The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1917-06-19
A Stalled Rebellion.
From the Macon News.

The rambunctious law-brealers Temporal
rily interned in the Joliet boobyhatch be-
came obstreperous, it seems, because the
warden interferred with their biIlets doux
and restricted the visits of their lady friends
So even as Helen's was
''The face that launched thousand ships
And burned the topless towers of Ilion,'
likewise the Argive beauties of America
ranging in age from fourteen to whatever
as the feminine statute of limitation, arous-
ed these impressionable wards of the state
to such pitch that they launched a revolt
and burned the towerless tops of of the
paint shop and the chapel
The national guard, after a struggle of
more than six hours managed to impound
the rebels without killing but one of them
but In the meantime the warden of Joliet
has his own opinion of these needless chains
OF letters which brought about the whole
trouble.
1t seems to be another case of the abuse
of good thing. Of course it must he
rather tedious to cobble away day after dav
In the narrow area of Joliet without being
able to break the monotony with a call at
the movies or a restful evening with Nav
Manton's Magazine or Good Housekeeping.
So it was with the best intentions that
few jealous women started that endless
chain, appealing to their sisters and their
cousins and their aunts to write letters to
the lonely prisoners.
They wrote-verily they wrote! By the
time that endless chain had reeled off a
lew links the mash notes and the provender
sent into Joliet reached colossal propor-
tons Every prisoner had letters to the ex-
tent OF about twelve baskets a day ayoirdu-
pos, and enough bric-a-brac to restock Mr.
Powers justly celebrated Curiosity Shop.
The warden darkly hints that some of
these letters put evil notions in the heads
OF these wards of the state, who assembled
at night to exchange specuIations as to the
personal pulchritude and moral incIinations
OF their correspondents. One of the most
lmportunate of these fair comforters, aged
66, came in person to Joliet and wired her
pr0tege at every station en- route.
The warden decided that this situation
had become intolerable, and when he re-
stricted the mail and the visits rebellion
lifted its angry hand and reached climax
IN the grave disorders set forth.
10 be IN prison and to be visited not is
let it be repeated, real hardship, but after
the outbreak at Joliet steps will be taken
to discourage the maudlin sentimentaIitv
which spilled the beans when there was an
opportunity for good work.
The tendency on the part of large class
OF women to idealize some criminal. who
differs from his fellows only by the greater
enormlty OF his crime, has been illustrated
al nauseum. Illinois, in the long ago, gave
us one of the most noteworthy instances
when pretty Nina van Zandt wept columns
in the American newspapers and finally mar
rled August Spies, under sentence of death
IN common with the other Haymarket an
archists, for dynamiting the Chicago police
force.
But Nina was not the first nor the last,
as the avalanche of love letters and the tons
OF bon-bons sent to Joliet show.
!, The generous impulse which lay behind
the original movement was worthy of warm
commentator, but Qualification of crime is
rather misplaced when it eliminates in a
riot and the burning of the paint shop and
the chapel.