The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-02-01


this trouble. And above all your spirit
is cowed and PROSTATE from years in
prison; you have known the long, sterile
bitterness Of penal servitude and you
have no stomach for n fight.
No. you will not fght--you cannot.
You will stand up in the dock and con-
fess to something you never did and
throw yourself on the mercy of the
court. Your friend the detective whis-
pers To the Judge, Hes an incorrigible;
he ought to get the limit" And his
Honor gives you ten years. II is less
than "A week since YOU put off stripes
and went out into the world resolved
To make good. II you outlive your un-
deserved sentence, will you ever resolve
| to make good again?
Can such things be? Indeed they can,
and they are. There is poor G. in At
lanta now. the victim of such a deal.
and :. and II. and many more. G. in
deed told me, and | believe him.. that
he never committed any crime at all
other than to get drunk and to sleep out
| on the road he was apprc nded for
vagrancy. then charged with post
office robbery in another State (Which
he had never visited) and advised by
the detective who took an interest" in
ing let off with a light sentence; he got
the limit and will wear out his youth in
| Jail. while the detective is complmented
! for his efficiency.
The Government is extravagant. What
is the use Of spending money on a
| shoddy suit Of clothes for each one of
| thousa nds Of convicts every year and
| giving each Of them a 81 bill with the
certainty that in a large majority Of
| cases they Will be back in their cells in
| a few days or weeks or months? Look
| up. 4 you please. the statistics as to the
| number of convicts Who are second or
| third offenders. Nay, the Government
| Is itself the prime and most effective
| cause of their getting back. since it is
| Government spies that provide the evi-
dence that sends them up.
| iIut can We afford to trust ex-con-
victs? Must we not keep a s.ric, eye on
them? II the strict eye were also a
friendly one. 1t might be Of some avail
But our hand is against them, and
| we need not wonder that theirs is
against us.
| Not only are we their enemies when
! hey emerge from Jail. but (as has been
repeated Unfortunately by every investi-
gator who has been qualified to speak
|
only schools Of crime. In other words.
We first educate men To be criminals by
putting them in places where they can
learn nothing else. and then We ! 'ep
them criminals by shutting against
them. when freed, every opportunity to
earn food and lodging in legitimate
ways. And then We complain that they
are not to be trusted.
| Neither can men fed on posons be
trusted to be well. Jail life is poison
Gus; / think 1t was Judge McI.eland
who said last summer. our million
| dollar reformatories offer university
courses in bestial!ty and crime; IT is as
| logical to send a man To Jail To- make
him better as 10 shut him up in IA gar
hage can to improve his digestion.
Forty per cent of those who go to
Jail. go back again" he added zone
man went back l16 times. Others are
sent because they are poor and cannot
pay fine. and they are there made real
terminals"
An instance Of this occurred in
Georgia chain gang while | was in At
lanta. \ man was sentenced for play
ing cards for money. He could not pay
| the $i5 fine demanded. and in default
was sent to the chain gang for eight
months. He wore stripes night and day
and II contumacious was whipped 10y
the guards.
His work was in n stone quarry. a
deep hole, into which the summer sun
poured an insufferable heat. He was
forced To do his work with "A forty-nine
pound hammer in that funnel shaped
pit at 100 degrees in the shade---if he
could find any shade. one day. he told
the guard he was sick and could not
work any longer. The guard shifted
the quid In his mouth and remarked
that he ought To have said 80 that
morning.
But the man meant what he said and
proved it by dying "A day or two later.
Probably you may have played cards
for money at some time in your life.
Did 1t ever occur To you that YOU mer-
tied torture and death for il?
Or do you think that, after such an
experience tif you survived it,. or after
being twice arrested for the same crime
and kept in Jail five years three times
over, or after doing time for n crime
you never Committed-that you would
come out at the end Of ii all, smiling,
full of energy and enterprise, loving
your neighbOr, eager for honest toll?
Would you embrace Mr.. Meyer cor
| whoever your jailer was) and tell him.
| with tears OF gratitude. that you could
never repay him for" his warm hearted,
big Drained care of you-the starving.
the dungeoning. the clubbing and all
| the rest Of the university course?
Would you feel like that? OR would
| you stare out upon the world into which
YOU were contemptuously tossed with
dull, hating, revengcful eyes. suspicious
Of all men. hopeless OF good. hut re-
solved to get even, 80 far MS You might
| by plying the evil trades which your
life of slavery had taught you? Would
you behave like Christ upon the cross
or like an ordinary man? Convicts are
| ordinary men, except that they are
often. to begin with. diseased men. or
hemmed in by conditions 50 untoward
as to make an honest life ten or a hum
dred times harder than 1t ever was for
you.
| But You did not scruple to put this
diseased or unfortunate version of your
self into the Jail cauldron to stew there
with others like or worse than himself,
for doing what. in most cases. he ac-
tually could not help doing; and when
at last he was elected like stale refuse,