The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1913-07-10

dollar for supper that was not good, but
it gave you an opportunity to show her how
little you cared for money. 1t left you
with about thirty five cents, but you didn't
tell her that. In the evening there might
have been fireworks and after that you
start for long ride home in the moonlight.
The dad blamed mare is anxious to get
home, too, and goes too fast to drive with
one hand. But why not drive with two
hands? What were you intending to do
with your other arm, anyway You ar
rive home long after her folks, yet it is all
too soon, and on the way to your own
home, some two miles away, you let the
mare out, for you don't care how fast she
goes now. Do you remember, old timer?'
Yet the prison journalist can do the NOR
alizing sermon just as effectively as the in
direct variety. The force of these prison
preachments is that they come so straight
from the heart. They can take such
text as ''The Devotion of Women or
"Does 1t Pay to Be Crooked?'' and drive
the moral home as hard as the most elo-
quent of evangelists.
"No man can read the prison press,
observes Mr.. Reedy, without finding in
himself growing sympathy with anything
and everything reasonable that tends to
empty the penitentiaries of their inhabi-
tants." Surely an unbeatable declara-
ton!
The same writer's remarks upon the evil
dence of the romance of experience"
among the prison journalists seems justified,
too, although there might be an unkind
suspicion that Oscar Wildes are rather
scarce and that some of the verses being
printed have seen the light before-they are
so good that they have flavor of reminis-
cence.
This gives prison humor a unique trait;
but the locals would be distinctive in flavor
without it by Boosting such morsels as
these:
Little ]. L. R. is happy guy. No
thing to do till tomorrow.
''Jessie says when he gets the soupbone
warmed up the catchers can't hold him.
"The Ferry Indians, Chick and Dirty
Face are now numbered with the trus-
ties.
"Wanted-A short story writer to write
Mystery No. a. Apply to 'Ty' Cobb,
124 Musical Avenue.
They call him Curlie BERTHE when
He dons his baseball toys
His really. truly Christian name
Is 'Frenchy'. alias Frogs"
"Sad news. Some one took, stole and
carried away the mouthpiece to the bass
drum. Rob says he can't play without the
mouthpiece."
Often enough the humor verges on
pathos the minute you pause to give the
joke second thought:
"Jack, Slim and Andy had quite an ar
gument the other day as to which was the
handsomest when a babe. Jack claimed to
having been awarded the beauty prize as the
brainless wonder Slim says the neighbors
used to borrow him and exhibit him as
their own, he was so handsome, while An
dy AYERS that the ladies fought for the privi
lege of kissing him, he was such cherub
when baby. Evidently time makes many
changes. What?''
Or perhaps you fall to wondering what
has happened that good education or
wealth of natural ability were misused. 1t
is hard to know what to think when you
have finished with such a paragraph as:
''The Women's Writes department of
the Star of Hope, devoted to New York's
prison for women at Auburn and edited by
one of the lady inmates (No. 842), is al
ways filled with interesting articles. The
editor is evidently lady who has had ex-
perience in journalistic work, as we'll as
being possessed of the happy faculty of
weaving sunbeams and smiles into her
Words
So gradually does the humor grade into
pathos that you may be only half conscious
of the change. The Spectator by the
Wayside,' prisoner No. 6435 in the Ore
gon penitentiary, can almost see the fair
grounds from his window, he writes. He
will miss this fair and many more to come,
"but that doesn't keep fellow from think
ing what time us country yokels used to
have circus day, fair time and Fourth of
July back east. Dad burn these city ways,
nohow, by heck!'
A good sample of prison magazine verse
is this creed of the Vagabond from the