The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-06-24

In the first place, shop work Is in- | Nariably associated with convict la l bor The average person in think l ing of the work of convict thinks of him as bending over his task in a shop or bending over a large ham mer in crushing stones. In the shop | there l was employed within three | feet of a passageway where daily visitors being conducted through | the place would stop. Perhaps a ] half dozen times a day I had heard them inquire about me-my shorn pate and striped clothes so com pletely disguished me that no one | would recognize me there-but the usher was not permitted to point | out prisoners While in the bakery l had more freedom of movement, was not continually under the eye of a guard, and when visitors passed | through l was able to get where | they could not see me.
 l had been in the bakery but a week when in one paper there ap- peared six-line editorial asking why it was that Kane, the confessed double murderer. was placed in a bakery, and that. over the heads of other more deserving inmates
 My first inkling of it came through the warden himself. He told me I'll have it clipped out and sent in to you've can't allow the whole l
 A Note Of Thanks.
 Along with the immediate return | of that clipping in another sealed | envelope, sent a penciled line as | follows:
 "Warden:
 Thank you for permitting me to see this. It doesn't ruffle my feel ings particle, except that I'm sorry to De the cause of any criticism upon you. will do my best always in my present position of authority.' No other person shall learn from me about my having either read or heard about this. Gratefully yours,
 KANE"
 In face of what the warden and everybody else around there knew of my work in the bakery-I carried coal, cleaned out the 1lrebox and moFped up after the real bakers ttat editorial reference to my "po- sition of authority" became ridicu- lous.
 recall other editorials during my first two years in the prison. Every time there was a killing down in the | city, some reference would be made to my case, and what ought to have been done in it.
 When l became a member of a | little organization among prisoners to encourage study, and was unani- mously chosen by them as secretary treasurer, that was singled out too. | Lik ewise when l financed a little proposition for the manufacture of souvenirs by inmates.
 It was good advertising for the souvenir business; people would flock | there on certain days. But l began | to wonder if they ever would let up on me. Naturally, l harbored hope | of some day making an attempt to secure some kind of conditional lib- | erty-that with a further view of | continuing to work out my salvation.
 I kept right On in trying to obey the Carlylian admonition of doing | that duty nearest. And there Is no | place under the sun--even prison where one may not always be cog nizant of some duty that lies very near.
 Seventeen Men To Boss.
 After had worked in the bakery for nineteen months I was placed in charge of the prison dining room. There I had seventeen men working under me. Such job is not an easy one. l wanted to give each man square deal, and I never liked the idea of having to appeal case to the officer in charge. l had to exer- else tact, diplomacy. cool judgment and a conscientious fairness. l held that job for two years and one month and had to appeal but three cases. l had hot words with perhaps twenty men, but when it is considered that the personnel of the force was con- stantly changing; and that during the two years l had charge of two hundred different men. the record is not so bad.
 Just once during my first monticello l lay a hand on a man. He spat at me. I hit him squarely in the right eye and knocked him down. I was sorry the next minute and apoloeized. That case never got to the authorities. and somehow 1t seemed to give me a special kind of standing among the men.
 I learned more about managing men during those two years than l had ever learned before-and more than I have ever learned since-and the knowledge so acquired has been of great help to me.
 In the dining room work I had great deal of time of my own, and soon conceived the idea of taking up some special study along with my other reading. It would have to be something that, with the help of ref erence books and the dictionary, I might study alone l knew that l might get any number of men to begin it with me, but I had been long enough in prison to find out that the greatest general defect among inmates is inability to stick. Perhaps the same rule holds good among free persons.
 However, I at length decided I would put in at least two years read ing law.
 l thought several times of a corre- spondence course but turned to the idea-of securing books from a firm of attorneys down in the city. A Trusty To The Rescue.
 Well did I know that, because prison officials are prone to look with distrust or forbearing toler- ance upon any stepping aside from the whole thing ready before an at tempt at getting permission. Ac cordingly l wrote to my own attor- neys for advice. They replied promptly that if l could secure per mission to get the books. they would gladly lend them to me-a few at time-and would in a way direct my reading.
 That sounded unusually encourag- ing, but a prisoner with any goodly | measure of common sense knows that the average prison officials particularly those with the old-time ideas-do not like to acquiesce in any proposition that will put them to the least bit of trouble. I knew that l must manage to get those | books without any of the official force having to go after, send for or telephone about them.
 One day in the bath house I had conversation with another pris- oner.
 He was an outside trusty-a man who drove prison team daily to | the city after supplies.
 Say, Jack,' he said. 'I met your lawyer today, and he was askin' about | you"
 "Ye ?-how did you happen to meet him?" l asked.
 Well. you know I go every day almost to the Trent Hardware com pany." he explained, and that's next