The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-07-30
Disgrace to the City of Topeka
and Kansas.
ATTEMPT TO CLEAN UP
But All That Can Be Done Is
Intellectual.
Crying Need for Better Santa
ton at the Jail.

1.-The foulest hole in the United
| States" is mild Interpretation of
the curses and Oaths which Green G.
Carter vomited forth as he was show
ed into the bull pen" of the city
prison to serve 80 days for selling
liquor, and other prisoners echoed his
sentiments and yet no words were
| graphic enough to do the subject JUS
| tice.
The old Jail room is indeed I'M
| slightly Prisoners shrink back at it's
| grated door shuddering to spend
night in the filthy place. OFFICERS
| have frequently said: You couldn
get me in there. A fellow would be
covered with vermin in ten minutes
The old steel hunks are filthy, filled
with dirt and old blankets few dogs
would care to lie upon. An old bench
of heavy plank at the rear OF the
room affords lounging place for the
| prisoners. The walls are blackened
with dirt and with the stain of tobac-
co chewers-and worse the old closet
leaks, flooding the rear of the pen
every time it is flushed.
Into such place the prisoners nave
been turned for months and months
Every day, a trusty is detailed TO
scrub up the cement floor, but beside
running some water on the moor ana
hopping 1t up, little IS accomplished
by the trusty's labor.
The better class of prisoners in the
Jail are wont to secure newspapers
and other papers to spread out on
the cement floor to lie upon, selecting
that as the cIeaneSt spot in the place.
Not a little cause of the unsanitary
and i'll smelling condition of the pen
is the fact that it is placed on the
north side of the building with only
north windows barred and dark. No
Oh ir1fn he n
ify the atmosphere or d1spel the
dampness. The only ventilation is
by means of ten inch air shaft from
the ceiling up through the women
ward to the roof.
Patrolman Frank PARCELS said to-
day that he had spoken to City Ply
stefan Mitchell last spring about the
condition and was asked what he ad-
vised to do to better it. He advised
better ventilation, forced cleanliness
of the prisoners, and better cleaning
of the room and the use of disinfec-
tants but shortly DR.. Mitchell was
without office and nothing had been
done until today.
This morning the chief of police
gave the pen a careful examination
and resolved upon an immediate house
cleaning The Jail will be secured as. as
well as possible and the walls white
washed. But with formaldehyde and
carbolic acid it would require week
to cleanse the old hole and a change
construction
the only method of permanent relief
as suggested by Parcels.
Thomas Wade, a young negro living
at 1907 Monroe street, was arrested
last night upon complaint of his wife
that he had refused to support her
and her two children. Wade was
charged with vagrancy which in this
neglecting to provide for his family.
Annie Wade, his wife, appeared
against him this morning in police
court and told of his neglect. Wade
stated that he had given her $3.50 last
week, but she said it was but $3.50.
One of the children is not yet a year
old. the other but two, and the moth
er has been forced to go out to work
to help provide for the family wants.
Mrs. Wade is fraiI and looks worn out.
But the husband exposed his code of
ethics and the marriage plan. He
freely stated to the court that wife
is expected to furnish half the grub, |
pay half the rent on the house, and |
do her half of everything connected |
with maintaining a well regulated |
household.
Then the good judge assumed the |
role of instructor and gave lecture |
on the marriage vow which made the |
young couple both take notice. At its !
Wade promised to be good |
to his wife and would have walked on
home with her arm in arm but the
tragedy was not finished and he was
locked up in the pen with IS fine to
afresh until some one
shall pay him out.
"A young colored fellow, an old col
bred fellow came along carrying those
blankets and he come up to me and
asked me to buy them as I stood on
he corner of Sixth and Kansas avenues
With my hack. He said he had been
irving a team but was going to quit
md wanted to sell the blankets, said
lie would take a dollar for them and
bought Them" such was the expiana-
ion offered by Merl VanHorn, hack
lriver, FOR having in his possession
,air of horse blankets belonging to w.
r Lawless and he was backed up by
witness.
But there have been so many myster-
Gus colored men introduced into the
,olice court lately that the old judge
las grown afraid of them and SHES
ar away when they are ushered in.
these blankets have been missing from
he Lawless barn nearly two months
nut not until last night did they learn
Fhere they were and sent a policeman
yer to Oakland to bring them back.
he goods and was fined $40 which he
aid.
The crowd of disorderly colored wo-
nen detained in the wOmens ward OF
he city prison all week had grown so
oisy and boisterous up stairs that they
disturbed the whole neighborhood when
hortly after dinner yesterday the
udge came back to the office little
n his mettle and was disturbed from
is reflections. He called for the whole
ot to be brought down. Then he de-
ivered them a lecture SO severe and
threatening that an hour later as an
ficer went to investigate what had
lecone of them, found them all locked
n separate rooms and lying docile on