The Alaska citizen., 1913-12-01

| of old partners. it's feast and laugh and song rejuvenating the trail worn and making delightful De riod between the dull sentences of life.
 But there is salt in every cake. Passing by the jail one might have heard the despairing groan of d l -epentant man. and listening at another pint have heard the harsh laugh of woman's defiance to the world. It is not pleasant. One is moved to hurry on, saddened that such things must be on Thanks giving Day.
 Speaking of a voice from the prison. We are reminded of an incl dent few days old which well il lustrates the narrow -mindedness hard-heartedness and knotheaded- ness If some officers of the law.
 A man lay in prison under a sen tence to the federal penitentiary. He had come North. smitten by the gold lure, even as you and l. He tried the trails. starved. froze lost his nerve and turned to drink and crime.
 Stripped of his citizenship. shut away from the world, from sight Of the white hills or the dancing ainter stars, with no compani n but his conscience, he saw his life in yenitent retrospcction. In remorse for his wasted years he was prompt ed to utter a warning to others ere 1e was taken away across the trail o eXpiate his crime-the trail over which he had come a few years be- re flushed with mighty hope.
 So he wrote from his heart, sore and lonely. the spirit of restit1 tion guiding his pen. He charged others to beware of strong drink. offered himself as an object lesson and laid his very soul bare in a last iervice to his kind.
 Did the officer who had him in charge allow this writing to go to he world? Not a bit of it. This Heazen-minded arm of the law would have none of it. Whether he thought the dignity of his office de handed that he be cruel. or whether he feared to injure the liquor busi, ness, is not definitely known. Any | way. he figuratively choked the prisoner into silence. A sigh, leep drawn sigh. is all the prison ar must be allowed to indulge in.
 The dignity of the little office demanded this. Also the man was town. Let him stay down. If he res to rise, kick him in the face. It is the best way to make him good. One wound think that in a land so vast and grand as Alaska mems minds would reflect the bigness Of i nature about them. However. There are dead trees in every loItoI, anu tIlC OIllNtl inio dCpOi lS himself as though he were the keep CT of wild animals should be rele- yated to private life. He inspires no cne to be good His mind be- longs to the witchcraft period and not to the age of reason.
 ,S the famous Pinkerton Detective agency, said in a newspaper inter- view a few weeks ago that every man is potential criminal. This is not news to large per cent of the reading public, as few scientists have been trying fir the last twenty-five years to make this idea plain. However, it has added weight coming as it does from man who has had long Lifetime of experience with violators of the law. and whose father and grand father were detectives
 Pinkerton says there is no crimi- nal class; that every man, under certain circumstances, is liable, very fable to become enc. This knoN- edge is no doubt what prompted Frances Willard to remark as she was being shown through the half completed structure Of state peni- tentiary: Build not your prison
 
 for your own sons. Yea, even for