Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-07-08

While this article 10 oeinS written
long. lean lank, sandy haired, stnewy-
armed man. serving life sentence for
a crime Of violence. II In q room above
the dining hail OF the Iowa state peni-
Tertiary at Fort Madison. He il
squirting a keen. eritical,-g gray eye at
the result. Of his labors The product
he seeks is a set Of photographs which
shall illustrate the place where he
lives, the men with whom he is asso-
ciated. and the one personality toward
which he has learned to look for all
that remains to him of life.
The old penitentiary wall is hlgn
and thick, and from the outside one
can see broad stretches Of the Missis-
s.ppi river and the wheat fields far
away on the Illinois shore.+fhe ancient
stone cell house. built haN a century
ago. raises its steep roof above the
red brick smokestacked contFalt-iaSo1
prison factory. and pigeons perch on
the ridge pole against the sky line or
take fight over the new and large cell
house across the penitentiary yard and
out into the woods on the hillside be-
yond.
This prison receives the worst that
the iron hand Of the Iowa law selects
from among eviidoers; here come the
yegg, the burglar. the unregenerats
repeater" the incorrigible, and the
killer Of man. Over 500 are here to-
day.
Five or six years ago this iowa pen
| was like most Of our prisons. 1t was q
place where men already pretty far
gone were sent to be dropped over the
abyss into the class of the irretievably
lost 1t was fair sample Of one OF
the important institutions of our civili-
| cation, and it represented a good deal
Of the brutality, the savagery, the ig-
norance, and the senselessness OF the
| thing which remains today as our bar
| barrie penal system. 1t represented the
conditions which will not change per-
| manently until public opinion. legisia-
lures, and courts take as much inter
II .ac nan who comes out of pris-
| on as in the man who goes in. Five
years ago IN iowa they maintained
piece Of leftover middle ages-a little
more vulgar and cruel than felony, q
little more. damaging to society tnan
crime.
| About that time they changed war
dens in Iowa. Up in the western par
Of the state was a school teacher-a
high school principal. There are as
| tinctions among high school principals
! and this high school principal had MS
distinctions.
| He had been bandmaster with
circus; he had played professional
baseball and been an umpire In one
of the western leagues, and in man,
other ways he had come close to num-
an life. His face was full OF GOOD
nature and the eternal spirit OF boy
hood: his body was stocky; II yot
looked for it you could find q strong
suggestion Of will power somewhere
behind his bantering eyes and in tht
lines about his mouth and In his thick
thumbed. powerful hands. That wal
J. c. Sanders.
Hard Tickets" even In those days
werr 10 Sanders lie difficult game u
the keen sportsman. The tough oos
and the girl going in the wrong dtrec'
ton were to Sanders As the piss-st
most willy. and earnest fish in tn
waters. The worse they came. IN:
better did this man like them. WheE
he had landed the stubborn youth II
the net Of his confidence. and repaired
the damage done by UNIT parents. o.
by unfair home life, or even by tn
crooked deal Of heredity. Sanders
spirit would throw ifs head baci
somewhere inside Of him and crow fks
la rooster. Sanders was having -