The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-10-21

do with me lie covers his face with
his hands.
Were you working before"
7 was a shipping clerk
Go around to Blank 4 Co. tomorrow
morning and tell them We sent YOU. Tell
them your name. They want clerk
Wen get in touch with them today and
Ine chances are theyll put you to work
II they don't COME right back here. Now
pfaee up-you're going to be all right"
lie hasn't anything to stay that night,
so the association gives him some money
ano tells him of a place to go. As ne
ieaves he looks about 100 per cent. more
cheerful than when he rang the doorbel.
All sorts come to the old-fashioned
house in East Fifteenth street You
wouldn't think that that well-dressed man
smoking cigar as he walks up the street
was Just out of state prison. He was
head Of trust company until one day
in 1867, when notice of suspension was
posted on its doors. Then they found
out about the banks loans TO him on
worthless collateral The association
doesn't need TO give him any money or
get him a job. He has a family and
friends. Sing Sing was a hard blow but
he's far from being Knocked out.
Then there's the man who was at
Sing Sing the first part OF his time and
at Great Meadow later transferred as a
reward Of good behavior. lie can tell
you All about thes miserable holes they
put men in at the Ossining prison. and
the other side, too, the 1,000 acre farm
seventy miles north of Albany where a
man works in the open and gets to view
ing life normally again.
How does the man just out feel2" you
ask him. rs he sore on society,"
'No." he answers, after. a minute s
rejection. He's not down ON society as
n rule, but he very soon gets so II he
can't get job
Bat lie allows that a man who had
spent all his time at Sing Sing might
very well be a sworn foe of society when
he got out. Fact is, he felt pretty bitter
himself before his transfer to Great Mea-
dow. Up there he gradually came TO be-
lieve again that there's justice in the
word.
One of the things that made him most
bitter at Sing Sing was being put in Il
cell with another man. Three feet and
u half one way, seven feet the other and
the ceiling fourteen inches above the
head. The other, man was eonsumptive
and had to be removed out finahy. Lots
OF fellows got consumptive in those cells.
Almost pitch dark, you know. and wet
walls and no air. The smell was sicken-
ing. Vermin bothered you till you
thought you would go crazy. One day
the man across from him carried on for
a long time and then tried to hang HIM
self with mis- trousers. The guard came
along. cut him down ond threw him back
in the cell.
He remarks ainllessly that he himself
got 1heumatsm pretty bad before he
was moved to- Great Meadow. Feel
ing all right now, though
Go to the house in East Fifteenth
street another day and you will find a
whole lot of visitors-nust be forty young
fellows seated all around the front room
and in the library in back. They've just
been paroIed from Elmira and Napanoch
refoTmatories.
Convicted OF felony. they were SEN
fenced to Elmira for terms of one to
three years. Some were transferred to
Napanoch because they We're older or
because they had behaved badly at Ell
mira. But finally they all attained the
privilege of parole by good conduct in
dustry and a small measure of scholar
ship. All had written letters by the doz-
en- to friends and possible employers
until each had got the promise of a job.
The agents of the reformatories referred
these offers of work to the prison as
sociatlon, which investigated them and
threw out the worthless ones. When the
job had been @. K..'d for each man the
reformatories released the lot of them
and lneN came UONH TO NEW Ofk UNI
accompanied by any prison officer and
reported first, as was their duty. to the
prison association.
The chief parole officer of one of the
refo ormatories is telling these young fell
lows that every effort will be made to
help them keep straight, hold their jobs
earn q reasonable amount of money and
by cbeying a. few sensible rules gain
their absolute release in six months OF
So Al least once month they must
report in person and at fairly frequent
intervals. in those first six months the
parole OFFICERS will visit them at home
and at their work. A few will be found
to be deceiving the parole men. But
at least three out of four Of these boys
they really are that--will gain their abb
solute release in short order and become
useful members of society.
That is the work of the prison asso-
citation These are the people of whom
o. Henry might have written on unbeat-
able story.
n