The leader-enterprise. [volume] (Fitzgerald, Ga.) 1912-1915, 1913-05-12
WILLIAM SHORT
From Chief Of Police Of
Fitzgerald to Man Tanner

can has brought reform after al
most two hundred and fifty years.
Chiriqui Prison, as it is common
ly known, has as dark and tragic
a history as any in the world. and
for hundreds of leagues through
out Central America its name has
always stood for the ultimate in
horror. 1t was the Bastille of
the Spanish Government, and
those who entered it's portals
found the exit too narrow for the
living. This Bastille has fallen.
William Short, born thirty-two
years ago at Commerce, Georgia,
a soldier for several years in the
Philippines, and for long time con-
nected with the y. S. pen =
tertiary at Culebra, Canal Zone,
is the man who brought the light
of day into Chirqui's social dun
geons and released it's prisoners
from worse than death. Chiriqui
Prison is now considered a model,
and Ell Director Short is boosted
of by the Panamans as the most
advanced prison reformer and
handler Of criminals in the lower
Americas. The Republic Of Pan
anna recently gave him further
powers, and within a few months
the old fortress, with it's huge,
thick concrete and rock walls, its
patio and enormous dark dun
geons, will present a new aspect.
And in his treatment of the most
desperate class of criminals in
the world Short is proving that
the Central American, the jana
lean, and the Carib are human
and amenable to human treat
ment.
To show exactly why Shorts
name stands for much with the
citizens Of the Spanish Republic.
one must understand the condi-
tons ne has had to contend with.
Chiriqui was originally built to
guard the approach to the city of
Panama two hundred and thirty
nine years ago. 1t rises from
the rocky bluff that juts out from
the heart of the city. and it's lofty
walls are as much as forty feet
thick on the seward. 1t incloses
a courtyard some hundreds of
feet square, the sole entrance to
which is through a massive por-
tai. Within it's walls are great
arched cells, or dungeons, whose
winowless depths have received
many men and women of note in
this tumultuous part of the world
Spanish pirates, English bucca-
neers, aristocratic intrigants and
women whose beauty was fatal
to themselves.
When Director Short came owe r
from Culebra to take charge of
Chiriqui, he took one look at the
place and it's occupants; then he
sought Governor Jose Peredes.
Il must have free hand" he
told him. You have almost 40
cases of benberi already"
This is not an American pris-
on, F" Short was told.
Il know that" retorted the
Director; :but, with all respect
to the Republic of Panama, | be-
lieve a little United States fresh
air won t injure Chlriqui. "
Governor Peredes smiled and
acquiesced.
The new Warden took almost
forty barrowloads of filth out of
one cell, and thinks it was the
first house cleaning in hundred
years. For two months he clean
ed things up. Mrs. Short reno
waited the Warden's dwelling,
which is perched high up in one
corner of the court yard, and
then they both started in to
change the prisoners from a band
of mutinous and murderous
wretches into human beings.
At first Short had a hard time
to convince his charges that he
was in earnest. He had still
harder task to convince the Pam
amans that he was not crazy to
abandon time-honored methods.
But he stuck to his guns and kept