The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-08-28
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS
ITO Let"

My, what a story is compressed in these 1 two words
 1 Back of them are the prayers of thou- sands of good women, back of them are the labors of men who were willing to be looked on as cranks
 But if any man 10 years ago would have foretold the day when Birmingham would no longer need city jail, despite 1 it's constant growth, he would have been looked upon as fit for the asylum. Yet, that is what has come to pass, and today Brmingham's new Southside jail, with its shops and 20 acres of ground 1 is worthless for jail purposes, as there are no prisoners to be housed or fed or worked.
 l The building is attractive from the out side and occasions many remarks from those passing on the main line of the | Louisville and Nashville, south It looks more like a school or public building than a prison and it is hard to convince
 
 | bastile.
 ! When Frank Carpenter was here I went with him and he was greatly interested in it's modernness as well as in the farm surrounding it. The singing of the negroes | of course, got his best attention, and ! his daughter Frances was tickled to get some snapshots of the old mammies and pickaninnies that had come to see their "paps."
 This was only few months back but yesterday afternoon I accidentally met Commissioner Barber and he asked me 1 if I wanted to go out and visit the South side Jail, and, scenting a good story, said yes; and in a few minutes we were speeding-no I won't say that as I do not want to have the commissioner of pub lie safety pulled for violating any city ordinance-anyway, we were motoring out and I was glad to find that the street in front of the prison is being paved on to the cemetery, and will soon be finished, and all because one woman who knew how, made up her mind that it ought to be done; but that is another story.
 Flowers were in bloom all around and in front of the jail, for Julian Kendrick had been called in to do a bit of land scaping and someone with aesthetic taste had started to carry out his plans, but a bit away weeds had grown rank be- cause there were no prisoners to cut them down.
 The city's farm, while being cultivated
 is no longer source of revenue, as 1t has been found cheaper to buy the vegetables than to raise them with hired labor. Time was when women and peg legged or otherwise disabled prisoners could care for it and thereby make it an economical proposition.
 Did you ever walk through a deserted palace or one that was used for other purposes? We'll this was the feeling l had when I stepped inside of the pa- latial prison, which is the very last word in prison architecture, and will live as
 
 Lane and Weatherly
 Now there was time in my life when gave much attention to penology, and therefore visited many prisons in this country and abroad, not merely to study the men, and the system, but the build ings themselves. I never saw a more complete or better equipped one than the Southside jail.
 I joked Arlie about four chairs that were sitting out on the porch. I never saw chairs more out of place. They were stocky and carved with scenes fitted for a beer hall. He couldn't account for them, but I surmise that they were cap tured in some raid when locker clubs were in fashion.
 I had a queer kind of feeling as walked through the uninhabited jail. It was real spooky in spite of the air and plenteous light. The mere fact that hun dr eds, yes, thousands of men, and scores of women had done their bit and gone back into the outside world got onto my nerves. The room In which the men each morning had the bracelet braided above their ankle and at night had them stricken off, was mute with evidence as the cement floors were ridged where the hot iron had fallen on the floor, giving the appearance of water dropping on stone and eating it away. 
 I went in the different wards, and saw the ion beds suspended on steel, frames. I visited the laundry, the kitchen. the bathrooms. the hospital. and the roof garden, where the men got bit of Gods blue, and could look to the hills at their back and the city in the distance. Now this up-to-date plant is as useless as a vermiform appendix, since booze has been cut out It's tenantless. Its accommodations for 400, not Ward McAnister -four hundred" but the un- fortunates are no longer needed. There | is nobody to be housed, fed and worked while paying the laws penalty. As a matter of fact, there are only five pris- oners in the Northside jail, not includ- | ing the stevedores, but not enough of l the latter to care for the jail, and the | commissioner has already tried to make arrangements with the sheriff to board the city's prisoners and close up the | Northside jail.
 What are we going to do with the e,o MA ,d,e jou ou the Southside that's