The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-02-01

frequently in contact was H, n yegg
| as the term is.
When a guard is escorting batch OF
visitors about the prison, he speaks oi
! the yeggs In an omjnous tone, as II they
| were some deadly monster, hardly to be
| even looked at with impunity. But
| yeggs, as a body, are the best men IN
the prison; they have code of honor
and strength of character Outside, they
blow open safes, and do other risky
4, Jobs; and they will shoot TO kill on the
occasions when it is their life or the
other man 5. They will DO this. because
they know what a prison is, and also
what spies outside prison are But they
will spare your life, If possible; not be
cause they care for you-they hate and
desPise you, as being man who would
be and have in the past been mcrcllcss
to them, and as hypocrite who is
either rascal on the sly or would be
if YOU possessed the courage or were
subjected to the tcmptation-they spare
you not from mercy but from 81 settled
policy; killing is bad business, aud
means sooner or later violent end for
the killer.
Most yeggs are men of more than
average intelligence, and sometimes OF
fair cducation; they were not born out
laws, uUt, IL YOU CHn VIII lucu W Sp'dh
of themselves, you will generally find
that they have undergone things both
! in and ont of prison enough to make an
outlaw out of a saint. Most men sue
cumb under such things, and either die,
or become cowcd In spirit; the yeggs
have survived, and their spirit is un-
broken. They hold the highest place in
the estimation of their fellow prisoners; /;
and the warden and the guards fear
D.E hns hnf Inl
TO inflict seventies upon them except
upon some pretext at least plausible: !:
for the ycggS know the rules, and
though they Will submit without n
whimper to the cruclest punishments If
cause can be alleged for it, yet wanton
liberties, such as prisoners less well in
formed or more pusillanimous submit
to, cannot safely be taken with them.
The yeggs stand together; they have
esprit de corps, and If, as happened
last summer AT Atlanta, the food sup
ply drops actually to the starvation
point in both quantity and quality,
they stand forward-as they did then
as champions for the rest Of the
men; they protest openly, they will
not be wheedled or tcrrorized, and
they 20 to the hole as one man, Nor
will they como out then until the
! warden comes 10 them and promises
L -
not because he desires improvements,
but because he fears the scandal of
mutiny in the prison-an inconvenlent
thing when one is supposed to be con
ducting model institution; and even
an easy-going public, which Will toll
crate other forms of cruelty to con-
victs, feels conjunction about starving
them, especially when it is taxed to
provide them with wholesome and sui
ticient food,
About my friend HI have no
space here TO tell his story, nor to out
line it even; IL is a terrible one.
may be able some time. IN another
place, 10 present it in full. / will say
now only that he was once confined for
three years in contract labor Jail
which has the worst features couceiv-
able in any prison of today or OF
hundred years ago, and men are killed
there by overwork and puuishments ns
n matter of routine: few survive the
treatment so long as II. did. Once dur
ing his three years he uttered three
words aloud; for that he was punished
so long and so savagely that the horror
of it vet remains with him. Prisoners
constantly MAIN their hands volun'
tarily in the machinery in order to he
quit of the torture of the work; the
bleeding siumps OF their fingers or
hands are roughly bound up and they
are driven back 10 their machines. The
warden is an oily, comfortable rogue.
who beams upon visitors and fools the
prison commission 10 the top Of ITS
bent, and he bears an excellent reputa
ton for the large amount of work he
gets out of his prisoners. They Just
love it, my boys do, - he AYERS;
"nothing like work TO keep the men
happy, YOU know And then, when |