taken out more than twic
 as many times as any other is Pro Wyckoff's "A Day with Tramp an U Other Days" The next most highl e prized volume in this department n- signTfigantly, Coggin's Law an Is how to keep out of it" Two otht a favorite books, widely differing an
 having no features in common, al n John Mitchell's Organized Labor n. and Ferris Criminal Sociology if Two per cent of the circulation ,r the library represents poetry an - drama. The two most widely req
 poets are Shakespeare and Browntn - although Shakespeare Is called f' v five times as frequently as brOvnln C. The hold which Shakespeare eontil 'l- mes ,o have on all sorts and cond Y tious of men is a striking tribute e the sweep of his genius Sever