The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-07-31
WHERE HOPE AND
TRAGEDY MINCLE.
PathOS and Mirth Unite in
Office of Judge Smith.
He Is Parole Officer of the
States Prisons.
MANY PLEAS FOR CLEMENCY
Never a Day Passes Without
Applications for Mercy.
About Fifty Paroles Have Been
Granted This Year.

"a home of tragedy and high hope"
is the description often applied to the
office of Judge c. w. Smith, execu-
tive clerk to the governor and parole
officer of the various state penal in
| situations.
| Apparently the office is no differ
ent from a hundred others in the Kan
sas state house. But it is asserted
that it has sheltered more real SCR
row within than any other room in
| Kansas.
It's doors swing open daily to adj
nit gray visaged men with shadowy
eyes and little, bent women, whose
gray hairs and wrinkles balio the
| gentle smile that often lies on their
! lips.
! And each makes the same plea--a
plea for clemency for the boy, the
husband or the brother, who has re-
pudiated the laws that sheltered him
and who is now paying society for
his defiance.
Someway, it has been pointed out,
| the awelike air of waiting which con-
| stantly hoverS over the office, forces
other visitors to manifest an attitude
of quiet respect for these little, soberly
clad people who wait their turn to see
Judge Smith.
They are the true victims OF crime"
Judge Smith said. They pay the pen
| ignorance of others"
Each month Judge Smith spends
several days in the state prison for
/ the purpose of interviewing prisoners.
| He makes notes on the cases and OBJ
tainS all possible information from
neyS, witnesses and friends. Then he
is ready to see the friends and rela-
tives of the prisoner
During the first six months OF the
mr. ais-fr Oh Fl
roles were granted. In the same time
the prison population of the state has
been increased by about 100.
One day recently a little woman
wearing a poke bonnet called on Judge
Smith She had come from south
western Missouri and her hands told
story of toll. Hers was the ordinary
story. A year ago her boy had come
to the Kansas harvest. He failed to
find work and with the confident
bouyancy of youth with TWO others
had broken into a store and stolen
food and tobacco.
He Was Caught.
He was caught and had served one
year of an indeterminate sentence.
Judge Smith told her parole might
be granted if satisfactory references
could be obtained from people VINO
had known the son from boyhood
I'D rather not the little woman
said. 81 want to take my boy back
people there don't know he's been in
prison and I want him to have fair
chance to live down his mistake"
The judge suggested that she see
the governor. But the governor was
away that day. Nevertheless she sat
in his office through the daylight
hours until darkness, without food, in
the hope that the governor might re-
turn early. 1t was late the next day
when he came back. And it was an
hour later that she caught a train for
Leavenworth. A bit of parchment was
clutched to her breast. Her boy was
released the next day.
Then there was the father and the
sister who begged for the man who
had been given suitcase to hold for
a friend and then was arrested"
Judge Smiths argument that the suit
case had contained stolen goods and
that the young man had never been
able to produce the friend who gave
him the suitcase did not convince the
pair. And. as the prison record was
not of the best, the parole was denied.
OF course, Judge Smith points out,
there are smiles with the signs. Bor-
rowed babies are responsible for a
good deal of mirth. Frequently a
woman, with a baby on each arm, and
one toddling along behind her, will
plead for the release of a prisoner.
Several times recently, upon lnveStiga-
ton, it has been learned that the inn
prisoned man and the woman had no
children.
And it was only about week ago
that Judge Smith announced that he
had decided to recommend a parole for
man because, in his letter asking
clemency, he frankly admitted that he
was guilty of the crime for which he
was sentenced. Since then every mail
has brought to the office numbers of
letters from prisoners, each of which
makes a confession of guilt, but offers
eXtenn6tin0 Circnr stances