Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1926-10-30

the winter and / was selected as
night clerk, providing 1 could be
OK'd to work nights, for working
nights, while nothing of a trusty ma
ture still person could cause con-
siderable trouble at night IL he
should get "hide-ou or escape"
notions into his head. Fortunately
1 was OK'd and went to work as
night clerk. real inside political"
job with about one hours work and,
nice clean office in which to lounge
around in the rest of the time. The
mill at night employed less than two
hundred men and the clerks duty
was merely to keep their time, most
~ piece work operations, and to keep
the count" straight so that instant
ly at any hour of the night he could
tell exactly how many men were sup.
posed to be on each floor. This fea-
ture alone was the most important
as even mistake of one would
throw the count off in the hall office
and search would have to be in
stituted. for the missing man. On
one occasion, just to give an idea of
the strict accountability enforced, a
young fellow was not feeling we'll
and Just an hour or so before mid
night supper he slipped off from
his machine. got under a pile of ST.
sal and went to sleep. In due time
the supper bell rang and the men
went to the dining room where Just
SO many plates are set. When all
were seated there was still one plate
without an attendant AS I had
eaten at what is known as "early
supper" I was in the mill office
when the phone rang asking me how
many men 1 had over there / re-
piled, giving the exact number that
went to early supper" which should
have been correct. In a minute or
two the phone rang again, asking
the second time for the count I
gave it and was instructed to go
around and actually count the men
as I should have one more I
counted them but could only find the
actual number already given. In
two or three minutes all the avail
able night officers in the institution
arrived at the mill. ready to start a
search for the missing man. In the
meantime the men in the dining
room were locked there and couldn't
| ret out till the missing man had
been found or the mistake was cor
rected. After about ten minutes
fornd sound asleep under q sisal pile
but in spite OF his illness he was
rushed to the "bull-pen", technically
he was a hide out. Oftentimes man
being excused by the deputy, doctor
or nurse after the regular sick call
had been in would throw our count
off and it would be necessary to do
considerable checking before the
mistake would be found but during
the nine months or entire night sea-
son that / was clerk never was there
real hide out or any serious infrac-
ticn of the rules that would warrant
a hearing in this story.
TIE night mill would close down in
The extreme hot weather and so on
july End when all the men were laid
off looked forward to few months
OF pleasure as at that time I was
score keeper on the main prison ball
team and manager OF the Binder
Irvine shop team and as such was
allowed considerable privileges in
the use of the ball club gym, extra
hours for being out of my cell on
Sundays and holidays and with the
closing of the night mill being al
lowed to go out with the big team
after supper each night for practice
lncide"t"l'v the main team Or first
team which is composed Of the pick
o. the best PLAYERS in the prison US
rallv has team that beats the best
amateur and semi pro teams in the
state and is ALWAYS conceded to be
. the fastest team in Jackson County
or southern Michigan. Within the
writer's memory the Detroit Tigers
played six six draw with the prison
nine 1t was for some time the
writer's lot to send to the daily pa
pers at the conclusion of each game
a detailed write-up along with the
official summary
However 1t was not to be my good
fortune to spend the summer i'm idle
luxury for the mill closed on the
night of the 2nd of July and on the
afternoon Of the 3rd | was called to
the deputy's office and told to re-
port at the Stamp Plant to become
clerk there. Thus my idleness last
ed only a half day. The Stamp
Plant. which was considered a model
throughout America, was Michigan's
plant for turning out license plates.
1t operated about two thirds of the
time and turned out over a million
sets of plates for Michigan and sew
eral hundreds Of thousands for other
states. Here the clerk had consider
able more to do than in the night
Irvine mill, although employing only
about one-fourth the number of men.
Each machine and operation how
ever was piece work and numerous
were the records that had to be kept
in recording various kinds of plates,
lost. damaged and duplicates, etc,
sDecial road signs and the like 1t
did not take the writer long however
to recognize that little added sys-
tenn that the detail work that com
Drised most OF the day could be per
formed in an hour or two and hav-
ing secured the necessary permits
sion to make any desired change I
soon had system by which / could
attend to the entire routine in an
hour or two day and still have my
work so I could leave the shop by
three each day. The Stamp Plant
was one OF the show places of the
prison and visitors and officials