Semi-weekly herald., 1911-05-18
.CONVICTS TAKE PART
IN OPENING DRIVEN AY

celebration that should not be over
looked. That feature is the devotion
OF the prisoners at the penitentiary
to Warden lyman and the state. De-
votion is used advisedly. Few there
were in Fridays throng that reached
the top of the Royal gorge who knew
that the band of fourteen players
was composed Of men, all of whom
are boarders with lyman and seven
of whom ARE life termers. Few there
were who knew that the guards who
kept the people back from the cliffs,
that the patrolmen on horseback along
the road, and that the directors at the
various turning points and dangerous
places and that the men in charge of
the automobile water supply stations
were also prisoners, over half of
whom We're serving sentences that
would average over ten years Yet
such was the case.
The prisoners had built the road and
il was their road and they had right
to enjoy and participate in its open
ing. Thus, before the crowd was
started up the fourteen miles of new
ly constructed thoroughfares, u few
over hundred of the inmates of the
prison We're taken out and without
guards We're scattered along the way
from the west end of the sky line
drive to the top of the gorge for the
purpose of directing the crowds where
and how to go. Others were given the
task of checking the machines up and
down the road, and still others were
given the task of acting as policemen
to make the crowd take care of itself.
They were not dressed in prison
garb, and perhaps of the eight hun
dred visitors who went to the top not
fifty knew they were being watched
by prisoners. Again when the exer-
cises began with the rendition of
America" by well uniformed band
only few knew that it was the pen
itentiary band and that its leader,
Russell Bowles, was life-termer and
six others We're also life-termers, and
yet the fourteen men were there par
ticipating in the celebration not even
under guard. They had come up in
the prison wagon with a driver who
was also a prisoner and had led the
procession. Many of those who fol
lowed Immediately behind thought
they were following the Canon City
band
Thus the word devotion" was used.
These men had no more intention of
running away than they would have
entertained had they been locked in
their cells. In addition to the one
hundred who were participating in
the opening of the road, Warden Ty-
nan stated that he had three hun
dred and two out in the various road
camps in the state with only two
guards going from camp to camp as
certaining what supplies were needed.
Such a condition does not prevail
in any other prison in the country.
Warden lyman and Former Warden
Cleghorn were both in thee rowd at
the top of the gorge. They were min
Cling with these men the same as they
mingled with the visitors. There was
no caste between the wardens and the
prisoners. There was no saluting, in
fact nothing, to show that the men
were under restraint.
Il can trust them whole lot fur
ther than one can the men on the OUT
SIDE" said lyman. "Ihere is pc
culiar honor among them that makes
them live up to their promises. They
know that this is privilege and they
know that to break faith would mean
punishment, but they are not loyal
because of any fear of punishment
They are loyal because on the whole
they are honest men and II treated
honestly will give honest work, serv-
ice and devotion in return. When the
sun goes down tonight every one OF
these men, from the band master tc
the young fellow who was carrying
water for the automobiles at the steer
grade on the hill will be in line te
be counted as one of Colorado's pris
opers."
AS the writer looked over the mei
in the band, and listened to the music
they were rendering; as he watched
their faces as they listened to the ad
dresses Of the various speakers; as h,
mingled and talked with those VIII,
were acting as guards to keep th'
crowd back from the cliff; as h,
watched the work Of those who ha,
been appointed special police, and a
he considered the efforts of those scat
tered up and down the hill for tn,
purpose Of assisting the crowds, ant
then as he realized that each and al
were supposed to be paying some deb
which they owed to the state becaus