The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1914-05-21
"AFTER PRISON, WHAT"
This Writer Considers Condi-
tons Which Brought Us
Here, and Gives Advice
for Future
By Slirers

| ny OGCeTS
How many times have you asked
yourself this question, After Prison
What" A great many probably.
at least l know that / have, and
have tried to find the answer. Per-
haps if l give you the conclusions
that | have reached it may help you
in solving the problem in your own
case. l do not wish to preach a
sermon because | am not capable,
and am not in position to do so,
but do want to start you to think
ing, for it is said that once man be-
gins thinking, he begins to workout
his own salvation, and that is just
what we must all do.
TO start with, we will not argue
the point as to whether you or |
were guilty of the crime for which
we were sent here; we all know
whether we were or not, but we are
here, let that be our starting point;
for in all things there must be a
starting point, also an end.
Our starting point finds us in
prison cell. where the end of the
question will find us remains to be
seen or found. Assuming for mo-
ment that we were guilty of the
crime for which we were convicted,
the first question will be, does crime
pay? By that, mean. does crime
pay in dollars aud cents. There is
but one answer and that is, no, en-
phatically, no. Crime does not pay.
Let me prove it by facts and fig
ures
The Profit of Crime
The crime you commit nets you
$4,000 (and that is setting it very
high. You are arrested and con-
victed, then sentenced to five years
in prison. During those five years,
or five years less good time'' which
is three years, seven months and
eighteen days. you could earn at the
ccmmonest day labor $2,77O; this
Is OH basis of $3.50 per day; and
deducting 210 days from the three
years seven months and eighteen
days for Sundays ard holidays; you
lose $77O. But you also lose that
which is without price, namely,
liberty and good name. No, crime
does not pay.
Now that we have found that
crime does not pay, we come to the
question with which we started:
After Prison WHAT"
If crime doesn't pay wewill have
to look elsewhere for the answer.
The first thing is to find out if we
are fully convinced In our own
mind that crime is poor paymas.
ter and the next thing is to
get the fact firmly in our mind that
we can't beat the game: for as sure
as We think we can. we are only
setting trap for ourselves. When
we have dieested these two facts we
are at point where we can get at
the main problem and solve it.
Its Up to You
You may say once a criminal
always criminal. The people out
side won't let me go straight, they
will hound me to death" Forget it!
There may be few bigoted people
outside, but the vast majority of the
people will give you square deal
if you give them one. 1t is up to
you. l do not mean to say that
they will welcome you with brass
band AMI fatted calf, and that you
won't have to hustle and watch your
p's and as, but what | do mean to
say and firmly believe is this, that
if go out from this institution, and
live clean, honest life, and become
useful member of society, instead
of menace, the vast majority of
The members of society will give me
square deal, and not only that,
but see that others do the same; it
is up to me.
The days when the members of
society bounded the ex-prisoner
from one position to another is past;
new motto has taken it's place, in
stead of knock him" it is boost
him" and give him the same
chance you would want others to
give you; for the ex-prisoner is but
good man or woman gone wrong.
In conclusion there are three
thoughts I wish to leave with you:
First.-Crime does not pay.
Second-You can't beat the game.
Third-It's up to you.
And the motto of our paper. 1T
is never too late to mend'' is one
that we should never forget.