Evening star., 1928-09-23

search for prisoner who escaped the
day before, and generally being in
three or four places and carrying on
five or six conversations at once.
During his leisure time between these
and his 80 or 90 other duties, Old
Calamity makes a contact with his
stool pigeons (every deputy has them,
no matter what he may say about 1t
publicly so that he can keep his finger
on the pulse of the institution and
! thwart the dozens of plots, counterplots,
intrigues and Trainings constantly
being Matched in every penal insti-
| tuition.
BY the time Old Calamity has at
! tended to these few duties, he must
! take charge of the mess hall for lunch,
/ sitting at a little raised desk in the
| front of the room. There are about
! 1000 prisoners in the room, a large
percentage of them spelling" for some
! kind of trouble One prisoner curses
a waiter who put a piece of bone on
| his plate instead of meat. There is
a slight ripple, craning of neckS,
flash of the deputy and two or three
screws" hurrying to the scene-and
the disturbance dies a-borning. But
not always. Sometimes the oaths are
followed with a blow, and in an in
stant a fight, the most welcome di-
version in the monotony of prison life,
is in full swing. No two gladiatorS
ever received a more enthusiastic re-
ception. Two thousand men are on
their feet, screaming, curSing, looking
uncertainty about for some leader who
will show them how they can use the
situation to their own advantage.
To know the caliber of man it takes
to be deputy warden one must wit
ness an occurrence like this.
X X X X
7 ONCE saw such a scene at the Fed
eral Prison at Leavenworth. Plates
were being thrown by the prisoners to
show their appreciation of the fight,
and the situation was beginning to look
decidedly serious. And then Just as
suddenly as it began, it stopped Old
Calamity was standing by the pugiliStS,
calmly interrogating them.
Come on out" he said softly, lead
ing one of the prisoners out of the
room and turning him over to a guard
at the threshold. The prisoners looked
at one another in bewilderment. What
had promised to be thrilling diversion
had abruptly come to an end. With a
sigh of disappointment they resumed
their meal.
It's all done so calmly, so casually,
that one would think the deputy didn't
realize his danger. But don't make
that mistake. There isn't day in the
year when he isn't in similar danger
and he knows it. But deputy warden
is as nearly fearless as it's possible for
a human to be. It takes more than
mere fearleSsneSs to make deputy
warden, but no deputy warden ever re-
manned one for long who didn't possess
that quality in Superabundant meas
ure.
At the most unexpected times, emer-
gencieS arise which can be met only
by the most unf1inching courage. Every
deputy warden handles such emergen-
cies as a matter of course many times
during the course of a year. remem-
ber upon one occasion in the yard OF
the Federal Prison at Atlanta prisoner
in the lines marching into lunch sud-
denly attacked the deputy, yelling at
the same time. Come on. boys; Well
take the place!" But Old Calamity
shook him off, struck him with his
cane, and then, walking calmly up and
down in front of the line of several
hundred men, quarters of whom
could have clicked" him in fight, in
quired if there were any more who
wished to attack him, and threatening
to "spatter them against the wall"
I have known this same deputy, on
several occasions, to go unarmed into
the barricaded cell of a prisoner who,
table leg in hand and half-crazed with
rage, threatened to kill the first person
who approached. Every deputy warden
is occasionally called upon to do this,
as it is a common practice for dis
gruntled prisoners to barricade them
selves in their cells and refuse to come
out.
X X \
4 T times, in order to support his au-
"A thority and his reputation for fear
lessness, it is even necessary for Old
Calamity to grandStand a little, even