Evening star., 1915-07-18
lard HARDING Davis Writes of Prison Reform Sing Sn

reception committee, singIy or in body.
from telling Mr.. Osborne to go to the devil.
and sliding down the hill to the railroad
tracks. or escaping through the bushes
No keepers were present Only prisoners
guarded them. But instead of escaping,
we sat beside the road among the daisies
and discussed the war The actors were
late, and Mr. Osborne feared they had
scout for them. He turned to one of
the inmates and said: Johnny. get in
that car and see that they make the
right turning"
asked. whats the matter with my
chauffeur and your Johnny going
straight on into New York;
Nothing" said Osborne. calmly: I'm
less they run out of gasoline"
But Johnny did not go to New York.
And next morning did the fact that he
refused the chance, and kept faith with
the league get two columns in the New
York newspapers?
It did not!
game in the prison yard. From the Hud-
son river the yard is shut in by an iron
fence Stretching between the fence and
tho river Is a strip Of land forty feet
wide. To prevent foul flies from going
into the river they had stationed on this
strip George Saber, a third-term prisoner
For an escape Saber was already on the
right side Of the fence. The screws
had been removed from tho towers.
In their places were ellow-prisoners
who were unarmed. George could
swim like q fish. And not a hundred
yards away canoes. rowboats and
steam launches. filled with holiday
makers, were passing. No one was
watching George. Everybody was in
side the fence. with his back to George,
watching the game. He had only to
slip OF his shoes. slide into the water
and strike out for the Jersey shore or
for the nearest launch. II he called to
those in 1t for help they could not let
a drowning man sink. But upon temp
tation and the river George turned his
back. He had his duty to perform. He
must retrieve the foul balls.
George heard from behind him a cry
for help. No one else heard It, Every
ono else was still intent upon the game.
even the lookouts in the towers. So
they did not see George Saber kick off
his shoes and dive into the river. They
did not see him swim a hundred and
fifty yards to an upturned canoe and
carry to shore, one after the other,
young girl and boy. They only heard
of 1t later, when the men in the hos
plIAl wdru VIM udu oCCh ku0 IC5Cuc
from the windows told Of 1t. George
himself knocked for admittance at the
prison gate.
Let me in," he said. "T got to go to
my cell to change my clothes" They
let him in. His chance was gone. Again
he was on the wrong side Of the fence.
Last week, at Sing Sing, 1 asked a
convict who had served twenty years in
prison II he thought the men could be
ruled by themselves, by the idea of
treating them as human beings.
"All but 10 per cent Of them," he said.
"And the worst of it is that they al
ways could have been ruled by 1t. But
the old rules were for the 10 per cent.
Because they were beasts all the rest
of us we're treated like beasts. And
the result was that when We left we
had only one idea and that was to get
even. Anyway. that was my idea. They
had made me suffer in ways that no
white man had a right to make any
white man suffer. and all I wanted was
to make them suffer. The result was
that I have been in here four times"