Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-10-26

| DUN L USE BROOMS.
Then he elucidated. Brooms, he said,
raise dust without necessarily removing
it. In the prison only mops and rubber
cleaners supplied with an abundance of
water are used. And since there are no
/ rugs or draperies, there is no Judgment fol
dust at all. That accounts for the clean
illness of the place and also for its free
dom from odors of all kinds. Across
corridor from the hospital is the phar-
macy and at another end is the chapel
which was being used yesterday afternoon
for a school room.
| Some 60 students were seated there
learning to read and write under the in
structlon of DR.. Upper and Father Nor
row, the chaplains, assisted by three or
four of the prisoners themselves. Only
about 25 per cent of the inmates are i'll
| literate. Glasses are held on Saturday
afternoons and during two weekday eve
nings
] Adjoining the chapel is the library, con-
tanning several hundred histories, novels
and works of instruction and diversion.
Thackeray and Dickens are there and the
poets. TOO.
What do the men read mostly?" was
asked.
BALzAC A FAvORITE.
| Novels" was the warden's answer.
They seem to have a particular liking
for Balzac."
The library is supplied with card index
system and careful record is kept of each
inmates reading from the time he enters
until he leaves.
| In the tailor shop under the direction
of Joseph Meier. whom the government
| has employed particularly for that pur-
pose. group Of prisoners were making
coats and trousers and overalls. Every
article of clothing used in the prison is
designed, cut out and sewed there
| The same thing is true of everything
else required for the life and comfort and
safety of the place. They are the prod
uct of the inmates. Indeed the prison L.
like some vast machine which supplies as
though through secret of perpetual mo-
ton the very needs 1t creates
! Having gone through every department
inside the big building, the attorney gem
eral. Mr.. LaDow, and the others proceed
cd to the foundry and shops on the
grounds. Here they were Joined By
Superintendent of Construction William
H. Foster, who is supervising the work
on the new buildings and the great wall
1t was in this Connection that some of the
most striking observations of the tour
were made.
Every stone, for instance, that goes
| into the walls is shaped by prisoner
! Beautifully chiselled capitals and key
stones are fashioned by safe crackers
and train robbers, men who until their
! entry into the prison, knew no more or
this craft than they did of Byzantine
! architecture. 1t is a significant fact
and as the attorney general remarked,
a pleasing reflection, that the prison has
never held a skilled mechanic Espe-
! cially remarkable is it, therefore, that
! such substantial and really artistic work
as that which marks the building now
| IN progress at the prison is executed al
together by men who did not undertake
this trade until they were we'll into mid
| die life or past it.
| CRACKSMEN TURN ARTISTS.
! Andrew McElroy, superintendent of the
stone cutting department, said:
! 1T generally requires a prisoner three
years or four to master the craft, but
you see what sort. of work they are
| doing --.-..- .-s5
Students of education would find an
OF ulence of suggestion there.
The iron doors that guard each cell,
the benches, the desks for the office
chairs, tables, wheelbarrows, hnrseshoes
! bolts, hinges, all these and hundred 9TH
er things are made behind the gigantic
wall and in making them the men be-
/ come useful they grow healthy in
mind and body and stand better chance
to face life successfully when they are
| free again.
Andrew McElroy, foreman of the stone
cutting department; Hugh Crawford
foreman of the stone setting work; II. w.
| Quinn. head of the brick and steel work
| operations and B. B. Rich of the ma
chine shop. have all shown excellent ca
pacity in producing results from prison
labor that will bear comparison with
those to be found anywhere in the
| country.
| AcroSe tba spacio,,s co,rt room, Sror, 81, =,
| stone shed is what is called the isola-
| ton building, where patients supposed to
| have contagious diseases and refractory
prisoners are kept. Warden Meyer ex-
planned the method of dealing with a
| prisoner who refuses to work.
II had such a case not long ago. he
said to the inspectors. 81 told the man
| that others were working for him and
! that he should be willing to contribute
his share to the general welfare. He was
! obdurate. l gave him "a hours in which
| to think the matter over. He was still
| obstinate. Well 1 said, 1T will be much
| better for you as we'll as for others IL
you will work. but If you won't, then
| you must accept the natural consequences
| of failure to work We brought him here
to the isolation building. He was put into
| solitary confinement without anything to
| eat. He was given to understand that
| IOOu IoQulTeu idDOT. IN u Jay ana a ndlI,
! he was ready to shoulder his duties
/ again
There was a lesson drawn deep from
| the principles of life as it ought to be-
The prisoner was taught. kindly yet in
| exorably. the great gospel of work.
One of the most interesting features of
| the entire institution is the tuberculosis
| camp which DR.. Fowler has established
in circle of tents. There are now doz-
en- or more patients being treated there
| on fresh air, milk and eggs and sunshine.
! They sleep in the breezy tents day and
night, winter and summer. Nearby is
| little house built almost entirely of glass
In which on bright wintry days the pa
! tients are placed. stripped to the waist, in
order that the sun may fairly saturate
| their skins. The results that are being
secured are notable in medical science,
| for If ever there was signal proof of
| the efficacy OF open. air treatment this
| is one.
AS you walk over the prison grounds,
| you see here and there bed of flowers,
old-fashioned flowers. like pinks and
| black-eyed Susans and violets. They look