Evening star., 1922-07-30
Fifty Years Ag'
in The Star

Prison reform is a matter of con
paratively short development Half
century ago the penal IN
Prison stitutions in this countr
R.sor,, and in England weI
merely places Of physica
detention without any thought for III
moral betterment Of the inmates an
but little regard for their physics
welfare. But movement was o
foot toward reform. In The Star O
July "a, 1872. is the following show
ing the progress of thought in thi
line:
The International Prison Congress
composed OF delegates from all tn
leading nations of Europe and
America. has just closed its labors il
London, having been in session abou
two weeks. A number Of questions il
relation to prison discipline were dis
cussed and much statistical informa
ton of interest was presented.
large majority of the delegates were
deeply impressed with the importanceI
OF tempering justice with mercy and
the wisdom of teaching prison.Ts|
soma useful trade, so that they can|
gain an honest livelihood after they|
are set at liberty. The home secre-|
tary Of Great Britain. who was pres-|
ent, attributed the decrease of crime|
In his country to the influence of IL
dustrial schools and reformatories IN
cutting off the supply of criminals
through the philanthropic labors of
discharged prisoners aid societies and
to the general diffusion of knowledge
The question whether prison labor
should be merely penal or industrial
was under discussion during the ses-
ha i,,I1
congress was against the treadmIn
and in favor OF Industrial labor for
prisoners"
In The Star of July 25. 1872, is
news item telling of the death OF
John Keegan, who was
Tragedy on fatally wounded dur
A. O.. ing a performance OF
Lie otage. the farce, "obeying
Orders" at Metropolitan Hall in this
city on the night of June 25 preced-
ing. "It will he recollected,' says
The Stars accou. :, that the deceased
was taking thu part of Hannah
Gin,' while MI. James Porter acted
as Col. Bullet and Charles Brown
as Corp. Trigger During the
farce Porter, engaged in writing a
letter. called over the military orders
of shoulder FIRMS ready aim
fire, and Brown went through the
motions, aiming and pulling the trig-
ger at the comand of FIRE when the
gun was discharged and Keegan fell.
II was found that the wadding of the
musket had entered the brain. DR..
Bulkley WIS called in and subse-
quently the patient was removed 70
Providence Hospital, where every at
tention was paid him, but without
avail. He died last evening and
some of his friends had his remains
coffined and placed them on the
o'clock train for Philadelphia today.
The father OF the deceased. who came
here soon after the occurrence. ap-
peared at the depot before the train
started and demanded that the re-
mains should rot be taken from the
city until a full investigation was
had before csroner's jury. This
created some excitement about the
train and il was finally determined
not to remove the body for the pres
ent. 1t was taken back to ProNi-
dence Hospital, where an inquest viii
be held
The inquest. wh,es, was held the
day following. resulted in verdict
of accidental death.
Horace GreeIey's rood -chopping
audiences did not long continue as a
feature of the
Eavesdropping at c,mpai En Of
1872. The Star
Woodchoppings. Of July 2s of
that year thus tells of their discon-