The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-03-01

men were -mployed on road making
chiefly, enjoyed the benefit Of free air
and the outdoor scene, and kept order
and faith among themselves. But the
prison walls were still aruond them,
though unseen. They were told that
ished by deprivation thenceforth Of all
liberties-any attempt! and if the es-
cape were successful, the fugitive
would know that the chances Of re-
| capture were thousand against one
Moreover, it was laid down that the
escape or attempt Of any member of
the gang would react upon the liber-
This made tho men guards over one
another; it was not honor, but self
respect that was relied on. And in
any event, there was the prison at
last; the chain might be heightened
to hundreds of miles, but it held them
still. They were convicts; when their
terms were up, they would be Jail
birds Society had set them apart from
itself; they were contamination.
"You are not fit to mingle with us
on an equal footing" Society might
condescend TO them, be friendly and
helpful to them, but-admit them Of
its own flesh and blood ?-well not
quite thatl "Wo forgive you, but
on sufferance; it is really a great con-
cession; you must show your gratitude
by good works. -
Oh, the phariseesl the taint of it
will not come out so easily; and until
it does come out, to the last filthy
trace Of it, prisons will continue to be
prisons, and compromises will be vain.
Reform Must Come.
l repeat-the evil Of prisons is the
lmprlsonme You must not deprive
man Of his liberty, His liberty is
his life. He may, and probably he
will, use his liberty to the endangering
of your property or comfort; but has
your own career been wholly free from
infringement upon the rights Of your
you ought to link arms with him and
go there, too. You have not been
convicted by court, but your own
secret selfknowledge convicts you
When the prison doors close upon you,
you will discover that you have suf
fered an injustice-that you arc the
victim Of blind stupidity. Not in
this way can you be reformed. All
genuine reformation must proceed from
within you; il cannot be compelled by
locks and bars; freedom is essential TO
it. Locks and bars arouse only the
impulse to break through them, and
this primal and righteous impulse leaves
,, you no leisure to think of relieving
your soul from stains of guilt.
The only Imprisonment to which a
man can properly be subjected is that
Imprisonment Of good in him which
evil-doing operates automatically and
spontaneously; any outside meddling
with that operation hinders, confuses,
or defeats it., Crime weakens and
sbackles you; to put shacltes on the
body is no way to remove shacklcs from
the spirit. 1t is the gross bmuder Of
brutal and immature era, but We
have continued il down to the present
day. Jail is still the remedy.
The newspapers the other day told
Of man who had been sentenced to
forty years in jail for an assault A
woman, hearing the verdict, SAID,
"Wcll, that s better than nothing: but
he ought ito have got lifel We are
told in the Bible that we must not
The wrath of this lady could not be
appeased with forty years. Think OF
what that culprit will be after forty
years in jail. Assuming for the sake
of argument the extreme absurdity that
he is alive by that time, picture to
yourself fellow creature of his-and |
a woman--saying, ''I won 4 forgive you
vet - i pity her more than I do
him, whose troubles in this world will
probably soon be over. But when her
time comes, with what face, ou what |
plea, shall she ask forgiveness'
What Shall We Do?
But if there are TO be no prisons. |
what shall VIC do to be saved from |
crime2
cannot for my part imagine any |
hard and fast plan being laid down |
in advance. But it would seem reason
nblc, TO begin with, to free ourselves
from the social crime of claiming SUI
periority to onr brethren. Having re /
moved that beam from our eyes, we
may see more clearly how to abste the
NOTES in the criminal s. If We can
bring ourselves to regard prisoners and
iailbirds as inferior to ourselves only
in good fortune. which has kept us out