The Spanish Fork press. [volume] (Spanish Fork, Utah) 1902-current, 1908-04-23
Within the Prison Doors.

orderly conduct on Twenty-eighth |
street.
Within the Prison Doors.
The sorry procession, ludicrous in
spite of its wretched significance, as
Falstaff's army, marched from the
landing to the broad doors whose stone
steps had been worn by the feet of
thousands of the city's criminals
The door OF the great castlelike jail
swung back grindingly on its heavy
hinges. ITO the right" shouted the
man with the voice of tugboat whis-
tie, and the motley human assortment
went In at the open door of the ward
ems office. Warden O'Fallon, white
haired, bureaucratic of manner. with
crisp, metallic voice. sat at his desk
and peered from under bushy brows at
the women. Javert himself could not
| have been less emotional.
your age?" he said, peering under
| the bushy brows at Katherine.
"Twen-Oh, well. 30"
| And your" to Charlotte.
| Il am "a"
81 brought her up" volunteered the
voluble Katherine
And right badly, l should say"
came In the warden's crisp biting
tones. Murphy, call Miss Moriarity"
The matron, stout, soft-voiced, firm
willed, entered. She looked the wom-
en- prisoners over with level glance
Katherine preened and fidgeted. trying
to display her prettiness in a good
light. She flushed when she saw by
Matron Moriarity's cool glance that
for her she had no individuality. She
was merely on "of the new batch"
The First Night in Jail.
Come this way" said Miss Mortar
ity, and the female prisoners followed,
marching in pairs. Katherine still the
companion of the bent, mumbling
Italian woman leering at her own un-
translatable jests; Charlotte striding
beside the negress. Across wide.
rooted court whose stone floor rang
with echoes of the footsteps of the
prisoners, Miss Moriarity led her or
rather drove the prisoners, to the fe-
male department of the workhouse.
The long, high-walled, narrow room
repeated the sound of their footsteps
holloway, for the female department
was empty. The women were at work
in the laundry. the kitchen, or the
sewingroom.
The women sat down upon their mar
row cots for the very good reason that
there was nothing else to sit upon. In
the narrow grave-like room, white
washed walled. was a small rough
triangular bracket that held candle
a drinking cup, with space left for one
book, a small Testament At the foot
was an electric light. On rough
stand stood basin. That was all
The prison smell hung heavy upon the
tiny room, for the only means of ven
tilation was the barred door, through
the spaces of which filtered sligh
hint of the outer air that came through
the corresponding windows in the
great gray walls opposite the cell.
No Dainties at This Meal.
Such supper! No trufIles, no lob
ster, no champagne! Merely dr.,
bread and bologna and coffee, eater
from a tin plate, or drunk from the
cheapest tin cups with but one aid
for knives and forks are prohibited a
, Blackwell's Island. There, primitiv,
hands and primitive teeth are sup
, plemented by one tin spoon. instead
! of damask napery were rough, marrow
boards, scrubbed clean, but boards
, nevertheless.
q This, after the sunny. velvet carpet
, and silken draperies of their rooms a
the Waldorf storia-the truflles ant
q Holsters and champagne and scente'
!, cigarettes. The elder Of the Poillon
p dampened three handkerchiefs whil'
v she sat there waiting for the mast.
o meal to be over.
q The Poillon sisters on their frs
s evening ats Blackwell's displayed n
6 appetite. At the end of the Is mir
:. utes meal they joined another process
sion 1T seems to me they do notf
o ing but march here" complained Char
p lotte peevishly She met the stee
I gray eyes of the matron.
!. "You will find out differently t.
morrow" she said, dryly. There wi
1. be professions, but there will be wor
n ALSO
n To cells is and 10 they went agai
after tea. There, although the ele'
trio light may burn until half-pas
;. nine, there was darkness, and hilar
!, Gus negress ratified the door of her ce
- and cursed softly because the SCUM
4 of her neighbors' sobbing fretted he
g Beginning the Long Day.
3, At five the next morning the gon
Ir sounded. Every prisoner sprang OF
,r of bed. If she fingered she would b
punished Punishment, she knew
IS meant brief interview with the war
c. en-. and then the dark cell behind tn
N big iron door at the end of the mes
d hall. The dark cell, every prison'
st can tell you, breaks the boldest spir
m and renders the widest captive hur
ID BILE in few hours. 1t is, they tie
W you, an inferno of silence and dar
MI