Arizona republican., 1913-09-12
LIFE OF MEN IN
 CONVICT CAMP
LIFE OF MEN IN Work and Play Pretty Well Mixed for Prisoners Who Are Building State Bridge at Fairbank

That the convict camp al Fairbank. Arizona, is the best place in the Unit ed States for the development of lat
 ent base ball material, is the opin-
 ion of Arthur Woolf, guard of the convicts at the camp. The convicts have cleared away the mesquite and
 brush and have Ieveled enough of the flat near the camp to afford ample
 room for the practict and playing of
 the national game On this impro-
 vised diamond the men of the camp
 gather each evening after the days
 work and play either a game against
 picked teams from their own num-
 Der. or practice in catching flies and grounders. Sundays there is q crowd
 on the diamond all the time.
 This is but one of the pastimes of the prisoners. In the evening they gather in the tents of the camp. and indulge themselves in card games, and if the occasion is propitious. if it is a moonlight night or a rainy night. the boys sing till time for the re- tiring bell. nine o'clock. There is a pond some mile from the camp, and when there are enough of the fel- l lows desirous of a swim there is al ways guard willing to go with them to the pond. Here where the water is cool and deep, the boys may swim and dive till tired. when they crawl out and follow up with q walk in the hills
 But play is not the only part of the life of the men in the Fairbank camp. Beach day the men work eight hours There, they are building a |. bridge over which the Fl Paso. Phoe- nix road race will pass and these men furnish the labor for making
 that bridge. They run the engine
 which sets the pile. and digs the
 holes for the piers. They pour the concrete for the piers and set the
 steel for the bridge. and under the
 supervision of competent carptnters,
 they build the frames into which the
 floor of the bridge is poured. They
 have already completed the abutt- ments on both ends and work on the west side floor has been started. The
 bridge will be completed in time for the racers who come through the state in November and with the work
 of the men who are to be set or
 the road outside Bisbee soon, a good
 road for the Fl Paso race is assured all the way through the southern part
 of the state.
 In the mess the men are fed as well as is the average man on the outside of the fence Meat is furnish
 ed to them three times daily, and
 there is plenty of everything for them
 to eat. They have to be fed, for
 they have to work and by the way
 they are receiving two days for one
 for all the time that they are on
 the road just for good behavior and for the good they do the state and the states roads.
 Every man has the opportunity tC make for himself little money and to spend that money under the super vision of the captain of the guard. The means of money making is vari- ed. Some make horse hair ornaments such as hat bands. belts, and fobs. Others beat silver Still others do blacksmith work, and some are all | lowed to go to the town of Fairbant | under supervision and do odd jobs for which they are better fitted than the little labor which may be found
 in that place. With the money which the men have, they buy tobacco, pipes clothes which appeal to them more
 
 | they are allowed to wear after they | have been marked with the owners number, sweets, and stationery. That there has been little trouble l in the camp. and that the men are as a whole satisfied with the camp and the life that they lead in the camp is the report of MT. Woolf. | There have been but few escapes,
 and these in the early days of the
 camp, and during the past month | there has been little or no trouble | in the camp, either in the shape of 1 attempted escapes or lnsubOrdlna- l tion
 Mir Woolf came from Fairbank | here last week that he might be pres
 ent at the wedding of his sisters in l Tempe. Wednesday, He will return 1 to the camp the latter part of this l week or early next. where he will again take up his duties as guard l on ba bridge.