Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1915-08-14

FTHE three young girls who rang the door
i bell of the Eastern Penitentiary' (and one
of them jumped she touched the bell and
hid behind her sister, laughng) looked like
bllthesome maidens of day gone by, tap
ping, all unknowingly, at an ogres castle.
The ivy-covered prison walls drank in the
summer sun The place looked as If crowd
of children had built it, with childish tur-
rets pretending to look stern and a huge
iron knob-studded gate with a little door
cut in it, also iron knob-studded like the
rest of the gate, and with no doorknob or
keyhole.
When you followed and touched the bell
it rang right close inside and quite loud $50
no wonder the girl jumped), and the door
was Immediately opened and you were let
right In and the door closed quickly behind
you. And at once you were sorry for some
thing you had done that wasn't right but
that was not the kind of thing they send
you to prison for, though heaven knows why
they don't. Well, If the place looked childish,
1t had right to look so. For 1t is the only
place left where there is a sharp difference
between right and wrong. just as children
are the only people left in the world who
know any real difference between right and
wrong.
PRISONERS Teach Comrades
And this was very much the same point
that Warden McKenty made when he was
asked what he thought of Warden Osborne
and the charges of undue leniency made
against the Sing Sing chief; that after all
that had been said by the professors to the
contrary there was a right and a wrong to
things, and that the law had to be observed
within prison walls as we'll as outside. And
he went so far as to say there is a God
though many professors had tried to convince
him that there is none.
But before you got to Bob" McKenty's
office you followed the three girls TO the
rotuhda' past beautifully kept though small
and oddly angled lawns and centres whence
long corridors pointed straight fingers on
crazy diagonals, but where sunlight somehow
shone-or was it only reflected? You forget
but the outside sun still seemed to radiate
from the thin white dresses of the girls
who Joined one group of weIl-dressed foil,
sitting about the rotunda. It suddenly
dawned on you that they were relatives Of
prisoners, come on visits
Yes, there are well-dressed neonIo M,
behind the bars as we'll as poor folk in
rags" said the warden. (Which reminds me-
OF a speech l read of a college professor,s
making at a commencement He said tbe,,
ought to have college professors visit the
prisons and teach the prisoners. and then
the better class prisoners could pass the
learning on to the others. / had To Ia,,gb
because we have here in this prison battar
educated men than he is doing time ana
teaching their comrades"
There had been a lot of talk about
saving mans self-respeet in prison ana
When II came to that the warden was for a.
he was against prison stripes: ana he
Drought out remarkable point that is often
lofsotteh' The law does not say anything
ABOUT man being punished" in jail; Il
SIMPLY says ne Is to be confined there de-
prNea OF liberty for such and such a time.
Al that moment blare of trumpets sounded
on triumphant sousa march. surprising the
VISITOR lie was told 1t was the prison band.
having its afternoon practice.
Baseball vs. Sunday Baseball
"A lot Of these people want reforms pnt
into effect that are already In effect as wen /
as they can be. You hear that band" said /
the warden. We'll, they have their ball /
games here-a ifteen-inning game the other /
day. You see what / mean when say tha
law does not directly punish. in the old-fasb-
Toned sense OF making a man miserable
Now some Feformer came here and told me
should let the men play on Sunday said
no. aud he seemed to think thar was hard.
ship
Well said /, can you so to see the pbu
lee ana the Giants play on SUNDAY NJ
and why9 Because It's against fbe iss
Fais learned man actually haa tie Ia. 3ss.
you aiant have e eesy tha lau il prison.