Arizona republican., 1911-12-04
THE CONVICT In Prison and Out
By FRANK E. McCRARY.

Russell published in Hampton's Mag
 azine under the title. Beating Men
 to Make Them Good" story of the
 Ohlo penitentiary. The following
 written by one who is now an in
 mate of AriZona's prison. but who
 was confined in Ohio's penitentiary
 during the time described in Mir. RusselIs story, may be found of in terest:
 Parole Clerk, Territorial Prison.
 Dear Sir:-Your remarks as to the power of kindness in influencing men in prison, reminds me of an incident. with which, as an inmate of the ohio penitentiary, at Columbus. was familiar. In this institution there
 was built, at the end of the east cell wing, steel cage, in which were confined four men, known through
 the entire community as the prison demons. Two of these men had been
 leaders in an attempted escape. by rushing the front gates and had per
 sonally taken part in the killing of several guards who had resisted
 them. After their break had proven failure, these two men turned un-
 ruly. and it had been the experience of the administrations of both Ward
 ems Coffin and James, that no form of punishment-the paddle-the dark
 hole-suspended by the wrists-and
 the water cure-nothing could infIu- ence them and as a last resort, these
 two administrations. known in the
 prison as HARD administrations.
 built and used the Demons Cage. About the same time. one Otis Hur- ley had stabbed a woman bOokkeep- CT in one of the prison contracts had been tried for his crime-and likewise tuned sou and knifed sev- placed in the cage with O'Ncill and Atkinson. as was Ira Marlatt. who had for several years previous earned the right to be classed as prison demon. Marlatt had never hestated to attack any official. or any in mate against whom he bore any ill., feeling and his entire body. from his scalp down, was a mass of scars that bore evidence to the punish ment he had undergone from both officials and inmates.
 If ever four men were what could be called incorrigible, these four were certainly deserving of the name. They were constantly fighting among themselves. constantly making knives and weapons for use in their fights against each other-obscene language gross profanity was hurled at every one that approached near their cage. A guard with loaded rifle was plac- ed outside the cage to keep them in check-yet despite this. they broke off the iron legs of their wall cots and held melee that was historic. fighting like the famed Kilkenny cats
 \ new administration came in known as the Darby tcrm-after the warden, Wm. \. Darby-a man who had been q puddler in the steel mills, man of strength and will, d man who knew no fear-who had been sheriff of his own county and by his clean politics had made himself state chairman of his own party, and
 BilP Darby's first official act was to visit the Demons Cage. The guard on duty begged him not to go inside the cage. as every officer that had ever entered had been attacked-but Darby ordered the guard away. out of sight and earshot, and, turning the key. stepped inside the cage, locked the door behind him and held an hours conference with the men. What was said no one will ever know, but at the conclusion of the hour. he led the four demons out into the prison campus, into the glow of the sun and under the green of the trees they had not seen for years. and those who saw these five strong men, four of whom had never weak ened before many officials-the other d strong man. with strong mans knowledge of human character-said that every man was weeping, for strong men do occasionally weep.
 The next day. these four men the man killerS-the demons-werc at work about the campus or in the shops. and. it is a matter of prison history. that these four men were never afterwards punished, nor did they violate the confidence placed in them by MT. Darby. Hurley is now out on parole-Marlatt. who is q 'lifer' says he does not want out O'NeilI and Atkinson died in the pri- son.
 "It is perhaps. worth while say ing, that, when Warden Darby re- signed his position, after serving two terms of two years each, the inmates presented him with a diamond stud | ied watch-and the contributions to Lhis fund were limited to 2jc and no man in the prison was without means .o contribute This. merely to show | what the inmates thought of q man who recognized manliness in the nf mon