The daily Gate City. [volume] (Keokuk, Iowa) 1855-1916, 1911-03-26
Warden J. c. Sanders, the Man Who
introduced New Ideas at Fort
Madison Prison, Pen. His
Thoughts.
BORN A SECOND TIME
Prisoner Upon Release Should be a
New Spirit Incarnate in a Re-
built Body, Born into
New Life.

The tenth annual bulletin of the
Central Howard Association of Chica-
go, an organization which has for its
object the aiding of prisoners upon
their release from penitentiaries, has
an interesting article from the pen of
Warden j. G. Sanders of Fort Madi-
son. The title of it is, "The Man Co
ing Out" The warden writes:
do not feel enough can ever be
said to eternally damn, as they should
be, the vicious, barbarous, degenerat-
Ing methods which until within COM
paratively recent years, robbed Pen
ology of the right to be classed as
science, and converted our prisons
and penitentiaries into forcing beds
for the terminating and spreading OF
folly vice and crime. Society, how
ever, has paid the price for the mis-
taken views it endorsed, and as the
new era is fast sweeping away the
old, have elected to deal with the
man produced by it, And mark you,
say MAN. for in Iowa we are trying
to make men in our prisons today.
not ex-convicts. want to feel, and
am going to feel, when the day of lib
Grafton comes, and man stands in
my office prepared to re-enter the
world, that society is about to receive
back in the economic value of the
man returned, the principal and in
terest on all it has cost to produce
him. But to come at once to my sub
ject, the Man Going Out
| If there is one thing a man needs
most at such time it is self conf
dence. Its absence marks the weak
| ling and is almost sure precursor
lof his certain return to old habits of
thought with their accompanying re-
suits. Self-confidence rests upon
self-recognition of ability. and this in.
turn is the outgrowth of experience
which has been productive of pre-de-
Esigned results. If in his prison expert
tenceeh has been taught that results
all results-come through intelli-
gent, systematic application and has
learned to concentrate his efforts and
apply himself and thus to realize
them, he would be strange anomaly
if he lacked confidence in himself
This is education expressed in its
highest term, acquired under that
master preceptor, experience. To the
man imbued with this spirit. society's
attitude toward him he feels is imma-
terial, not that he vicariously courts
it's hostility, but he is possessed Of
the sublime assurance that his char
acter force will carry him through. Ac-
companying this attitude and as vital
to it for him as the sunshine to the
rose. is to make of the past a dead,
and SO far as it is possible, forgot
Ten existence. This ! know is con-
trary to the theory of the value of its
lessons, but the man who, like Sin
bad, burdens himself with IAN old
man of the sea- and thus accepts a
self-imposed handicap. possesses but
little of the initiative in his character
/ The man going out whom | insist
upon holding in view, ought to be a
y
born over a second time into a new
life. has nothing in common with the
dead self buried in the past. If he is
not such he ought not to be released
Why then embalm ii in memory and
forever travel in the company OF a
mummy, The funeral urn never pam
pered to anything but a sickly, morbid
sentiment A constant reviewing OF
failure is no inspiration to succeed
The most sanguine temperament falls
a helpless victim before ravishing re-
greet. and the man or woman. ex-pris-
Ioner, allowed to reenter society I'M
fortified by the philosophical truth
THAT the past must have eliminated
in the present to make possible hap
pier, better. greater future, has been
badly instructed in the ways of Provi-
tdence-ever witness to the wisdom
and mercy that reioiceth more ovel
the lost sheep tina. is found thar over
the Ninety and Nine.
Next to self-confidence and a stoica
attitude toward the past the import
ant thing TO man going Out ID pui
pose. | do not mean merely purpose
to do right-that, OF course, will be
conceded essential. What dc
4 mean is definite, well considered and
reasonable aim something higher ano
beyond. God alone knows how many
men inspired with the best of inten
tons have gone forth from our pris
ons and penitentiaries within the past
year, who have failed, are failing, oil
will fail Simply because they have
been led into attempting commercial
impossibilities. The responsibility fol
these failures will rest less on the
men themselves than upon us. II
there is one duty above all Others we
owe to soc ETY., to men and to our
selves, it is to see that the man go