The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-02-28
VISIT TO WETUMPKA GIVES NEW IDEA OF
 HANDLING CONNECTS
tContinued from Page Five)

who possess faces of expression pitiably simple:
 "Is never believed that l was to die,' said Irwin For was innocent. I had no. cause to steal--much less to do murder. For I had property to the value of 5000. Of course, all this is gone now. But l have no grievance against anyone, and am full of hope that eventually I will be pardoned.
 Here I am one of the cooks, and spend all my spare time in reading the Bible ard in serving the Master in an effort to bring others to His fold.' With Irwin. another prisoner, had fol- lowed the reporters. Ee was a mulatto and attracted attention through apparent miserable indifference to his fate. Dur ing the speech of Irwin he remained silent, l simply grinning from time to time. Later | however when he heard one of the re- 1 porters refer to the writer by his first name, his expression became more seri- | ous Approaching closer. he inqured: "Aint this MT. Hugh Merril?" The writer answered in the negative | and added that he and Merrill resembled 1 each other not at all.
 Well, you look like he looked when l saw him last-13 years ago. in Cleburne | county" the negro rejoined
 | Thirteen years ago,
 How much longer. he was asked, will you have to server"
 l Why, boss the negro replied ''Ts got it all" and his customary expression ! of simplicity returned. He smiled broadly and, throwing his arms about the other man whom the law has called murderer, :, ba fnl1nWa1 him a n his plapp in fbe kitchen.
 | The most interesting lesson one learns during a visit to Wetumpka concerns three epochs of prison life.
 The left wing of the building is now abandoned. 1t is made up of three tiers of dminutive cells, the only lair hole of either being a grating six inches | square to the front. Long ago the pri- soners at night were driven into these cells and were there restrained against attempts to escape by the antiquated ball and chain. Under this persecution, which resembled the Spanish inquisition. or was rather, the offspring of the suffering in fiicted in the bastile of Paris prior tc the French revolution, Alabama convicts groaned their lives away or rebelled SC desperately against their fate that mer
 with rifles were often forced to shoot and
 shoot to kill.
 l The rlEnL Wln8 OI the DululnS, oHct
 upon time, contained duplicate of thu
 "cell pile," which still exists in the lef
 wing. During a more modern era, how
 ever, the cells were torn away. Th'
 wing is now filled with swinging cots
 whereon at night the convicts sleep ant
 where without the necessity of bearing the ball and chain. they rest and breati air that comes fresh from the fields witl
 strength and power to heal and restore
 
 But the prison presents proof that mer are still more enlightened. still more to
 erant than those who authorized the tear ing down of the cells in the right wing
 To the front of the bastile, high on { hill, hangs, one might say in truth, thu tuberculosis camp. That which surrounds the hospital-for such 1t isis not a wal of brick and stone, but a simple fence topped with netting In the yard the il are permitted to stroll at leisure. h their rooms they are not confined, fol 1 away with a pocket knife or smashed b, | an able blow of the fist.
 ..This is the ideal prson, said Dr Fowler. who struggled long for the ap propriation with which to construct thu hospital and practically single handed de signed it and superintended it's erection "Of course. men have escaped from thi place But during a certain period ii which we lost two patients. six mad away from the walls across the street.
 "And in this connection you should b' reminded that the men and women con fined here are as a rule of a more des perate character than those confined ir the walls You will be surprise to know that the majority of prisoners who art suffering bere with tuberculosis have beer convictedJ of murder Psychologists may