Atlanta Georgian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1912-1939, 1913-06-27
The Manicure
Lady
By WILLIAM F. KIRK.

EsT SEE where a suffrasist named
I7ez somebody was up to the
penitentiary the other day in
vestigating the conditions in the pris-
on" said the Head Barber. q sup
pose so many of them ladies has been
guests in the English jails that she
wanted to pick her out a nice apart
ment."
Il was reading about it, too said
the Manicure Lady. Il seen where
she asked to have herself chained to
a convict. or handcuffed to him, to
see how the things worked. I sup
pose she thought that would be
something funny for her to tell her
girl friends after she got back home
out I wonder If she had any regard
for the poor convict's feelings. I think
II is kind of bum comedy for a free
girl to go around getting handcuffed
to an unfree criminal. The poor fell
low must have felt like a awful Joe
when she was standing there grin
ming. She could go out and ride
l away IN her auto, and he had to go
back and keep on being convict"
Not Pleasant.
Il don't suppose prison conditions
are ever very pleasing" said the
Head Barber prisons amt built to
be pleasant homes. II they was, lot
Of city folks could break their leases
and move there. But think that
there is a lot of good fellows In
charge of some of the prisons. that
tries to make it as easy as a hard
life can be. And them Jail investiga-
tons don't do much good, anyhow.
The Investigators go away. and if the
warden is a devil he will be a devil
again the minute their backs is
turned only worse. It's too much Of
a problem for girls to solve, any
how"
Brother wilfred was In jail once, :
said the Manicure Lady. The poor
boy was arrested by mistake when
he was coming over from Birming
ham on a fiat car, and he had to
spend a day and night in Jail before
he could get to US. I guess It was
awful for one of his proud spirit to
be sticking around a little cell in the
cooler, trying to explain that he
wasn't the real pickpocket. I know
" Frustrated, and got so luny in the
night that he raved about the horrors
Of a prison until Pa had to get up
and get him a shot of high proof stuff
off the sideboard. to prove to him
that he was at home and among
friends"
Did they treat him mean when he
was IN there?" asked the Head Bar
I Der
mo" said the Manicure Lady, 81
Bguess they didn't pay no attention to
him at all, He said when he got
home that the worst thing about a
jail was the environments one is
placed in. Wilfred was always kind
Of particular about his surroundings,
and even If a prison cell Is nice and
clean you must admit. George, that
the surroundings is kind of minor
League.
IA Poem.
when Wilfred got rested up from
his awful experience he wrote a poem
called My Prison and sent it to the
Flour & Feed Courier He was so
tickled when they printed it that he
has always said since that in a way
he was glad he had the experience.
This is how it went:
My prison cell was small and dingy,
With here a flea and there a jigger.
The architect must have been quite
stingy
or I think he would have planned
1t bigger.
Now roam 1 free beneath the stars.
And with pure joy my heart does
swell
Because 1 hate them prison bars
That kept me in that awful cell!"
Amt that the limit" exclaimed
the Head Barber. when that came
out in the paper they ought to have
sent him right back"