The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1920-08-21

no longer should be kept in the barred
cells behind the high walls of the state
penitentiary at Lansing. About the
time of their decision, fostered by the
efforts of the Kansas Federation of
Women's clubs under the leadership
of Mrs. w. A. Johnston, Mrs. Noble
Prentis and Mrs. c. c. Goddard, the
state prison was crowded. Because of
this condition, the criminally insane
had been allowed to be too near other
prisoners and had murdered them.
Something had to be done immediately
to relieve such an appalling condition.
With the urgent request made by
hundreds of Kansas women influence
ing them, and with the crowded con-
dition of the prison compelling them,
the legislators of Kansas passed a law
which removed the women prisoners
from the state prison to the farm at
the top of the hill, one mile from the
prison at Lansing, four years ago.
Under that law it was a part of the
Kansas state penitentiary. Later it
was thought best to make the farm an
institution entirely Independent of the
prison, and legislation made the farm
separate from the prison. beginning
July 1. 1918. with an appropriation
of $4,000.
''V. D." Patients Lived in Tents.
Seventeen women prisoners were re-
moved from the penitentiary to the
farm in 1916: At that time there was
only one building on the farm, the
farm house now in the center of the
twelve farm buildings
In war time when women with So
cal disease became a menace to the
army camps, legislation made it pos
sible to send such women to the state
industrial farm for women. However,
the legislature made no provision for
the housing of such women, and more
than 100 of them lived in tents in the
farm house yard until farm buildings
were erected for their accommodate ton
Tho hurriedly erected from native
| timber in about three weeks time and
of very crude nature, the buildings
then erected are still standing When
the wood became weather beaten and
shrank, leaving huge cracks, weather.
proof paper was placed over the filled
up cracks and the farm mana cement
made the heating of the buildings
sufficient to keep them entirely COM
Portable.
Crude Equipment Best.
Part of the wonder of this place
is the fact that it is made of nothing"
was the comment of Miss Miner, gov
eminent inspector. 1T is remarka BILE
what can be accomplished with such
( crude equipment. It makes one won
der what could be done if the farm
were complete ana mOdern-
The crude equipment may be best
for the purpose" Mrs. Perry told me.
The girls are taught to do their work
here with the pIainest and most COM
mon utensils. They have to carry
water for use in their cooking and for
: their personal use. Suppose that we
+ had everything convenient and up-to-
date, with elaborate materials for the
work. When they leave the farm after
using expensive equipment they would
4 think their own homes hopelessly
/ crude. As it is. most all of them have
as much to work with at home as we
| have here, and they're encouraged to
! make the most of what they have"
Dance Saturday Afternoon.
| I arrived at the farm on Saturday,
/ too late to see the girls at their Sat
{ urday morning work. SATURDAY. after
/ noon at the farm is always free for
] recreation I went over 10 the dining
/ room building with Mrs. Perry, where
4 she said the girls were going to dance.
/ There 1 found the long room had been
. cleared of its CARS and folding tables
I and practically all the inmates were
| dancing about to the music of pop
ular airs played in lively fashion by