I have talked with no sensible person who proposes to sentimentalize over the law-breaker. Call the prison by any name you please, yet prisons of some sort we must have so long as men commit crime; and that from present indications will be for many generations to come. So far from setting men free from prison you and I, sensible people as I trust we are, would, if we could have our own way, put more men in prison than are there now; for we should send up all who now escape by the wiles of crooked lawyers, and we should include the crooked lawyers. But behind the prison walls we should relax the iron discipline--the hideous, degrading, unsuccessful system of silence and punishment--and substitute a system fair to all men, a limited freedom, and work in the open air.

A new penology is growing up to take the place of the old. The Honor System is being tried in many states and, to the surprise of the old expert, is found practicable. But at Auburn Prison an experiment is in progress that goes straight to the very heart of the Problem. In the minds of many the reform of the Prison System has been accomplished when a cold-hearted, brutal autocrat has been replaced by a kindly, benevolent autocrat. But so far as the ultimate success of the prisoner is concerned there is not much to choose. The former says, "Do this, or I will punish you." The latter says, "Do this, and I will reward you." Both leave altogether out of sight the fact that when the man leaves the shelter of the prison walls there will be no one either to threaten punishment or offer reward. Unless he has learned to do right on his own initiative there is no security against his return to prison.

"Do you know how men feel when they leave such a place as this?" said one of the Auburn third-termers to me, during the League discussions. "Well, I'll tell you how I felt when I had finished my first term. I just hated everybody and everything; and I made up my mind that I'd get even."

There spoke the spirit of the old System.

During the same discussion another member of the committee, an Italian, had been listening with the most careful attention to all that had been said and particularly to the assertions that when responsibility was assumed by the prisoners at their League meetings there must be no fights or disorder. Then when someone else had said, "The men must leave their grudges behind when they come to the meetings of the League," Tony stood on his feet to give more effect to his words and spoke to this effect:

"Yes, Mr. Chairman, the men must leave their grudges behind. Let me tell you some thing.

"Two months ago at Sing Sing I did have a quarrel with my friend, and this is what he did to me"; and the speaker pointed to a large scar which disfigures his left cheek. His "friend," when Tony was lying asleep in the hospital, had taken a razor and slit his mouth back to the cheekbone.

A hard glint of light came into Tony's eyes as he said, "And I have been waiting for my revenge ever since. And he is here--here in this prison."

Then the light in the eyes softened and the hard look on the face relaxed as Tony added, slowly and impressively, "But now I see, Mr. Chairman, that I can not have my revenge without doing a great wrong to fourteen hundred other men.

"So I give it up. He can go."

There spoke the prison spirit of the future.

THE END

Footnotes:

[1] One of the men in Auburn Prison, explaining the feelings of their inmates in chapel this Sunday morning, writes the following comment: "The men could not realize what was actually meant by this at first; and as they grasped the idea it sort of staggered them and some thought, myself among others, 'What's the matter? What manner of man is this?'"

[2] Mine was one of the larger cells. Many of them are only three and a half feet wide.

[3] It is perhaps needless to point out how much inaccuracy there must be in any statistics made up from records taken in such a manner. The prisoner gives such answers as he pleases. If he is found out in a lie he is punished--but how often is he found out?

[4] The writer is mistaken, for as a matter of fact the state was not so generous; the handkerchief was my own--as was also my toothbrush.--T. M.

O.

[5] For fear that I may be condemned upon purely circumstantial evidence, I hasten to state that neither of these suppositions is correct.--T. M. O.

[6] I have since learned that I committed a breach of the rules every morning; one which laid me open to punishment. Men who awake before six-thirty must stay in bed until the bell rings.

[7] Jack Murphy gives me the following information: When a new man arrives in prison and is assigned to a shop the waiter or captain puts his name on a requisition letter list. If this inmate's surname begins with A, he gets his monthly letter on the first Sunday of each month; if his name begins with some other letter, he gets his monthly letter on some other Sunday.

If, upon A's arrival, his Sunday has just passed, he has to wait until the first Sunday of the next month comes around; unless some one puts him wise on how to write to the warden for an extra or special letter.

[8] On this point Jack Murphy writes: "We are allowed one box of matches a month. The men split each match into two parts, so as to make this one box last as long as possible. Each box contains 62 matches. After they are split up into two the prisoner has 124 matches. These will last him about 10 days; then he must use his flint and steel. This is the most intelligent thing the convicts are taught, for it teaches them the art of economy, which, if lived up to, will help them to overcome their extravagance when freed." I believe our friend B. intimated that Jack is something of a joker.

Since my week in prison the inmates are allowed to buy a dozen boxes of matches a month. Why they should not always have been allowed to do so is beyond my comprehension.

[9] This, of course, is the same incident that has already been given in the supplementary pages of the previous chapter, but I insert it again as a part of my journal. It illustrates the way news circulates about the prison.

[10] There were some small inaccuracies in Jack's tale, especially this account of the trusty and the P. K. The facts are as stated in the last chapter. I have let this passage remain, however, as it represents what I heard and understood at the time.

[11] There had been no runaways from the road camps at the time Jack was speaking. Before the camps were broken up at the end of the season, and the road work was suspended for the winter, there were four. Two were recovered and brought back; one returned of his own accord; and one made his getaway. The lives of the two who were brought back were made miserable by the abuse heaped upon them by their fellow prisoners for having violated the confidence placed in them. They finally petitioned the Warden to be transferred to some other prison.

[12] Both Stuhlmiller and Laflam were elected on the original committee which prepared the organization of the Mutual Welfare League, and have worked enthusiastically for its success.

[13] The mystery has been explained by one of my fellow-prisoners. "On the roof of the bucket-house and on the walls are some grape vines from which the sickly looking grapes are picked by the bucket-house man and given to friends. I tried them, but they were too much for me, and it's lucky you did not tackle them."

[14] As a matter of fact I was testing the Captain's mettle far more than I supposed, for Grant's warning to be on the watch for such a move on my part had not yet reached him, as I thought it had. All the more must one admire the admirable way in which Captain Kane handled the matter. He showed himself cool and collected under rather embarrassing circumstances, for which he was totally unprepared. An excellent officer.

[15] I have been told, on very good authority, that it was seriously debated whether all the prisoners should not be removed from the jail before my arrival and stored elsewhere temporarily. But one of the trusties pointed out to a certain officer high in authority that it would be rather awkward if I heard of it, as I was almost sure to do; and thus in the end it would have a worse result than if things were allowed to drift. This view carried the day, so that the removal of Lavinsky was the only change made. The effort to place the two fellows in the screen cells, upon which Captain Martin was too wise to insist, was by Number Four's shrewdness defeated.

[16] The original has the full name.

[17] A. P. K. = Acting Principal Keeper.

[18] Considerably more than a year's pay.