The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1914-07-18

to SO the institution because he had
to stop every minute and visit with
some youthful malefactor sent up by
Topeka courts.
In the woodworking department he
found ono Lopez. q handsome young
Mexican who now makes elegant fur
niture' instead Of felonious entrance
boiler room 2 PottaWafom10 INDIAN
Joe Etawan. who II shoveling coal ana
getting some Of the cussedness stewed
out Of his system.
As he passed through tho various
scenes Of industry Kiene talked to .
dozen or moro other Shawnee county
products, some bad. some worse. some
victims Of circumstances, and all In
sisting that they were awfully good
boys and wanted out. A review Of the
books kept on the behavior OF each in,
dictate that some Of them were cheerful
for each the sheriff had q kind
word. and he left them smiling when
he said good bye.
Boy and His Honor.
Some strange stories are told of the
reformatory inmates and their ideas OF
honor. Rarely do they tell tales on
each other or violate trust Not long
st8o y OOys VINO was truSty auu WOIA~
ed on the outside driving q wagon dur
ing the daytime, was sent to town
alone. He made the trip, as he had on
several other occasions. He had all
day in which to escape, could have left
his team, caught a freight train and
been miles away before his absence
was even suspected. But he put away
his team. cleaned up his days work in
shipshape and then spent several
hours of ingenuity and strenuous effort
in climbing over the high stone wall to
freedom.
At the reformatory inmates have
more chance to frame up revolts or
schemes of escape than do the prisoners
at the penitentiary. The restrictions Of
prison life are absent. They talk to-
gether and to the officers, and have
many privileges, and considering the
fact that many Of them are naturally
bad, the wonder Is that they are 20
successfully handled by the small num-
Der Of guards and officials. Many OF
them work on the reformatory farm.
outside the walls, where the vegetables
for institution use and the provender for
the live stock are raised. and but two
guards stand between these farm
workers and the rest Of the world.
Herr Is Efficient.
Before leaving the reformatory the
sheriff and newspaper man called on
Superintendent J. N. Herr the sheriff
to visit about the inmates from Shaw
nee, and the latter to renew an ac-
quaintance started in the legislature.
And notwithstanding the press reports
that a Democrat could not possibly
manage the institution. the incidental
visitor got the impression that the
Gentleman from Barber" is about az
competent as any one could be. He
knew the history Of every boy, and
had the books at hand to verify his
q 10 <<11 ~
young offenders and handles them in a
firm and kindly way. When a boy
doesn't get along well in one depart
ment he is tried elsewhere before be-
ing branded as had. A Topeka boy who
couldn't take any interest in tailoring.
is getting nice string Of credit marks
in the printing department. That Herr
considers the health Of his charges il
attested by the fact that only three
beds in the painfully clean hospital
ward were occupied, one by a boy who
proudly exhibited q recently removed
appendix In pickle Three or four
boys with sore fingers or temporary
ailments. made up the entire hospital
list.
Mr.. Herr seems to have but two
vital interests, the first being the re-
formatory. and the second the political
and he doesn't let either interest con-
flict with the other.
The visitors first impression OF
Hutchinson is small town full OF
people and flies. There are more flies
In one Hutchinson block than there
are in the whole corporate limits OF
Topeka But Hutchinson has some
thing that Topeka has not, and that
Is an automobile street sprinkler that
does the work OF about q dozen old
fashioned tank wagons.
Harvest IL the general topic OF
conversation and advertising in Hutch
inson at present. Every store has some
kind Of a harvest sale: everything il
sold at harvest prices" whatever har-
vest prices may be. AZ for tempera-
ture. it was lot (official) in Hutchin-
son. and 107 (estimated) in the Santa
Fe train that wandered back to To-
peka. All the passengers suffered
even tho gentleman who was going te
get off at LAwrence-and, gosh! how
he dreaded It. because his last bottle
was almost empty. -H.G.P.