Arizona republican. [volume] (Phoenix, Ariz.) 1890-1930, 1914-08-05

Governor Hunt was an interested
spectator at a special performance of
The Warden and the Convict
through the courtesy of Manager j. d.
Glass of the Columbia theater yester-
day afternoon. The evident purpose
of the playlet, aside from the all-per-
vasive one of banishing ennui from the
minds of the theater- going public, is to
present in dramatic form the basic
principles and recognized tenets of
modern prison reform, a move
ment which, regardless of its
its merits or its subsection to censure,
is engaging the attention of score of
state legislatures and four score mil
lions of people in the United States to-
day
Very naturally, and precisely as was
to be expected, the governor, whose
applied prison methods have melted
more discussion than any other single
public issue in Arizona during the past
two years, found a keen interest in
witnessing the presentation of a sketch
atrocities perpetrated behind prison
walls under the old system of manag-
ing penal institutions and to portray
the rancor and avenging desire that an
mates human being whose spirit, like
that of Convict 1884. the central figure
of the playlet. has just failed of being
broken by torture and Indignation such
rlrtS n oil
adept in devising. After the rehearsal.
the governor was manifestly impressed.
when asked for an expression of his
views concerning The Warden and the
Convict" he said:
While the realism which the author
of this sketch has resOrted to may
shock, to some extent. the people who
never delve into the terrible soualor.
brutality and suffering of the Sub
merged tenth" of our population, the
plot as a whole is instructive and illus
trates. in its development some of the
facts in the soul of a convict Those
people familiar with the inside work.
ings of brutal prison management are
well aware that the character part of
he received from his keepers are not
at all overdrawn. At the same time,
the writer of the sketch has not over
looked the fact that paternal love and
solicitude for a dependent family are
not crushed out of prisoners heart by
any punishment, however severe. Per-
haps the greatest lesson to be derived
f,x1
the deplorable truth that innocent and
dependent families of convicts suffer
no less than the husbands and fathers
through the sentences imposed by
courts under our present system of dis
pensing penalties for crime The char
acter role assumed by Mr. Henry Sic
bert Smith. who played the part of the
Warden, was apparently quite true to
life under those methods of penology
which are rapidly becoming obsolete.
While the vernacular employed by the
young woman who plays the role of the
convict's daughter is decidedly more
forceful than elegant and might not
prove highly RECALLING to the average
playgoer. | have no doubt that the
playwright in this instance felt il nee
essary to make his production ring
true" by introducing a certain amount
of criminal slang, the prevalence of
which in the underworld has recently
been made the occasion for the pubica
ton o. dictionary. devoted solely to
such vernacular Viewing the sketch
as whole, I regard it as well worth
seeing, not merely for purposes of en-
tertainment, but for its educational
value as we'll"