The San Francisco call., 1910-04-03

gatling guns. etc. The convict are bri-
gade and several hundred other prison
ers We're taken out and sent to fight
the fire. In all 500 men-sOme of them
decidedly dangerous men if handled as
such men are usually handIed-risked
their lives to eXtinguish TIVE thing. One
convict fell from a burnh z beam and
lost his life. Some 20 or 80 were over
come by smoke and had to be carried
by their comrades to the hospital. All
the time ii was like all fire lighting
men rushing hither and thither, bawl-
ing orders, breathing sitting smoke
plunging into wreaths that hid them,
moving swiftly always-vast confusion
300 convicts out at once and possibly
20 guards-all the guards being kept as
busy as the cOnvicts. And when it was
over every one of those prisoners went
back TO his cell tired out, some OF them
utterly exhausted. many badly burned,
others with lungs sore from smoke
They went back to their cells and no
one but did it; none tried to escape.
There was another occasion when
six men upset a boat out in the bay
A number of the convicts were allowed
to strip and swim out in an attempt to
rescue them. And that night convicts
dived for hours to recover two OF the
bodies.
The convicts themselves are the
ones who like best to tell Of these
incidents. They seem to hold a sort
Of pride in them. A sort of pride is a
fine thing to produce esprit du corps.
Esprit du corps sounds Queerly when
one is talking about a prison. But
other things sound queerly now when
one is talking of San Quentin, where
the warden goes down into the crowd
ed yard alone and talks freely with
the men and bumps against them.
They do things at times yet which
NJ Ma fO ,fr,fx
are not pleasant to talk about. These
are convicts, sent up for crimes. fell
onS. not common jailbirdS. Some
times one Of these very naturally acts
like a square jawed criminal, and
then he gets results in the way of
punishment. 1t is a prison-a prison
housing 1900 odd stripe clad men, and
the warden does not speak of himself
as a reformer. But you may mingle
with the crowds in the yards and you
may pass through the jute mill while
the men work behind the clacking
looms and you may walk through the
dining hall while they eat at the long
tables And you will find many who
look you fully in the face and few who
shift sidelong eyes toward you. Which
is more than can be said OF that same
place in years gone by and more than
can be said of nearly every American
penitentiary today
vict's term of servitude does not end
under this faulty system of our social
body-when he leaves prison walls. He
has always met with more discourage
ments than helps in making his way in
the world. To men VINO are often weak
or bad. such weights prove bad handi-
caps indeed. The problem of parole
and helping Of discharged men IS Just
beginning to attract attention among
wide awake men. Since he took Office
Hoyle made some changes in this line,
changes which have helped The men,
bers of the prison board have interested
themselves in this.
Upon American penitentiaries many
severe criticisms have been Justly
passed. San Quentin has gotten its
share; and it deserved them. A prison,
badly built in years gone by, over
crowded, carried on under system OF
statutes which have not yet begun to
catch up with the times; an institu-
tion to which the peOple-the body
politic-pay no attention; it has been
good example of the average thug fac
tory in the average commonwealth.
And in thiS<day-when thinking men
and reformers are trying to find bet
ter laws-it is interesting, not to say
refreshing, to find how much one
practical man has done under bad con-
dftions. 1t seems to show how vastly
important-more important, perhaps.
than the statutes under which he works
lis the personality of the man him.
self-the warden.