Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-06

: GRIFFITH j. GRIFFITH e.
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their little homes with photographs or
pictures of some loved one (allowed them
under former managenfenD, and some
would have several members of their
family hung up in neat little frames.
Some would lovingly point out these pic
lures and say: This is a picture of my
dear father and mother" or this was
my good wife," or daughter" or my
sweet sister," and sometimes add, land
this one was my loving sweetheart" ETC.,
etc. Many prisoners are serving long
sentences, nearly 200 being life-termers,
and many of them keep their little homes
(cells) as neat and inviting as possible;
many had little boxes with locks. to keep
little things that to them were cher
ished treasure.
Act of HeartIessness
One morning, when prisoners were at
work, Warden Tompkins called his men
together and ordered them to ''go
through" every cell and take every pic
ture, frames and ALL and also every box
and all books Except library books and
everything else that would be near and
dear to the hearts of the unfortunate
prisoners and place them In the fire.
A great bonfire was kept burning for
several days until he supposed everything
was consumed. The bonfire was in full
view of the laundry in the middle yard,
and one day, as passed by, an old pris-
oner who was forced to feed the flames,
called me and after seeing that no one
saw him, handed me book, saying, For
Gods sake, colonel save this Bible" and
L did so. and had the book rebound in
Los Angeles. 1t bears the name OF
prominent divine who presented 1t to a
lifetime prisoner.
In order not to tire you will relate but
one more sad story of cruelty. very
Intelligent prisoner, who was one of the
best musicians in their band, was work
ing in the machine shop when Warden
Tompkins sent for him and said: There
is dope (morphine) In the prison and un-
less you tell us all about 1t / will put
you In the jacket and have you squeezed
till you do"
Shows Awful Brutality
The prisoner answered politely by as
suring the warden and those present that
he not only had no knowledge of any in
the, prison, burt would not know 1t If he
saw it. In spite of this frank and truth
full denial, the warden ordered Captain
Harrison to "lace the - - In
the jacket tight and keep him there till
he tells" The poor helpless man was
days and nights and then released be-
cause he was about to die. The unfor-
tunate man is living In Los Angeles now,
crippled for life, and in one of his letters
to me he uses this language: Forum
ately | was a powerful man, of wonderful
endurance, but this treatment has left
me physical wreck unable to do full
days work at my trade, and turned loose
on the world physically handicapped,
AfA httf a n
sickness"
Every intelligent man In San Quentin
knew that he was being tortured and
yet not one dare say even a kind word
for him.
I slept in room A for fourteen months,
right over the dungeon where most OF
the torturing is lone, and hundreds OF
times heard pitiful cries for mercy, foi-
lowed by human means and groans.
You may ask what prevented the prison.
ers from making some demonstration of
sympathy. My answer is, they dared not
for fear of being shot. 1t was said that
Warden Tompkins had 125 men under
him. walking arsenal with five rapid
fire Gatling guns, 10S breach-loading Win
chester rifles, sixty double-barreled
loading shotguns, seventy-two rapid fire
revolvers and 12, 900 rounds of ammunition
at his command.
Works for Humanity
Within the state prison walls of Folsom
and San Quentin are some hardened, nat
urally bad and desperate, but the great
majority are not bad men. They are ac-
cidental and unwilling victims of circum-
stances over which they had no control;
others did something construed to be an
infraction of the law, yet the victim was
not criminal at heart; still others, on the
impulse of the moment, did Sometning
that placed them within the pale df the
law, otherwise they would make good cit
izens If properly treated
1t was on behalf of the deserving pris-
oners that spent two whole months at
Sacramento last winter, advocating the
passage of three important bills. One was
the indeterminate sentence bill, another
was a better parole measure, and the
third segregation and grading of prison
ers. Thanks to the intelligent legislature,
all three passed both houses unanimously.
The governor, however, who had 400 bills
to consider within ten days after adjourn
ment of that body, failed to sign them.
AS the legislature does not meet for an
other year, the object of this article is to
give all Interested people ample time to
consider the plan suggested herein of
changing San Quentin into modern re-
formatory during the next session of our
legislature. If any interested person
doubts the wisdom of the change sug-
gested, I shall do myself the pleasure of
calling on him, either in Los Angeles or
San Francisco, at my earliest convenience
and lay all the facts in my possession be-
fore him. am not discussing these mat
tiers for the notoriety or WEALTH. have
both.
Has Deepest Sympathy
E / am deeply in earnest about these
things. and my knowledge comes from ex-
perience and is ample and profound
A thousand prison visits would fail to
give you the knowledge that possess.
Ny haarf r4Anhas out in sympathy to a