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diff --git a/old/7sbbr10.txt b/old/7sbbr10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1369d5 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/7sbbr10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8097 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Subterranean Brotherhood, by Julian Hawthorne +#8 in our series by Julian Hawthorne + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Subterranean Brotherhood + +Author: Julian Hawthorne + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8406] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +FOOTFALLS + +In the cell over mine at night +A step goes to and fro +From barred door to iron wall-- +From wall to door I hear it go, +Four paces, heavy and slow, +In the heart of the sleeping jail: +And the goad that drives, I know! + + I never saw his face or heard him speak; + He may be Dutchman, Dago, Yankee, Greek; + But the language of that prisoned step + Too well I know! + + Unknown brother of the remorseless bars, + Pent in your cage from earth and sky and stars, + The hunger for lost life that goads you so, + I also know! + +Hour by hour, in the cell overhead, +Four footfalls, to and fro +'Twixt iron wall and barred door-- +Back and forth I hear them go-- +Four footfalls come and go! +I wake and listen in the night: +Brother, I know! + +_(Written in Atlanta Penitentiary, +May, 1913.)_ + + + +THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD + + +By JULIAN HAWTHORNE + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I INTRODUCTORY + II THE DEVIL'S ANTECHAMBER + III THE ROAD TO OBLIVION + IV INITIATION + V ROUTINE + VI SOME PRISON FRIENDS OF MINE + VII THE MEN ABOVE +VIII FOR LIFE + IX THE TOIL OF SLAVERY + X OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER + XI THE GRASP OF THE TENTACLES + XII THE PRISON SILENCE +XIII THE BANQUETS OF THE DAMNED + XIV THE POLICY OF FALSEHOOD + XV THE FRUIT OF PRISONS + XVI IF NOT PRISONS--WHAT? +APPENDIX + + +PREFACE + +These chapters were begun the day after I got back to New York from the +Atlanta penitentiary, and went on from day to day to the end. I did not +know, at the start, what the thing would be like at the finish, and I made +small effort to make it look shapely and smooth; but the inward impulse in +me to write it, somehow, was irresistible, in spite of the other impulse +to go off somewhere and rest and forget it all. But I felt that if it were +not done then it might never be done at all; and done it must be at any +cost. I had promised my mates in prison that I would do it, and I was +under no less an obligation, though an unspoken one, to give the public an +opportunity to learn at first hand what prison life is, and means. I had +myself had no conception of the facts and their significance until I +became myself a prisoner, though I had read as much in "prison literature" +as most people, perhaps, and had for many years thought on the subject of +penal imprisonment. Twenty odd years before, too, I had been struck by +William Stead's saying, "Until a man has been in jail, he doesn't know +what human life means." But one does not pay that price for knowledge +voluntarily, and I had not expected to have the payment forced upon me. I +imagined I could understand the feelings of a prisoner without being one. +I was to live to acknowledge myself mistaken. And I conceive that other +people are in the same deceived condition. So, with all the energy and +goodwill of which I am capable, I set myself to do what I could to make +them know the truth, and to ask themselves what should or could be done to +end a situation so degrading to every one concerned in it, from one end of +the line to the other. The situation, indeed, seems all but incredible. +Your first thought on being told of it is, It must be an exaggeration or a +fabrication. On the contrary, words cannot convey the whole horror and +shamefulness of it. + +I am conscious of having left out a great deal of it. I found as I went on +with this writing that the things to be said were restricted to a few +categories. First, the physical prison itself and the routine of life in +it must be stated. That is the objective part. Then must be indicated the +subjective conditions, those of the prisoner, and of his keepers--what the +effect of prison was upon them. Next was to come a presentation of the +consequences, deductions and inferences suggested by these conditions. +Finally, we would be confronted with the question, What is to be done +about it? Such are the main heads of the theme. + +But I was tempted to run into detail. Here I will make a pertinent +disclosure. During my imprisonment I was made the confidant of the life +stories of many of my brethren in the cells. I am receiving through the +mails, from day to day, up to the present time, other such tales from +released convicts. The aim of them is not to get their tellers before the +public and win personal sympathy, but to hold up my hands by supplying +data--chapter and verse--in support of the assertions I have made. They do +it abundantly; the stories bleed and groan before your eyes and ears, and +smell to heaven; the bluntest, simplest, most formless stuff imaginable, +but terrible in every fiber. Before I left prison I had accumulated a +considerable number of these narratives, and had made many notes of things +heard and seen--data and memoranda which I designed to use in the already +projected book which is now in your hands. Such material, however, would +have been confiscated by the Warden had its existence been known, and none +of it would have been permitted to get outside the walls openly. The only +thing to do, then, was to get it out secretly--by the "underground +railroad." + +There is an underground railroad in every penal institution. There is one +at Atlanta. I attempted to use it, but my freight got in the wrong car. A +prisoner whom I knew well and trusted came to me, and said he had found a +man who would undertake to pass the packet through the barriers; he had +already served such a need, and was anxious to do it in my case. This man +was also a prisoner of several years' standing, and with several years +yet to serve; he had recently applied for parole, but had been refused. +I met and talked with him, found him intelligent and circumspect, and +professedly eager to do his share toward helping me get my facts before +the world. He intimated that he was on favorable terms with one of the +guards or overseers who was inclined to help the prisoners, and would +take the packet out in his pocket and mail it to its address. I addressed +it to a friend of mine living near New York and on a certain prearranged +day I handed it to my confederate. He hid it inside his shirt, and that +was the last I saw of it. + +The packet never turned up at its address, and it was only long after that +I was told what had occurred. My confederate wanted his parole badly, and +made a bargain with the Warden, by the terms of which his parole should be +granted in return for his delivering to the Warden my bundle of memoranda. +The terms were fulfilled on both sides, and my data are at this moment in +the Warden's safe, I suppose, along with the letter that I wrote during my +confinement to the Editor of the New York _Journal_ (mentioned in the text +of this book). + +The Warden thought, perhaps, that the lack of my accumulated data would +prevent or embarrass me in writing my book. I thought so myself at first, +but had not long been at work before I found that the essential book +needed no data other than those existing in my memory and supplied by the +general theme; my material was not scant, but excessive. My knowledge +of prison and my opinions and arguments based upon that knowledge were +not subject to the Warden's confiscation, and they were quite enough to +make a book of themselves, without need of dates, places, names and +illustrations. Indeed, even of such supplementary and confirmatory matter +I also found an adequate amount in my own unaided recollection--more +than I cared to give space to; for it was my belief that such things +were not required to secure confidence in the truth of what I had to say +in the minds of persons whose confidence was worth my winning. They would +believe me because they couldn't help it--because truth has a quality +which compels belief. Moreover, of illustrations of my statements the +public had of late had more than enough from other sources; what was now +wanted was not so much instances of the facts, as a general presentation +of the subject into which special and apposite cases could be fitted +by the reader according to his previously acquired information. Finally, +I reflected that the introduction of names, places and dates might injure +the men thus pointed out; secret service men, post-office inspectors and +other spies, and the prison authorities themselves, would be prompted +and helped to give them trouble. Accordingly, I was sparing even of such +data as I had; and I noticed, as the chapters appeared serially in the +newspaper syndicate which published them, that they were criticised in +certain quarters as of the "glittering generality" class of writings; +I made assertions, but adduced no specific proof of them. The source of +such criticisms was obvious enough, but they did no harm, and were not +accompanied by denials of my facts. The only other form of attack brought +against the book is comprised in the claim that I am a writer of fiction +and as such incapable of telling the truth, about anything; that I was the +dupe of designing persons who made me the mouthpiece for their factitious +grievances or spites; and that I was myself animated by a spirit of +revenge for the injury of my imprisonment, which must render anything I +might allege against prisons and their conduct worthless. + +I have touched upon the two latter counts of the indictment in the text of +the book; of the assertion that fiction writers cannot stick to facts or +convey truth, I will say that it is unreasonable upon its face. Fiction +writers, in order to attain any measure of success in their calling, must +above all things base their structures upon facts, and to seek and +promulgate undeniable truth in their descriptions and analyses. The +"fiction" part of their stories is the merest outside part; all within +must be true, or it is nothing. A novelist or story writer, therefore, is +more likely to give a true version of any event or condition he may be +required to present, than a person trained in any other form of writing, +with the exception, perhaps, of journalism. And I have been a journalist, +as well as a story writer, for more than thirty years past, and what +success I attained was due to the accuracy and veracity of the reports I +sent to my papers. In short, I am a trained observer of facts if ever +there were one; and no facts in my experience have been so thoroughly +hammered into my mind, heart and soul, digested and appreciated, as were +the facts of my prison life. Whatever else that I have written might be +cavilled at on the plea of inaccuracy, certainly this book cannot be. +Whether the statements which it contains be feebly or strongly put may +properly be questioned, but none of them can be successfully denied. + +But this aspect of the matter gives me small uneasiness. The important +consideration is, will the book, assuming that it is accepted as the +truth, do the work, or any large part of the work, which it was designed +to do? Will readers be influenced by it to practical action; will it be an +effective element in the forces that are now rising up to make wickedness +and corruption less than they are? The proposal toward which the book +points and in which it ultimates is so radical and astounding--nothing +less than that _Penal Imprisonment for Crime be Abolished_--that the +author can hardly escape the apprehension that the mass of the public will +dismiss it as preposterous and impossible. And yet nothing is more certain +in my opinion than that penal imprisonment for crime must cease, and if it +be not abolished by statute, it will be by force. It must be abolished +because, alarming or socially destructive though alternatives to it may +appear, it is worse than any alternative, being not only dangerous, but +wicked, and it breeds and multiplies the evils it pretends to heal or +diminish. It is far more wicked and dangerous than it was a thousand or a +hundred years ago, because society is more enlightened than it was then, +and the multitude now exercise power which was then confined to the few. +Whatever person or society knowingly and wilfully permits the existence +of a wickedness which it might extirpate, makes itself a party thereto, +and also inflames the wickedness itself. And the ignorance or the +impotence which we could plead heretofore in history, we cannot plead +to-day. We know, we have power, and we must act; if we shrink from +acting, action will be taken against us by powers which cannot be +estimated or controlled. This book is meant to confirm our knowledge and +to stimulate and direct, in a measure, our action; and to avert, if +possible, the consequences of not acting. Its individual power may be +slight; but it should be the resolve of every honest and courageous man +and woman to add to it the weight of their own power. Wonderful things +have been accomplished before now by means which seemed, in their +beginning, as inadequate and weak as this. + +In the sixth chapter of the Book of Joshua you may read the great type and +example of such achievements, the symbol of every victory of good over +evil, the thing that could not be done by man's best power, skill and +foresight, accomplished, with God to aid, by a breath. The defensive +strength of Jericho was greater, compared with the means of attack then +known, than that of Sebastopol in the fifties of the last century, or of +Plevna in the seventies, or of Port Arthur a few years since. Those walls +were too high to be scaled, too massive to be beaten down, and they were +defended by a great king and his mighty men of valor. From any moral point +of view, the enterprise of destroying the city was hopeless. Nor did the +Lord add anything to such weapons of offense as Joshua already possessed. +Seven trumpets of rams' horns were the sole agents of the destruction +provided; and not the trumpets themselves, but the breath of the mouths of +the seven priests who should blow through them, should overthrow those +topless ramparts, and give the king and his army and his people into the +hand of the men of Israel. Were such a proposition presented to our +consideration to-day, we can imagine what would be the comments of the +Army and Navy departments, of Congress, of the editors of newspapers, of +witty paragraphers, and of the man on the street. Possibly the churches +themselves might hesitate before giving their support to such a plan of +war: "We must take the biblical stories in a figurative sense!" But stout +Joshua had seen the angel of the Lord, with his sword drawn, the night +before; and he knew nothing of figures of speech. He got the seven +trumpets of rams' horns, and put them in the hands of the seven priests, +and led the hosts of the Israelites round and round the walls of Jericho +day after day for six days, the trumpets blowing amain, and the hosts +silent. And on the seventh day, the hosts compassed the walls of the city +seven times; "And at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the +trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you +the city.... So the people shouted when the priests blew with the +trumpets; and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the +trumpets, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the walls fell +down flat, so that every man went up into the city, every man straight +before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that +was within the city." + +Yes, the biblical stories are to be taken in a figurative sense; they +stand as symbols for spiritual actions in the nature of man; though that +is not to say that the events narrated did not actually take place as +recorded. But Joshua had faith; and faith in the hearts of the champions +of right begets fear in the hearts of supporters of wrong, and the +defenses they have so laboriously built up tumble distractedly about their +ears when the trumpets of the Lord blow and the people who believe in Him +utter a mighty shout. Our jails are our Jericho; the evils which they +encompass and protect are greater than the sins of that strong city; but a +breath may shatter them into irretrievable ruin. Not compromises; not +gradual and circumspect approaches; not prudent considerations of +political economy, nor sound sociological principles; but simple faith in +God and a blast on the ram's horn. + +My business in this book was to show that penal imprisonment is an evil, +and its perpetuation a crime; that it does not reform the criminal but +destroys him body and soul; that it does not protect the community but +exposes it to incalculable perils; and that the assumption that a +criminal class exists among us separate and distinct from any and +the best of the rest of us is Pharisaical, false and wicked. The +"Subterranean Brotherhood" are our brothers--they are ourselves, unjustly +and vainly condemned to serve as scapegoats for the rest. What the +criminal instinct or propensity in a man needs is not seclusion, misery, +pain and despotic control, but free air and sunlight, free and cheerful +human companionship, free opportunity to play his part in human service, +and the stimulus, on all sides of him, of the example of such service. +Men enfeebled by crime are not cured by punishment, or by homilies and +precepts, but by taking off our coats and showing them personally how +honest and useful things are done. And let every lapse and failure on +their part to follow the example, be counted not against them, but +against ourselves who failed to convince them of the truth, and hold them +up to the doing of good. Had we been sincere and hearty enough, we would +have prevailed. + +I do not underrate the difficulties; they are immeasurable; the hope seems +as forlorn as that of the Israelites against the walls of Jericho. But +they are forlorn and immeasurable only because, and so long as, we let our +selfish personal interests govern and mold our public and social action. +Altruism will not heal the inward sore, but at best only put on its +surface a plausible plaster which leaves the inward still corrupt; for +altruism is a policy and not an impulse, proceeding not from the heart but +from the intelligence--the policy of enlightened selfishness. It has +already been tried thoroughly, and proved thoroughly inefficient; it is +the motive power behind charitable organization; it breeds a cold, +impersonal, economic spirit in charity workers, and coldness, ingratitude +and resentment in those who are worked upon. It will not do to speak of +Tom, Dick and Harry as cases Nos. 1, 2 and 3. You must call them by name +and think of them as flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood, to whom +you owe more than they owe you, or than you can repay. Put a heart into +them by giving them your own heart; do not look down on them and advise +them, but at and into them and take counsel with them; or even up to them, +and learn from them. They know and feel much that you have never felt or +known. + +The book is full of shortcomings, imperfections, omissions, and +repetitions. But there is meaning and purpose in it, and I hope it may do +its work. + +JULIAN HAWTHORNE + + + + +I + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Conspiracies of silence--it is a common phrase; but it has never been +better illustrated than in regard to what goes on in prisons, here and in +other parts of the world. The conspiracy has been attacked sometimes, and +more of late than usual, and once in a while we have caught a glimpse of +what is occurring behind those smug, well-fitting doors. But they have +been mere glimpses, incoherent, obscure, often imaginative, or guesswork +based on scanty, incorrect, at any rate secondhand information; never yet +conclusive and complete. In England, Charles Dickens and Charles Reade +have personally visited prisons, talked with prisoners, written stories +that have stirred the world, and forced improvements. Great prisoners +like Kropotkin have related their experiences in Russia, and our own +George Kennan prompted us to congratulate ourselves, in our complacent +ignorance, that our methods of generating virtue out of crime were not +like those of the Russians. It was annoying, after this, to be assured by +writers in some of our magazines--called muckrakers by some, pioneers by +others--that after a sagacious, eager, well-equipped investigation into +our own prison conditions, peering into depths, interrogating convicts, +searching records, they had found little difference in principle between +our way of handling offenses against law, and that of our Cossack +neighbors. The latter are more sensational and red-blooded about it, that +is all. These revelations compelled some removals and a few reforms; but +they too failed to bring home livingly to public knowledge and +imagination the whole ugly, sluggish, vicious truth. + +Then, only yesterday, an amiable, naive and impressionable young gentleman +underwent a week of amateur convictship in one of our jails, and came +forth tremulous with indignation and astonishment; though, obviously and +inevitably, he did not have to endure the one thing which, more than +hardship or torture, is the main evil of penal imprisonment--the feeling +of helplessness and outrage in the presence of a despotic and unrighteous +power, from which there is no appeal or escape. The convict has no rights, +no friends, and no future; the amateur may walk out whenever he pleases, +and will be received by an admiring family and friends, and extolled by +public opinion as a reformer who suffered martyrdom in the cause. Yet what +he has experienced and learned falls as far short of what convicts endure, +as the emotions of a theater-goer at a problem play (with a tango supper +awaiting him in a neighboring restaurant) fall short of the long-drawn +misery and humiliation of those who undergo in actuality what the play +pretended. + +Meanwhile, scores of animated humanitarians, penologists, criminologists, +theorists and idealists have consulted, resolved, recommended, and +agitated, striking hard but in the dark, and most of their blows going +wide. Commissioners and inspectors have appeared menacingly at prison +gates, loudly heralded, equipped with plenipotentiary powers; and the +gates have been thrown wide by smiling wardens and sympathetic +guards--tender hearted, big brained, gentle mannered people, their +mouths overflowing with honeyed words and bland assurances, their clubs +and steel bracelets snugly stowed away in unobtrusive pockets--who +have personally and assiduously conducted their honored visitors +through marble corridors, clean swept cells, spacious dining saloons, +sanctimonious chapels, studious libraries and sunny yards; and have +stood helpfully by while happy felons told their tales of cheerful hours +of industry alternating with long periods of refreshing exercise and +peaceful repose; nay, these officials will sometimes quite turn their +backs upon the confidences between prisoner and investigator, lest there +should seem to be even a shadow of restraint in the outpourings. "Is all +well?"--"All is well!"--"No complaints?"--"No complaints!" What, then, +could inspectors and commissioners do except bid a friendly and +apologetic adieu to their ingenuous entertainers, and go forth bearing in +each hand a pail of freshest whitewash? And if, during the colloquies, +any malignant prisoner had happened, in a burst of reckless despair, to +venture on an indiscreet disclosure, the visitors were allowed to get +well out of earshot before the thud of clubs on heads was heard, and the +groans of victims chained to bars in dark cells of airless stench, +underneath the self same polished floors which had but an hour before +resounded to paeans of eulogy and contentment. + +This is not a fancy picture--no, not even of what is known to judges and +attorneys (but not to prisoners) as "The model penitentiary of America," +down in sunny Georgia. Fancy is not needed to round out the tale to be +told of conditions existing and of things done and suffered in this age +and country, behind walls which shut in fellow creatures of ours whom +facile jurors and autocratic courts have sent to living death and to +worse than death in accordance with laws passed by legislatures for +the benefit of--What, or Whom?--Of the community?--Of social order +and security?--Of outraged morality?--Of the reform of convicts +themselves?--These questions may be considered as we go along. Meanwhile +we may take notice that a number of persons, more or less deserving, gain +their livelihood by the detection, indictment, arrest, conviction and +imprisonment of other persons more or less undeserving; and whether or +not these proceedings or any of them are rash or prudent, straight or +crooked, just or tyrannous, lenient or cruel, honest or corrupt--is of +secondary importance. What is of first importance is to supply fuel for +the furnace of this unwieldy machine which operates our criminal system. +Our costly courts must have occupation, our expensive jails must be kept +full. We have succumbed to the disease which has been called legalism--the +persuasion that the craving for individual initiative born of the +unsettling of old faiths and the opening of new horizons, as well as +the consequences of poverty, misery, ignorance, and hereditary +incompetence--that this vast turning of the human tide, manifesting itself +in many forms, some benign, many evil--that this broad and profound +phenomenon can be met and controlled only by force, suppression, +punishment, the infliction of physical pain and moral humiliation. + +This disease perverts that beautiful and ideal impulse toward mutual +order and self-restraint, which is Law, into lust for arbitrary and +impudent power to control the acts and even the thoughts of men down to +petty personal details; so that human life, at this very moment when it +most needs and aspires to enlightened liberty, is crushed back into +mechanical conformity with statutory regulations to which no common +assent has been or can be obtained, and the logical consequences of which +are as yet but obscurely recognized, even by the limited portion of the +community which has been active in establishing them. To give it its most +favorable interpretation, it is a sort of crazy counsel of perfection, +incompatible with the healthy tenor and contents of human nature, and +sure in the end to involve in its errant tentacles not only those who are +the avowed objects of its pursuit, but likewise the lawmakers and +enforcers themselves. Like all abuses, in its own entrails are the seeds +of its destruction. Laws now on our books, if radically applied, would +land almost every mother's son of us behind prison bars. And no doubt, +when the murderer, forger, swindler, or white slaver, in his cell, begins +to recognize in his new cell mate the judge who sentenced him, the +attorney who prosecuted him, the juryman who convicted him, or the +plaintiff who accused him, we shall find it expedient to subject our +legal nostrums to a system of purgation, and our fever of legalism will +abate. But if we will take thought betimes we may meet the trouble half +way, and thus avert, perhaps, the danger that the fever will be checked +only by the overturning of all law, sane or insane. The following +chapters are designed to help in defeating a catastrophe so unlovely. + +Be it observed, first, that the only persons competent to reveal prison +life as it is are persons who have been sentenced to prisons and lived in +them as prisoners. Such showings might have been made long ago and often +but that those who knew the facts were afraid to speak, or could not win +belief, or had not education and capacity for expression requisite to get +their facts printed. Others, exhausted or unmanned by their sufferings, +wished only to hide themselves and forget and be forgotten; others have +indictments still hanging over them, to be pressed should they betray a +disposition to loquacity. Seldom, at any rate, has a man trained as a +writer lived out a prison sentence and emerged with the ability and +determination to throw the prison doors ajar and expose what has hitherto +been invisible, unknown, and unsuspected. + +Such a story has importance, because there is no group of persons +anywhere but has some relation near or remote to what goes on in prisons. +And the constant output of new laws, creating new crimes (so that one +might say a man goes to bed innocent and wakes guilty)--this delirious +industry must goad us all into feeling a personal interest in the +administration of our penal machinery. You saw your friend tried and +sentenced yesterday; you may yourself stand in the dock to-morrow, +knowing yourself morally innocent, astounded at finding yourself +technically guilty. Yet you yourself by your civic neglect or ignorance +contributed to the enactment of the statute which now catches you +tripping. You had better search into these matters, and find out what the +authorities whom you helped to office are doing with their authority. + +I have served my term in prison. The strain of that experience has not +sharpened my appetite to bear testimony; my desire, as evening falls, is +for rest and tranquillity. But I owe it to my American birth, parentage +and posterity, which connect me with what is honorable in my country, and +to my individual manhood, to do what I hold to be a duty. Especially am I +sensible of the claim upon me of those voiceless fellow men of mine still +behind the bars, who cannot help themselves, who have honored me with +their tragic confidences, who have believed that I would do my utmost to +let the truth be known and show the world what penal imprisonment really +means. I will keep faith with them. + +I do not know that my attempt will succeed. Not every reader has +imagination or sympathy enough to step into another's shoes--especially +into the sorry shoes of a convict--and to realize facts which, even if we +credit them, are disquieting and unpleasant. They make us uncomfortable +and keep us awake at night. It is pleasanter to ignore or forget them, to +say that they must be exaggerated, or that their purveyor has some ax of +his own to grind; besides, do not abuses cure themselves in time?--and +there is always time enough! + +Three or four men, while I was spending my months in jail, had time to +die of broken health and broken hearts, due to physical assaults or +neglect, combined with a system of mental torture yet more effective and +barbarous. Hundreds more are in similar plight, in Atlanta jail alone, +who might be saved by timely attention and common humanity. Of this, more +anon. I wish now to say that I undertake this work with a purpose as +serious as I am capable of; and that among the inducements that move me, +personal grudge and grievance are not included. Individual enmities are +foolish and sterile for the individuals, and a bore for everybody else. +Individuals are never so much to be hated as are the conditions which +prompt them to act hatefully. Improve the environment which produced the +murderer, robber, corrupt judge, rascally attorney, cruel warden, brutal +guard, and you are likely to get a creature quite humane and tolerable. +On the other hand, however, in the process of opposing evil conditions, +one cannot avoid contact with the human products of them--sometimes in a +stern and conclusive manner. Without going the length of the Spanish +Inquisition, which tortured the body on earth in order to save the soul +for heaven, it is not to be denied that punishment for evil deeds is +latent in the bowels of the evil doer and will make him suffer in one way +or another. We cannot strike a bad condition without hitting somebody who +is carrying it out; and I am in the position of the Quaker who went to +war: "Friend," he admonished his foe-man, "thee is standing just where I +am going to shoot!" + +I am not disposed to present here, in the way of credentials, any account +of the circumstances that landed me in prison; still less to plead +anything in the way of extenuation. The District Attorney, in his +address, described me as a member of one of the most dangerous band of +crooks and swindlers that ever infested New York. The government of this +country authorized his statement; the news was bruited afar, wherever men +read and write and invest money on the planet, and it appealed to every +city editor and scandal-monger. Julian Hawthorne, son of the author of +"The Scarlet Letter," a pickpocket. Well, what next! + +If ever I cherished the notion that the charge was too preposterous to be +believed, I was abundantly undeceived. To jail I went, and there served +out my time to the uttermost limit allowed by the law. But in this +connection I must touch on a matter which caused me some annoyance at the +time. + +In June of 1913 an editorial appeared in a New York newspaper endorsing +some petitions which had been circulated asking the President of the +United States to pardon me, mainly on the ground that in my ignorance of +business I had been more of an innocent dupe than a deliberate +malefactor. I had known nothing of these petitions; had I known of them, +I would have omitted no effort to prevent them. + +But I did get hold of the editorial; and found myself placed in the +position of admitting myself guilty of the crime charged against me, but +cowering under the pitiful excuse of having been bamboozled by others. +What was even less tolerable, it presented me as entreating pardon of a +government from which I would in fact have accepted nothing short of an +unconditional apology. The Government had done me an injury under forms +of law; I am only one man, and the Government stands for a hundred +millions; but justice has no concern with numbers. My mining company and +I were ruined; the iron and silver which we tried to put on the market +will enrich others after we are gone; but I knew that what I and my +partners had said of them was true. What had I to do with "pardons"? +Pardon for what? + +I lost no time in writing a letter to the editor of the paper, defining +my attitude in the matter; but it never reached him. It is in the private +safe of Warden Moyer, of Atlanta--or so I was informed by the Deputy +Warden, when I was released in October--and for aught I know or care it +may remain there forevermore. + +Whether my respect for Law is higher or lower than is that of those +persons who are responsible for my being sent to prison and kept there, +may appear hereafter. But if crime be the result of anti-social impulses, +then I hold that our present statutes fail to include under their +categories, numerous and inquisitive though they be, a class of criminals +who do, or intend, quite as much harm as was ever perpetrated by any man +now under lock and key. Many of these persons occupy high places; most of +them are respectable. We meet them and greet them in society. I know +them, and also the murderers, highwaymen and yeggs of the penitentiary; +and when I want sincere, charitable, generous human companionship, my +choice is for the latter. + + + + +II + + +THE DEVIL'S ANTECHAMBER + +The judge pronounced our several prison sentences; that they were not also +sentences of death was due to circumstances which developed later. The +jury had previously dispersed, clothed in the sanctity of duties +discreetly performed, knowing why they did them, and enjoying whatever +consolation or advantage appertained thereto. Marshal Henkel cast upon us +the look of the turkey buzzard as he swoops upon his prey, and we found +ourselves being hustled down the familiar corridors, and into a room which +we had not visited before; a few assistant marshals were there, and ere +long a knot of newspaper men entered, observant and sympathetic, ready to +receive and record the last words of the condemned. + +It was about six o'clock of a dark and rainy March evening. "Any statement +you would like to make?" One stands upon the brink of the living world, +facing the darkness and silence, and hears that question. + +Here is an end of things, a nothing, a sort of death. The support and +countenance of one's fellow creatures are withdrawn; you are no longer a +part of organized social existence. The rights, privileges and courtesies +of manhood are stripped from you. You are adjudged unfit to touch the hand +of an honest man in greeting; you are made impotent, disgraced, consigned +to the refuse heap. The helpless shame put upon you is borne tenfold by +those who bear your name, those you love and who love you. All that +touches you henceforth shall be sordid, base and foul. + +The prison officials who stand near you meet your eye with a leer of +familiarity; they have handled thousands of men in your situation; they +will have a grin or a growl for any remonstrance or protest you may make; +power over you has been given to them; in you there is no power. You +cannot blame them; their authority was deputed to them by men above them, +who in turn received it from others; they are parts of the great machine, +working irresistibly and automatically. + +The judge is blameless; he had said, "The verdict of the jury makes it my +painful duty to sentence you!" The jury is not to blame; they had decided +upon the evidence, in accordance with their oath. The witnesses who bore +testimony against you--did they not testify upon a solemn adjuration to +utter nothing but the truth, at the peril of their immortal souls? The +indictments to whose truth they bore witness--were they not made and +brought by officers appointed by law to seek only impartial justice, and +sworn to seek it without fear or favor? + +Go back yet another step if you will, and consider the inspectors and +detectives who gathered the complaints against you--is the beginning with +them? No: they did but act for the protection of the community against a +crime of which you were suspected, which was resolved to be a crime by the +representatives of the nation in Congress assembled--that is, by the +nation itself. You yourself, therefore, as part of the nation, share with +the rest the responsibility for your present predicament. Then, whether +the verdict against you were right or wrong--whether you be innocent or +guilty--the blame at last comes home to you. + +Such is the _reductio ad absurdum_--the lawyers' argument, technically +flawless, though proceeding upon a transparent fallacy. That fallacy I +shall consider hereafter; the question of the moment is the +reporters'--"Have you any statement to make?" + +Of what avail to answer? Has not enough been said during the trial of the +past four months, and in vain? The young fellow stands there, courteously +inquisitive, not unsympathetic perhaps, his pencil suspended. Have I any +last words for the world which I am leaving? Shall I declaim of injustice, +outrage, perjury? Shall I threaten revenge, or entreat mercy? Shall I +"break down," or shall I "maintain an appearance of bravado"--he is ready +to record either. + +No, I will do none of these futile things. In such extremities, a man's +manhood and dignity come to his support. I am helpless, to be sure, but +only physically so. All this portentous paraphernalia of court and prison +can touch nothing more than my body--my spirit is unscathed. It is the +ancient consolation, coming down through poetry and history even to me. +The Government--the Nation--can destroy my life, separate me from my +people, throw mud on my name; but they cannot take away one atom of my +consciousness of the truth. And it is better to have that consciousness +than to retain all the rest without it. Blessed ethical truisms, which +come to our succor when all else falls away! + +Accordingly, the reporters were supplied with a few grave, not sensational +words, suggested by the spur of the moment; they receded into the +background, and Marshal Henkel, zealous to do his whole duty, and prevent +the escape of an elderly gentleman through locked doors, echoing +corridors, and the resistance of half a dozen lusty guards, advanced to +the front of the stage and gave the order, "Handcuffs!" Knowing my marshal +as I did, I was prepared for him, and extended my arm, till I felt the +steel close round it with a solid snap. I was a manacled convict, and the +community was saved. + +But no time was to be lost; it was already after hours for the city +prison; and the stout party of the other part of the handcuff and I passed +out through the opening door promptly. As we turned the corner of the +corridor, I suddenly saw the face of one of my sons-in-law, pale in the +electric light; he forced a smile to his lips, and threw up one hand in +greeting and farewell. Ah, those who are left behind! who can compensate +them, and how can the injury done them be forgiven? I smiled a moment to +myself as I thought of the ready answer of the august purveyor of the +law--"You should have thought of that when you committed your crime!" +That answer is also a part of the automatic machinery, and comes out, when +the button is pressed, as inevitably as the package of chewing-gum from +its receptacle--even more so! + +I felt the rain on my face as we emerged from the old postoffice building, +and saw the slanting drops as we passed through the rays of the street +lamp on the corner. It was a memorable journey for me, short in its +material aspect, long otherwise; and I noticed the particulars. Newspaper +Row loomed on the right, strange in its familiarity, my work-place of many +years. Here was the Third Avenue terminal, whence, a few hours before, I +had confidently expected to take the train homeward, a free and vindicated +man. There were glimpses, in the wet glare, of black headlines of +newspapers, and the shrill professional cries of the gamins, "Hawthorne +convicted!" It was like living in a detective story--but this was real! + +But then came the thought that had often visited me in the past months, as +I sat in the dingy courtroom, and listened perfunctorily to the legal +wrangle, the abuse and defense, the long-drawn testimony of witnesses, the +comment of the precise and genial judge, and contemplated idly the jaded, +uncomfortable jury, the covert whispering of Assistant District Attorneys +and postoffice inspectors, the dangling maps and the piles of +documents--when I had asked myself, "Is all this real, or are they +transient symbols importing a concealed significance?" Then, to my +imagination, the empty walls would seem to melt away, and I saw a great, +benign face and figure above the bench of the judge, holding a trial of +those who labored so busily--a trial not entered in the books, and alien +from that which occupied us; and recording judgments, unheard here, but +eternal. + +Was that the reality? Then let come what might on this plane of foolish +contention, where we strive to cover the Immutable with the petty mask of +our mutabilities. We sweat and toil for ends which we know not, and our +paltry and blind decisions, our triumphs and failures, determine nothing +but the degree of our own ignorance and impotence. The Lord's aims and +issues are not ours, and ours do but measure our spiritual stature, and +direct our immortal destiny, in His sight. + +Yes, but this palpable world has its place and function nevertheless, to +be accepted and used while time lasts. If those who tried me were on +trial, I had no personal concern in the matter. My business, now, was to +keep pace with my companion, who obligingly allowed his arm to swing with +mine, so that passers-by, even if they could afford to divert their +attention from their own footing on the muddy pavements, and from the +management of their umbrellas, would not have noticed the bond uniting him +and me. For this courtesy--the only possible one in the circumstances--I +took occasion to express my recognition, to which he responded with easy +friendliness. "We don't never make no trouble for them as don't go to hunt +none," was his remark. + +We were now in Centre Street, and the Tombs was close at hand; and I drew +into my lungs full draughts of the open air, murky though it was, +reflecting that my opportunities of doing so in future would be limited. + +Here were the steps supporting the tall steel gate, through which, in +former days, I had seen many a poor devil pass; it was now others' turn to +commiserate, or to jeer, the poor devil that was myself. There was no +delay--we seemed to be awaited; and in the next minute I had felt what it +is to be locked into a prison. I was behind bars, and could not get out at +my own will--nor at any one else's, for that matter; only at the +impersonal fiat of the machine. + +My marshal chatted and laughed a moment with the keeper, then gave me his +buxom paw in farewell. I was led through stone passages, past rows of +barred cells from which peered visages of fellow prisoners, incurious and +preoccupied, or truculent and reckless--men under indictment and without +bail, convicts making appeal, and culprits jailed for minor offenses. Such +men were to be my comrades for the future. Some were out in the corridors, +pacing up and down or chatting with friends; for the laws of the Tombs are +unsearchable. + +It is a unique place, a Devil's Antechamber, where almost anything except +what is decent and orderly may happen. It is not so much a prison or +penitentiary as a human pound, where every variety of waif and stray turns +up and sojourns for a while; murderers, pickpockets, political scapegoats, +confidence men, old professionals, first-time offenders, even suspects +afterwards to be proved innocent. There is nothing that I know of to +prevent thorough-going convicts from getting in here permanently; the +Tombs is of catholic hospitality. But they do not properly belong here; it +is but their halfway house--the antechamber. + +And discrimination must be observed in classifying the inmates; no one +here likes to be regarded as beyond hope of bettering or escaping from his +restricted condition. He wears his own clothes, for one thing--and no +small thing; he is not known by a number; it is not, I believe, en regle +to club him into insensibility at will and with impunity, or to starve him +to death, or so much as to hang him up by the wrists in a dark cell. The +guards or keepers do not go about visibly armed with revolvers or rifles; +talking and smoking are not prohibited; the grotesque assemblage is let +out into the corridors occasionally, where they shamble up and down and +exchange observations and confidences; and they have an hour outdoors in +the stone paved, high-walled yard. + +Moreover, extraordinary liberties can be obtained, if you know how to go +about it, and possess the means of bandaging inconvenient eyes. Not only +are we permitted to stampede our quotas of bedbugs, but leave may be had +to decorate our cells with souvenirs of art and domesticity, to soften our +sitting-down appliances with cushions, to drape the curtain of modesty +before the grating of restriction, to carpet our stone flooring, to supply +our leisure hours with literary nourishment, to secrete stealthy cakes and +apples for bodily solace, to enjoy surreptitious and not over-hazardous +corridor outings when others are locked up, to write and receive any sort +of letters at any times, without having them first read and stamped by +licensed letter-ghouls. + +More, there was at least one man among my companions there who contrived, +by devices which I never sought to fathom, to pass the immitigable outer +gates themselves every day, attend to his business in the outer world for +as many hours as might serve, returning quietly in time for last +roll-call. He took a keeper with him, of course, but only in order to +assuage possible anxiety on the part of those responsible for his +security; and one cannot help suspecting that as soon as the two found +themselves under the free sky, the keeper betook himself to some friendly +saloon, moving-picture palace, or other inviting retreat, and only saw the +other again when they met by appointment in their trysting place. + +It was safe enough no doubt; the prisoner would hardly think it worth his +while to attempt actual disimprisonment; he was content to sleep at night +in his cosy and comfortable cell. But the Moral Powers who live in white +waistcoats and saintly collars might have been restless in their innocent +sleep, had they known what things are practicable under the austere name +of incarceration in the City Prison. + +Revolving these matters, I could only come to the conclusion that they +pointed in one direction, namely, toward the anachronism and absurdity of +our whole theory of punishment by imprisonment. As I shall have plenty of +cause to give full discussion to this subject later on, I will only touch +it here; but the fact is that we imprison malefactors or law-breakers (not +always synonymous by any means, since there are a score of artificial +crimes for one real one) not because we believe that to be the right thing +for them, but simply by reason of our inability to imagine anything more +suitable and sane. Moreover, there are the steel and stone jail buildings +themselves, which cost much in money and more in graft; what shall be done +with them? The wardens and guards, too--all the fantastic appanages of +these institutions--are they to be cast incontinently upon a frigid world? + +The law, in short, lags leagues and ages behind the moral sense of the +community, so encumbered with its baggage train that it can never fetch up +lost ground. We know perfectly well that the only punishments that can +improve men are punishments of conscience from within, and of love from +without--which is practically the same thing; and that punishment by +imprisonment is punishment by hate in fact, whatever it may be in theory, +and therefore diabolical and destructive. It can only inflame and multiply +the evils it pretends to heal; and this is no theory, but a certified and +established truth. Everybody who has been through it, knows it, everybody +who dares to think may know it. + +The whole thing is ridiculous, a huge and clumsy absurdity, stepping on +its own feet and smelling to heaven. And here in our America it is to-day +worse than in Italy or Russia, in some respects, because we know better +that it is wrong, and therefore try to hide its enormities from open +daylight. We lie and dissimulate about it, investigators whitewash it, +conservative citizens deprecate exaggeration about it, wardens and +guards--some of them, not all--are more wicked in their secret practises +with convicts than they would be if they did not know that they would be +stopped if the community knew of them. And it was inevitable that only a +low type of men would accept positions as guards and wardens, because no +honest man worth his salt could afford to work for the pay that these +officials get; and the latter themselves would not work for it, did they +not depend upon stealing twice as much, or more, by the graft. + +But the system, inwardly rotten, crumbles; and in the interval remaining +before it falls, the devil is getting in some of his most strenuous work. +I know, and rejoice, that enlightened and magnanimous methods are +obtaining in some places; hearty and brave men, here and there, are making +themselves wardens of the good in men instead of exploiters of the evil. +But in most prisons--among them, in that one down in Atlanta, whence I +come--the devil is laboring overtime, conscious that his time is short. + +The worst criminals there--as God sees criminals--are not the men in +branded attire who sit in their cells and slouch about their sterile +tasks, but men who walk the ranges in uniform, and who sit in the rooms of +managers; for the crimes of the former are crimes of poverty or of +passion, but those of the latter are voluntary, unforced, spontaneous +crimes against human nature itself. They are upheld in high places; they +are fortified by difficulty of "technical proof"; they are guarded by the +menace of the spy system, and of criminal libel; but there is some reason +to think that their term is near. + +But let us return to that queer Antechamber of the Devil at the corner of +Centre and Franklin Streets. + +There is a picture by that strange and unmatchable English artist of the +Eighteenth Century, William Hogarth, of the mad house in London know as +Bedlam. If he were here, he might draw a companion picture of the Tombs. +The one is as much as the other a crazy, incoherent, irrational, futile +place, yet embodying very accurately a certain aspect of the civic +attitude toward the insanity of vice and crime of the day. There is +nothing intelligent, purposeful, trenchant or radical about it; it is +planted in ignorance and grows by neglect. + +The keepers of it are good natured people enough, with a sense of humor, +and free from trammels of principle, official or ethical. Their greatest +severity is exercised toward those who stand outside the gates and crave +permission to visit their friends within; these find the way arduous and +beset with pitfalls of "orders," hours, and other mystic rites, except +where they blow in miraculously, enforced by some breath from on high. + +The inmates themselves, meantime, get on quite prosperously, so long at +least as their money or money's worth holds out. There is no license or +aptitude on their guardians' part to club them for relaxation's sake, or +to kick them into underground dungeons for "observation" (you will +understand that term by and by), or in any manner to hold a carnival of +wanton brutality with them. The general idea is merely to keep them +somewhere inside the building for the appointed or convenient time; beyond +that, a liberal view is adopted of the conditions of their sojourn. They +can buy eats to suit themselves, and have them served to them in their +cells; they can hold communication with one another and with the outer +world; I suppose they might wear evening dress after six o'clock if they +wanted to. They are not victims of despotic and irresponsible power, and +this is not only good for them, but also for the keepers, who are not led +into the degradation and monstrous inhumanities which the possession of +such power breeds in regular prisons. + +Most of these prisoners expect to get out before long, either to go on to +more permanent quarters, or to be liberated altogether; many of them +emerge with comparatively small loss of social standing; for, indeed, +highly respectable persons occasionally stray in here. The Tombs is not +regarded as a final or fatal misfortune in a man's career. Yet it has its +drawbacks. + +Dirt is one of the more obvious of these; I might call it filth, but it +depends on how one has been brought up. The impurity, at any rate, is not +confined to the surfaces of the cells, floors and walls, but it creeps +into the current language, and permeates the atmosphere. I am convinced +that there never has been or could be a houseful of people who hear or use +fouler and more unremitting obscenities than are those which flow +sewer-wise and unhindered from the lips of many of this population. + +It dribbles and exgurgitates, black and noisome, at the slightest +provocation--nay, at none whatever, but with the delight of the past +master and artist in verbal nastiness, anxious to display his erudition. +It is a corruption of thought and expression so foul and concentrated, and +withal so limited in its vocabulary and scope, that it fastens itself in +the ear by a damnable iteration which no diverting of the attention can +overcome; and it announces a depth of moral and mental debasement which +seems as far from human as from merely animal possibilities; it is of the +uttermost soundings of Tophet, and would probably be modified by +fresh-heated gridirons even there. + +This speech, or verbosity rather--for it has none of the logic or +continuity of mortal utterances--does not continue uninterruptedly during +the day, but observes special hours, when the guards are paying even less +than their usual attention to the vagaries of their charges. Of these +periods, the hours of early dawn are the most fertile. + +When I dwelt in the environs of the city, it was my fortunate habit, in +summer, to awake at dawn, just before sunrise, when the wide pasture +outside my window was still obscure with the shadows of night, but the sky +had begun to kindle with the splendors of day. In a group of darksome +trees beside a little stream two hundred paces distant a song thrush was +wont to trill forth the holy soul of awakening nature in such a paean of +deathless Pan as inspired John Keats to utter the melodies of his magic +ode. It consecrated the footsteps of the approaching sun, and the hearer +was borne back on its swelling current to those pure early aeons of the +human race, when love was the lord of life and innocence went forth +crowned with rapture. + +For this hymn of the primal gods was now substituted the hideous strophes +and antistrophes of the grimy spirits of darkest New York. As one +performer after another took up the strain, to and fro and from upper to +lower tiers of cells, one awaited some seismic cataclysm to put an end to +it and them; and the pauses of it were punctuated by bursts of dreary +laughter, applausive of the incredible gushings of blighting depravity. +They were the heralds of the prison day--the tune to which its steps were +set. After it was over--when the yawning keeper had rattled the bars and +threatened a twelve-hour close confinement to the perpetrators--one was +amazed to identify with the latter persons outwardly in human shape, +instead of malformed and sooty fiends from the bottomless abyss. I doubt +whether anything to range with this occurs in any other criminal cauldron +in the world; and therefore, with stopped nostrils, have I tried to give +some faint adumbration of its character. + +The head keeper of the menagerie I saw but once or twice; he was of +Falstaffian proportions, with a clear and steady masculine eye and a +demeanor of genial and complacent authority. He knew what and when to see +and not to see, and had his own measure of the legalities and the +proprieties. Little gusts of investigations and reforms passed by him as +the eddying dust of the street sweeps by granite skyscrapers. "_J'y +suis--J'y reste!_" was his motto. The subordinates had a general Irish +complexion to my feeling; they were there to gather tips under the +humorous guise of marshals of order. They were affable and easy, going as +far as they could with only so much show of resistance as might lend more +value to their yielding. + +The prisoners were as heterogeneous as the contents of a rag-picker's +auction. Yet they associated with little friction, herding uniformly kind +with kind, only rarely lending themselves to transient ructions. They +played little jokes on each other; a fat and serious captive was sitting +of an evening at his cell door, absorbed in the perusal of a wide-spread +newspaper; a gnome-like passerby in the corridor lit an unsuspected match, +and suddenly the newspaper was a sheet of flame. + +There were uglier spectacles; we had among us a fresh murderer, who after +killing his wife had retained grudge enough against her to hack off her +head. He kept darkly to his cell, sitting hour after hour with his head +leaning on his hand, and eyes unswervingly downcast. His crime was not +popular in that company, and none sought his companionship. At the other +end of the scale were dazed, foreign creatures, guilty of they knew not +what, gropingly and vainly striving to understand and to make themselves +understood. There was the scum of the gutters; and there were men of +intellect and high breeding, arming their hearts to resist shame and +despair, and bending to soften the plight of children of misery below +them. + +The soul of the new comer blenches and shivers occasionally as he +contemplates the grisly, crazy scene, and thinks of all that menaces the +women at home. And when, in the visiting hours, the women come and stare +palely at the faces of those they love between the bars, wishing to cheer +them, but appalled and made giddy by the abject and sordid horror of the +solid fact, those who stare back at them and try to smile feel the grating +of the wheels of life on the harsh bottom of things. But a man's manhood +must not give way; there must be no triumph over him of these assaults and +underminings of the enemy. Soul gazes at soul; but the talk is superficial +and trivial. He is drowning in the gulf, and she stands yearning on the +brink, but there shall be no vain outcries or outstretched arms. It is a +condition wrought by men, not countenanced by God, and the spirit must +command the flesh to endure. + + + +Punch the button and listen once more to the refrain--"You should have +thought of that before!" But can our posterity ever be induced to believe +that such inhumanities could have been committed in the divine name of +Law! + +I am not qualified to write the epic of the Devil's Antechamber; I abode +there but ten days, as we reckon time. On a cool and clear Easter Sunday +morning the summons came to go forth to further adventures. Accompanied by +three deputies, but free of the Henkel handcuffs, we passed the gates and +trod the sunny pavements. Not a cloud in the blue sky, nor a taint upon +the pure wings of the free air. None that saw us pass suspected our +invisible fetters. Yet to me at least the thought that had ministered to +me in the actual courtroom and prison, that the fetters were a dream and +freedom the reality, was not accessible then. The absence of physical +bonds seemed to render the imprisonment more, not less undeniable. + +But we stepped out briskly, and breathed while we might. + + + + +III + + +THE ROAD TO OBLIVION + +Five of us stood on the platform of the Pennsylvania station; one stayed +behind as the train moved out. He was the answer to the question, "_Quis +custodiet ipsos custodes?_"--"Who shall watch the watchman?" Our two +marshals were to see that we did not escape; he was to see that they saw. +But his function ended when the departing whistle blew. He was a lean, +pale, taciturn personage in black; Marshal Henkel had perhaps substituted +him for the handcuffs. There was nothing between us and freedom now but +our brace of tipstaves, the train crew, the public in and out of the +train, the train itself moving at a fifty mile an hour pace, the law, and +our own common sense. Moreover, we had decided to see the adventure +through. Something more than nine hundred miles, and twenty-six hours, lay +between us and Atlanta. + +The elder of our two guardians was a short but wide gentleman of +forty-five, of respectable attire and aspect, as of one who had seen the +world and had formed no flattering opinion of its quality, yet had not +permitted its imperfections to overcome his native amiable tolerance. He +was prepared to take things and men easy while they came that way, but +could harden and insist upon due occasion. Human nature--those varieties +of it, at least, which are not incompatible with criminal tendencies--was +his "middle name" (as he might have phrased it), so that in his proper +social environment he was not apt to make social mistakes. This +environment, however, could not but be constituted, in the main, of +convicts either actual or potential; and there was probably no citizen, +however high his standing or spotless his ostensible record, who in this +official's estimate might not have prison gates either before him or +behind him, or both. To be able to maintain, under the shadow of +convictions so harsh, a disposition so sunny, was surely an admirable +trait of character. + +His assistant in the present job was still in the morning stage of his +career; a big, red-headed, rosy-cheeked, and obtrusively brawny youth of +five and twenty. He might be regarded as the hand of steel in the glove of +velvet of the combination. He may have carried bracelets of steel in his +rear pockets; but his associate earnestly assured me that such was far +from being the case. "I don't mind telling you the truth, Mr. Hawthorne," +he confided to me with a companionable twist of the near corner of his +mouth, "I'd as soon think of cuffs, for gentlemen like you two, as nothin' +in the world! Why, it's like this--as far as I'm concerned, I'd just put a +postage-stamp on you and ship you off by yourselves--I'd know you'd turn +up all right of yourselves at the other end! That's me; but of course, we +has to foller the regulations; so there you are!" And the ruddy youngster +stretched his herculean limbs and grinned, as who should say, "Cuffs! +Hell! What d'yer know about that? Ain't I good for ten of yer?" + +As the comely Pennsylvania landscape slid by, my friend of a lifetime and +I looked out on it with eyes that felt good-by. For us, the broad earth, +bright sunshine and fresh air were a phantasmagoria--we had no further +part in them. From college days onward, through just fifty years of life, +we had traveled almost side by side, giving the world the best that was in +us, not without honor; and now our country had stamped us as felons and +was sending us to jail. It had suddenly discovered in us a social and +moral menace to its own integrity and order, and had put upon us the +stigma of rats who would gnaw the timbers of the ship of state and corrupt +its cargo. The end of it all was to be a penitentiary cell, and disgrace +forever, to us and to ours. + +But was the disgrace ours and theirs? When you kick a mongrel cur it lies +down on its back and holds up its paws, whining. But the thoroughbred acts +quite otherwise; you may kill it, but you cannot conquer it. We would not +lie supine under the assault of the blundering bully. Disgrace cannot be +inflicted from without,--it can only come to a man from within. And the +disgrace which is attempted unjustly must sooner or later be turned back +on those who attempted it; the men whom our country had deputed to handle +the machinery of law had blundered, and had convicted and condemned those +who had done no wrong. I had never felt or expressed anything stronger +than contempt for any particular persons actively concerned in our +indictment and trial--the pack that had snapped and snarled so busily at +our heels. Till the last I had believed that their purpose could not be +accomplished,--that the nation would awake to what was being done in the +nation's court, under sanction of the nation's laws. The public must at +last realize the moral impossibility that men who had all that is dearest +to men to lose, should throw it away for such motives as were ascribed to +us--ascribed, but, as we felt, not established. And when the public +realized that, thought I, they would perceive that the shame which the +incompetent handling of the legal machinery aimed to fix on us must +finally root itself not in us but in the public; since the world and +posterity, which, more for our names' sake than for our own, would note +what was being done, would not distinguish between the employee and the +master--the country and the country's attorneys, and would hold the former +and not the latter accountant. + +I was mistaken; the public took the thing resignedly to say the least. And +though I consented to no individual animosities--for individuals in such +transactions are but creatures of their trade, subdued to what they work +in, like the dyer's hand--I could not so easily absolve the impersonal +master. The fault inhered of course not in any grudge of the community +against us, but in the prevalent civic neglect (in which, in my time, I +had participated with the rest) of duties to the state, theoretically +impersonal, but which cannot proceed otherwise than on personal accounts. + +Man is frail; but, next to sincere religious conviction, no principle +exists so strong to control him as _noblesse oblige_--the impulse to keep +faith and to deal honestly imposed not by his individual conscience alone, +but by the pure traditions of his inheritance. The man who has the honor +of his forefathers to preserve--an honor which may be a part of the +nation's honor--is a hundred-fold better fortified against base action +than is the son of thieves, or even of nobodies. The latter may find +heroism enough to resist temptation, but the former is not tempted; he +dismisses the thing at the start as preposterous. It is no credit to him +to put such temptation aside, but it is black infamy and treachery to make +terms with it. If he do make terms with it, no punishment can be too +severe--though I take leave to say that the external penalties which state +or nation can inflict are trivial compared with those deadly ones which +torture him from within; but before crediting him with having yielded, the +state or nation should not merely assume his innocence--a stipulation +which our law indeed makes, but which is notoriously disregarded by +prosecuting attorneys--but should weigh and sift with the most anxious and +jealous scrutiny anything and everything which might appear inconsistent +therewith. A son of a thief who steals does but follow his inborn +instinct; but a thief whose ancestors were gentlemen is a monster, and +monsters are rare. + +In England and the other older countries, the principle of _noblesse +oblige_ still has weight with the public as well as with the individual; +here, the welter of democracy, which has not evolved into distinct human +form, uniformly ignores it; leveling down, not up, it is quick to see a +scoundrel in any man. Meanwhile, instead of taking thought to abate the +public mania for success in the form of concrete wealth which multiplies +inducements to crime, it creates shallow statutes to punish acceptance of +such inducements, with the result that while in its practical life it +rushes in one direction, it erects in its courts a fantastic counsel of +perfection which points in a direction precisely opposite. Our law tends +not merely to the penalizing of real crimes, but to the manufacture of +artificial ones; and the simple standard of natural or intuitive morals is +bewilderingly complicated with a regimen of patent nostrums, conceived in +error and administered in folly. + +Sitting in the car window with my friend, I revolved these things, while +the sunny landscape wheeled past outside, and our guardians chewed gum in +the adjoining section. After all was said and done, amid whatever was +strange and improbable, he and I were going to the penitentiary in the +guise of common swindlers. A pioneer on the western plains, in the old +days, riding homeward after several hours' absence, found his cabin a +charred ruin, his property destroyed, his wife lying outraged with her +throat cut, his children huddled among the debris with their brains dashed +out. Sitting on his bronco, he contemplated the immeasurable horror of the +catastrophe, and finally muttered, "This is ridiculous!" + +"This is ridiculous!" I remarked to my companion; and he consented with a +smile; when language goes bankrupt, the simple phrase is least inadequate. +"We may as well have lunch," he said; and we rose and journeyed to the +rear of the train, sedulously attended by our deputies. The spontaneous +routine of the physical life is often a valuable support to the spiritual, +reminding the latter that we exist from one moment to another, and do +wisely to be economical of forecasts or retrospects. We journeyed back, +through innocent scenes of traveling life, to the smoking compartment, +which happened to be vacant; and under the consoling influence of tobacco +our elder companion sought to lighten the shadows of destiny. + +"You gentlemen," he said, uttering smoke enjoyingly through mouth and +nostrils, "don't need to worry none. It's like this: the judge figured to +let you off easy. He's bound, of course, to play up to the statute by +handin' you your bit, but, to start with, he cuts it down all he can, and +then what does he do but date you back four months to the openin' of the +trial! All right! After four months you're eligible for parole on a year +and a day's sentence, ain't yer? Your trial began on November 25th, and +to-day is the 24th of March. That means, don't it, that you make your +application the very next thing after they gets you on the penitentiary +register to-morrer! Why, look-a-here," he continued, warming to his theme, +and becoming, like Gladstone as depicted by Beaconsfield, intoxicated with +the exuberance of his own verbosity, "it wouldn't surprise me, not a bit, +sir, if you and your mate was to slip back with us on the train to-morrer +evenin', and the whole bunch of us be back in little old New York along +about Wednesday! That's right! An' what I says is, that ain't no +punishment--that's no more'n takin' a pleasure trip down South, at the +suitable time o' year! An' I guess I been on the job long enough to know +what I'm talkin' about!" + +We guessed he knew that he was talking benevolent fictions; and yet there +was plausibility in his argument. The law did not allow parole on +sentences of a year or under, but on anything over one year, a convict was +eligible, and our sentence of twenty-four hours over the twelvemonth +therefore brought us within this provision. In imposing that extra day, +the judge could hardly have been motived by anything except the intention +to open this door to us; and although the regular meeting of the parole +board at the prison was not due just then, we were informed that an extra +meeting might be summoned at any time. The board consisted of the warden +of the prison, the doctor, and the official who presided at all parole +board meetings at the various federal penitentiaries throughout the +country,--Robert LaDow. The law declares that a majority of the board +decides the applications that come before it; and as two members of the +board make a quorum, it seemed obvious that the warden and the doctor of +Atlanta Penitentiary would serve our turn--if they wanted to. Mr. LaDow, +of course, might be appealed to by telegraph if expedient. + +Turning the thing over, therefore, with the cozening rogue in front of us +drawing our attention to the buttered side as often as it appeared, we +could hardly avoid the conclusion that there was a possibility of his +being right. We might be required to remain in Atlanta barely long enough +to don a suit of prison clothing and to have our bertillons made, and +forthwith make a triumphal return home, with our scarlet sins washed white +as snow. Of such an imprisonment it might be said, as wrote the poet of +the baby that died at birth, + + "If it so soon was to be done for, + One wonders what it was begun for," + +but it would not be the first thing that we had noticed in Federal +administration of justice which might have been similarly criticized. + +My allusion to this subject here is only by way of leit-motif for a +thorough discussion hereafter. The juggling with the parole law, by the +Department of Justice and the parole boards, is one of the most +indefensible and cruel practical jokes that "the authorities" play upon +prisoners. It caused two deaths by slow torture while I was at Atlanta, +as shall be shown in the proper place; and there is no reason to suppose +that the percentage at other prisons was not as large or larger. The +sufferings short of death that are due to it cannot be calculated. A +practical joke?--yes; but there is a practical purpose back of it. The +miserable men who are practised upon by this means, helpless but hoping, +are led to believe that they may buy freedom at the price of treachery +to their fellows. Can it be credited that a convict in his cell, with +perhaps years of living death before him,--you do not yet know what that +means, but if I live to tell this story, you will be able to guess at +its significance before we part--will refuse the opportunity offered to +end it at once in return for merely speaking one or two names?--a +convict--a creature outlawed, crushed, damned, dehumanized, +despised,--can we look from him for a heroism, a martyrdom, which might +shed fresh honor on the highest name in the community? I confess that I +would not have looked for it a year ago, and I doubt whether you look +for it now. But, I have to report, with joy in the goodness and +selflessness in men whom you and I have presumed to look down upon, that +in very few instances that I have heard of, and in almost none that I +know, has a convict thus terribly tempted even hesitated to answer--NO! +But many an old and cherished prejudice will begin painfully to gnaw its +way out of your complacent mind before we are done. + +The City of Brotherly Love flickered by and was left behind, like the +sentiment which it once stood for. We were headed for Washington, where +the will and conscience of the nation take form and pass into effect. +Government of the people by lawyers, for lawyers; did they know what +they were doing? The Constitution, bulwark of our liberties; the letter +of the law, technicalities, precedents, procedure, the right of the +individual merged in the public right, and lost there! The House--five +hundred turbulent broncos, each neighing for his own bin; the +Senate--four score portentous clubmen, adjusting the conservative +shirt-front of dignity and moderation over the license of privilege and +"the interests"; the Executive--dillydallying between nonentity and the +Big Stick; the Supreme Court--a handful of citizens and participators in +our common human nature, magically transmuted into omniscient and +omnipotent gods by certificates of appointment! And the rest of our +hundred millions, in this era of new discoveries and profound upheavals, +on this battlefield of Armageddon between Hell and Heaven, in this +crumbling of the old deities and the looming of the Unknown,--are we to +lie down content and docile and suffer this hybrid monster of +Frankenstein, under guise of governing, to squat on our necks, bind our +Titan limbs, bandage our awakening eyes, gag our free voices, sterilize +our civic manhood, and debase us from sons of divine liberty into the +underpinning of an oligarchy? + +My friend and I--while our licensed proprietors napped with one eye +open--smiled to each other perhaps, recognizing how the prick of +personal injury and injustice will arouse far-reaching rebellion against +human wrongs and imperfections in general. But our famous American sense +of humor may be worked overtime, and, from a perception of the +incongruity and relative importance of things, be insensibly degraded +into pusillanimous indifference to everything, good or bad. The soberest +observer may concede that there is a spiritual energy and movement +behind visible phenomena, whose purport and aim it is the province of +the wise to understand. The peril of Armageddon lies in the fact that +evil never fights fair, but ever masks itself in the armor of good. Not +only so, but good may be changed into evil by hasty and misdirected +application, and do more harm--because unsuspected--than premeditated +evil itself. Public endowment of chosen persons with power is good and +necessary in our form of civilization, and the chosen ones may accept it +in good faith. But in a community where everybody has business of his +own to mind, and is put to it so to conduct it as to keep off the poor +rates, deputed powers, designed to be limited, always tend to become +absolute. It is heady wine, too, and intoxicates those who partake of +it. And it is only a seeming paradox that absolute and irresponsible +power is more apt to develop in a democracy than under any other form of +human association. Holders of it, moreover, instead of fighting for +supremacy among themselves, and thus annulling their own +mischievousness, as would at a first glance seem likely, soon learn the +expediency of agreeing together; each keeps to his own area of +despotism, cooperating, not interfering with the rest. But the system +inevitably takes the form of rings within rings, each interior one +possessing progressively superior dominion. At last we come to a central +and small group of men who are truly absolute, and are supported and +defended in their stronghold by the self-interested loyalty of the rest. +But they do not proclaim their supremacy; on the contrary, they hide it +under clever interpretations of law, and, at need, by securing the +enactment of other laws fitted to the exigency of the occasion. If there +is remonstrance or revolt among their subjects, they subdue it partly by +pointing out that it is the law, and not themselves, that is +responsible; and partly by employing other legal forms to put down the +resistance. You cannot catch them; they vanish under your grasp as +principles, not men. Their voice is never heard saying, "I will!" but +always, "The law requires." And these autocrats--this oligarchy--are +only men like ourselves, with like passions, limitations and sinful +inheritance. They were not born to the purple--they just happened to get +to it. But being possessed of it--and apart of course from any crude and +obvious malfeasance in office--they cannot be "legally" dislodged; and +if they step aside, it is only to let alter egos take their place. The +King of England--the Emperor of Germany--can be deposed by the people, +and his head cut off; but the free and independent--but +law-abiding--citizens of the United States cannot throw off this subtle +tyranny, because it is identified with legal provisions which we have +insensibly allowed to creep into the inmost and most personal fibers of +our lives. As for modifying or abolishing the law itself--that would be +anarchy! + +It would be foolish to contend that our rulers are actuated by any +personal malevolence or even, at first, by unlawful personal ambition; +they are, as I have said, for the most part lawyers, and law is their +fetish--their magical cure-all and philosopher's stone. They almost +persuade themselves, perhaps, that we the people make the laws; whereas +not more than one man in ten thousand--even of lawyers--knows what the +law in any given case is, nor would the majority of us approve any +particular law, if we were afforded the chance. Any one of us will +support the law against his enemy, but not, in behalf of his enemy, +against himself. But our legalized sultans and satraps, Councils of Ten +and Grand Inquisitors, keep an easy conscience; the Law is King and can +do no wrong. A few centuries ago it was law in England to kill a man for +taking any personal liberties; there was not much harm in that, for most +of the persons that counted were above the law, being nobles or +gentlemen. But our way is far more injurious; if a man takes a personal +liberty, the cry is, Put him in jail! Death is a penalty which only +disposes of a man forever; but jail is poisonous; the man survives, but +he becomes criminal, and an enemy of society. And this cry for jail does +not appear to emanate from legal tribunals merely, but we the people +ourselves have caught it up, and invoke cells and chains for the +lightest infraction of public or personal convenience; nay, we clamor +for more laws to supplement our already overburdened statute-books. Thus +do we thoughtlessly strengthen the hands of our masters. The nostrum +which they manufactured to govern us withal, and which at first had to +be administered to us willy-nilly, has now become like that notorious +patent medicine for which the children cry. We kiss the rod--as long as +it is laid across our fellows' backs and not our own. And the rule of +Law, by lawyers, for lawyers, shows no signs of vanishing from our +earth. Only convicts and ex-convicts dissent; for they know what they +dissent from. As an unidentified friend wrote to me of late, "No thief +ere felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law"; but the thief +had reason on his side. And it may yet come to pass that his reasons may +be listened to. + +Darkness set in as we entered the sacred soil of Virginia; night lay +before us--our next night would be spent inside penitentiary walls. Was +it a dream, or would some cosmic cataclysm occur in season to prevent +it? No: the ancient routine of one fact after another, of cause and +effect, would keep on with no regard for our sensibilities; however +important we might appear to ourselves, we were but specks infinitesimal +in the vast scheme of things. Miracles and special providences are for +story books; if you are the victim of abuses, be sure that the remedy +will come not through averting them, but by carrying them out to the +finish. On the morning of his execution, it seemed incredible that +Charles I should be beheaded; but he mounted the scaffold, laid his head +upon the block, and the masked man lifted his sword and cut it off. All +that is left for you is not to falter--to keep down that tremor and +sickening of the heart; when Danton of the French Revolution reached the +guillotine, he was heard to mutter, "Danton, no weakness!" And many an +unrecorded Danton, on the night before his appointed death, has lain +down and slept soundly. It recurred to my memory that my father, shortly +before his death, had said to an old friend of his, "I trust in Julian." +On the day following his death, that friend had journeyed to Concord to +tell me those words--returning to Boston immediately. My father's son +had lived to be proclaimed a felon; but I slept sound that night. + +All next day we were passing through the raw red soil of the South, with +its cotton plantations, forlorn at this season, its omnipresent idle +negroes, and its white folks, lean and solemn, standing guard over what +fate had left to them. At stopping places we would step out for a few +minutes on the platform of the observation-car, to breathe the air and +feel the sunshine,--the affectionate deputies close at our elbows. Some +of our fellow passengers were bound for Florida or Cuba, to escape the +crudity of the northern March; "May be we'll meet up again there!" some +of them said, innocently unsuspicious of what sort of characters they +were addressing. Paradise and the Pit travel side by side on this earth, +and find each other very tolerable company. + +Into Atlanta station the train at last rolled; the journey to oblivion +was all but finished. The restless little city, turmoiling in its boom, +swarmed around us; we had to wait half an hour, our gripsacks in our +hands, for the surface-car to the prison, three miles or more beyond the +town. We awaited it with some impatience--such is the unreasonableness +of our mortal nature. At last we were rumbling off on our trip of twenty +minutes, sitting unnoticed in the midway seats, our considerate but +careful guardians on the watch at the front and rear platforms. The car +took its time; it stopped, started again, stopped, started, after the +manner of ordinary cars; oh, for a magic carpet or pneumatic tube, to +make an end of this! or for a thousand years! It was as if the headsman +were making preliminary flourishes with his sword, ere delivering his +blow. These were difficult minutes. + +They ended; "Here we are!" We alighted, and advanced to the entrance of +an expanse of ornamental grounds, with a cement pathway leading up to an +extensive fortified structure--a wall thirty feet high sweeping to right +and left from the tall steel gateway, with the summits of stone towers +emerging beyond. I stepped out briskly, in advance of the others; I +noticed some bright-hued flowers in a bed on the right. In a few moments +I was ascending a wide flight of steps; as I did so, the gateway yawned, +and two men in uniform stepped out. There was a transient halt, a few +words were exchanged; we went forward, and the gate closed behind us. + + + + +IV + + +INITIATION + +"Put the fear of God in his heart!" + +This phrase, impious and ironic, is used by officials in prisons, and +repeated by prisoners. It has no religious import. The naming of God in +that connection reminds me of a remark I heard from a moonshiner--as the +distillers of illicit whiskey in the mountain regions of the South are +called--who had lately arrived at the penitentiary. He said, "I allus +thought this here Jesus Christ was a cuss-word; but these folks say he +was some religious guy!" His enlightenment was doubtless due to the +first aid to the unregenerate administered by our chaplain. + +To "put the fear of God in a man's heart" means to break his spirit, to +cow him, to make him, from a man, a servile sneak; and this is effected +not by encouraging him to remember his Creator, but by instilling into +him dread of the club, the dungeon, and the bullet. He must learn to +fear not God, but the warden, the captain and the guard. He is to be +hustled about, cuffed, shoved, kicked, put in the hole, punished for not +comprehending surly and half inarticulate orders, or for not +understanding gestures without words; all of which encouragements to +obedience are, indeed, specifically forbidden by the rules which were +formulated in Washington and disseminated for the information of the +investigation committees and of the public, but which are disregarded +nevertheless by the prison authorities from the highest to the lowest. +For they risk nothing by disregarding them; there is no one except +prisoners to complain of illegal treatment, and there is no one for them +to complain to except the very persons who are guilty of the +illegalities; and the warden at Atlanta, at any rate, has repeatedly +stated that he would not accept the oaths of any number of prisoners +against the unsupported denial of a single guard. To do otherwise would +be to "destroy discipline." Moreover, these unverified complaints--such +is their inevitable category in the circumstances--are themselves fresh +causes of offense, and productive of the severest punishments--not only +clubbing and close confinement, often in the dark hole, but loss of good +time, which of course is more dreaded than anything else. + +But may not the prisoners complain to the committees or inspectors, +appointed precisely to enquire into and relieve abuses of this sort? + +I shall have a good deal to say about these agents of humanity +presently. I will only say here that no prisoner who cares whether he +lives or dies, or who possesses common sense or the smallest smattering +of experience of prison affairs, ever is so reckless as to impart any +facts to the persons in question. If he accuses any guard or other +official of cruelty, the entire force of prison keepers can and will be +at need marshaled to deny point-blank that any such thing occurred, or, +if any did, it was because the accused official was at the time quelling +a dangerous revolt, and deemed his own life in peril. If this evidence +be insufficient, it is a pathetic truth that some prisoners can always +be found so debased by terror and abject as to perjure themselves +against their comrades. It is among negro prisoners that such traitors +are commonly sought and found. White men uniformly have a sense of +honor--thieves' honor, if you please--which keeps them loyal. There are +exceptions to this rule, and there are also exceptions to the rule that +negroes betray. I have the pleasure and the honor of the acquaintance of +some negro prisoners at Atlanta who would sooner die than ingratiate +themselves with the officials by a falsehood. + +Accordingly, complaints of brutal treatment at Atlanta are not frequent, +either to the officials or to investigators; otherwise, I need not tax +your imagination to picture what happens to the complainants after the +investigators have departed. + +Order and discipline--as appertaining to prisoners, not to +officials--must be preserved; of course they must, if we are to have any +prisons at all. And since there is no way for the prisoners to compel +the guards to keep within the license accorded to them, we must compel +the prisoners to accept whatever injustice or outrage the unrestrained +despots of the ranges have the whim to inflict upon them. There are +desperate revolts at times--desperate in the literal sense, since they +have no hope of relief in them, but only the tragic rage against tyranny +which will sometimes blaze up in victims--and on the other hand there +are officials who will resign their positions rather than connive at +abuses. But every means is taken to avert this last; for guards know +things, and the System could be shaken by men who not only know, but, +unlike prisoners, have a chance to make what they know believed. + +All this time we have been waiting just inside the prison gates. The +difference between just inside and just outside is important; for nine +convicted men out of ten, it would be punishment for their misdeeds more +than sufficient to be taken no further on the way to retribution than +that. Whatever humiliation and disgrace they are capable of feeling or +have cause to feel is at that first moment at its height; it strikes +upon them unaccustomed and defenseless--never so acutely sensitive as +then. Afterward, familiarity with misery and shame renders them +progressively more and more callous, without adding one jot to the +public odium of their position. They can never forget that first clang +of the closing gates in their ears; the whole significance of penal +imprisonment is in that. Many a man, the moment after that experience, +might turn round and go forth a free man, yet with a soul charged with +all the mortal burden that man-devised penalties can inflict upon him. +Moreover, not having been unmanned and his nature violated by physical +insults and outrages, he might find strength and spirit to begin and +pursue a better life thereafter. The "lesson" (word which our shallow +and officious moralists roll so sweetly under their tongues) would have +been taught him to the last tittle, and withal enough of the man remain +to profit by it. Whereas, under the existing conditions, no more than +four or five years in jail destroy any possibility of future usefulness +in most men; they have been hammered into something helpless, dazed, or +monstrous; and even if they have courage to attempt to take hold of life +again, they are defeated by the unremitting pursuit of our spy system, +which depends for the main part of its livelihood upon getting +ex-convicts back to jail--whether on sound or on perjured evidence is +all one to the spies. So, as I said some time ago, most prison sentences +are life sentences, to all practical intents. To the manhood of the man, +prison means death. + +Do some of the above statements appear extreme? Read on, and decide. +Meanwhile I will observe that so long as prisons endure, such abuses as +have been hinted at must persist. Whatever reforms have in special +instances ameliorated them, have in so far only gone to show that the +whole system is vicious and irrational. + +My friend and I looked at our new masters with curiosity; they looked at +us with what might be termed arch amusement. With such a look do small +boys regard the beetles, kittens, or other animals, power to torment +whom has been given them. It was after prison hours--the men had been +already locked in their cells, and the warden and deputy had gone home. +It was left to the subordinates to put the fear of God in our hearts; we +could only surmise how far they would go in that instruction. We did not +then know that their power was limited only by their good pleasure. But +it is an accepted and reasonable principle with them that the sooner one +begins to take the nonsense out a prisoner, the better. The strangeness +of his surroundings intimidates him at the start, and he more readily +realizes that he has no friends and that he is in prison--not (as one of +the guards afterward took occasion to remark) in a "sanitarium for +decayed crooks." A good scare thrown into him now will bring forth more +fruit than greater pains taken--and inflicted--hereafter. + +Our anticipations, however, were the less formidable, because we had +been exhaustively assured during the past ten days that Atlanta +Penitentiary was not so much a penitentiary as a sort of gentlemen's +summer resort and club, where conditions were ideal and treatment almost +foolishly humane and tender. This information came not only from all +court officials with whom we had held communion on the subject, but from +our own counsel at the trial; the judge himself seemed to believe it, +and if you ask the prison authorities at Atlanta, they will earnestly +assure you that prisoners there are treated like gentlemen, are given +every material comfort consistent with their being prisoners at all, are +sumptuously fed and housed, and are helped in all ways to build up their +manhood, maintain their self-respect, and prepare themselves for a +career, after liberation, as valuable and industrious citizens. We were +naturally disposed to credit assertions so emphatically and variously +made,--some basis for them there must be. And it was obvious, at a +glance, that the corridor in which we stood was spacious and airy, with +a clean limestone pavement; that the disorder and shiftlessness of the +Tombs was absent here. The guards who attended us wore neat dark +uniforms of military cut; and if their caps were tilted back on their +heads, or cocked on the northeast corner, that was a pardonable +expression of their authority and importance. I saw no firearms and no +blood, nor were the groans of tortured convicts audible. I remembered +the flowers in the garden outside, and was prone to think that things +might have been very much worse; they were certainly better, at a first +glance, than at Sing Sing, which I had visited on a newspaper assignment +about fifteen years before. I had resolved beforehand to make the best +of everything, and it seemed already possible that I might not have to +make believe very much to do so. + +No resolve, however, could overcome the influence of that locked and +barred gate, nor the realization that I was a convict, and that nobody +inside the penitentiary had any doubt that I was justly convicted. +Friends were remote and helpless; the support of former good repute was +annulled; I stood there impotent, one man against the Federal +Government, with nothing to aid me but the weight of my personal +equation (whatever that might be worth) and my private attitude on the +question of my guilt, which the trial had not modified, but which could +be of no practical benefit to me here. The sensation of confronting +everywhere a settled and hostile skepticism as to one's integrity was +novel, and hard to meet with a firm countenance. And I felt how easily +this sensation might crush the courage of one who was conscious of being +justly condemned. How many men must be sitting yonder in those cells who +lacked the moral consolations that I had! The thought sharpened my +perception of the horror of all imprisonment, but at the same time +stiffened my fortitude; for if these men could live through their +ordeal, how much more could I! + +Meanwhile we were being hurried through the handsome corridor, and down +a flight of iron steps to a less presentable region. There was no +aggressive brutality, only a peremptory curtness, entirely proper in the +circumstances. Our only defense against physical severity was a bearing +of cheerful but not overdone courtesy, and we gave that what play we +might. I could not foretell how I might behave under a clubbing, and +would not bring the thing to a test, if I could decently avoid it. In a +long, low, shabby, ill-lighted room we were lined up against a counter, +on the other side of which were two or three of our fellow +prisoners--the first we had seen--whose function it was to fit us with +prison suits. They consisted of a sack coat and trousers of gray-blue +cloth--rather heavy goods, for the warm season had not yet begun--and +this was obviously far from being their first appearance on a convict; +suits are handed down from one generation of prisoners to another until +they are entirely worn out; my own was of an ancient vintage and a good +deal defaced, but I had no ambition to be a glass of fashion in jail. Of +course I could only conjecture what diseases previous wearers of it +might have suffered from; but I hoped for the best. Every new arrival at +the penitentiary is presumed to be dirty until he is proved clean, and +the only way for him to prove his bodily purity is to submit to a bath. +The regulation is commendable, and was welcome to us after our day and +night in the train; but a comrade of mine from the mountain wildernesses +of South Carolina, where bathing is still regarded as a degrading +innovation, described to me long afterward what a sturdy battle he had +put up against the disgrace, and being a lusty youth, it had taken the +best efforts of several guards to hold him under the spout long enough +to wet him--and themselves into the bargain. Though this was the first +time since infancy that I had bathed under compulsion, I complied very +readily, and even said to my friend, "This isn't so bad!" It is not +permitted, under the law, to give out any news about prisoners to the +world without, after they have once passed the portals; nevertheless, +this memorable remark of mine was printed next day in the New York +newspapers, together with the scarlet hue of my necktie, and some other +details,--my registered prison number among them, my own first knowledge +of which was derived from the published paragraph. It was my first +intimation of a fact which afterward exercised no small influence on my +destiny in the prison--that I was a "distinguished," or at least a +notorious prisoner. This influence had its good as well as its bad +aspect, in the long run, but the latter was in the beginning the more +conspicuous. The unidentified press-agent who disseminated to an eager +world the news about the bath and the necktie, continued to be active +during our stay in Atlanta, but his other communications were not even +approximately so accurate as the first one, and nearly all of them were +children of his imagination exclusively, and were more likely to be +gratifying to the officials than to my fellow prisoner and myself. + +From the bath to the bedchamber. Up the darksome stairs again into the +stately corridor; through an inner gateway, and into a wide hall which +communicated to right and left, through small steel doors, with the west +and east ranges (dormitories). The west door was unlocked, and we were +pushed into a huge room, about two hundred feet by a hundred and twenty, +with tall barred windows along each side. Inside this space had been +constructed a sort of inner house of steel, seven or eight stories in +height, with zig-zag stairways at either end, leading to narrow +platforms that opened on the individual cell doors. These doors were +barred, and were locked by throwing a switch at the near end of the +ranges; but any particular door could also be opened by a key. The cell +doors of the inner structure were at a distance of some twenty feet from +the walls and windows of the outer shell, and got what light and air +they had from these--none too much of course. Also, the guard on duty in +the range, if the weather be chilly, will close the windows, against the +protests of the prisoners, and against the regulations too; but most of +the guards are thin-blooded Southerners, and diseased into the bargain, +and do not like cold air. The consequence is that the four hundred pairs +of lungs in each range soon vitiate the atmosphere; the prisoners turn +and toss in their cots, have bad dreams, and rise in the morning with a +headache. + +We mounted three or four flights of iron steps, and were introduced into +a cell near the corner. It was, like all the others, a steel box about +eight feet long by five wide, and seven or eight high. On one side, two +cots two feet wide were hinged against the wall, one above another; they +reduced the living space to a breadth of three feet. The wall opposite +was made of plain plates of steel, and so was the inner end of the cell, +but in this, at a man's height from the floor, was a round hole an inch +in diameter. That was a part of the spy system; for between the two rows +of cells is a narrow passage, in which the guard can walk, and, himself +unseen and unheard, spy upon the prisoners and listen to their +conversation. All prisoners are at all times of the day and night under +observation. This seems a slight thing; but the cumulative effect of it +upon men's minds is disintegrating. At no moment of their lives can they +command the slightest privacy. And what right to privacy, you ask, has a +prisoner? Would he not use it to cut his way through the chilled steel +walls with his teeth and nails, or to plot revolt with his +cellmate?--Possibly; but even a beast seeks privacy at certain +junctures; and to deny all privacy tends to bestialize human beings. It +is a part of the "put-the-fear-of-God-in-his-heart" principle--to break, +humiliate, degrade the man, and render him unfit for human association. +There are a washbasin and a toilet seat at the foot of the cot, facing +the barred door. What difference can it make to a convict if the guard, +or any other passer-by, watches him while he uses them? + +There had been issued to us sheets, a pillowcase, and a gray blanket of +the army sort; our first duty was to make our beds. Mattress and pillow +were stuffed stiff with what felt like wood chips, and was probably +straw and corn-husks; the pillow was cylindrical; the mattress was +hillocked and hollowed by the uneasy struggles with insomnia of +countless former users. There was a campstool whose luxuries we might +share. We had, each, a prison toothbrush, and a comb. In the ceiling of +the cell, beyond reach of an outstretched arm, was an electric bulb +which would be darkened at nine o'clock. But all this was welcome; I had +often roughed it in conditions quite as severe; my spirits could not be +dashed by mere hardships or inconveniences. We put our domestic menage +in order cheerfully, glad that we had been celled together, instead of +doubling up with strangers. Nor would it have discouraged us to know +that the west range was the one occupied by negroes and dangerous +characters. The place was silent; none of the demoniac chantings and +hyena laughter of the Tombs. We had our little jests and chucklings as +we made our arrangements; Courage, Comrade! the period of suspense and +anticipation is passed; we are at grips with the reality now! + +Moreover--"Every prisoner, on installation in his cell, is supplied with +rolls and hot coffee, and with pipe and tobacco!" Thus would the +statement run in the report to the Department. What if the bread be +uneatable, the coffee undrinkable, and the tobacco unsmokable? The mere +idea of such things is something; besides, prisoners do contrive, being +hard put to it, to consume them. We ourselves at least tried all three; +if it proved easier to be abstinent than self-indulgent, that was our +own affair. Meanwhile, our mental appetites were appeased by a little +gray pamphlet, containing the rules governing the conduct of convicts in +the penitentiary. There were a great many of them, and not a few +required thought to penetrate their significance. Why, for instance, +should special emphasis be laid upon the injunction to rest one's shoes +against the bars of the door upon retiring? We were never informed; but +I presume it must have been to prevent a man being tempted to reach out +an arm a hundred feet long through his bars, throw the switch, steal +along the platform, open the steel door, unbar the two outer gates, +climb over the thirty-four foot wall, and escape--all the while avoiding +the notice of the range guard, of the guards in the corridors, and of +the watchman on the tower outside, all of whom were armed with magazine +rifles and were yearning for an opportunity to use them. Of course, he +would want to have on his shoes for such an enterprise, so that if the +shoes were visible inside his door, it was prima facie evidence that he +himself was also within. Another rule was italicized--"_Do not try to +escape--you might get hurt!_" I refrained from testing the validity of +either prohibition. + +In the midst of our perusal, we were interrupted by the arrival of a +visitor. He was a slight-built, slope-shouldered young fellow, in prison +garb, with a meager visage heavily furrowed with sickness and +suffering--he had tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, and the indigestion +with which all prisoners who eat the regular prison fare are afflicted. +Not that Ned (as I will call him, since it was not his name) mentioned +his condition; it was determined long afterward by the diagnosis of my +friend; Ned's object in visiting us was not to air his own troubles, but +to assuage, so far as he might, the gloom and uneasiness of the new +arrivals. In his haggard face shone a pair of very intelligent and +kindly gray eyes, and above them rose a compact, well-filled forehead. I +was fortunate enough to keep in touch with this young man during my +stay, and I found no more lovable nature in the penitentiary. He made no +secret of the fact that he had been guilty of a Federal offense, and he +never expressed contrition for it; "I made a mistake in taking another +man in with me," he remarked; "you are never safe unless you go it +alone." He had not been systematically educated, but he had read widely +and judiciously, talked correctly, though with occasional colloquial +idioms thrown in, and he was a concentrated and original thinker. His +opinions were bold, independent, and sound, his insight was very +penetrating, and his knowledge of matters of criminal procedure and of +prison conditions was accurate and ample. Facts which I afterward +learned for myself were never out of accord with information he had +given me; and the sanity and clarity of his judgments were refreshing +and remarkable. His courage was undemonstrative but indomitable; he +never complained of his own condition and experiences, but was instant +in his sympathy with the misfortunes of others. No more welcome and +valuable counselor than he could have come to us in those first hours of +our durance. + +That he was able to visit us was due to his being a "runner," as those +prisoners are termed who are assigned to carrying messages and doing odd +jobs in the ranges. He leaned against the bars and spoke manfully and +pungently, with touches of gay humor now and then; advised us to our +conduct--what to do and what to avoid; and when he noticed the little +gray pamphlet, said scornfully, "Don't muss up your ideas with that! +There's a hundred rules there, and every one of 'em is broken every day. +Those rules are for show; what happens to you depends on who the guard +is, and how he happens to be feeling. You can go as far as you like +sometimes, and other times you'll get hauled up if you turn your head +sideways. The screw" (guard) "on this range is decent; he won't crowd +you too much. Keep quiet, and do what they tell you, and the odds are +you'll get by all right. Of course, if some fellow gets a grudge against +you, he's liable to hammer you like hell; there are some prisoners here +that get on the wrong side of a screw, and--well, it goes hard with 'em! +But if you're a little careful, I guess you'll get through all right. + +"I've read all about your case in the papers, and I know you oughtn't to +be here; and Bill" (the Warden) "likely knows it too, and as folks on +the outside are on the watch for what happens to you, he'll think twice +how he treats you. Bill is a cunning one; he keeps his ear to the +ground; when he sees that the reform people are going to put something +across, he backs it up, and gives out that he suggested it himself; but +up to a year or two ago, he did the worst sort of things to the men; +even in his early reports and addresses he advocated treatment that he'd +never dare stand for now--except on the quiet! He gets himself written +up in the local papers here as the model warden--warm-hearted and +broad-minded, and all that flap-doodle! But if he had his way, you'd +think you were back in the dark ages in this penitentiary. Wickersham +threw a bit of a scare into him a couple of years back; and there have +been others; but most of the inspectors that are sent here stand in with +him; he gives them good feeds in his house, and takes them out in his +auto, and fills 'em up with soft talk--about 'his boys,' and his +fatherly interest in 'em, and all that--but he keeps the dark cells and +the rest of the dirty work out of their sight, and of course none of the +men dares say anything to 'em--it would be all day with them if they +did--as soon as the inspector turned his back. That's what gets the +men's goat--that he puts up such a humane front, and all the while +hammers them on the sly. They'd prefer being told at the start they were +going to get hell, and then getting it; but it goes against their grain +to get it, and meantime have folks outside believe they're in a +gentlemen's country club!" + +Ned imparted his information by fits and starts; ever and anon he would +break off abruptly and walk off down the range, to give the guard the +idea that he was about his ordinary business; then he would return, +squat down on his hams beside the door, and murmur along in his rapid, +distinct tones. All that he said was abundantly confirmed later. + +Finally--"Good night--sleep well--they'll put you on some job in a few +days; it's the first days that go hardest with most men, but you'll get +used to it; you might get out on parole, too--but don't count on it; of +all the frauds in this prison, parole is the worst! And if they ever +pass that 'Indeterminate Sentence' law--good-by! Imagine Bill with that +thing to use as a club over us! He'd make every other man here a lifer!" + +He laughed in the prison way--silently, in his throat--and went away, +after warning us that it was near nine o'clock. Our watches had been +taken away from us; no doubt, a prisoner might commit suicide by +sticking his watch in his windpipe, or he could bribe a guard with it to +bring him cigarette papers, or "dope." Besides, what has a man in jail +to do with time? Our warm-hearted and fatherly masters desire their +charges to exist so far as practical in a dead, unmeasured monotony, +where a minute may seem to prolong itself to the dimensions of an hour; +to feel themselves utterly severed from the world they have annoyed or +injured. That is the penitentiary ideal; but it has of late become +impossible fully to realize it. A prison will always be a prison; but at +any rate, light shall be let in on it. + +Meanwhile, our cell light went out; and we waited for the dawn. + + + + +V + + +ROUTINE + +I lay in the upper bunk. It was a six-foot drop to the cement floor +below. The mattress, though irregularly dented and bulged, was upon the +whole convex, and not over two feet wide. A vertical fence or bastion, +six or eight inches high, along the outer brink of this precipice would +have averted the danger of rolling off in the night; but nothing of the +sort had been provided. One must remember not to roll, even in the +nightmare. Convicts educate the subliminal self to a surprising degree, +and do not fall victims to this trap as often as one would expect; but +occasionally one of them forgets, and down he comes, sometimes getting +bruised only, but generally with a broken bone or so. I do not have +nightmares, and I lay prone, gripping the sides of the mattress with my +knees, as if it were a bucking broncho. So I journeyed, Mazeppa-wise, +through the abysses of that first night, and was not unhorsed. + +Light glimmered obscurely through the bars of the cell from the +night-burner below. Odd sounds broke out at intervals. Half suppressed +coughs, sudden, brief cries, irregular wheezings and gurglings, due to +defective plumbing, occasionally a few muttered words; then a man in an +upper tier began to moan and groan dismally--a negro with a colic, +perhaps. Long, dead silences would be interrupted by inexplicable +noises. In the dead vast and middle of the night the prisoner in the +cell over mine began to pace up and down his floor, eighteen inches +above my head. Four paces one way, four back, over and over +interminably. Who was he? What was he thinking about? Something seemed +to goad him intolerably; that forging to and fro, like a tormented +pendulum with a soul in it, gave a stifling impression, as of one +tortured for air and space. How many years must he endure--how many +centuries? Was his wife dying, his children abandoned? Up and down he +padded; had he committed some ugly crime, for which he longed to +atone--but prison is not atonement! Had his conviction been unjust, and +was he raging impotently against injustice? Let him not rage too loudly, +for there was a guard yonder, indifferent to tortured souls, but +licensed to stop noises. A prison is a prison, not a sanitarium for +diseased crooks. But if the world could hear those footfalls, and +interpret their significance, how long would prisons last? A jail at +night is a strange place--eight hundred men packed in together, each +terrifyingly alone! + +Some of the earlier workers had been roused at six or five o'clock or +earlier; but for the majority the six-thirty bell was the reveille. It +screeched violently and was silent. The watching devils or the guardian +angels of the night vanished, and up got the eight hundred members of +the Gentlemen's Country Club, to live as best they might through one day +more; coughing, hawking, spitting, murmuring--but all with a sense of +repression in it, the life-sapping drug of fear in its origin, but long +since become a mechanical habit with most of them. Eight hundred +criminals, herded beneath one roof to be cured of their crimes by +indifferent or threatening and hostile task-masters and irresponsible +discipline-mongers, and by association with one another--a regimen of +hell to extirpate deviltry! The twentieth century solution of the +problem of evil, unaltered in principle after thousands of years! + +Civilization has progressed wonderfully, but always with this +death-house on its back. And the death-house gets bigger and more +populous every year. Reformers, exhorters, Christian Endeavorers, +humanitarians, Salvation Armies, social reformers, penologists, +scientific experimentalists with surgical apparatus, together with +parole laws, indeterminate sentences, commutations, pardons, not to +speak of a good warden here and there and a kind guard--all toiling and +tinkering to make prisons better, to sweep them, to air them, to instil +religion and education, to supply work and exercise and to pay +wages--and all the while the tide of criminals gets larger and the +accommodations for them less adequate. What can be the matter? Are we to +end by discovering that everybody is a criminal, and ripe for jail? or +shall we be driven to the realization that the fundamental idea of +imprisonment for crime is itself the most monstrous of crimes--and try +something else? What else is there to be tried? Are we to leave +criminals to their liberty among the community? + +There will be time enough to discuss these riddles. It is time now to +get into your prison suit, with its "U.S.P." on the back of the coat, +and your number; its "U.S.P." on the back of the shirt, with your +number; its "U.S.P." on the front of your trousers-legs, and your +number; your canvas shoes and your vizored cap. But beware of putting on +the cap within prison walls, lest the guard report you to the captain, +the captain to the deputy, the deputy, if necessary, to the warden, and +ye be cast into the inner darkness. There shall there be thin slices of +bread, and water, and gnashing of teeth. + +With a guard acting as cowboy, shepherd dog, or convict compeller, we +shuffled in a continuous line down the iron stairways and across the +hall into the dining room, a cement-floored barred-window desert sown +with tables in rows, seating eight men each; guards with clubs standing +at coigns of vantage or pacing up and down the aisles, and in one +window, commanding the whole room, a guard with a loaded rifle, licensed +to shoot down any misbehaver. At no time and in no part of this model +jail are you out of range of a loaded rifle, in the hands of men quick +and skilful in their use. They are the sauce for meals and the +encouragement to labor. But casualties seldom happen; when they do, they +are hushed up, and the body of the man is buried next day in the prison +graveyard. + +I will postpone to a future chapter the subject of the dining room and +what is done there. As we filed out, I noticed "MERRY CHRISTMAS," and +"HAPPY NEW YEAR" emblazoned in green above the door. It was to remind +us, perhaps, of what we lost by being criminals. As we debouched into +the inner hall, separated from the corridor leading to the warden's +office, and to freedom, by a steel-barred gate, we saw a guard seated in +a chair with a rifle across his knees. Rats in a steel trap might have +mutinied with as much hope of success as we at that juncture; but the +guard had to be used for something, and convicts must not be allowed to +forget that they are in prison. At all events we forbore to mutiny, and +were rounded into our cells and locked up for half an hour, during which +we might smoke Golden Grain tobacco, fifty per cent, dirt, and the rest +the refuse of the weed, supplied to the prison by contract; or we might +read, or comb our hair, or do calisthenics, or invoke the Divine +blessing upon the labors of the coming day. + +The interval is really provided as a measure of security; many of the +prisoners do their work outside the main buildings; but it is deemed +unsafe to unlock the outer gates while the whole body of prisoners is on +the move. They might make a concerted rush, and get out in the yard, to +be shot down in detail by the guards in the towers. + +Mr. Sidney Ormund, to be sure, a special writer on the _Atlanta +Constitution_, makes the following statement in an issue of the paper +shortly after I had left the jail and recorded my opinion that "Warden +Moyer was unfit."--"It is safe to assume," Mr. Ormund affirms, "that if +all the prisoners at the Atlanta federal penitentiary were life-termers +and each had a voice in the selection of a warden to serve for a like +term, William Moyer, the present incumbent--a man who has done more to +make prison life bearable than any man in this country--would be +selected without a murmur of opposition." + +That is a fine, explicit statement of Mr. Ormund's, such as any warden +in dire trouble and perplexity might be glad and proud to have a +faithful friend make concerning him. It has no strings to it, and is +followed up by similar sentiments throughout the article. But why, in +that case, are the gates into the yard locked, and the man with the +rifle provided? If Warden Moyer renders life at Atlanta prison more +bearable than at any other in the country, what conceivable grounds are +there that his affectionate inmates should wish to run away from him? +That warmhearted and big-brained gentleman would hardly put the +Government to the expense of supplying safeguards against a contingency +which his own tender and lovable nature renders unthinkable, even if the +thirty-four foot wall outside does not. There seems to be a non-sequitur +here, which Mr. Ormund, perhaps, may feel inspired to clear up. When he +has done that, it will be time to call his attention to a score or more +other incongruities which a residence of only six or seven months in +this humane institution has been sufficient to disclose. + +At the expiration of the half hour, we laid aside our pipes, or our +prayer-books, and were ready for the activities of the day. The others +were detailed to their regular work; but my friend and I had our final +rites of initiation still to undergo. A young official, whose +countenance readily if not habitually assumed a sullen and menacing +expression, beckoned to us with his club, and we followed him downstairs +to an elevator, in which he ascended to the upper floor, while we +pursued him upward by way of the staircase. The cap of Mr. Ivy--such was +his poetic given name--was worn on the extreme rear projection of his +head, and he used his club in place of speech; not that he actually +pummeled us with it, but by wavings and pointings he made it indicate +his will, and kept us mindful how easily we might afford him a pretext +for putting it to its more normal use. Mr. Ivy, as I afterward learned, +was a Southerner by birth, as are the majority of the guards in the +penitentiary, and may have been, like most of them, a graduate from the +Army. In reporting the case of Private George, of the U.S. Army, now a +prisoner in stripes in the Leavenworth Penitentiary, it was stated by +Mr. Gilson Gardner that "The common soldier in the U.S. Army has no +rights. When he enlists, he gives up the guarantees of the Constitution, +the protection of jury trial, and even his right to petition for a +redress of grievances. He may be unjustly charged, secretly tried and +cruelly punished, and he has no remedy." + +As regards unjust, cruel and despotic treatment, the status of the U.S. +soldier and of a penitentiary convict are on all fours, though of course +the former has the advantage of belonging to a service traditionally +honorable, of open air service and exercise in all parts of the country +or abroad, of reasonable freedom when off duty, and of whatever glory +and advancement campaigning against an enemy may bring him. But we may +readily perceive that a soldier who has felt the rough edge of +discipline and finds his health broken, perhaps, by indiscretions +incident to Army life, might say to himself, on receiving his discharge, +"I am bred to no trade, I am good for nothing, but I should like to get +back at somebody for the humiliations and hardships I have endured. Why +not take a job as a prison guard; the pay is only $70 a month, but +instead of being the under dog, I shall be on top, licensed to bully and +belabor to my heart's content, to insult, humiliate and berate, and to +get away with it unscathed!" + +For my part, I can imagine no reason more plausible to explain the large +number of ex-soldiers among prison guards, and their conduct in that +position. With some shining exceptions, they are petty tyrants of the +worst type, sulky, sneering, malignant, brutal, and liars and +treacherous into the bargain. Their mode of life in a jail, immersed in +that sinister and unnatural atmosphere, hating and hated, with no sane +or absorbing occupation, encouraged by the jail customs to play the part +of spies and false witnesses, ignorant and demoralized,--tends to create +evil tendencies and to confirm such as exist. No worse originally than +the average of men, they are made baser and more savage by their +circumstances. And no man able to hold his own in the free life and +competition of the outside world, would stoop to accept a position as +guard in a jail. + +I know nothing of the private biography of Mr. Ivy, and it is quite +possible that he may have possessed endearing traits which he had no +opportunity to manifest in our intercourse. It would be foolish and +futile for the ends I have in view in this writing to cite or comment on +individuals, save as they may illustrate the point under discussion. But +I am the less reluctant to animadvert upon this or that employee of the +penitentiary, because I feel satisfied that, so far from compromising +him with the higher prison authorities, abuse from me would only +recommend him to their favor.--Mr. Ivy, such as he was, conducted us to +a bench outside a closed door, already partly occupied by three or four +half naked convicts, white and black. We gathered from his gestures of +head and club that we were to remove our upper garments and our shoes +and stockings, and place them on the floor in front of us. It was a cold +morning, and the floor was of limestone. We obeyed instructions, and for +the next twenty minutes sat there, objects of pardonable curiosity or +amusement to our fellow benchers and to passers-by in the hall, and with +nothing to keep us warm but the genial influences of the occasion. +Finally, each in his turn, we were passed through the door into a sort +of office, with clerks and Dr. Weaver, the prison physician, at $1500 a +year,--a tall, wooden faced young medical school graduate, who +cultivated a skeptical expression and a jeering intonation of speech. He +and an assistant put us through a physical examination, and took a +series of measurements, all of which were entered by the clerks in +ledgers. Our photographs were then taken, and afterward (it was the next +day, but may as well be told here) we were further identified by taking +the impressions of our finger prints, and by a second photograph without +our mustaches--these having been removed in the meantime. We were now +convicts full-fledged and published, and our pictures were disseminated +to every prison and penitentiary in the country, to be enshrined in the +rogues' gallery and studied by all police officials. + +This may sound silly, in the case of two men much nearer three score and +ten than three score, and untrained to gain a livelihood by crime. +Bertillon measurements were not needed to identify us, nor photographs +without mustaches. But, in the first place, prison rules apply to the +mass, not to individuals; and secondly, it has been resolved by the +wisdom of our rulers that a man who reverts to crime after one or more +convictions shall be more severely punished than a first offender. +Nobody stops to question the logic of this ostensibly prudent provision. +But the convict knows that his chances of making an honest livelihood +after a conviction are many times less than before. Spies are on his +trail at every turn, and if ever he succeed in securing legitimate +employment, an officer of the secret service presently informs his +employer that he has a jail-bird on his pay-roll. Naturally he is +promptly paid off and dismissed, and he may go through the same +experience as often as he is foolish enough to try it. But even if he be +inactive, he is not safe--far from it. He is known to the police and +liable to arrest at any moment as a vagrant, without visible means of +support. Nor is this all. Suppose him to be recorded in prison archives +as a safe-blower, and that a safe is blown somewhere and the culprits +escape. The credit of the police department demands that an arrest be +made, if not of the person or persons actually guilty of this particular +crime, then of some one who may be plausibly represented as guilty of +it. Accordingly, our friend is apprehended and charged with the crime; +there is his record, and it is easy to secure "evidence" that he was on +the spot at the time, though he may have been, in fact, a hundred or two +miles away from it. Detectives are experts at providing this sort of +evidence; and it frequently happens that they get the corroboration of +the victim himself by assuring him that, if he will confess, the judge +will let him off with a light sentence, whereas if he prove "stubborn," +it will go hard with him--a matter of ten years or so. Ten years in jail +for something you did not do! Six months or a year if you confess! +Perjury is wrong no doubt; but, were you who read this placed in that +predicament, which horn of the dilemma would you select? If you have +never served an actual jail term, you might virtuously hesitate; but it +is the world against a mustard seed that you wouldn't hesitate if you +had. The crisp of the joke is, however,--and of course it serves you +right,--that the judge, after all, gives you the ten years, and that +means life, for you will never be long out of jail afterward. As I write +this, I have in mind several instances of it among my personal +acquaintances at Atlanta. + +If then our convict, upon his release, cannot keep himself in any honest +employment, and cannot avoid arrest even when he is doing nothing at +all, good or bad, it seems plain that he must either hunt out a quiet +place where he may starve to death before the officer can arrest him for +starving, or commit suicide in some more sudden and active manner, or he +must accept the opportunity which is always at hand in "revert to a +career of crime," as the saying is. Ex-convicts are often still human +enough to be averse from starvation, and even from easier forms of +self-destruction; and they yield to the temptation to steal. Like the +idiots they are, they may hope to make a big strike and get away with +it, and in some remote or foreign place, under another name, live out an +unobserved and blameless existence. + +Thereupon there is rejoicing in the ranks of the secret service; armed +with their bertillons, they swoop upon their quarry and bear him away. +"May it please the Court, this man is an incorrigible; not deterred by +previous punishment, immediately upon release he plunges again into +crime; he should receive the limit!" The Court thinks so too; the limit +is imposed, and the malefactor is led out to the living death which will +end with death in reality. And now will some righteous and competent +person arise and proclaim that this man's yielding to his first +temptation to crime did NOT involve greater moral turpitude than did his +yielding to the second temptation or to the third--greater or at least +as great--and that therefore the severer sentence is justified? His +first misdeed was prompted by hunger, ignorance, drunkenness, or +cupidity; the others were the fruit of desperation itself--and how many +of you have known what desperation means? + +You perceive that this story proceeds by digressions; such value as it +may have it will owe mainly to such digressions, so I will not apologize +for them. My friend and I, our ordeal completed, were returned to our +cells to think it over. The walls and ceiling of the cells are painted a +light gray color; it is against the rules, except by special indulgence, +to affix pictures or other objects to them. The "coddling of criminals," +so widely advertised, does not include permission to give a homelike +look to their perennial quarters; it is more conducive to moral reform +that they should contemplate painted steel. There was one camp-stool in +our cell; later, cells were supplied with two wooden chairs, the seats +sloping at such an angle with the backs as rendered sitting a penance; +cushions were not provided. I remember seeing similar contrivances in +old English cathedrals, relics of a day when monks had to be kept from +falling asleep during the religious rites. We might also sit upon the +lower bunk, bent forward in such an attitude as would avert bumping our +heads against the upper one. Each convict, early in his sojourn, has a +religious interview with the Chaplain, who presents him with a copy of +the New Testament--not also of the Old; you may remember that the latter +records certain regrettable incidents of a sinister and immoral sort, +calculated, I presume, to shock the tender budding impulses toward +regeneration of prison readers. One may get other books of a secular +kind from the library, upon written application; and prisoners of the +first grade may subscribe for newspapers that contain no objectionable +matter. But only a small proportion of the inmates is addicted to +reading, and the opportunities for doing so are limited. And as months +and years go by, the desolation and sterility of the place weigh heavier +upon the spirit, the mind reduces its radius and grows inert, and +stimulants stronger than current fiction are needed to rouse it. Prison, +prison, prison; steel walls and gratings; the predestinate screechings +and clangings of whistles and gongs; the endless filings to and fro, in +and out; the stealthy insolence of guards, or their treacherous +good-fellowship; the abstracted or menacing gaze of the higher +officials; the dreariness, aimlessness, and sometimes the severity of +the daily labor; the sullen threat of the loaded rifles; the hollow, +echoing spaces that shut out hope; the thought of the stifling stench of +the dungeons beneath the pavements, hidden from all save the victims, +whose very existence is officially denied; the closing of all personal +communication with the outer world, except such as commends itself to +the whims of the official censors; this morgue of human beings still +alive--the impenetrable stupidity, futility and outrage of it +all--slowly or not so slowly unbalance the mind and corrupt the nature. +Meanwhile, newspapers clamor against the coddling of criminals, and the +too indulgent officials smile sadly and protest that they have not the +heart to be stern. "Coddling criminals"--the alliteration makes it roll +pleasantly off the tongue! + +But do I forget the many indulgences given to prisoners--and so +profusely celebrated in every mention publicly made of Atlanta +Penitentiary? Let me name them once more. Saturday being a non-working +day, it used to be the custom to lock the prisoners in their cells from +Saturday morning till Monday morning--a custom still followed at many +penitentiaries; for how could they be controlled if not split up into +working gangs, and thus prevented from conspiring to mutiny? It is one +of the obsessions of prison authorities that the prisoners are severally +and collectively a sort of wild beast, always straining at the leash, +and ready at the least opportunity to break forth in wild and deadly +disorder. It is obviously expedient, too, to impress the public with +this conviction, and therefore, in part, we have the clubs, rifles, and +general parade of watchfulness. As a matter of fact, meanwhile, nothing +is more easy to handle than a prisonful of convicts, if the most +elementary tact be used; and they are eagerly grateful for the smallest +unforced and spontaneous act of kindness. + +Until about eighteen months ago, however, severe restrictions were in +vogue, and the warden declared that it was his belief and policy that +men in prison should be taught by precept and illustration to regard +themselves as dead to the world; that they should be held practically +incommunicado, no visitors, letters at most but once a month, no +conversation between prisoners--silence, solitude, suffocation in this +terrible quicksand of jail for months, years, or a lifetime, at the +mercy of men to whom mercy is a jest. Such a regimen is still in force +at many jails, and when combined with contract labor, nothing in the +age-long history of penal imprisonment shows a blacker record. It is +advocated as the best way to induce men to reform, and become, after +release, useful and industrious members of the community. + +A couple of years or so ago, Atlanta was visited by an Attorney-General, +who was not prepared for what he saw, nor had the things he should not +have seen been removed from sight before he saw them. He demanded some +improvements on the spot, and soon after a new deputy warden was +appointed--a young man, of kindly disposition, though weak, not inured +as yet to the conventional brutalities, and with a backing in Washington +which gave him unusual powers. Among good things which he instituted and +insisted on were--two and a half hours outdoors on Saturday afternoons, +for baseball and general relaxation; conversation at meals; music at +dinner by a band made up from convicts; regular bi-weekly letters, with +extra letters allowed between times by special request to orderly +convicts; concerts or vaudeville performances every month or so in the +chapel, by professionals. + +Insanity became less frequent after this, and the general health of the +men improved. They had something to look forward to, and to look back +to, and the freedom of the baseball concession led to no disorders; +something like hope and cheerfulness began to appear, like green blades +of grass in spring. The warden cleverly seized the opportunity to take +credit to himself for all the improvements, and to circulate +industriously in the local papers the praise of the model penitentiary. +But neither did he fail to take advantage of the new situation to +tighten his grasp upon the reins of control. The majority of jails, in +addition to the ordinary spy system operated by officials, organize a +supplementary one composed of convicts themselves--stool +pigeons--certain carefully selected prisoners, who are rewarded for +treachery to their fellows by various indulgences and secret liberties. +The principle is detestable, and has evil effects. The stool pigeons +themselves are of course the basest members of the community, and the +other prisoners, soon learning to suspect them, come at last to a +miserable distrust of one another--for the comrade apparently most +sincere may be at heart only a more artful traitor. In this, they play +into the officials' hands, whose theory of government is fear, and who +find aid to themselves in the mutual misgivings and hatreds of their +charges. + +Evidently, the relaxations of the baseball afternoons afforded a capital +opportunity to the stool pigeons, and the results were soon apparent. +The spies, in order to curry favor with their employers, reported not +actual infringements of discipline only, but guessed at what might be, +and even invented what was not, often by way of retaliation against +personal enemies. I shall return to this subject hereafter; enough, for +the present, that it counterbalanced in a degree the physical benefits +of the new concessions by engendering mental disquiets and animosities +among the entire population, and especially inflaming them against the +officials. I am not myself sure, for example, whether or not one or +another of my most intimate acquaintances among the prisoners may not +all the while have been on the watch to betray me behind my back. For +aught I know, it may have been to some such sordid treachery that I owe +the refusal of my parole, when it became due. And any respect for +constituted prison authorities, upheld by such means, was impossible. + +When the coddling of prisoners involves feeding them on poison, they +would prefer Spartan severity and fair warning. + + + + +VI + + +SOME PRISON FRIENDS OF MINE + +Vague noises are at all times audible in jail--stirrings, foot-falls, a +subdued voice now and then, the sharp orders of an official--"bawlings +out" as they are termed; the clanging of steel gates, the murmur of +machinery, the cacophany of musical instruments during practise hours in +the chapel; as well as the periodical screeches and ringings of whistles +and gongs. The general impression on ear and eye alike is of stealthy +repression, a checked unrest--a multifarious creature, uneasy but kept +down. The place is perhaps hardly less silent than a cloister; but the +peace of the cloister is utterly absent. An atmosphere of animosity and +contention pervades all--a constant apprehension of sinister things +liable to happen, a breathless struggle, the sullenness of hate, the +whispering of treachery. The eyes of officials peer, watch and threaten; +those of the convicts are downcast but privily rebellious, or +deprecatingly servile. + +It is the everlasting pregnancy of war between slave and master, quite +different from submission to rightful authority. Whatever the law may +say, the rightfulness of prison authority is never admitted by +prisoners. Honest authority is tranquil and secure; prison authority +goes armed, conscious of its unrighteousness, and there is unremitting +nervous stress on both sides. Both sides seem secretly to await a signal +to sudden conflict. + +At dinner, soon after my arrival, amid the omnipresent murmurous palaver +of conversation, there fell an unusual noise. The unusual is always +formidable in jail. The noise was nothing in itself, and would have +passed unheeded in a hotel dining-room. But over us, crowded together +there, spread an instant hush. All knew that men had been stabbed, +frenzied affrays had broken out in that room. What was it now? The guard +in the window stiffened and poised his rifle. The guards on the floor +caught their breath, but assumed a confident air. The men sat staring in +the direction of the noise, tense and waiting. + +Nothing happened; somebody had dropped a plate and broken it, perhaps. +But had some natural leader of the enslaved leaped up and shouted at +that juncture, murder would have followed the next moment. Among every +hundred convicts there are eight or ten whom misery and wrong have made +reckless, whose morbid rebelliousness needs, to break forth, only the +shadow of opportunity to kill before being killed, and they accept it. +But it was not to be that day, and we relaxed, and grinned, nervously or +grimly, and resumed our meal. + +Eight hundred men, clad in a shapeless monotony of dingy blue, labeled +on the back with their disgrace, stepping lightly or shuffling hastily +to and fro, heads bent and eyes downcast, performing various offices, +menial, clerical or industrial, with a certain obsequiousness and +ostensible zeal that was yet inwardly repulsion and protest--these were +men born under the great flag, Americans, my countrymen, and now my +companions! What a change, what a degradation from the free American +citizen of the streets and boundless expanses! Not men, now, but slaves, +condemned to penal servitude; not citizens, but a class apart and alien; +felons, criminals, no longer entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit +of happiness, but existing in shame and on suffrance, ruined, nameless, +parted from friends and families, with present physical pain and mental +misery, and with a future of hounding and helplessness, of fear and +hiding, of uselessness and aimlessness, of insanity and base death! + +Upon what plea are these conditions established? Because the slaves had +broken the law--been guilty of crimes. But what crimes? Some had done +murder, others committed rape, some had held up a train, another had +blown a safe, another was a pickpocket, another a white-slaver, this one +had stolen food to avert starvation, that was a confidence man or bank +embezzler, here was one snared in some technicality of new finance laws, +yonder an ignorant moonshiner from the hills, who had grown corn in his +back yard and thought he had a right to make whiskey out of it--he had +no other means of livelihood. Breakers of God's laws; of man's; victims +of tricks and legal technicalities, of torturing want and of headlong +passion, and of sheer court errors or of perjured testimony--here they +were, all on the same footing, no discriminations made! To what end? So +that they might be punished and repent and go forth better men and +useful workers, and so that society might be protected and its integrity +vindicated. That is the ostensible reason; no other is alleged. + +It sounds like a jest; but the men are here, the thing is done. In some +moods I would say to myself, "It's too preposterous--it can't be--it's +an hallucination--a bad dream!" But there it was, visible and palpable. +Was it protection for society to shut up a man from ability to support +those dependent on him, who were thus themselves driven to want and +perhaps crime, multiplying the original criminality by three or four or +half a dozen? Could any injury which the culprit could do to the +community equal the injury thus done by the community to him and his, +and indirectly to itself, by such treatment? Or could the technical and +perhaps unconscious violator of an obscure and whimsical law be reformed +by putting him on an equality with a cold-blooded murderer, or with a +man who had grown rich by selling the shame of women? Was the punishment +equable which handled with equal severity a brutish negro from the +cotton fields, and a man brought up in refinement and gentleness? + +But I would go further, and challenge the right of the community to +inflict penal imprisonment as we know it at all. Some criminals belong +in hospitals, others in insane asylums, for others the thoughtless +neglect and selfishness of society is responsible, and they should be +succored, not punished; and the remainder should be constrained, under +surveillance but not in confinement, to compensate for the harm they did +by labor or self-denial aimed directly at that result. But of this +hereafter. + +Meanwhile, I paid attention to my companions themselves. + +In their intercourse with one another there was a singular amenity or +pleasantness, and with some who had been prisoners for a long time, a +sort of childlikeness. But it was like the childlikeness of a person +partly dazed, or recovering from a severe illness or shock. They greeted +one another with a covert smile, an unobtrusive movement of head or +hand; only when under direct observation of an official would they pass +without a sign. The usual words were, "How're you feeling?" or, "How're +they comin'?" not in the perfunctory tone of greetings in the outer +world, but with an accent of real interest and solicitude. The answer +would be, "Good!" "Fine!" with as much heartiness as could be thrown +into it--though it might be obvious enough that the truth was far from +being that. + +There was one dear old fellow who had a variation on these forms; he was +an alleged moonshiner, though, as he said, "Yes, I did make some +whiskey, but I never sold none!" "How're you feeling, Joe?" I would say; +and he would reply, with his pathetic smile, and his high, soft voice, +"Pretty well--pretty well, for 'n old man!" with a drawling emphasis on +the "old." He was about seventy, with the soft brown hair of youth, but +bent and stiff and wrinkled with hard years and rheumatics; and if I +questioned him more closely, he would confess that he suffered from +"lots o' misery here!"--passing his gnarled old hands over his digestive +tract. Indeed, four-fifths of the men had that trouble in more or less +acute form, owing to the atrocious food supplied as our regular diet. + +Joe's face, though lined with the hardships and privations of a long +life, was beautifully formed, aristocratic in its delicate contours; and +he possessed, and constantly used, one of the most delectable, +contagious and genuine laughs that ever made music in my ears. The men +would ransack their humorous resources in conversation with Joe, merely +for the sake of making him laugh. He would fix his old eyes squarely on +yours, and laugh and laugh with infinite mirth and good nature. Such a +sound in such a place was rare and wonderful, and helped one like fresh +water in a desert. + +The general friendliness among the men--so contrasted with their +demeanor toward the officials--was due to the identity of their common +interests; they were in the same boat, facing the same perils and +disasters, united in the same aims and hopes, and leagued against the +same oppressors. They lived in the constant dread of some calamity; and +if I met the same man three or four times in the same day, he would +never fail to make the same enquiry--"How're you feeling?" recognizing +that I might have received some ugly blow in the interval. There was a +spontaneous courtesy and a charitableness in it that touched the heart. + +The same sentiment was manifested at meals; if anybody got hold of +anything that seemed to him a little better than usual, he could not +rest till he had offered some of it, or all of it, to his neighbors at +table. "Here, take this--take it--I got more'n I want!" Or, watching his +opportunity, Ned the runner, who had comforted us on our first night in +prison, would come to the door of my cell, with his Irish humor and +cordiality shining in his eyes. "Say, Mr. Hawthorne, there's a dividend +been declared!" and out of some surreptitious receptacle he would +produce three or four crumpled cigarette papers--of all contraband +articles in the prison the most prized. "No--take 'em--I got no end of +'em!" + +A peculiar consideration was manifested by the men toward "the old man"; +my hair was white enough, to be sure, but it had been so for nearly +twenty years, and I was in much better physical condition than most of +them. I accepted their kind offices with gratitude and emotion, and, +when I saw that to do otherwise would hurt their feelings, their +concrete gifts, too. + +But there were many instances of self-sacrifice greater than these; men +would go to the hole sooner than betray a comrade; and you are fortunate +in being unable to comprehend what that means. If a comrade in his range +was sick and unable to come to meals, I have constantly seen a man +secrete half of his miserable breakfast or dinner in his pocket, to be +carried up to the invalid and smuggled into his cell. It was a matter of +course, nobody remarked it. Any mistake or indiscretion committed by a +prisoner would be instantly and almost mechanically covered by the man +nearest him, though at the risk of punishment--and the punishment for +betraying human sympathy in this way is--of course it is!--especially +severe; it is conspiracy to cheat the Government. + +The traditional tale of a prisoner's devotion to animals is also true; a +man next me at table--a yegg--for two weeks poured half his allowance of +milk (he was on milk diet for acute indigestion) into a surreptitious +bottle, and bore it off for the sustenance of a couple of little forlorn +kittens that he was acting as special providence for. The meditative +smile with which he perpetrated this theft upon the prison authorities +was a wonderful sight. Another convict, a hardened old timer, for +several weeks lavished cargoes of tenderness upon a rat which he had +laboriously conciliated and tamed. "What makes you so fond of that +animal?" enquired one day a sentimental and statistical old lady visitor +to the prison. After struggling with his emotions for a minute, he burst +out, "Yah! he bit the guard!" This dialogue was overheard, and enchanted +the whole penitentiary for months. + +But one reflects that, whatever humane or lovable traits prisoners may +exhibit, they are after all criminals! The existence in a lost soul of +good qualities or impulses side by side with evil ones has long been +recognized. Victor Hugo illustrated the discovery in his Jean Valjean, +it was a staple with Dickens, Bret Harte's heroes are all of that type, +it was the inspiration of much of Charles Reade's eloquence, Kipling has +more than a touch of it, our contemporary fiction-mongers sentimentalize +over it, and the train-robber in the movies usually has a full line of +sterling virtues up his sleeve. The lost soul, in short, brims over, +upon occasion, with the wine of regeneration. Therefore (so runs the +moral) let us of the elect furbish up our charity, and be as tolerant +toward this non-human class of people as may be consistent with our own +safety and respectability. Scraps of our own lustrous impeccability have +somehow found their way into them, and we cannot afford wholly to +disavow them, in spite of their wretched lodgings. + +This phariseeism is so inveterate with us, that I may fairly say that +one has to be sentenced to jail as a criminal in order to correct it. +From that vantage ground or Mount of Vision it presently dawns upon us +that these men are no more lost souls than we are--are, in fact, woven +out of the same yarn and cut from the same cloth. And from this same +vantage ground it also gradually dawns upon us that, in one respect at +least, the aggregate in a jail is better than the same number of men +taken haphazard from the city streets. For the former have now laid +aside self-righteousness and dissimulation, which are of the essence of +our unrestrained civil life: "I killed a man, yes; I robbed a bank, I +picked a pocket, I lived off a woman, I swindled my stockholders, I +counterfeited a banknote." No disguise here--no evasion. + +But when you go into the details of the transaction, weigh the causes +which led up to it, consider the conditions surrounding it, realize the +temptations or provocations that precipitated it, you step into your +confessional: "Lord, my nature and heart are not different from this +sinner's, and but for accidents and good fortune which were none of my +providing, I should stand accountant to-day as he does!" You bring the +whited sepulcher home to you, and find that you have been living in it +yourself. And if you have a little intelligence you will acknowledge in +your convict the scapegoat who--not more and perhaps less blameworthy +than you--is bearing your iniquities as well as his own. + +So, instead of condescending, with supercilious eyebrows and spotless +broadcloth, to concede that these unfortunate members of a non-human +class sometimes betray traces of saving grace after all, it might better +become you to wish that some of their saving graces appertained to +yourself. At your best showing, you are a pharisee and a hypocrite, and +he is not; he stands confessed; your sin is still secret in your soul. +By what right do you look down upon him? + +These things which I now say to you, I said first to myself, sitting in +my cell, or watching the endless gray-blue files shuffle past me on +their way to and from meals. It was of small help or significance that I +claimed innocence of the particular offense that happened to be charged +against me; I was as indistinguishable from these men in heart as I was +in outward garb and rating. And I had manhood enough to feel glad that, +since they had to be here, I was here with them. The burden of the +scapegoat has its compensations. + +On my first Sunday in the chapel, there came an exhorter or revivalist, +accustomed to dealing with prisoners from the platform, and dubbed "The +Old War-horse of Salvation," or some such title. He had his white +waistcoat, his raucous, shouting voice, his phrases, his anecdotes, his +"my men," "my friends," "fellows"; his "I'm saved, I hope, and you can +be!" Oh, the phariseeism of that "I hope!" At the end of his uproar, he +called upon those of his hearers (we had all sat quite silent and +impassive during the performance) who were willing to be saved, to stand +up in their places. All the stool pigeons arose (poor devils), and a few +other bewildered persons who fancied it expedient to be on the side of +the angels, "Thank you--thank you--thank you!" hoarsely cried the +exhorter, naively accepting their response as a personal compliment to +himself. + +But that great audience sat dark, silent and impassive, and it could +only have been the tough hide of the Old War-horse that made him immune +to their cold contempt. I said to myself, "What a terrible audience it +is! Who is fit to stand before it?" These men had seen, known and +suffered the terrible, nameless things; the Unknown God, perhaps, had +spoken to many of them in their solitude; and now this being of white +waistcoat and phrases must get up and urge them to wash their sins in +the blood of the Lamb! In their silence they were preaching to him a +sermon such as no mortal pulpiteer ever uttered; but his ears were deaf +to it. "One--three--six--nine souls saved to-night! Thank you--thank +you--thank you!" And he turns to receive the polite congratulations of +the distinguished guests who sat behind him on the stage. + +In prison, and only in prison, the veil is lifted or rent in twain, and +men are revealed as they are. As they stand before their Creator, they +stand now before their fellows. They are helpless--so warden and guards +think--but they have gained a power beyond any physical might of man. +They are voiceless, but they challenge mankind. They endure every +indignity and outrage; but an account will be required of those +responsible for it. + +I wish to emphasize this dropping of the mask--this stop put to +posturing and pretending--this going forth in rude nakedness before +one's fellows. The man in the church pew chants out with the rest of the +congregation, "We are sinners, desperately wicked, and there is no +health in us;" but he says it with his tongue in his cheek, and fitting +his mask on only the more tightly. Or the man "convinced of sin" on the +anxious seat at the revivalist meeting frenziedly accuses himself of all +the sins in the decalogue, but finds protection in the very generality +and promiscuity of his confession, which includes and at the same time +conceals the particular fact that he robbed the till and got away with +it. We seldom hear of a penitent of this kind being indicted by a Grand +Jury, tried, convicted and jailed on the basis of his salvation +outcries. He talks figuratively. + +There is nothing dramatic or hysterical in the attitude of the felon in +his cell. He robbed the till, he admits to you; but he does not drag in +the rest of the decalogue to divert your attention. And his penitence, +when he feels any, is not, in nine cases out of ten, prompted by the +expectation of getting a clean bill of health on his entire life-account +(the empty till included) from a good natured Savior not too keen about +details. He tells you, as a rule, "I was foolish and took too many +chances!" or, "If I'd handled the thing by myself, instead of admitting +a partner, it would have been all right;" or, "Oh, of course, I was a +damned fool; what's the use of bucking up against the fly cops!" In the +case of a murder, it might be, "I'm sorry I killed him, but I guess any +fellow would have done the same in my case." + +Duration of confinement does not modify this attitude; the man of ten +years says the same as the man of ten months, except--and the exception +is worth noting--that the former's moral sense, whatever he originally +had of it, has been blunted or discouraged, and he has conceived a +settled animosity against human authority, and disbelief in the justice +and sincerity of its administrators. He has been the subject, during his +incarceration, of such numberless acts of gratuitous tyranny, outrage +and cruelty, and has seen so much of "the way things go," in general, +that though he may concede that honesty is the best policy, he can find +no other recommendation for it, and is prone to the secret conviction +that honesty itself is somehow only a cleverer way of cheating. + +Such a state of mind is bred by prison experience--not otherwise. Prison +obstructs or altogether closes every door to genuine moral reform in +prisoners. + +A few larger souls overcome the obstructions; for example, our John +Ross, who more than thirty-three years ago, in the blindness of a +drunken spree in Yokahoma, killed a shipmate who angered him. He died in +jail last June (1913). He was sentenced to death, but got commutation to +life imprisonment. He was a fine type of man, physically and mentally. +His spirit was never broken by what he endured, and some years before +being transferred to Atlanta, he became, in a simple, non-sensational, +but profound way, religious. At Atlanta, in his cell, he was a center of +good influence on his fellow convicts; truthful, hearty, faithful, +manly, cheerful; his preaching was by personal example, and by support +and help given at need to the weak and despairing. He was promised +freedom on parole; the promise was not kept; but even this last betrayal +failed to break his staunch heart. He died like a man, with composure +and dignity. + +With a few such exceptions, prisoners are unrepentant except for +business reasons--that is, either because they recognize that crime does +not pay, or in order to influence in their favor the pardoning power. +Many of them, of course, employ their prison opportunities to devise new +crimes and to train fresh recruits from the younger convicts. Men who +have been imprisoned more than once lose hope of anything better than +transient freedom; they know they will be prevented by the police from +earning an honest livelihood, and that they must either starve or steal. +They become in the end mere prison creatures, destitute of evil or of +good, active or passive. + +I repeat that the experience of associating with men without disguises +is novel and refreshing. A tedious burden is lifted from the shoulders; +the bones in the sepulcher are less revolting than the whitewash +outside; it is pleasanter to know what a man is than to suspect him. It +is certainly much wholesomer, on the other hand, to uncover your own +deformity than to hide it, especially when you know, or fear, that the +hiding is unsuccessful. + +There is a sense of brotherhood, long since unfamiliar to human +intercourse under usual conditions, but welcome even at the cost of +conditions such as these. The truth gradually emerges to our +consciousness--it is not the evil in us that kills brotherhood, but the +vain, unending effort to make the evil seem good. Now our eyes meet one +another's frankly; the skilfullest counterfeit was worse than the worst +reality. There is nothing in us to be proud of, but something to be +thankful for. Society has done its worst to us; but it could not take +away from us our mutual kindliness, or the qualities that justify it. We +are condemned as wicked, but we are comforted by one another's good. + +Prison, in short, more convincingly than any abstract argument, +demonstrates its own futility as a means of either taking revenge upon +the prisoner, or of inducing him to hate crime and to turn to good. +Revenge, of course, is officially discredited nowadays, though it is +practised as actively as ever under guises more or less civilized; but +the pretense of moral reform by penal imprisonment is becoming too +preposterous to be tolerated much longer. On the contrary, prison +renders the great aggregate of prisoners collectively self-conscious; +the goats find themselves, and are forced into antagonism with the sheep +not only as individuals but as a body. They make common cause together, +and in obscure ways achieve a degree of organization. They learn to +regard the community not as better than themselves, but as more +successful pensioners of fortune; they fear them because the advantage +of numbers is on their side, but they hate them because they feel, +either justly or unjustly, that they have suffered injustice at their +hands, and they will prey upon them when opportunity serves not only +from the original motive of physical need, but from the additional and +more sinister one, bred in prison, of retaliation for the wrong done +them. + +When you sap a man's faith in plain justice, and terrify him with the +threat of irresistible power, and torture him in mind and body through +the exercise of that power, you drive him to the support and society of +men similarly circumstanced, and thus create the precise analogue in the +body politic of a cancer in the individual body. Prison attempts to +segregate this cancer, but only promotes its increase. Its poison is in +the blood and circulates everywhere. + +As I passed out of the dining-room after meals each day, I came to +notice a young man who sat at a table near the door. He sat with folded +arms, and with a set and gloomy countenance; his eyes were fixed on +vacancy, and he did not speak with his companions. A crutch leaned +against his shoulder; he had lost one leg. + +I learned his story. In the settlement of a small estate of which he was +an heir, a sister of his had obtained money that belonged to him, and +when asked to restore it to him, had refused to do so. After some +fruitless negotiation, he got angry, and sent her through the mails a +message containing violent expressions of reproach and animosity. The +young woman took this paper to a United States marshal, who brought it +to the attention of the district attorney, with the result that the +brother was indicted under some law of libel or of obscene matter, was +arrested, tried, and convicted, and sentenced to Atlanta penitentiary +for five years. After he had been lodged in his cell, his sister +repented of her action, and sought to have him freed; but the law does +not recognize such changes of heart, and the brother must serve out his +time. + +We all know how easily family quarrels arise, how bitter they may be +while they last, and how readily, withal, they may be accommodated by +tactful handling. The sister had done wrong; the brother had lost his +temper; in what family has not such an outbreak occurred? But because +the brother had happened to put his bad temper on paper, the law, being +rashly invoked, seizes him, takes five years out of his life, and brands +him with the shame of the jail bird. Upon what plea can such an act be +construed as justice? But the district attorney shows the court that the +statute has been violated; the judge charges the jury, the jury finds +its verdict in accordance with the legal evidence, and the thing is +done. It is a mechanical process--nothing human about it. + +Review your own life, and discover whether you have ever stood in the +shadow of a similar catastrophe. Were you ever angry with a relative or +with any other person, and did you express your anger to him in words? +Then you are as guilty as this one-legged boy, sitting there at his +table with his life ruined. Only, he happened to write his anger, and +the sister happened to show it to a lawyer, and the machine was set in +motion which no repentance or forgiveness or remorse can stop. But the +machine does not increase the culprit's fault, and for such a fault the +legal penalty may be five years in jail. You are not so remote from the +subterranean brotherhood as you may have supposed. + +Will prison reform him? Is society protected? Is faith in human justice +promoted by such things? His case is but one of scores in every jail +that are as bad and worse. But--"throw him to the lions--serves him +right!" is still the cry. + + + + +VII + + +THE MEN ABOVE + +The men below would like to feel respect for the men above, even if it +be a respect married to fear. It is more humiliating to be dominated by +worthless creatures, of no character or genuine manhood, whose authority +is effective only because it happens to be the tool through which works +the irresistible power of a government, than to obey men of native +energy and force, captains as well of their own souls as of the bodies +of their subjects. The despotism of a cur is revolting, and rouses the +wild beast in the victims. Those responsible for its infliction insult +human nature. + +As far as I have had opportunity to observe, or have been informed, the +despotism of the cur in our jails, and in those of other countries +perhaps (though not to nearly the same extent as in ours) is the rule; +and that of self-respecting and respected men is the rare exception. +Hate inflamed with contempt is a dangerous and evil passion to +stimulate. It awakens a thirst for savage retaliation which hate alone +does not produce. Moreover, weak and cowardly tyrants are always more +cruel than courageous and masculine ones, and they do not observe any +consistent line of conduct; in the intervals of their debauches of +brutality they are oily and ingratiating, make favorites, offer +pusillanimous apologies, protest humane intentions, and allege absurd +excuses for past outrages. A brute is bad enough, and we are all brutes +at bottom; but a brute who covers his hyena snarl with the smug mask of +a saint is monstrous and detestable. + +The wardens of many of our jails are double men. Behind the imposing +facade of their physical aspect we detect an uneasy, hurried, shrewdly +contriving little creature, quite incommensurate with the material +bodily structure built up for his concealment and protection. He will +not come out in the open, but seeks some advantage, plans to get behind +us and execute some cunning coup-de-theater, while our suspicions are +lulled by the hospitable and comfortable glow of the exterior. In his +dealings with the convicts as a body, he is apt to imitate Macbeth's +witches, and keep the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the +hope; he has vanity without self confidence, lacks the truthfulness of +the strong, his voice does not resound and compel, he dances and +fidgets, grins and is grave in the same instant. If the men's attitude +be sullen, he tries to be bluff and hearty, "my-boys" them, claps them +heartily on the shoulder, or lapses into whining and gushing. It is all +of worse than no avail with these undeceivable readers of character. It +is a curious effect of the working of esprit de corps in jails that the +prisoners may feel ashamed of such unmanly antics in their warden, +especially should strangers be within eyeshot. + +Of course, in his encounters with prisoners singly, a man of this type +may show more of his real nature, especially if the prisoner be one of +the inoffensive sort. He will be bland, insolent, indifferent or cruel, +as suits his mood of the moment. "For God's sake, won't you let me write +her just one letter?" implored a prisoner who had just got news of the +fatal illness of his wife. Picture the situation--two human beings face +to face, one helpless and in agony, the other with absolute power! The +official faced the man deliberately, with an amused smile. "I can," he +said, slowly, "but--I won't!" How would you have felt in such a case? +Could you ever forget it? and would you not be ready, for that +official's sake, to hate mankind, and to curse God and die? But you +perhaps believe that convicts have no human feelings, and that they are +cheerful under such treatment. + +The value of these remarks lies, of course, in their general character; +the conduct of an individual, regarded by itself, would have small +importance. And if I do not instance the conduct of those honest and +manly officials who are to be found here and there, it is because the +public is already informed concerning them; their deeds do not seek +darkness, but are visible by their own light. It is the rascals that we +do not hear about, or if we do, it is through reports of press agents in +newspapers and otherwise, who are mere mouthpieces for the lying +self-praise of the rascals themselves. + +While I was in jail, I had access, by a fortunate circumstance, to the +annual reports to the Department of several wardens of prisons in +various states, and was able to compare their stories of themselves with +the accounts given me by prisoners who had lived under them and with my +own first hand knowledge of prison conditions, which, with a few shining +exceptions, are so terribly and remorselessly alike the civilized world +over. After making every allowance for the different point of view of +master and slave, it was very plain that the author of the report was +not merely prevaricating, or coloring his facts to render them +acceptable to his superiors, but was lying outright often, both directly +and by omissions. He would pose as a broad-minded and compassionate +father to his inmates, when all the time he was subjecting them to cruel +and needless severities and tortures. There was one man, who has lately +resigned, I believe, full of years and honors, whose addresses at the +meetings of federal wardens were almost angelic in tone and tenor, who +was in fact notorious among persons who had actual knowledge of his +official conduct as one of the most remorseless tyrants toward the men +in contemporary prison annals. Many men of bad conduct may be excused on +the plea that they are ignorant--know no better; but this man was an +intelligent student of penology, and knew exactly how wicked and wanton +he was. He was an innocent baby once upon a time, and might have grown +up to be no worse a man than is the estimable person who now reads these +lines; but he took up prison work, and the atmosphere of crime, and +preoccupation with it, and the license to use arbitrary powers, made a +devil of him. It is a common story. + +Another series of reports showed a man who, beginning as a reactionary +of an extreme type, advocating the most ruthless measures toward +convicts, finally felt the pressure of the wave of prison reform which +is gathering force just now, and adjusted his reports and addresses so +as to make himself appear as a leading apostle of the new ideas. But +though his public professions changed, the chief difference in his +practises was that, from having been undisguised, they became secret, +and so far as circumstances permitted, he acted, and permitted or +encouraged his subordinates to act as cruelly as before. However, a new +deputy warden was presently appointed, with more liberal ideas, and +endowed with large powers, and for a while the condition of the +prisoners improved; the warden, with his ear to the ground, and his eye +on the handwriting on the wall, deftly adjusting himself to the +situation, and industriously claiming for himself credit for all +betterments introduced by the deputy--who, having no press agent, was +forced to stand inactively by and see his honest credit filched away +from him--in public opinion, at least. Of course, the prisoners knew +perfectly well on which leg the boot was. But prisoners cannot make +themselves heard outside the jail. + +Accordingly, this warden, whose methods I know well, is now quoted as a +signal champion of the new and more merciful dispensation, though only +two or three years ago, according to his own personally written and +signed reports, he was for keeping prisoners practically +incommunicado--dead to the world; writing and receiving letters to be +nearly or wholly done away with; newspapers withheld; visitors denied. +Prisoners, he urged, were sent to prison for punishment, and punished, +continually and thoroughly, let them be. Punish the man, kill his +health, his hope, his spirit, his soul, his body too at need, and thus, +and only thus, reform him. It was a simple plan, and likely to bring +results--of a kind. Shall we believe that this man's professions of a +change of heart are genuine? or feel surprise to discover that at the +very moment he is receiving visitors in his commodious office upstairs, +and purring out to them his fatherly affection for his prisoners, and +denying that the old, bad methods of repression any longer are +tolerated, there are miserable wretches being hung up by the wrists in +dark and noisome cells under his feet? + +Regarding the personnel of the officials at Atlanta I can for obvious +reasons say little. They are a good deal like such officials anywhere. +The warden is a Pennsylvania Dutchman; the deputy a young Kentuckian, +gigantic and fresh faced; his first assistant is a stalwart man of +middle age, a good deal of a martinet, but the men are inclined to like +him because they see in him a solid, masculine creature, who stands pat, +says what he means, and does what he says. Then there are the prison +doctor, the steward of the commissary department, and the parole +officer, and under them are the guards and the "snitches"--the latter +not being officially recognized, although they wield an important +influence, their reports against their fellow prisoners being seriously +considered, and often made the basis of action by their superiors, which +has no small effect upon the welfare of the jail. Yet these poor +wretches--they are mostly negroes--sell their brethren for a mess of +pottage of secret favors and immunities; none save the most abject would +accept such employment. Could any inspiration or procedure be more +insecure? Yet it is an essential factor in the present principle of +prison management. + +The guards are, with some exceptions, such a body of men as might be +expected from their salary--seventy dollars a month, with no raise for +length of service or meritorious conduct. They cannot be rated as high +as the average police officer, and the conditions amid which they live +are so unfavorable to manly development that it is small wonder they +grow worse as they grow older in service. They either dislike the men +and use them accordingly, or they make secret compacts with them for +surreptitious favors, which undermine discipline and corrupt such morals +as prisoners may be supposed to possess. Often, however, they will +solicit favors from prisoners, and, when the latter seek some +accommodation in return, grin in their face, or austerely threaten to +report them. Their brutality is sometimes quite whimsical and +unexpected,--the outcome of some personal dislike, without bearing on +the prisoner's conduct,--though they are voluble in assigning some +alleged infraction of the rules, should a superior happen to call them +to account. And the superior, I may almost say, never believes the +prisoner against a guard, or rather, never acts upon such belief. That +is the settled policy of the penitentiary; the warden himself has placed +himself on record numerous times to the effect that under no +circumstances would he take the word of a prisoner over that of a guard. +To be reported means to be punished, be the report baseless or not. It +follows naturally that guards never scruple to give full rein to any +animosity they may privately feel against a man, knowing that they will +be able to "put it across" with the higher official to whom complaint +may be made. + +I happened to be in the corridor one day when one of the guards, a tall, +strapping fellow, was bringing downstairs a convict of stature much less +than his own, a poor half demented youth, whose dementia was +unfortunately wont to express itself in foul or abusive language, which +came from him almost involuntarily, without any particular personal +application. The two men were half way down the final flight of steps, +when, without any visible pretext, but, I presume, on account of some +unlucky epithet or utterance let fall by the convict, the guard suddenly +seized the youth violently by the throat, hammered his head against the +wall, and dragged him headlong down the rest of the descent. They were +now in the corridor; the man, bewildered and giddy, was whirled round +and shoved to the head of another short flight of steps leading out to +the yard; the door was open. The guard came behind him, caught him by +the collar, and exerting his strength, hurled him through the door; he +fell prone on the ground, and lay there. + +Here, my own view of the incident was cut off; but ten minutes afterward +I met a comrade, who, bristling with wrath, described the continuation +of the affray, which he had just witnessed. He said that the guard, +following the man, grasped him by the coat and jerked him off the ground +and shoved him, staggering, toward the isolation building on the other +side of the yard. There happened to be two visitors, a man and a woman, +under convoy of another guard, passing at the moment; the first guard +was by this time too much blinded by his own passion to notice them; the +other laughed, and apparently reassured the visitors. Upon nearing the +isolation building, a third guard, who was on duty at the gate, ran up, +and struck the prisoner several times on the head with his club. The man +put up his arms in an effort to ward off the blows, or to beg for mercy, +but without effect; he was dragged between his two assailants to the +deputy's office, as if he were a dangerous giant struggling to get away, +though, in fact, he was quite helpless and partly insensible. From +there, as we learned later, he was taken to a dark cell, charged with I +know not what misdeeds, and nothing was ever done to either of the +licensed ruffians who had mistreated him. + +I recall such scenes with reluctance; they are ugly things to think of; +but some illustrations are necessary in order to put in your mind some +notion of what jails mean. An episode which, as it turned out, had +elements of the ridiculous, but which came within a hair's breadth of +having very fatal consequences, occurred a short time before I became an +inmate; it is still spoken of with emotion by those who participated in +it. + +A large number of prisoners, some twenty or more, I think, were +collected in one of the basement work-rooms, when a fire broke out +there. The smoke soon became suffocating, and crept up into the ranges +above, alarming the whole prison. But conditions in the room itself were +immediately intolerable; the door had been locked, and the men were +jammed together there, frantically shrieking for the door to be opened. +Death for all of them would be a matter of only a few minutes. The guard +in the corridor above, a huge, burly personage, with the brains, it +would be flattery to say, of a calf, and exceedingly punctilious in his +notions, came down the stairs to see what was the matter. One of the men +shouted out to him, forgetting decorum in the desperate hurry of the +moment, "Why don't you open the door, you ---- ---- ----?" Now, it was +not only against the rules that the door should be opened between +certain hours, but it was altogether irregular and intolerable to +miscall an official. The guard stopped short. "Who's that called me a +----?" he demanded indignantly. But there was none to answer him, for +the men were by that time strangling and fainting. + +Down the stairs at this juncture came one of the higher officials, +choking and gasping. "Open that door, why don't you?" he managed to call +out, seeing the guard below him. "I'm trying to find out," replied the +latter, "who it was called me a ----." The higher official was +understood to say something which penetrated the hide of his +subordinate, and stirred him at last to action--not a moment too soon. +The door was unlocked, and the captives tumbled and crawled out. The +burly personage, who rated punctilio and seemly language above the lives +of men, still retains his position in the corridor; but the prisoner who +had insulted his dignity has never been identified. + +But what can be expected of men in the position of guards of a prison? +The function is abnormal, and unless it be undertaken from high motives +and with an exceptional endowment of intelligence and humane feeling, it +will steadily deteriorate a man; from being at the start to all +practical purposes a social derelict, incompetent for productive +employment, and often suffering from an incurable disease, he will sink +lower and lower in the scale of manhood and morality. He has two chief +aims in life--to requite himself upon defenseless convicts for the +kicking-out bestowed upon himself by the community; and to get an +increase of pay. + +I had not been three days in the prison, when one of them came to me in +my cell and asked me to write for him a letter to the Department urging +a raise of salary. So be it by all means, if higher pay will get better +men; but men who can command higher pay do not care to do such work. + +Since my guard saw no impropriety in asking for it--though, of course, +it was against the rules--I wrote his petition for him. The rules +governing guards are explicit, but so far at least as they regard +treatment of prisoners they are freely disregarded. For example, guards +are forbidden by the rules to address prisoners insultingly, to apply +names or epithets to them, to lay hands upon them or to strike them +"upon whatever provocation" unless they believe their own lives are in +danger. A rabbit has as much chance of throttling a bulldog as the +ordinary prisoner of endangering the life of a guard; yet hardly a +prisoner in the penitentiary has not repeatedly either undergone or +witnessed, or both, insults and physical violence offered by guards to +the men. As to the impropriety of asking favors of the men, the guards +might plead distinguished precedent for it. One of the higher officials +of the penitentiary summoned me to his office one morning. He informed +me that he intended to devote his life to prison work, but that he was +still a young man, and that advancement was slow and difficult. "When +you were outside, you lived in society, and knew a lot of big men," he +was kind enough to say; "you will be going out of here again before +long. If you should find it in your way to speak a good word for me in +quarters where it would be likely to do me good, I should appreciate +it." I should perhaps have premised, lest he appear in the light of +asking something for nothing, that he had opened the conversation by +handing back to me the Ingersoll watch of which I had been deprived on +entering the institution. I knew that my young friend and benefactor was +deep in the darksome intricacies of prison politics, and was just then +getting rather the worst of it; but I was unable to give him any +positive assurance that my influence with the Department, or elsewhere, +would suffice to give him a lift. + +Favoritism rules in all parts of the prison administration; it and +prison politics are, indeed, twin curses of our whole prison system. In +spite of all the specious official promises of reward for good conduct +in the form of parole and obedience to the rules, every prisoner knows +that they are apples of Sodom; the most correct conduct, maintained for +years, will gain a man nothing, while a worthless and heedless fellow, +if he has a friend among the men above, will have his way smoothed for +him. An official's pet snitch enjoys all manner of indulgences in the +way of food and freedoms, and if he be an intelligent fellow, he can +ride on his superior's neck and influence his conduct to a surprising +degree. Again, certain guards, in the eyes of their superiors, can do no +wrong whatever wrong they do; and others, who are apt to be men who +retain some conscientious notions as to their duties, find their path +difficult. Some guards, too, though they may be obnoxious to their +officers, are not dismissed because they know too much, and might reveal +uncomfortable facts were they cashiered. I could name an example of +this--a young guard who, a few years ago, committed a cold blooded crime +upon a convict, for which in the outside world he would have been liable +to a hanging. But the prison authorities did not find it expedient to +punish him, and he still saunters about the prison, with his cap tilted +on his head, and his rifle. He is a good shot, and is employed a good +deal on the towers, where quick marksmanship might be useful. He knows +too much. + +Evil conditions breed evil deeds and dangerous secrets. Conditions have +improved somewhat during the last two or three years, but the +improvement has been more outward than inward. One day, two or three +years ago, suddenly appeared at the gates the Attorney-General from +Washington. He had not been looked for so early. He walked straight into +the dining-room, where he noticed a number of convicts standing up with +their noses against the wall. "What is this for?" he asked one of them. +The convict couldn't exactly tell; he was waiting to be had up for +examination. "How long are you kept there?" "From seven in the morning +till seven at night." "Have you had anything to eat?" The man had not, +nor any opportunity to discharge the functions of nature either. + +This Attorney-General, in Washington, had never showed himself a friend +of convicts; but when he saw--and smelt!--this comparatively slight +instance of prison discipline, his gorge rose. He ordered all the +culprits to the kitchen for a meal, and issued an edict against this +punishment, and against some other things that he discovered. What he +would have done had he seen the dark cells, and the condition of the men +who had been kept there for a few months, may be conjectured. The public +is indeed assured that the use of these cells has long been +discontinued; but seven or eight hundred prisoners know that, as late as +last October, a certain convict commonly referred to as "the old +Englishman" was hung up by the wrists in one of them. And there were +others. + +Prison officials are political appointees, whose controlling aim must +therefore be the security and prosperity of themselves, and only +afterward (if at all) the welfare and just and decent treatment of the +convicts. They have their salaries (niggardly enough if we regard the +work they are supposed to do, but affluent in view of what they actually +do), and they have the government appropriations for expenses and +supplies for the penitentiary, which they are expected to handle +economically. But economy, and decent and humane treatment of prisoners +in a jail, are incompatible, even were the men kept steadily and +productively at work under proper conditions, and paid for what they +produced. A jail properly administered would be one of the most +expensive investments in the world; but Congress, as at present advised, +thinks only of cutting down the already miserably insufficient stipend; +and that warden who can, at the end of his fiscal year, show a balance +in favor of the government, may depend upon holding his position, and +nobody considers the mortal tears, misery and outrage from which that +favorable balance is derived. For not only if it be wisely and honestly +expended is the supply of money insufficient, but much of it is wasted +by mere ignorance, negligence and incompetence, and much more of it--as +recent exposures in newspapers indicate--leaks away in the form of +graft. For all this waste the convict must pay in privations and +cruelties not authorized or contemplated by a government none too +considerate at best; and men above grow fat and rosy gilled. + +But nothing is so difficult to prove or so easy to conceal as graft; all +the ingenuity and resources of the grafters are primarily and +undeviatingly devoted to covering their tracks. So much is allowed for +maintenance, subsistence, construction; the bills and receipts are +shown; all seems right. And yet, somehow, buildings remain unfinished, +grounds are a raw wilderness, men are clad in rags inherited from +previous generations, and are starved and abused. Meanwhile, a warden on +a four or five thousand dollar salary contrives to live at the rate of +ten or twelve, and may own valuable real estate in the city. + +Do miracles occur in jails, after having been so long discontinued +elsewhere? Or must we at last realize that the comfort and soft living +of a handful of rascals is obtained at the cost of the flesh and blood +and despair of thousands of men--I believe there are five hundred +thousand convicts in this country annually--gagged and helpless, to whom +we give the name of convicts, but who, whatever their crimes, are still +our own flesh and blood, brothers of ours, our own very selves but for +special circumstances for which we can claim no merit; but for their +souls and lives we are responsible, and to strive to redeem and succor +them our own intelligent self-interest should prompt us to spend and +labor lavishly. Instead of that, our habitual attitude toward them is +that of indifference or even hostility. For why should we honest people +waste our good money and precious sympathy on a convict? Has he not +already robbed us enough? + +It would be a shallow thing to hold up as monsters of hardheartedness +and depravity the officials who have been entrusted with the conduct of +our prisons. If they do wickedly and corruptly, it is not because they +are to begin with preterhuman sinners, but because we summoned them to +duties far above their capacity and training, which involve temptations +and provocations which they lack will and power to resist, which give +them power over fellow creatures which the most magnanimous and purest +men might hesitate to assume, and which inevitably plunge men who are +not magnanimous or pure into deeds of injustice, dishonor and +inhumanity. In a sense, the officials are no less victims of the +ignorance and frivolity of the community than are the prisoners +themselves. + +But, at any rate, the officials are few and the prisoners are many. If +anything is to be done to make things better, there is more hope in +dealing with the officials first. After they have been driven out, and +their places filled with honorable and enlightened men, who will at +least administer the law as it stands with integrity and judgment, we +shall be in a better position to consider whether the law itself be +beyond criticism, and its penalties justly and prudently devised. Crime +as it exists is an enormous evil, and it costs us enormously; and cheap +and pinchbeck methods will never rid us of it. + + + + +VIII + + +FOR LIFE + +When a man hears rumors that his application for parole is likely to be +acted upon favorably, a guard pauses at his cell door some morning, and +tells him to go to the clothing shop at a certain hour. The prisoner, +unless he has been forewarned, accepts this as proof positive that he +will really be set at liberty, and presents himself before the head +tailor with a smiling countenance. He is solemnly and specifically +measured for a suit, looks over the material out of which it is to be +made, perhaps ventures to mention some predilections as to the cut, and +takes his departure with a light heart. The fact that the cloth is +cheap, unshrunken goods, which will shrivel up at the first shower or +severe humidity, and will, at all events, get wrinkled out of shape in a +few days, does not dash the hopeful prisoner's jocundity; nor even the +consideration that the "prison cut" will be instantly recognized all +over the country, by every detective, private or federal, and acted upon +as circumstances may indicate. It is not the clothes, good or bad, that +makes his long-tried heart glad; it is the assurance of freedom. He +would be more than content with a simple loin-cloth, if only freedom +might go with it. + +As a matter of fact, this measuring commonly means little, and +guarantees nothing at all. Indeed, it has rather the appearance of a +pleasant jest of the authorities--one of the cat-and-mouse plays with +prisoners with which every old timer is familiar. One would say the +authorities find amusement, amid the monotonous round of their +avocations, in thus stimulating hopes which they know are not likely to +be fulfilled. "Come, here is a heart not yet thoroughly broken; let us +try another blow at it!" Days, weeks, months, drag tediously by, and +nothing more is heard of the parole, or of the suit of new clothes. They +have never been made up, or if they by chance have been, they are put +away to gather dust on a shelf underground; they are old clothes +now--years old, sometimes. And when at last they are brought out again, +it is probable that they will be worn by some other, more fortunate man, +who ignored the misfit for the sake of getting past the prison doors. + +When this little drama was acted for my benefit, I noticed a man sitting +in a certain chair amid the other tailor prisoners, stitching away +perfunctorily at a piece of goods. I call him a man, but he looked, to +my fancy, like an ancient frog, or the semblance of what had once been a +frog, from which, however, all the impulses and juices that had made him +alive had slowly leaked away, until nothing but the shell was left. He +was a pithless automaton, in whom mind and emotions had long since +become inert, and only enough sensibility was left to enable him to feel +dimly miserable. Who was he--or, better, who had he been? I learned that +for seven years he had sat in that same chair from morning till night, +doing the same job of sewing on one suit after another of prison +clothing. Seven years! But was he capable of no other employment? Might +he not have been given the relief of a change? Maybe; but what would be +the use? They couldn't be bothered finding him new stunts all the time, +since he had learned how to do that one thing satisfactorily. He was a +"lifer." + +Life--your entire lifetime--means, perhaps, a good deal to you; even its +sorrows, in the retrospect, were good in their way; they meant +something. And you look forward to happier things in the future; it will +be a long and on the whole a successful future perhaps. Think of the +variety and the opportunity which this great, multiform, breathing world +holds forth to a man; the friends, the activities, the changes of scene, +the surprises, the conflicts, success and failure, hope and fear, +triumph, defeat--life, in a word. It is a divine thing, a glorious +thing, the God-given birthright of all men. It is the molding of +character, the endless, stimulating struggle, the growing sense of human +brotherhood, the faces and hands of our fellow creatures, the longer, +deeper thoughts aroused by the slow revelations of experience as to the +plan of human destiny,--and therefore are the words well chosen which +condemn a man like yourself to penal servitude "for life"? + +But human language has no word to convey the significance of lifelong +imprisonment. It is surely not life: nor is it death--Oh, death would be +welcome! For death means either (as you may imagine you believe) total +extinction, or it means increased life, free from material trammels. But +death in life is a monstrous thing; life, for example, spent in a chair +in a squalid tailor's shop, doing over and over again the same piece of +squalid, meaningless work, with ever another squalid year stretching out +its length before you when the last one has been completed. Is life so +endured _life_--the sacred Creative gift, imparted to all things, +conscious or unconscious, without restriction? Life, the mystery, which +we are impotent to bestow, and which even death, self-inflicted or +inflicted by others, cannot take away; which one thing only can take +away--the death-in-life of penal imprisonment; is it not a formidable +thought that we have incurred the burden of this crime, which does not +transfer life from one phase to another, but seeks to annihilate it +absolutely? + +Death would be welcome; the infliction of it can find forgiveness; but +how can we forgive the infliction of death-in-life? How can God forgive +it, this profane meddling with sacred and fathomless life? Will He +accept the plea that we did it "for the protection of society?--for the +man's own good?--or a warning to others?" In that day of questioning, I +would rather take my chances with the man sitting in the chair in the +prison tailor's shop for seven years, a "lifer"! Infinite mercy may find +means to compensate him for what we robbed him of; but what can it do +with us, the robbers? + +In the Federal prison there were a score or more of lifers, with some of +whom it was my fortune to become acquainted. I stood in a sort of awe of +them; the thought of their fate was so overwhelming that my mind could +not compass it, though my heart might approach some conception of it +through obscure channels of intuition. Their treatment by the prison +officials was not ordinarily severe; even a warden or a guard could feel +that clubbing and dark-celling would be a kind of anticlimax for a man +sentenced for life. Some of them--usually negroes--would be given easy +jobs, and not held too strictly to the petty regulations whose special +object is to humiliate the ordinary prisoner, under guise of +disciplining and reforming him. Nothing was to be gained by disciplining +or reforming a "lifer." Others, however, in whom despair had taken the +expression of obstinacy or savagery, were savagely handled; one of them +bears terrible scars from a shooting by one of the guards, and he told +me that, out of the twenty-two years he had already served, eight had +been spent in the punishment cells. Others are maltreated for a while, +experimentally, or to "put the fear of God in their hearts," and +afterward let alone. But as a rule, there is not much fun to be got out +of a "lifer" by the prison keepers, and they prefer to ignore him. + +The introduction of the law allowing the privilege of applying for +parole, did, to be sure, place in the hands of the authorities a weapon +with which they could "get beneath the hide" (as they might term it) of +these obdurate subjects. Needless to say, this measure, which provides +that "lifers" may be paroled (at the discretion of the parole board) +after having served fifteen years with a good prison record, did not +contemplate introducing thereby a new element of misery into their +lives. But the men to whose hands the "lifer" is entrusted found in it a +means of making him more readily amenable to discipline by holding over +him the threat of an adverse report should he prove intractable. They +could keep him indefinitely in that state of torturing suspense as to +his fate, which is perhaps the worst of all tortures, by withholding +from him all information as to whether or not his appeal was likely to +succeed. + +Several cases of this kind came under my observation. In one, the +release came before the man had collapsed; in others, too late. In only +one or two that I know of was there any pretext that his conduct during +imprisonment had been unsatisfactory. The delay was never explained; it +was due to wilful or careless neglect. Two men were carried out feet +foremost in a deal box after they had endured suspense up to the extreme +limit of mortal capacity. They died of broken hearts--gradually broken +through long months of hope slowly fading into despair. + +The warden sat serene in his office, attending to business as a good +official should, writing reports to the Department which testified to +his efficiency and economy, welcoming visitors with his genial smile, +occasionally reading encomiums upon himself in a local newspaper, +written and inserted there by somebody; the guards sauntered jauntily +about, cocking their caps and making their clubs dance at the end of the +cords; eight hundred unsightly felons, who had once been men like you +and me, filed drearily in to their meals, and out again, the worse for +the experience; and all the while, from morning till night, Dennis sat +on the corner of his cot in the hospital room, waiting for the news of +his release. He felt, and said, at first, that it was sure to come; it +would come in a day or two, or at the end of the week anyway; or at the +beginning of the week after. He knew his application had been accepted; +of course, those big officials had lots to do, and could not be expected +to attend to him at once; but they would not forget him. + +For several weeks--a month or two--Dennis kept up his spirits well; he +had been in prison many years, more than the number required for parole, +and he had no bad marks against him. His wife and two daughters were +still living, however, and he was full of plans for his future life with +them; what he would do, where he would live, how happy they all would be +together, after that separation. But one day as he sat on his cot, or +paced slowly up and down the hospital chamber, news was brought to him, +bad news, news that his wife had died unexpectedly. + +He survived it; some men survive miraculously in prison, and some die +easily. Dennis had his daughters left to him still; and the release was +sure to come now--they would not surely delay it any longer. He had been +a tall, powerful mulatto when he first came to prison; he was a gaunt, +bent skeleton of a man now, with great, bony, strengthless hands, that +closed round mine with a sort of appealing, lingering pressure when we +met, as if he feared to let go his hold upon a man who was sorry for +him. The doctor knew--any competent physician, at least, might have +known--that he could not last much longer; but the doctor said nothing +and did nothing. Then--for the stars in their courses seemed to fight +against Dennie--came another piece of news for him; not news of parole, +but news that his daughters, both of them, had followed their mother; +they too were dead. Dennis, who had begun to plan out a life with them, +to be father and mother both to them, to comfort them and work for them, +and to die at last with their love and companionship comforting him, was +now alone in the world, and still in prison. + +Time had gone by; it was six months since he had begun to look for +freedom. What would freedom mean for him now, with no one in the world +to go to or to be with? Probably he gave up looking for it at this +point; at any rate, he spoke of it no more. He spoke very little after +that, and he very seldom rose from his seat on the corner of his cot, or +took notice of any one or of anything in the hospital room. He sat +there, day after day, all day long, with his eyes fixed upon a certain +point of vacancy; what he saw, what he thought, no one knew. His hands +lay before him on his bony knees, lax and inert. Half a lifetime in +prison, and now he was nearing the end, mute and motionless, making no +complaint or protest--the power for that had gone by. He no longer spoke +of parole; and no parole came. No doubt, the great officials were busy, +and what was Dennis that they should remember him, and draw out that +paper from its pigeonhole, and sign it, and send it to him? The world +could get along without Dennis. + +So, one day, Dennis died; and after his body had been laid in its box, +the old market wagon, with the old mule between the shafts, was backed +up to the door, and the box with the gray old corpse in it was shoved in +and driven round to the prison burying ground and dumped into its red +clay hole. There it lies; but I am not sure that that is the end of +Dennis. A time may be coming, after this earthly show is over, when +persons who were so much pressed for time that they could find no moment +to sign a paper to save a fellow man's life, may see him again under +awkward circumstances, and be asked to explain. Justice, after all, is +an Immortal, and belongs to eternity. We should beware of measuring, by +the apparent slowness of her movements on this lower plane, the +likelihood of her final victory. + +If you have some imagination to spare, put yourself in the place of a +convict who finds himself, to-day, facing a sentence of imprisonment for +life. The imagination of it, even, is so appalling that you will need +more than common courage to picture it to yourself. What, then, must the +reality of it be? It is hard to understand how any human heart and brain +can withstand the prospect of it. If it has not stopped your heart at +once--if your brain has not immediately collapsed under the shock--you +will think of suicide. But, perhaps, before you can find means or +resolution to seek that escape, you will become conscious, in the +background of your mind, of a stirring of that almost ineradicable thing +that we call hope. You cannot quite bring yourself to believe that your +entire earthly future is to be passed in a prison cell. Some event will +occur, some beneficent freak of destiny, some earthquake or lightning +bolt, some national revolution or catastrophe, some belated sense of +humanity in your brother man, some new law repealing the impious cruelty +of the old law, that will break your bars before the end can come. You +cannot believe that you will actually live and die in jail. + +Thus you are tided over your first hours and days, and with each new day +that you survive the chances of your surviving altogether increase. By +and by, you fall into the prison routine, and your existence becomes +mechanical and automatic. There will be occasional flamings-out of rage +and despair, but they pass, and become progressively more infrequent. +You have slipped down into a merely animal stratum of existence; you +live to-day because you lived yesterday, and you do not forecast +to-morrow. Perhaps you learn to assuage and deceive the hunger of your +immortal soul by forcing your attention upon the petty ripple of daily +events and duties, until you present, to the outsider, the appearance of +a commonplace, non-tragic person, bearing no noticeable scars of the +crime which society perpetrated on you. You perhaps lose, at last, the +realization of your own inhuman plight, and are received, unawares, into +the gray prison protoplasm, no longer really sensitive to impressions, +though presenting the semblance of human reactions. You drift down the +stream, passive, in a sort of ghastly contentment. You have forgotten +that you ever were a man. + +But I am merely speculating in the direction of truths that I do not +know and cannot reach. The lifers themselves whom I knew could tell me +nothing; they were less demonstrative than the men of five or ten years' +sentence. We can never fathom the dealings of the Almighty with His +creatures, and they, perhaps, can fathom them as little as we can. In +ways inconceivable to us, they are supported. + +There was a little old man known as Uncle Billy. If the parole board has +kept faith with him, he should have been set free the 23rd of December. +Uncle Billy's right arm had been amputated at the shoulder, the result +of a shot through the arm from his own gun while he was getting out of a +buggy. He lived in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, at the time of his story. +Billy was married to a woman who must have had some attractiveness, for +a journeying pedler, who periodically passed through the region, formed +a liaison with her. There was at that time a daughter, who had just +reached marriageable age. The pedler was wont practically to put Billy +out of his own house during his sojourns, and usurped his place as +master of the household. At one time he secured Billy's conviction on +some minor offense, and had him jailed for six months. What Billy +thought of the situation I don't know; he was a small, slight man, under +five foot three, and of an intellectual cast. But he seems not to have +attempted active measures, until one day he discovered that the pedler, +not satisfied with the wife, was attempting the seduction of the +daughter likewise. + +Then, one night, Billy came to his house, and found that going on which +his patience could not tolerate. He got hold of an ax, and, stealing +into the room, struck the pedler, as he lay in bed, with his one arm, +and split his head open. What passed then between him and his wife is +not known. Billy, I believe, was for giving himself up to the +authorities at once; but the woman prevailed upon him to conceal the +deed. She tied the body to the tail of the horse, and dragged it across +the fields to a ditch, where she covered it with dirt and rubbish. There +it lay for some weeks, until a couple of men out hunting saw an end of a +suspender sticking out of the ground, and pulling at it, discovered the +murdered corpse. Billy confessed, and he and his wife were lodged in +jail pending their trial. The woman died there; but Billy was tried and +convicted, and in consideration of the peculiar circumstances, was "let +off" with a life sentence. When I knew him, he had been in a cell nearly +fifteen years. + +The weather was chilly; some of the prisoners were let out in the yard +every day at one o'clock, to pace round in a ring for forty minutes. I +saw the little, bent, thin old man, with one arm, hobbling round and +round with his cane. Conversation was not permitted under the rules, but +the rule was often overlooked. After I had gained an outline of his +story from some old timers, I spoke to him, and he looked up at me with +a pair of singularly intelligent brown eyes, and with a kindly +expression of his meager little face. We conversed a little on general +subjects, and I found him well educated, observant, thoughtful, with a +distinct vein of subdued humor. Afterward I saw him in his cell, though +there was a rule against that, too; but the guard was tolerant. + +He had a violin there which he had made himself, his tools being a knife +made out of a nail hammered flat and the edge sharpened, and a piece of +broken glass. It was admirably fashioned, and except that it was not +varnished, would have been taken for such an instrument as you buy in a +shop; its tone, too, was pleasing, and Billy could discourse excellent +music on it. It was in the manufacture of these fiddles that his time +was passed; the fact that he had but one hand to work with did not +embarrass him. His contrivance for playing on the instrument was as +remarkable as the instrument itself; he had rigged up a sort of jury arm +of wood and metal, with an elbow to it, and a grip to lay hold of the +bow. Persons who play on violins will doubtless be more puzzled than I +was to conceive how he could do it; but he did it. And for aught I could +see, he was content with his singular industry; it gave him constant +occupation and enabled him, I suppose, to keep thoughts of other things +out of the way. Otherwise, he was utterly unobtrusive, almost invisible, +and the guards let him alone. But the government of the United States +had kept him there for fifteen years, as a menace to society. You can +see him in fancy, had he been set free for doing what most human beings +must have done, ranging up and down the country, dealing out terror and +slaughter. Such wild beasts must be restrained. They must be disciplined +and reformed, and jail is the way to do it. + +Just before I left the jail, I spoke to Billy about his parole. "You and +I will get out almost together," I said. "No, no," he replied, with his +curious little humorous smile, "they can't get rid of me as easy as +that; I've got three months yet, and I'm going to stick it out to the +end." I have not heard the sequel; but I can hardly believe that the +authorities mean to play the cat-and-mouse game with him. + +I have perhaps mentioned John Ross, who died, under promise of parole, +after thirty-three years behind the bars. And there was Thomas Bram, a +prisoner hardly less remarkable, freed on parole after seventeen years' +confinement. He had persistently asserted his innocence from the first, +and nobody so far as I know doubted his assertion. The evidence against +him was entirely circumstantial, and there was another man in the case +who seemed, to judge by the reports of the trial, to have been at least +as likely to be guilty. Bram's record in prison was wholly blameless, +and though there was some opposition to freeing him, it sufficed only to +obtain a delay of a few weeks beyond the date set for his release. But +during those few weeks, his sufferings were trying to witness, and he +was near collapse before the end came. He told me that the +Attorney-General had personally promised him freedom two years before, +but had done nothing toward keeping his promise. "It wasn't right, Mr. +Hawthorne," was all the comment he allowed himself to make. Bram's +self-control was great, and his manner always soft and ingratiating; he +was politic and prudent, and had probably resolved from the outset of +his prison career to obtain pardon or mitigation if good conduct and +unfaltering adherence to his plea of innocence could compass it. He was +given a job which procured him some indulgences, and was never punished. +But if a life sentence for a guilty man be intolerable, what shall be +said if he were guiltless? Think it over in your leisure moments. + +I find my list is far too long to be dismissed in one chapter; and in +cases where the men are still in confinement, discussion of them might +prove injurious. There was a young fellow there who looked like a +slender boy of seventeen; he was really over thirty years of age. But he +had been imprisoned since his fifteenth year, and his face since then +had not developed or taken the contours of manhood; and his manner was +boyish. He was well educated in the grammar school sense, however, +though I believe he had picked up most of what he knew in prison. He had +a distinct, emphatic way of speaking, and believed, I fancy, that he was +quite a man of the world, though, of course, he was almost totally +devoid of other than prison experience. He would have been an +interesting study, had not the pathos of his condition, of which he was +himself unaware, made one shrink from probing it. + +He had killed a man at the instigation of and under the influence of a +step-father, who wished the man removed for ends of his own, and forced +the child (he was nothing else) to take the job off his hands, and the +law of Indian Territory, which was the scene of the affair, condemned +him for life. After serving fifteen years, he applied for his parole +under the law; there appeared to be no grounds so far as his prison +record went for denying it; nevertheless, he was rejected. He asked the +reason, and was told that it was not considered safe to set him at +liberty; he had a "bad temper"--that was, I think, the explanation. + +Psychological insight is a good thing in its way and place, but it may +be carried too far, or employed amiss; and this looks like an +illustration. The boy, in more than fifteen years, had never done +anything in prison that called for discipline; but because some +self-constituted and arbitrary psychologist chose to believe, or to say, +that his temper was not under full control, he was doomed to spend the +rest of his life in a cell. This prisoner knows, of course, that he has +been wronged, but he does not know how much; he does not know what life +in a world of free men is. But he, after being kept for half of his +lifetime under duress, must submit to the caprice of a man to whom the +country has entrusted absolute power. No man is qualified to exercise +absolute power; no man is justified in accepting it; but we bestow it +upon every chance political appointee, and what he does with it puts us +to shame, whether or not we can as yet realize it. + +There was at least one life prisoner in Atlanta who merits a chapter to +himself; but I cannot speak of him now. He is one of the unreconciled, +and his horoscope is still too cloudy to make it safe to tell his story. +A desperate criminal, he would be termed by prison experts. In truth, he +is a warm-hearted, generous, high minded man, sentenced to death in his +boyhood for a deed which would have been properly punished by a few +months in a reformatory, afterward obtaining a commutation to life +imprisonment, and now a man of more than forty years, bearing upon his +body terrible scars of severities practised upon him for trying to +resist wrongs which no manly man could tamely endure. A Balzac might +find in him a more human and lovable _Vautrin_; a Victor Hugo could make +him the hero of another _Les Miserables_; a Charles Reade could win new +renown by summoning us to put ourselves in his place. But the best +service I can do him now is to give him silence. He is not quite +desperate yet; should he become so, the world will know his history. + + + + +IX + + +THE TOIL OF SLAVERY + +Before the Civil War there were some millions of negro slaves in the +South, whom to set free we spent some billions of dollars and several +hundred thousand lives. It was held that the result was worth the cost. +But to-day we are creating some five hundred thousand slaves, white and +black, each year--or that is about the number of made slaves each year +in the United States; it costs us several millions to keep them in an +enslaved condition, and their depredations upon society, before and +after slavery, amount to several millions more. I have not the precise +data, but the figures hazarded are not excessive. A sound statistician +would make a more sensational showing; and when he proceeded to cast up +his account for the aggregate of the years since the war, and of the +estimated amounts for the coming fifty years, the bill would look large +even with a hundred million paymasters to foot it. + +In that bill, probably the smallest item would be the cost of crime +itself--the actual loss caused to the community by the thieving of +thieves,--of the thieves, that is, who have been convicted and condemned +as such; for there is no way of figuring on how much the undetected +thieves steal. Every time we shake the social body, in this or that +spasm of probing and reform, hundreds drop out, like moths from an +unprotected garment; so that at last we are prone to suspect that the +thief, overt or covert, is more the rule than the exception, and that a +good part of the cash in circulation was more or less dishonestly come +by. But, leaving this aside, the money or values appropriated by thieves +accredited as such and sent to jail, is an amount relatively +inconsiderable, and by no means enough to pay the expenses of their +apprehension, trial, and prison sojourn. It is, then, politically +uneconomical to imprison them. + +The reply to this is, of course, that penal slavery is preventive of +crime; that if we did not prosecute malefactors, crime would multiply +and abound, like weeds in a neglected garden. Perhaps it would; but the +point is, that it multiplies and abounds even in the teeth of +prosecutions; every year the number of convictions is greater, and the +jails are already cracking their seams to contain the convicts. One +might almost conclude that prisons, as now administered, stimulate crime +instead of preventing it, and that we are in the predicament of Hercules +in the fable, who, as fast as he cut off a head of the hydra, saw two +others sprout in its place. At which rate, we might be led on to the +surmise that it would be financially cheaper to let crime run on; the +cost of our futile efforts to stop it would be saved, and might be set +over against the loss from the increased annual depredations. + +But finance is not the whole story; what about morality? and who can +forecast the ruin of anarchy? The problem cannot be so crudely solved. + +Crime must be prevented; doubtless nine-tenths even of the men in jail +would agree to that proposition. The question is, can the jail system +prevent it? and the answer is that, judged by long experience--the +experience of thousands of years--it cannot. There are several reasons +why it cannot, into some of which we may enquire later; but the +objection to the jail system which I wish to emphasize just now is, that +it not only makes slaves of convicts, but, unlike the more reasonable +southern negro slavery, it makes them unproductive slaves. Either it +withholds this vast body of men from production altogether, or else it +forces them to toil under conditions which bring forth results the +smallest possible and the most unsatisfactory. The men are not paid for +what they do. Whatever profit (in "contract" prisons) accrues from their +toil goes into the pockets of the contractors, or, perhaps, is used to +defray the cost of their keep to the community. Or, again, if it is made +to appear to go into the prisoners' pockets, it is deftly taken out +again the next moment by an ingenious system of fines, which no prisoner +can escape. + +In short, prison labor is slave labor, and slave labor of a worse kind +than was ever practised in negro slavery times. For on southern +plantations, though slaves were not paid wages, they got wages' worth in +good food and lodging, and (uniformly) in humane treatment, including, +above all, the companionship of their wives and families; and they were +able, in many instances, to buy themselves into freedom. Most of the +negroes, moreover, had never known what it was to be free; their race, +for generations unknown, had been slaves in their own country; they had +never been free citizens of the United States, never had education, were +unconscious of any disgrace in their condition, and were as happy as +ever in their lives they had been or were capable of being--happier, +indeed, than most negroes are in the community to-day. In all respects +their condition compares favorably with that of our half million annual +prison slaves, manufactured deliberately out of our own flesh and blood. + +I used to contemplate the population in the Atlanta Penitentiary--the +eight hundred of us--and then look at the construction work, the +gardening, the tailoring, the carpentering, the product of the forge, +the farming in the prison grounds outside the walls, and the work of +clearing and grading on the area which the walls enclosed, and I +marveled at the disproportion. Eight hundred men, many of them skilled +in this or that industrial employment, most of them physically capable +of active labor, and almost all of them eager to work if given +intelligent and useful work to do; not a few, too, intellectually and +educationally equipped to plan and direct industrial operations; and +yet, with all this great potential force at command, all that was +actually accomplished might have been done as well or better by a +corporal's guard of willing and well managed men. The mere economic +waste of such material was criminal, without regard to the evil effect +of inadequate or misapplied labor upon the men's moral and mental state. +Can it be, I asked myself, that this extravagant idleness is forced upon +the prisoners as part, and not the least evil part of their punishment? +Or is it the result of ignorance, incompetence, or indifference on the +part of those appointed and paid to take care of men sentenced to "hard +labor"? + +That the men suffer from it is beyond question. And I cannot find that +the law provides or intends that their suffering shall be of this kind. +Much of the insanity in the prison is due to the way they are made, or +made not, to work. There is a legend of a warden who, being unable to +keep his prisoners otherwise busy, set them to piling up paving stones +on one side of the yard, and then taking down the pile and repiling it +on the other side. After a week of this, most of them were maniacs. It +was not the severity of the labor that destroyed their minds, but the +uselessness and objectlessness of it. Sane men require reasonable +employment; idleness, or irrational work disintegrates their minds. They +want to see and to foresee intelligible results from their toil; mere +toil without such results is maddening, or it rots men's minds as scurvy +rots their bodies. The reason is, that the men are human; and if you +have hitherto supposed that convicts are not human, the insanity which +so constantly follows upon prison idleness or mis-employment should +correct you. + +Others may describe the horrors, almost indescribable, of contract labor +in prisons; I saw nothing of that at Atlanta--type of another widespread +system of prison work--though I heard enough about it from men who had +undergone it in state prisons. But during the few first days of my +imprisonment, I saw a building gang at work (to call it work) upon a new +wing destined to contain dormitories for the inmates. It was to be a +seemly structure of granite, massive and well proportioned. But after +three days, work on it was stopped, and was not resumed until a week or +so before I left this prison, six months later. Meanwhile, I read in the +_Congressional Record_ the report of a debate in the House, in which, on +the authority of a Texas representative, charges of graft or waste were +laid against persons concerned in the erection of this building which +seemed incredible, but of which I was able to find no refutation. The +hospital building is open to the same criticism, and another, which I +believe is designed to be the laundry, had got no further, at the date +of my arrival, than a square hole in the ground, and when I left had +been furthered by a single course of stone or cement laid round the +hole. A New York contractor, graft or no graft, would have had all three +of them finished and in commission in the same time, and with no better +material in the way of laborers than our prison could supply. + +The thirty-four foot wall surrounding the buildings, a mile in circuit, +built of cement, had been completed before my time. I read in a report +of the warden's that its existence was due to his enterprise, and that +he looked upon it as a worthy monument to his activity and intelligence. +At every hundred yards or so of its length it was strengthened by a +tower, containing accommodations for a guard, day and night, who watches +with his rifle in hand, ready to shoot down any prisoner who seems to be +acting suspiciously. No such shooting by a tower guard has as yet taken +place to my knowledge, and none ever will on the pretext suggested; for +the wall is absolutely unscalable; being five or six feet thick, it is +impenetrable, and its foundations going down six or eight feet below +ground, it cannot be beaten by tunneling; yet the towers and the guards +are there. + +But the point is that the wall itself is quite preposterous and +unnecessary. Escape for prisoners was quite as difficult before it was +built as after. There are a hundred guards in the penitentiary--one for +every eight prisoners--all armed and eager for action; every article of +a prisoner's clothing bears the prison mark; and the population outside +the walls is penetrated with the idea that the apprehension of escaping +prisoners is morally as well as financially profitable. Every prisoner +knows that an attempt to escape would be suicide--"you might get hurt," +as the prison rule book euphemistically phrases it--and they generally +prefer suicide in some other form. + +The wall, then, is superfluous; a fence of electrified wire would have +served as good a purpose at about one-thousandth of one per cent. of the +cost. And what did the wall cost? Let the prison archives declare. And +then, perhaps, it would be interesting to investigate the discrepancy, +if any exist, between the price which the United States paid for the +work, and the actual cost of erecting it. + +The wall was some time in the building, but it seems to have been the +only thing built in the prison, work upon which was continuous and +energetic. And it was a useless work, better left undone. The warden was +proud of it, however, and there it stands. + +As for the twenty-seven acre enclosure, in which the prison buildings +are, which is--according to official prognostics--to be graded, leveled, +drained, cultivated and planted till it looks like a private +millionaire's park, it is a raw, rough unsightly waste of red clay and +weeds, gouged out here and there with random and meaningless +excavations, heaped up in other places with piles of earth; diversified +in one quarter with some forlorn chicken coops and fences, made by the +voluntary and unskilled labor of one of the convicts; and adjoining +these, with the Tuberculosis Camp, a row of a dozen or more tents +mounted on wooden platforms, with little flower beds in front and +behind, and a pigeon house at one end. The only part of these grounds on +which any visible thought and labor has been expended is the baseball +diamond, adjoining the northeast corner of the wall. Here, the ground +has been leveled and smoothed over a space sufficient to include the +diamond itself, and a few yards on its south and north sides; beyond +that is waste ground, and along the northern boundary is a parapet of +earth five or six feet high, presumably made of the material scraped off +the diamond. A ball vigorously struck by a batter either goes over this +parapet into the swamp ground beyond, or sails away toward the +Tuberculosis Camp, to be retrieved from the weeds and rubbish in that +vicinity. + +There are some forty score men behind the bars who would rejoice to be +allowed to put these grounds in order, and who, under proper guidance, +could do the job in a month. It would be a useful work, it would benefit +the men both in the doing and in the accomplishment, and it would be an +excellent advertisement of the penitentiary for the visitors who daily +stroll about the enclosure; yet months and years go by and nothing +whatever is changed. + +One day, in midsummer, I saw a gang of negroes digging a trench in front +of the southern gate, and cutting out a heavy growth of weeds and +underbrush on the slope above. Drain pipes were carted out and dumped in +the vicinity of the trench, and three or four of them were laid down in +it. This went on for three or four days, the whole gang of ten or a +dozen men not achieving in that period more than one or two capable +Irish or Italian navvies would have done in the same time. Then the gang +disappeared; the open trench and the pipes remained in statu quo, and +the weeds gradually resumed their ancient sway. So far as I know, work +has not been resumed there since. + +It is a typical example; even such work as is done, is done in such a +discontinuous and futile way that it is impossible for any one doing it +to feel any interest in it, or stimulus to do it well. Time, toil and +money are frittered away, with nothing definite or substantial to show +for it. Intermittent and barren tasks are doubly onerous. The overseers +may not be to blame; they may be incompetent; they may be hampered by +the ignorance, incompetence or voluntary policy of the prison +authorities; the consequences, at all events, are disastrous. If a +handful of hearty, clever, driving men were given control of the various +industrial operations in the prison, the results would seem magical. + +There is dry rot or something worse everywhere; and it is difficult to +believe that anything is gained by it either for the convict or for the +country. It is to be sure punishment for the former, and a bad form of +punishment, but it would be grotesque to assume that it is inflicted by +design of our lawmakers. It cannot be that the government deliberately +proposes to destroy convicts, mind and body; on the contrary, we must +suppose that it wishes to reform them and render them again useful +agents in the community. There is no way to do this better than to give +them honest and productive work while in jail, so that they may acquire +the habit of such work, and be encouraged to pursue it when they get +out. + +But in order to induce them to work economically, it is indispensable to +give them continuous, intelligent, and manifestly useful work, and to +pay them for doing it. It can be and it is done in some jails even now. +Warden Fenton, of the Nebraska State Prison, has been putting his men on +the honor system, and sending squads of them out to work on farms or for +contractors, without guards or other precautions, sometimes for weeks at +a time; all he asks of them is their promise to return when the job is +done, which they uniformly do. And for this work, he causes them to be +regularly paid; he retains their wages for them until the term of their +imprisonment has expired, and then hands it back to them. The men are +encouraged and inspirited by this treatment, and the neighbors among +whom their work is done, seem disposed to take a helpful and cooperative +view of the enterprise. If the neighbors--the community--loses nothing +by this system, and if the convicts gain by it, why should it not be +made the general practise? Convicts in Nebraska are the same sort of +people as those in Atlanta. + +Warden Fenton is progressive, but most other wardens are not, and there +is no certainty that future wardens of Nebraska prisons will be; +therefore he has not solved the problem for good and all; something more +than the benevolent or wise ideas of any individual is needed for that. +Mr. Fenton has absolute power--power, therefore, to give or withhold +favors as he may choose. Enlightened legislation would deprive him and +other wardens of absolute power, and make it mandatory to treat +prisoners as he is doing it voluntarily. + +Moreover, if men will go off and work without guards for three weeks at +a stretch, and then return uncompelled to the prison, what is the use of +making them return to the prison at all, or of having any prison for +them to return to? Is not their conviction prison enough for most of +them? And for such as prove incorrigible, or are criminal degenerates, +ought not pathological care, instead of penal slavery, to be provided? +Professor Marchiafava, physician to the Pope, said recently, "Eighty per +cent of youthful criminals are children of drunkards." That is a serious +indictment of alcohol; but it indicts no less the policy which punishes +victims of disease as if they were deliberate and freely choosing +malefactors. + +But leaving sick folk out of the argument, I say that, in view of Mr. +Fenton's experiment, and others like it, conviction is prison enough for +most persons who have slipped a cog in their moral machinery. Means +could readily be found to make such persons recognizable at need, and +they would have as great a stimulus to render themselves free from that +stigma as they have now, and far better opportunities for doing it. They +would have their families with them, or within touch, and they would no +longer be slaves; and if they had been slaves to their own passions and +propensities, the expediency of breaking such chains would become far +more obvious than it ever can be when a guard and a warden is always +round the corner waiting to club or dungeon them for infringement of a +whimsical prison rule. It does not help a man to his manhood to see his +keepers acting constantly the part of tyrants and torturers. + +This is perhaps a novel doctrine, because, as the editorial writer in +the _Saturday Evening Post_ remarked the other day, "The truth is that, +at least two times out of three, we send a man to jail because we do not +know anything rational to do with him, and will not take the pains to +find out." We lack imagination to devise more effective treatment, and +we are wonderfully ignorant as to what prison treatment really means. +And this indictment lies not only against the public at large, but +against the Department of Justice and the Congress, who pass their +judgments and inflict their penalties without in the least understanding +what they are doing to human bodies and souls like their own. + +Jail is the conventional and time-honored nostrum, which is administered +with a glow of moral self-esteem, and no more thought about it. When a +murderer is sent to jail for life, or a bank burglar or white slaver or +financial crook for his specified term, do we not sit back in our chairs +and clear our throats with a self-satisfied "hem!" and "There's one +scoundrel has got his deserts, anyway!" Had it been your brother, +father, son, or yourself, would you employ such language? Would you not +rather say, "If the whole truth were known, this could not have +happened?" But every case is a special case to the victim. And which of +us who has not been a convict in prison has the right to declare that +prison is the "desert" of any man? We do not know what we are talking +about. + +I was looking out of the window of the Isolation Building one day, with +the runner, Ned, beside me; I did my writing there, and he was assigned +for duty to the same building. Ned, to whom I have already referred, was +a thoughtful young man, and often said a word that went to the center of +the subject. We had no business, of course, to be conversing together, +but the guard was absent for the moment. We were watching the convicts +form in the yard for the march to their several places of occupation; +there was a double row of them down there in front of us being marshaled +to go to the stone-shed, about fifty yards away. There they would remain +till evening, chipping away at blocks of granite, and breathing the dust +created by their labor. + +The stone-shed men were mostly recruited from the so-called hard cases +among the convicts; the work was hard, and rapid-fire guards were +generally picked to take care of them. A man had been shot to death +there about five years before by a guard, on no better grounds than that +the man had not moved quickly enough in response to an order. No action +against the guard was taken, and he is still on duty in the prison; +perhaps he knows too much. The stone-shed men prepare the stone used in +the construction of the buildings already mentioned; and they are also +employed at times, by no regulation to be found in any of the books, to +do odd jobs for members of the prison force; as when, for example, they +were required to turn out a monument for the wife or other relative of a +guard who had died, and for whom he was unable to provide a suitable +memorial at his own expense. For whatever purpose the stone work is +done, legitimate or illegitimate, the workers are not enthusiastic about +it, and probably not many of them will live long enough, at least in +prison, to see their handiwork in practical use. + +Arrayed near them was another file, destined to work on the grounds +belonging to the prison outside the warden's famous wall, where +turnips, potatoes, corn and other vegetables are grown. The +vegetables grow--it can hardly be said that they are cultivated; I +don't know what a New York market gardener would say to them. They +grow, and in due season some of them appear on the prison table; +others do not appear, but whether they are left to rot in the ground, +or are put to a more remunerative use, I do not personally know. +There is no great enthusiasm among the gardeners, either. + +Suddenly, Ned groaned out, "Oh, the aimlessness of it! Why don't you +write a piece in our paper about the aimlessness of prison work? +Aimless--that's what it is! How can a fellow feel interested in what +he's doing, when he never knows what he's doing it for, or what +becomes of it when it's done--let alone that he isn't paid for it? +Aimlessness--that's what we get here in prison, and that's all we +learn here. Did you ever think what a prison would be if there was +any common sense aim in anything? Those fellows could make this place +the finest thing you could imagine, if they were taken hold of by +somebody with common sense, and put on jobs that had any sense in +them. But they are kept dawdling around, and never know where they're +at. It kills 'em--that's what it does! You'd think a criminal would +be taught anything but aimlessness; it was aimlessness that got him +here in the first place, nine times out of ten. + +"Why, take what goes on in the printing office that you were assigned +to, for instance," he went on, with a sidelong grin at me. "You have a +month to get out the paper, four to six pages large quarto. How long +would it take to do that stunt in New York?" + +"I suppose it could be done in twenty-four hours," I admitted. + +"Yes, and there are six men down there, and they have thirty times +twenty-four hours. They are in a cellar underground, with the air that +hasn't been changed in years, and the heat-pipes making it worse. Their +health can't stand it--you know that--but there they've got to stay +every day from eight till half after four, pottering round with their +types and proofs and stuff, and trying to drag it along till time's +up--what's the good of it to anybody? It's the same everywhere; look at +the tailorshop! Those fellows sit and fool around there, with the guard +slinging language at 'em every few minutes, and taking an hour to sew a +hem six inches long; and all the time here's you and me wearing clothes +that were new maybe five or six years ago, as you may see by the numbers +that have been stamped on your back and then blotted out, and were worn, +since then, by some poor devil with tuberculous trouble or worse; but +they'll be worn out for fair before we get any others. Why, look at your +pants! They're split all down the leg, and there's your knee sticking +out of the hole! The prison authorities call that economy, may be; what +do you call it?" + +I said that I was not competing for the glass of fashion just then. Ned +offered to sew up the rent for me, but I said that the safety-pin now on +duty would suffice. He still had some of his theme left in him, and he +went on: + +"Look at that power house, that's kept going night and day, the year +round, with coal at government expense, running all sorts of machinery, +and what do they get out of it? I was in the carpenter's shop the other +day, and there was all kinds of machines going, lathes, and I don't know +what; you'd think by the noise of them they was building the Ark at +least. But I nosied round, and couldn't find anybody that seemed to be +working much. At last I came to one of the big steam lathes, and there +was a man that looked to be busy about something, so I went up to watch +him. Well, what do you think he was doing? He was making one of these +here little sticks that a fellow cleans his nails with! The power house +was burning tons of coal, and everything humming, and that was what came +out of it all. A nail stick! What do you think of that?" + +No doubt there was rhetorical exaggeration about this; but Ned's +arraignment was on the whole not devoid of justification. There are +abundant means in the prison for carrying on useful and energetic work, +but they are not properly employed. Neither the convicts nor the +community benefits by it. + +Not that it is wholly without benefit to anybody, either. Good clothes +are made in the tailor shop, but they are not worn by convicts. At least +one excellent dwelling house has been made by prisoners, but it is +occupied by a high prison official. Unexceptionable meals are cooked in +the convict kitchen, but convicts do not eat them. There is an admirable +and productive kitchen garden attached to the prison, but its contents +never appear on convict tables. There is a fine lawn, diversified with +brilliant flower-beds, in front of the main prison building, and it is +greatly admired by visitors and passers-by; but the convict sees it +twice only during his term--once when he is brought into the prison, and +again when he is led out. On neither occasion is he, perhaps, in the +best mood to profit by it. Perhaps the prison officials do profit by it; +but if so, the results are not seen in their intercourse with the +prisoners. There is nothing flower-like in that. + +Idleness is an evil thing; purposeless work is idleness in another and +worse form. Aimlessness, as my friend Ned said, is a miserable state for +a man; it tortures him in prison, and the habit of it, acquired in +prison, cripples and degrades him after he gets out. Contract labor is a +crime which is getting recognized as such; it disgraces the nation or +the state which tolerates it, and the shame of it, if not its +immorality, may lead to its general suppression. Unpaid convict labor +for the state, as on roads and so forth, is better than private contract +labor, but is also a disgrace to the employer--a contemptible saving of +pennies at the cost of human souls. Honest work is a manly thing, and +those who do it should be treated like men, and as laborers worthy of +their hire. Because we have rendered them helpless to demand their +rights is no excuse for denying them. It is cheap, but shameful, and can +only teach them that the community can be as dishonest as the veriest +thief of them all. + +But a system of work of which that at Atlanta is a type (and, alas! the +type is far too numerous) is anomalous and abominable; it is aimless, +and abhorrent to man, God and devil alike. It is difficult to absolve +such a prison from the charge of being run at the expense of prisoners, +for the benefit of its officials, since they alone appear to prosper by +it. + + + + +X + + +OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER + +Tigers love their cubs, hens their chickens, dogs love their masters and +all these will fight and die in defense of what they love. Human mothers +generally love their offspring. Love in the common sense is common or +instinctive, and involves no moral quality. It is love of one's own, and +contains a better form of self love. + +But mercy is of higher birth. Animals know nothing of it; savages and +the lower types of man ignore it. We ascribe a divine source to it when +we pray God to have mercy on us; we do not ask Him to love us. All +higher religions enjoin it. Mercy is love purified from self, or wholly +altruistic. It is a man loving another not because of blood +relationship, or because of expected benefits, or even because of +benefits bestowed, but on the simple ground that he is his human +brother, child of the same Divine Father. It is purer than the racial +feeling, and it includes the animal creation outside humanity in its +scope--as the Bible puts it, "the merciful man is merciful to his +beast." + +It is the Golden Rule in manifestation; we see in the one to whom we are +merciful ourself in another form, under different conditions, and we do +to him as we would have him do to us. It seems to require a certain +maturity of mind, acquired or inherited; children below puberty seldom +have it. It is easily forfeited, and indifference to the suffering of +others is readily established. It is to be guarded and developed as a +sacred possession of man at his highest, and constantly nourished by +thought and deed. And no man is so high and strong but he may and does +need the mercy of some being loftier and more powerful than himself, +which he cannot claim if he have not himself done mercifully to those +below him. + + + +I have remarked heretofore that officials of prisons should be men of +the highest character in the state--at least as high as what we would +wish to ascribe to our judges of the criminal bench. Judges send men to +prison; but prison guards and wardens have charge of them during their +imprisonment, with powers practically unlimited. + +Unlimited power is a trust too arduous for any mortal, for it should +presuppose perfect knowledge, all-penetrating intelligence, boundless +experience, and the mercy which is born of these--for there is a bastard +brother of mercy which is of the parentage of ignorance and cowardice, +which shrinks from the sight of suffering from mere pusillanimity of the +nerves, and does not recognize that suffering may be mercifully +inflicted or permitted and beneficently endured. + +But the community does not select its prison officials on the basis +above indicated; it is satisfied if they be competent to "handle men," +have a sagacious familiarity with human depravity, will tolerate no +nonsense, can indict plausible reports for the Department, and show a +good balance at the end of the fiscal year, or, as guards and +under-strappers, keep the men submissive and orderly and allow no +outbreaks. As for knowledge, a public school education is ample, with +such intelligence as may be supposed to go with it; and the experience +of a ward heeler or a thug will ordinarily suffice to pass a candidate. +As a matter of fact, the community never knows anything about its prison +officials until some special scandal transpires under their +administration, or unless some heaven-sent phoenix of a warden +unaccountably manifests humane and enlightened tendencies. Their +appointment is left to the political machine, which hands it out on the +principle of what is he, or was he worth to us? As for justice and +mercy--my good sir, you seem to forget we are talking of convicted +criminals! + +I affirm, however, that justice--which is intelligent mercy--is required +nowhere so urgently as with convicts; that any punishment which aims at +more than restraining convicts from practises calculated to injure their +own best interests, is a crime; and that cruelty to persons imprisoned +and helpless, be the plea in extenuation of it what it may, is damnable +and unpardonable wickedness. Meanwhile, there is not and has never been +in the United States a jail in which revengeful, malicious and +unjustifiable punishments have not been inflicted, and in which cruelty +does not stain the record of each year and day. + +There have appeared lately in the newspapers stories of enormities +perpetrated in Russian prisons. Terrible barbarians, those Russians! +Yet, barring one feature of them only, they can be paralleled by what is +currently done in prisons here. This one feature, is the absence in the +Russian infernos of all hypocritical protestations to the public of +humane treatment and of aversion from severities. The Russian cannot do +more than beat, torture and kill his prisoners; but we do the same. It +is done at Blackwell's Island, at Sing Sing, at Auburn, at Jefferson +City, at Leavenworth (until the other day at least), in San Quentin, and +countless others, including my own Atlanta: only, there, the policy of +suppression of news and promulgation of falsehood is perhaps carried to +a more nearly perfect extreme than in most other prisons. + +A few years ago, but under the present regimen at Atlanta, the workers in +the stone shed there were pursuing their occupation in the torrid heat +of a summer day, when one of them, a young man named Ed Richmond, asked +the guard on duty for leave to retire for a few moments. Such requests +must of course often be made. But Richmond was a man who had not been +lucky enough to win the favor of the higher officials in the prison, and +this was known to the guards, who felt that they might with impunity +treat him harshly. Richmond had been a good deal abused, and his mind +had become somewhat unbalanced; he would sometimes talk incoherently and +act oddly. It had been noticed that the stone shed guard "had it in for +Ed," as the prisoners say; but nothing very serious was looked for. + +Be that as it may, something serious was about to occur. Five or six +years after this day, I was walking, under convoy of the Deputy Warden, +in the prison grounds that lie outside the walls, when we stumbled upon +the prison graveyard. It lay at the crest of some rising ground, partly +overshadowed by second growth timber, and was merely an unenclosed +clearing in the rough undergrowth with rows of headstones standing one +behind the other, each with a name and date on it. But under all of them +lay all that remained on earth of prison tragedies; for even if a +prisoner die a natural death in prison, he dies with a broken heart and +poisoned mind, abandoned, in gray despair, friendless, shut out from sky +and freedom, hearing with dulled ears the clanging of steel gates, +seeing the blank walls, deprived of the sympathetic words and glances of +friends--a miserable, unknown death. Silence and obliteration close over +him; and here he lies. + +On one of the headstones I read the name of Ed Richmond, and the date of +his end. He had not died a natural death, but there was nothing on his +tombstone to show it. I already knew his story, having heard it from +several eyewitnesses. + +On the day above mentioned, the guard had granted his request; but after +the man had been absent a few minutes, he called to him to come out. +Richmond did not at once respond. The guard called to him again, more +peremptorily, and advanced toward the place where he was, outside the +stone shed building. Richmond, as the guard came nearer, mumbled +something; the guard seemed angered, and stepped up to him, raising his +club to strike. Richmond instinctively put up an arm to ward the blow, +and as it descended he caught the end of the club in his hand. This was +the head and front of his offending, and for this he was to die. + +The guard dropped the club, drew his revolver, and shot Richmond four +times in the body. He also fired another shot, the bullet going through +a wooden partition into a part of the shed where some prisoners were +working, barely missing one of them. Richmond slowly dropped where he +stood and lay huddled on the ground; the guard stood looking coolly at +him. One of the prisoners, a negro, ran up and took the dying man's head +on his knee; others looked on. After awhile an official came up and +ordered the man taken to the hospital. But his hurts were mortal, and in +a few minutes he was dead. The men in the stone shed continued their +work. + +An investigation within the walls was held, the guard was exonerated, +and was still on duty when I was in the prison. The officials who had +disliked Richmond were relieved of the annoyance of his presence. There +were no inconvenient newspaper reporters about. If the dead man had +friends outside, they never were able to do anything. It seems unlikely +that the guard who killed him would have done it had he not felt +confident that the higher officials would condone the deed. Perhaps, had +he been arrested and indicted, he might have uttered some names; but he +was exonerated, and he has kept his mouth shut. This happened before the +date of Attorney-General Wickersham's visit to the prison, and therefore +before the change in Warden Moyer's ideas as to the expediency of severe +measures in the handling of convicts. Were the thing to be done again +to-day, it would probably not occur out in the open air and sunshine, +with persons looking on, but under circumstances of decent seclusion. +The outside public is becoming a little squeamish about prison killing. + +But in Russia there is no public opinion, or none that is audible, and +the prison guards there are not hampered in their work by the necessity +of doing it under cover, as they are here. It is a question which method +is preferable. I believe some of our prisoners would vote for the open +way of killing and torturing. It is exasperating to be "done up" in +secret, in the dark, stifled and gagged, with no chance to die fighting. +I have no comparative statistics as between us and Russia, but it would +not be surprising if our record of men beaten, starved, poisoned, hung +up in chains in dark cells, and killed by neglect and cruelties, were to +size up fairly well against what Russia has to show. Considering the +restrictions put upon them, our prison autocrats certainly do well. + +Some doubt has been created in the public mind as to whether there +really are dark cells in the Atlanta Penitentiary, or, if there be, +whether their use has not been long discontinued. I never heard any +categorical statement in denial of it from any of the officials, though +I have read something to that effect in local newspapers. Visitors never +see them, and I know of no prison inspectors who have done so; they are +shown instead the light cells on an upper floor, which are habitable +enough, with windows admitting daylight, and a cot bed. But the dark +cells are another story altogether, and their existence can no more be +denied successfully than that of the prison itself. + +A man named H.B. Rich was employed in the prison for nine years as +foreman of the blacksmith's shop; he says that he helped build two dark +cells in the basement, and often riveted chains on convicts there. "They +were chained to the door," he goes on, "hanging by their hands, +sometimes for twenty-four hours. Often they were thus chained up during +the day, but at night the chain attached to the frame of the door was +loosened; the other chain was attached to a vertical rod, the ring +sliding up and down, so that the man was able to lie on the bare cement +floor. There were no cots. The food was generally one slice of bread and +a cup of water a day, sometimes two or three. Men were often kept thus +for weeks at a time, and would come out so pallid and weak that they +could scarcely walk, and blinded from long confinement in darkness. A +convict named S. was kept in the dark hole two weeks; I was often called +to chain him, as he was a powerful man; but when he would come out, he +was so weakened that he could scarcely move." + +I may add here that I have often talked with the convict here mentioned, +and he told me details of his experiences. I would print his name and +story, but he is still in confinement--he has lived two and twenty +continuous years in prison--and he might be made to suffer for his +revelations. Among other things, he said that he had been in the +punishment cells, in the aggregate, eight years! If he were not a lion +of strength and courage, he would have been dead long since. The Atlanta +penitentiary claims to be the most humane in the world. But eight years +in chains and darkness seems a long time, even taken in instalments. + +A man lately released has this to say: "The administration of the +penitentiary is a sham and pretense. 'Reform' is a show, for the benefit +of government inspectors and visitors, with, underneath, a callous and +brutal disregard for the welfare of the convicts moral and physical. No +tortures? I was trussed up, face to wall, with arms outstretched, for +ten hours. When loosed, I just dropped to the floor from exhaustion, and +did not rise till the next morning. That was during the present +administration. When visitors and newspaper reporters go through the +prison, 'there isn't any hole'; but the prisoner who thoughtlessly +infracts a rule knows that there is one! + +"In the Isolation Building there is a number of three-cornered cells +where men are chained to the doors; they have little cots; these cells +are shown. But down beneath there is the real hole. These underground +cells have no cots; when a man drops, he drops on the cement floor. If +they wish severely to discipline a man, they can make these cells +practically airtight, and then turn on the steam through the pipes." + +Let us have more testimony as to the dark hole. "The hole," writes +another inmate, "is not a hole in the wall or in the ground, but it is a +place to turn a man's cheeks white and to make his knees shake and his +lips tremble, when, for some infraction of very strict rules, he is +ordered to the hole. It is a row of holes; far down in the bottom of the +big bastile is a row of little cells, six feet wide, nine feet long, and +perhaps ten feet high. Solid concrete, with iron grating in the narrow +door. Absolutely dark. Furniture, one iron rod, one blanket. The man is +handcuffed between the rod and the wall, hands apart as far as he can +hold them; at night the wall fastening is loosed, and he can lie down +sliding the ring of his handcuff down the rod. No mattress or bed--just +floor. Food, three ounces of bread and a glass of water at noon. The +rules are said to be less severe than formerly; but two half-breed +Indians, former friends, recognizing each other in Sunday school, +ventured to whisper a greeting; they were put in the hole two days and +nights, and one of them, a stout hardy boy, came out trembling and +shaking as with mortal illness." + +A man who served as guard in the prison under the present warden, but +left in 1907, affirms that barbarities were not the exception at that +time, but the "horrible custom. The dark hole is a reality; men were +kept there weeks at a time, to my certain knowledge, within stifling +walls, chained standing for intolerable periods, with great suffering. +The public understands 'solitary confinement' to mean a cell by one's +self; but this cell is a dark dungeon below earth level. One convict had +to be brought out on a litter, his legs swollen to a frightful size; he +could not stand erect. I was reprimanded for entering his cell and +helping him to sit up. A man named L. who had drawn back his hammer +threateningly when a guard advanced upon him armed with a 'square,' but +who ceased to resist when the guard drew his revolver, was sentenced to +one hundred and forty-five days in the dungeon, with three slices of +bread, with water, per day. Christian Endeavorers," this witness adds, +"never have an opportunity to observe the real conditions. No outsider +comes in contact with things as they are. No outsider in Atlanta has +ever seen the dungeons." + +G.W., formerly employed in the prison, says that "the hole near the +plumber's shop was built while Morse, the banker, was in the prison, for +I helped build it, and the warden, with another official, was down to +see it at ten in the morning." Speaking of the statement that the dark +hole was no longer in use, he adds, in his letter to me, "You know of +the hanging up in the dark cell of the old Englishman, in October"--the +month I left the penitentiary. I do know of it; the fight of this +stubborn old fellow against the oppression of the prison authorities was +the talk of the ranges just before my departure; he had done nothing +worse than to use bad language; he would not give in; and I believe that +it was found advisable at last to release him. + +The case of poor little B. had a less agreeable sequel. He was dying of +diabetes during the latter months of his confinement; he was an +incorrigible little thief, a man of extraordinarily acute mind, and a +sort of saturnine humorist withal. He had been repeatedly convicted and +imprisoned, but "I can't let it alone," he would say. He was plump and +flabby, ghastly pale, with protruding eyes, very clear and penetrating. +He was ridiculously impudent, but being so soon to die, as he himself +well knew, none of the prisoners bore him a grudge. The authorities, +however, thought it well to discipline him, and he was so repeatedly +maltreated by them, and put in the dark hole, that his disease was +greatly inflamed and the end hastened. I said something designed to be +encouraging to him shortly before I left; but he fixed me with those +singular eyes, and said, "I am doomed!" + +The last I heard of B. was in a letter from a lady who has done much to +help and relieve the sufferings and wrongs of prisoners in the jail. "B. +is in a dying condition," she writes; "he was severely punished while +suffering from his disease. W.," she goes on, "died three days after a +ten-days' punishment. He had to be lifted from the dark cell and carried +to the hospital by attendants." Upon the whole, one has grounds for +believing that the dark hole is not a fairy tale, and that it still +exists and is at work in Atlanta Penitentiary, in spite of the +impression to the contrary of the humane warden and his officials. + +The geography of the places is, however, obscure, and is known to the +elect only; it is said by inmates of old standing that underground +passages connect the prison buildings and lead from one dungeon to +another. This sounds romantic, but would be obviously useful in +practise. A map of the premises, surface and subterranean, would be +interesting, and may hereafter be achieved by some inspection which +really inspects. I have not spoken of some features of the dark cells, +as described by men who have experienced them, because they are so +revolting that editors of newspapers would decline to print them. Human +beings are compelled to endure many things which the fastidiousness of +other human beings cannot tolerate even the hearing of. + +A prisoner named Keegan was killed at Atlanta not long before I was +released, not by a guard's bullet, but by means as sure though slower +and more cruel. We were all conversant with his case at the time, but I +will quote the man who knew him and his sufferings most intimately. Here +is his crude narrative written to me on prison paper. + +"William Keegan died in August of this year (1913) at the Pen. He was +first taken sick with pains in the legs, hands and arms, and went to +morning sick call, but could never get anything done, because he was a +little deaf and could not hear what the doctor said, and so could +explain no further, and he was in a very bad fix. They did nothing for +him, and he was afraid to see the doctor, because he would have been +impatient, and would have sent him to the hole, and then he would lose +time. But he did go up to see him after the pains got into his back +also, and he told him he would like to get out of the stone shed; and +the doctor told him there was nothing the matter with him, but he was +only faking and trying to get out of work--which I know and can swear to +as being true. + +"If ever there was a sick man, Keegan was him. He told M. the foreman +about it one day, who told him to have the doctor look him over, and +sent him up one afternoon; the doctor looked him over and told him he +was only a crank--nothing at all the matter with him. Soon after he was +taken very sick, and one night I called the prison nurse to his cell, +and he had him taken to the hospital, where he stayed some time, but it +did him no good, for he came back to the cell house in just as bad a fix +as before. Then they put him to work in the paint-house, and after he +had been there about a week, they said he was crazy, and put him in the +hole. He was treated shamefully in the hole, for the prison nurse even +told me so. Then he was taken again to the hospital, and he never came +out of it, for he died there, and the prison nurse told me he suffered +terribly before his death. This I will swear is true before God. + +"Very near every man in the Pen had a bad stomach, and could get nothing +for it, for if you went to the doctor, he would tell you you ate too +much, and give you a big dose of salts, and if you did not take them, he +would put you in the hole, and then you would lose good time. But if a +man had a pull, he would get along right enough. There was A., a bank +wrecker, he was clerk in the stone shed, and I have seen him have eggs +right in the kitchen, when we had only rice to eat with cold water and +bread which was sour. If he didn't want to work he didn't have to, for +when I worked as runner for the plumber I have seen A. lying down and +smoking and reading or pretty near anything he wanted to do; but if +other men had done less than half the things he did, they would have +been put in the hole and lost good time also. Things should be looked +into, for it is sure run shamefully." + +Readers would perhaps like to know more of the doctor, whose +professional activities are so engagingly described in the above +statement. He is a medical graduate of recent vintage, poor but +aristocratic, engaged to attend four hours a day at the penitentiary at +a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. "I need the money," he once +admitted to a colleague in the prison. Keegan, as we have seen, was +under his penetrating eye for months, and he died a few days after the +young gentleman had assured him that there was nothing the matter with +him. The doctor dresses well, and has an air; he has the use of an +automobile, and sometimes escorts good looking young nurses, or other +young ladies, about the prison grounds. He has a knack at surgical +operations, and urges prisoners to be operated upon; they sometimes +recover, and sometimes do not. His use of drugs in his practise seems to +have been mainly restricted to prescribing salts, and the hole, both +effective in their way, but not always happy in their application to the +cases under consideration. + +He was always civil to me, and put me under the obligation of saving my +life, for he ordered me a milk diet when I was succumbing to the +influences of prison hash and "hot dog." It was part of his duty to +visit the dining room every day--or was it every other day?--and inspect +the food served to the prisoners. During my six months' stay, he +appeared twice in the doorway, where he exchanged amenities with the +guard; and once he traversed the aisle between my row of tables and the +next, accompanied by some very nice looking girls. He had other duties, +which he discharged with similar punctuality and fervor. And all for +fifteen hundred a year. + +There was a hearty, full-blooded, good natured young fellow, with red +hair, who worked in the blacksmith's shop, and worked well. His overseer +was a negro--this often happens in Atlanta Penitentiary. The heat in the +forge room during summer was intense, and the red haired boy used to get +rush of blood to the head, and finally asked a high official for leave +to step out in the open air occasionally and cool off. It was granted. +But on one of these outings his negro master ordered him to go back and +do a job of work for him; the other quoted his official permission; +there was a wrangle, ending in an appeal to a higher official still. The +latter, in the face of the lower official's testimony that he had +authorized the recess, supported the negro, and the young blacksmith was +sentenced to five days in the dark cell and thirty days' loss of good +time. Discipline must be preserved. + +Are such conditions as I have described general? The newspapers during +my stay at Atlanta described a discussion in local prison circles as to +the propriety or expediency of whipping female prisoners in the Georgia +female prison (not connected with the federal penitentiary), and +confining them in the dark hole. The warden of the prison, a gentleman +named Mitchell, and his guards, said that women did not mind confinement +in the dark hole, and got no harm from it--though it was shown that +after being so confined for a day or two, they were scarce able to stand +and wholly unfit for work. The guards declared that the women could not +be effectively disciplined except by flogging, and threatened to quit in +a body if the practise were disallowed. Dr. MacDonald, of the prison, +testified that although some wardens might abuse the power of flogging, +and had lashed women on the bare back instead of over covering of one +garment, as prescribed by the rules, still he favored whipping for them; +he said the use of the "leather" was really more humane than the +dungeon. Secretary Yancey, of the Prison Commission, also favored the +lash. + +On the other hand, State Representative Blackburn said that it was "a +dangerous policy to give such wide discretionary powers to wardens +scattered about the state. It would give rise to terrible abuses and +mistreatment. The sovereign power of the state should not be delegated +to individuals only remotely accountable. The punitive system should be +carefully guarded, and the line of punishment mapped out, otherwise +evils will creep in; no corrective measures that border upon cruelty +should be used." Representative Smith added that if we "put the power to +use the whip on women in the hands of brutal and incompetent wardens, +the same cruelties and atrocities which have shocked the civilized world +will be repeated. Wardens, drunk with power, abuse their positions; they +are appointees of a system, inexperienced and incompetent in many cases; +chosen, not because of their fitness, but more likely to repay some +political favor. When a good warden is found, it is more or less an +accident. Give permission to whip, and the public would be horrified at +the result, if ever they should learn the circumstances." + +That is fine; but the concluding words mean more than they say. How is +the public to know? If you had a mother or a sister or daughter in that +jail, would you feel entirely reassured by the declamations in the +legislature of these kindly gentlemen? Would it not occur to you that, +when this little flurry had blown over, the warden and his guards might +possibly, and as quietly as might be, revert to what they held to be the +only effective means of keeping order? It is easy, in a prison, to gag a +woman so that she cannot scream, and to take her down to a secluded +place, and there to lay on the leather heartily, with or without first +removing the inner garment. Who is to know, or to tell? We are not +Russians, to boast of these things openly. + +At the turpentine camp at Atmore, Alabama, thirty-five convicts whose +contract had been annulled by Governor O'Neal, were brought to Mobile +October 10th, 1913, and placed in the county jail. All but fourteen had +been whipped with heavy straps loaded with lead, and affidavits were +offered showing that two of them had been whipped to death. But +Superintendent of Prisons Riley of New York, in a letter to Warden +Rattigan of Auburn prison, writes: "I do not believe that any one was +ever reformed by physical torture." This was not the view taken, +apparently, in Jefferson City (Mo.) prison, for there, a few weeks ago, +a negro was given a very hard task each day (says the _Post-Dispatch_ of +St. Louis), more than he could perform. At evening he would be taken +out, strapped to a post and beaten with a heavy strap. There were cuts +and sores all over his body. Favored prisoners were allowed to break +rules, while others were severely punished for the same thing. The +penitentiary there is described as a "small hell entirely surrounded by +masonry and incompetent officials." Dozens of men were brutally whipped +for minor offenses. + +We have all heard about Blackwell's Island, New York City, where +"beatings by officials, and much worse, resulted in the death of a man." +Trustee Hurd found two men in dark cells, one stupefied, the other +hysterical and sobbing. They had been punished for whispering. The dark +cells had been ordered discontinued some weeks before. Warden Hayes, on +being asked by the official why he had permitted them to be used, +replied, "Well, the fact is, I've been so busy I haven't had time to get +round to it!" What is his business? + +In Atlanta we do not use the leather; we find the club handier, and some +guards are skilful in so applying it to the bodies of their patients +that, while the external evidences are negligible, it occasions internal +troubles which can be ascribed to "natural" causes. And there are +indications that we do use the dark cell, described by Dr. MacDonald, +above, as more inhumane than the lash. If this expert be correct, he +gives us a standard whereby to measure how inhumane they must be. + +I cannot go on, though I have used only a fraction of my notebook. +Moreover, I am inclined to think that the physical punishments I have +instanced are not the worst that are administered in Atlanta and perhaps +in other prisons. Great ingenuity is shown in the application of mental +tortures, which have their outcome in insanity, but which never can be +investigated by commissions and inspectors. An insane man is as safe as +a dead man--if he tells tales, no one will pay attention to him. The +cat-and-mouse game is a favorite with the inhumane type of wardens. Give +your man alternations of hope and despair, and the results will soon +reward your pains. Then there are the insults, the gibes and threats, +the obscure forms of tyranny and outrage, the degradation of +manhood--there are a hundred subtle ways of destroying and corrupting +the spirit of a man. To be compelled to occupy the same cell with +certain types of criminals is a most successful form of inhumanity; and +when, as often happens, one of the two is a comparatively innocent boy, +the results are awful. "Insufficient number of cells" is the explanation +given; and at Atlanta at least there are the unfinished cell houses, +which might have been finished years ago, had the appropriations been +properly applied. + +"Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!" we pray in our churches. But He +says, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again." +We do not set the Lord a good example of mercy in our prisons. + + + +XI + + +THE GRASP OF THE TENTACLES + +I have spoken of punishments inside the prison. When a man has served +his time and is set free (as it is called) another punishment begins, +which may be worse and more disheartening than the suffering endured +inside the walls. + +As I listened, on Saturday afternoons, or at other times, to the stories +hurriedly and guardedly told me by my fellow convicts who had served +more terms than one, I said to myself, "The wrong of prison is bad +enough; but this of what happens to a man after prison is worse, and +monstrous." The endless tentacles follow him, reach out after him, +surround him, fasten upon him, and draw him back whence he came. And not +that only, but they mark him and isolate him, disable him from free +action, make honesty impossible for him. No citizen of whatever +integrity and standing, if so pursued, maligned and undermined, would +have any choice left him but either to perish or to break the laws. The +spies of the government, with the prestige and power of the government +behind them (however despicable and vicious they may be in themselves), +can ruin any man; but ex-convicts are their staple food. + +In the latter part of June, 1913, a federal judge named Emory Speer was +accused of evil deeds on the bench, and a congressional investigation +was announced. The judge was taken ill, and at this writing the +investigation still hangs fire. Now, the evidence against him had been +collected, it would appear, by the agency of government spies, and this +fact caused great indignation in some quarters. Here was a man not +convicted of felony, but a pillar of the state, being pursued by +detectives just as if for all the world he were an ordinary person--an +obscure private citizen, say, or an ex-convict! The judge himself was +very indignant, and his friends on the local press were rasping in their +comments. In a long editorial entitled "The Shadow of the Spy," one +Atlanta paper denounced the proceedings root and branch. It affirmed +that the governmental spy system had assumed such proportions during the +past few years as to threaten one of the mainstays of free government. + +All this interested my comrades, not because the spy system was news to +them, but because no public notice had been taken of it until it began +to wring the withers of persons who had hitherto supposed themselves to +be in the position of promoters instead of victims of the practise. A +federal judge had never protested against pursuing with spies men +suspected of crimes, or men who, having served time upon conviction, had +then gone out into the world and attempted to lead a new life. The spy +system, so conducted, seemed to such persons proper and normal. But the +moment they found their own acts investigated, their own footsteps +dogged, they became indignant, and denounced the whole principle of the +thing. + +No man convicted in a federal or state court, or set free after having +done his time in prison, but is abundantly conversant with the methods +of the American spy. + +As we all know, the first thing done with a new prisoner is to take his +bertillons, and the record of these measurements and observations, +together with two photographs of him, or with four, if he had a beard +when convicted, is sent to every police office in the country, and is +there studied by the detectives and police. The intention, of course, is +to render easier the recognition of "old offenders," and to curtail +their future industries. It is generally affirmed that bertillons cannot +be mistaken; but in a Detroit court, on January both, 1914, an expert +declared that "a difference of one-eighth of an inch in the laying on of +the fingers made an entirely different impression"; and "judgment was +awarded against the bank," which, relying upon the infallibility of the +finger record, had brought the action. At any rate, the bertillon is +still a potent weapon with the police, and when they want a man for a +crime committed, or when they desire to drive out of any given place on +the face of the earth a man who has been previously a convict, they have +but to point to his bertillons, and the thing is done. + +Let us see how this may work out in practise. A convict, having served +his term, is presented by the United States (or a state, as the case may +be) with a suit of new clothes, and with a five dollar bill. He also +gets a ticket on the railway to the place of his destination, and, +though he is in theory a free man from the moment that he passes the +prison gates, as a matter of fact an official is assigned to take charge +of him and put him on his train; he cannot remain in Atlanta (supposing +for the once that Atlanta Penitentiary has been his abiding place during +his sentence) on penalty, if he do, of forfeiting his ticket and having +to pay his own way. This may be a provision of the law, or it may be +simply a measure to prevent ex-convicts from talking to newspaper +reporters or other enquiring persons. The thing is invariably done, +unless the man's residence happens to be Atlanta itself. + +In my own case (to cite an instance) the regular procedure was observed, +with only one accidental modification. I received my suit of clothes, my +five dollars, and my railway ticket--at least, the latter was given to +the guard detailed to accompany me to the station, to be by him +delivered to the conductor of my train. But I had previously made up my +mind to say a few things to the reporter of a certain local newspaper, +and I was ready, in case of necessity, to abandon my eleemosynary ticket +and to pay my own way to New York on a later train. I had money of my +own to do this with; most ex-prisoners, of course, have not. But the +sacrifice was avoided by the circumstance that Mr. Moyer, the warden, +was absent at the moment in Indianapolis, and the deputy incautiously +let me out an hour or more before my train started. I lost no time in +meeting my reporter, and during the next forty minutes, in an automobile +provided for the occasion, we drove about the streets of Atlanta, while +I imparted to his astonished ears my reasons for thinking that the +penitentiary was not the paradise on earth that it had hitherto been +believed to be. He brought me to the railway station in season for my +train, and I got safely away, leaving mischief behind me. + +That was my good luck. On the other hand, a friend of mine recently +released told me that the warden had called him into his office at the +last moment, and had extracted from him a promise not to talk to any +reporter in the town before leaving. That is the usual way; but it is +the exception, sometimes, that counts. + +Let us return to our average convict, just out, and with the world +before him, where to choose to display his prison-made garments and to +spend his five dollars. It not seldom happens, to begin with, that he is +not so much out as he had imagined. Our present method with convicts has +peculiarities. Here is a common example. + +A man was convicted and jailed for robbing a postoffice. The sentence +was five years. The specific charge was of stealing postage stamps. +Having done his bit in the federal penitentiary, he was given his outfit +and the gates were opened. He was proceeding joyfully on his way, when a +sheriff laid a hand on his shoulder, and informed him that he was his +prisoner. What for? The sheriff smilingly explained that the sentence he +had just served was for a federal offense; he was wanted now on a state +charge of breaking into the grocery store in which the postoffice was +housed. For this, the state prison accommodated him with lodging for +five years more. The man outlived that, and fatuously imagined that his +payment of that debt was fully discharged. He was awakened by the hand +on his shoulder again. What was the matter now? Why, he had, while in +the grocery store, and in addition to stealing the federal postage +stamps, possessed himself unlawfully of a box of matches, thereby +committing a second state crime, involving a further detention in the +state prison of five years more. + +This is an example of our cat-and-mouse way with convicts, and is, of +course, much more destructive to the victim than an outright sentence of +the same length would have been. But in what manner it tends to reform a +man, or to protect a community, does not clearly appear. + +Sometimes, the sheriff is dilatory in arriving to make the second or +third arrest, and it would seem that the prisoner might have a chance to +escape. But in such a case the warden himself would take a hand in the +game. In an instance of which I heard a good deal, the man's sentence +expired, we will say, on June 1st. The warden had been apprised that he +was to be re-arrested, but the sheriff was not on hand--could not get +there for two days. But the law, or prison regulations, or something, +enables a warden to detain a prisoner beyond his fixed time, in the +event of his committing some prison irregularity. The warden informed +the man that he was reported to have broken a plate in the dining room, +the penalty for which was three days more in his cell. Before the three +days were up, the sheriff had arrived, the man was re-arrested, and +justice was satisfied. We will suppose, however, that our man has no +second or third or other indictments hanging over him, and that he +really does get clean away. What will be his adventures? + +If the weather be not rainy he reaches his train unscathed. But if that +new suit, with "jail-bird" written all over it in characters which all +detectives and police, at least, can read as they run, chance to get +wet, the raw shoddy forthwith shrivels miserably up, and the wearer's +ankles and wrists stick out so betrayingly that a mere child might +recognize the sinister source of the garments. But, anyhow, a few days' +wear will so wrinkle and crease and deform the suit that it becomes +unwearable, and the man might as conveniently and more prudently go +about in shirt and drawers. Should he present himself in it requesting a +job from some virtuous citizen, the latter is less likely to grant it +than to step to the 'phone and call up the police station. "There's a +suspicious character here--better look him over!" The officer looks him +over accordingly, and either advises him to betake himself promptly +elsewhere, or, if a crime happen to have been committed recently in that +neighborhood, the perpetrators of which are still at large, he takes the +man into custody on suspicion. + +That the man is utterly innocent makes small difference; his status as +an old offender is readily established, and the rest follows almost +automatically. "You did the job all right; but, if you didn't, you're a +vagrant, without visible means of support, and they'll put you in the +lockup for six months or a year. And let me tell you, our lockup is no +joke! Likely you'll get on the chain gang, and then, God help you! If +they don't take a fancy to you, they're liable to croak you any time. +Now, I'd like to see you get out of this easy, and here's what you'd +better do. You own up to the crime, and I'll have a word with the judge, +so he'll let you off with a short sentence in a place where they treat +men right, and you'll get out in about three or four months. That's what +you'd best do; and if you don't, I wash my hands of you! What do you +say?" + +What would you do? Stand on your rights, demand a full and fair trial, +prove your innocence, and be acquitted without a stain on your +character? That is the proper and righteous course for a free and +independent American citizen. + +But you are not a citizen, in the first place; your civic rights are +gone for good, and instead of your innocence being assumed till your +guilt is proved, it is the other way about. Your friend the detective is +prepared, for one, to swear that to the "best of his knowledge and +belief," you are the culprit; and there is commonly a number of other +easy swearers hanging about the court room to support him. You have no +friends; on the contrary, every eye you meet is hostile. You have no +money to hire a lawyer, for that five dollars had gone before you had +mustered courage to ask for the job that got you into this trouble. And +above all, your spirit is cowed and prostrate from years in prison; you +have known the long, sterile bitterness of penal servitude, and you have +no stomach for a fight. No, you will not fight--you cannot. You will +stand up in the dock and confess to something you never did, and throw +yourself on the mercy of the court. Your friend the detective whispers +to the judge--"He's an incorrigible--he ought to get the limit!" And His +Honor gives you ten years. It is less than a week since you put off +stripes, and went out into the world resolved to make good. If you +outlive your undeserved sentence, will you ever resolve to make good +again? + +Can such things be? Indeed they can, and they are. There is poor C. in +Atlanta now, the victim of such a deal; and S., and H., and many more. +C., indeed, told me, and I believe him, that he never committed any +crime at all, other than to get drunk and to sleep out on the road; he +was apprehended for vagrancy, then charged with a post-office robbery in +another state (which he had never visited), advised by the detective who +"took an interest" in him to confess, upon the promise of being let off +with a light sentence; he got the limit, and will wear out his youth in +jail, while the detective is complimented for his efficiency. + +The Government is extravagant. What is the use of spending money on a +shoddy suit of clothes for each one of thousands of convicts every year, +and giving each of them a five dollar bill, with the certainty that, in +a large majority of cases, they will be back in their cells in a few +days or weeks, or months? Look up, if you please, the statistics as to +the number of convicts who are second or third offenders. Nay, the +Government is itself the prime and most effective cause of their getting +back, since it is government spies that provide the evidence that sends +them up. + +But can we afford to trust ex-convicts? Must we not keep a strict eye on +them? If the strict eye were also a friendly one, it might be of some +avail. But our hand is against them, and we need not wonder that theirs +is against us. Not only are we their enemies when they emerge from jail, +but (as has been repeated interminably by every investigator who has +been qualified to speak on the subject) jails are the best and only +schools of crime. In other words, we first educate men to be criminals +by putting them in places where they can learn nothing else, and then we +keep them criminals by shutting against them, when freed, every +opportunity to earn food and lodging in legitimate ways. And then we +complain that they are not to be trusted. + +Neither can men fed on poisons be trusted to be well. Jail life is +poisonous; I think it was Judge McLeland who said, last summer, "Our +million dollar reformatories offer university courses in bestiality and +crime; it is as logical to send a man to jail to make him better as to +shut him up in a garbage-can to improve his digestion. Forty per cent. +of those who go to jail, go back again," he added; "one man went back +one hundred and seventy-six times. Others are sent because they are poor +and cannot pay a fine, and they are there made real criminals." + +An instance of this occurred in a Georgia chain-gang while I was in +Atlanta. A man was sentenced for playing cards for money. He could not +pay the $45 fine demanded, and in default, was sent to the chain-gang +for eight months. He wore stripes, night and day, and if contumacious, +was whipped by the guards. His work was in a stone quarry, a deep hole, +into which the summer sun poured an insufferable heat. He was forced to +do his work with a 49-pound hammer in that funnel-shaped pit, at a +hundred degrees in the shade--if he could find any shade. One day he +told the guard he was sick, and could not work any longer. The guard +shifted the quid in his mouth and remarked that he ought to have said so +that morning. But the man meant what he said, and proved it by dying a +day or two later. Probably you may have played cards for money at some +time in your life. Did it ever occur to you that you merited torture and +death for it? + +Or do you think that, after such an experience (if you survived it), or +after being twice arrested for the same crime and kept in jail five +years three times over, or after doing time for a crime you never +committed--that you would come out at the end of it all, smiling, full +of energy and enterprise, loving your neighbor, eager for honest toil? +Would you embrace Mr. Moyer (or whomever your jailer was) and tell him, +with tears of gratitude, that you could never repay him for his +warm-hearted, big-brained care of you--the starving, the dungeoning, the +clubbing, and all the rest of the university course? + +Would you feel like that? Or would you stare out upon the world into +which you were contemptuously tossed with dull, hating, revengeful eyes, +suspicious of all men, hopeless of good, but resolved to get even, so +far as you might, by plying the evil trades which your life of slavery +had taught you? Would you behave like Christ upon the Cross, or like an +ordinary man? Convicts are ordinary men, except that they are often, to +begin with, diseased men, or hemmed in by conditions so untoward as to +make an honest life ten or a hundred times harder than it ever was for +you. + +But you did not scruple to put this diseased or unfortunate version of +yourself into the jail cauldron, to stew there with others like or worse +than himself, for doing what, in most cases, he actually could not help +doing; and when at last he was ejected like stale refuse, you were +indignant because his looks did not please you, because he bore upon him +the stains and the stench which the cauldron had fastened on him, +because he did not, in the teeth of the secret service, the postoffice +inspectors, the detective bureaus and the police, at once begin to lead +an honest life and support the commonwealth. Do you say that none of +this was your doing? But it is your doing, in just so far as you have +not striven in every way open to you to extirpate the doing of it by +this representative government. + +The wonderful thing--the unexpected and pathetic thing--is, that so many +convicts come out of jail in a kindly and inoffensive state of mind. +They are men who were born weak, humble and yielding, never esteemed +themselves, were always ready to take a back seat and give precedence to +others. They do not understand the rights of the matter, but suppose it +must be all right, that penal servitude is the proper thing for them, +that laws were made by wise men and must be enforced. They admit their +stealings and their trickery, and blame themselves, observing +regretfully that they didn't seem able to help it. Next time--if they +get a next time--they will try very hard to be straight, and perhaps +they will succeed after all! + +There was little J., in the barbers' gang, a cheerful, smiling, sweet +tempered fellow, who had served I know not how many terms for small +larcenies and turpitudes. "I've always been such a damned little fool," +he would say to me, as he smoothed off my chin. "The boys would get +round me and rope me into some scheme, and I didn't seem able to keep +clear of 'em. But I'm goin' to be let out again next July, and I've made +up my mind I'll never be seen here again! No, sir! Oh, I've been talkin' +with the chaplain, too, and I've been reading the Bible, and all that, +and I'm going to be a good man. Yes, sir! I've had my fling, and I'm +through with it; when the boys get round me and tell me of some easy +job, I'll tell 'em, No! Not for J." + +He was a man of forty, as naive and "innocent" (in the unmoral sense) as +a child; and he had been in jail off and on since he was ten years old. +I happened to be in the front office at the moment when J. was signing +receipts and receiving his property preparatory to leaving. He was +dressed in a neat business suit of his own--not a prison-made +monstrosity. He was clean and smooth and bright, and tremulous with +excitement. He signed his papers with a shaking hand, he took up and put +down again his well packed gripsack, he shook hands with a sort of +clinging, appealing grasp, as if he were afraid of being left alone, he +giggled and looked profoundly solemn by turns. The officials stood +about, indifferent and contemptuous, the men who had been hard and cruel +to him, and those who had not been so hard. + +It was a bright, beautiful day, full of sunshine; J. picked up his grip +and marched down the corridor and out into the free air. He wore a brave +air of hope and determination, but one could detect underneath it +symptoms of misgiving. He had vowed to be good, but could he keep the +vow, when "the boys got round him"? I wished him good luck with all my +heart. Six months have passed, and J. is not back in jail yet, so far as +I have heard. But the spies are watching him, and he won't be safe till +he is dead. + +A man with whom chance brought me frequently in contact was H., a yegg, +as the term is. + +When a guard is escorting a batch of visitors about the prison, he +speaks of the yeggs in an ominous tone, as if they were some deadly +monster, hardly to be even looked at with impunity. But yeggs, as a +body, are the best men in the prison; they have a code of honor, and +strength of character. Outside, they blow open safes, and do other risky +jobs; and they will shoot to kill on the occasions when it is their life +or the other man's. They will do this, because they know what a prison +is, and also what spies outside prison are. But they will spare your +life, if possible; not because they care for you--they hate and despise +you, as being a man who would be and have in the past been merciless to +them, and as a hypocrite who is either a rascal on the sly or would be +if you possessed the courage or were subjected to the temptation--they +spare you not from mercy but a settled policy; killing is bad business, +and means sooner or later a violent end for the killer. + +Most yeggs are men of more than average intelligence, and sometimes of +fair education; they were not born outlaws; but, if you can win them to +speak of themselves, you will generally find that they have undergone +things both in and out of prison enough to make an outlaw out of a +saint. Most men succumb under such things, and either die, or become +cowed in spirit; the yeggs have survived, and their spirit is unbroken. +They hold the highest place in the estimation of their fellow prisoners; +and the warden and the guards fear them. By that I mean that they fear +to inflict severities upon them except upon some pretext at least +plausible; for the yeggs know the rules, and though they will submit +without a whimper to the crudest punishments if cause can be alleged for +it, yet wanton liberties, such as prisoners less well informed or more +pusillanimous submit to, cannot safely be taken with them. + +The yeggs stand together; they have esprit de corps, and if, as happened +last summer at Atlanta, the food supply drops actually to the starvation +point in both quantity and quality, they stand forward--as they did +then--as champions for the rest of the men; they protest openly, they +will not be wheedled or terrorized, and they go to the hole as one man. +Nor will they come out thence until the warden comes to them and +promises improvement. The warden promises, not because he desires +improvements, but because he fears the scandal of mutiny in the +prison--an inconvenient thing when one is supposed to be conducting a +model institution; and even an easy going public, which will tolerate +other forms of cruelty to convicts, feels compunction about starving +them, especially when it is taxed to provide them with wholesome and +sufficient food. + +About my friend H.--I have no space here to tell his story, nor to +outline it even; it is a terrible one. I may be able, some time, in +another place, to present it in full. I will say now only that he was +once confined for three years in a contract labor jail which has the +worst features conceivable in any prison of to-day or of a hundred years +ago, and men are killed there by overwork and punishments as a matter of +routine; few survive the treatment so long as H. did. Once during his +three years he uttered three words aloud; for that he was punished so +long and so savagely that the horror of it yet remains with him. +Prisoners constantly maim their hands voluntarily in the machinery in +order to be quit of the torture of the work; the bleeding stumps of +their fingers or hands are roughly bound up, and they are driven back to +their machines. The warden is an oily, comfortable rogue, who beams upon +visitors and fools the prison commission to the top of its bent, and he +bears an excellent reputation for the large amount of work he gets out +of his prisoners; "They just love it, my boys do," he avers; "nothing +like work to keep men happy, you know." And then, when the coast is +clear, he turns upon his boys like a bloodthirsty tiger. + +But what I wish to say here is, that when H. at last finished his term +and was thrust forth into the crowded street of the city, his legs +failed him, and he tottered along scared like a wild beast at the noise +and bustle. A man addressed him, and he stared at him blankly, and could +not command his tongue to speak words. He wandered on irregularly, +starting at imaginary dangers, unnerved at the height of the sky, the +noise, the movement. He sought the least frequented streets, but his +aspect and bearing made people look suspiciously at him, and he found +his way to the slums, where he got a room and shut himself in with a +feeling of relief. It was several days before he could school himself to +talk and act like an ordinary human being. His health was shattered, +though he was naturally a strong and hearty man; eating made him sick, +though he was faint for lack of right feeding. + +He could find no steady employment, but helped himself along with odd +jobs here and there. He was resolute to keep straight, but an old pal of +his happened to meet him, did him some good turns, and finally proposed +his joining two or three men in a promising burglary. H. asked time to +think it over, and that night he left the city in a sort of panic, and +traveled to a large town a hundred miles away. Here he succeeded in +getting a good job; his spirits began to revive; he made some good +acquaintances, and prospered beyond all expectation for nearly a year. +One day he noticed a man in the street who stared hard at him; not long +after he saw the same man standing in front of the house in which he +lodged; the next morning his landlord came to him and, with some +embarrassment, said that he would have to ask him for his room; a +relative was about to visit him and he needed the accommodation. + +It was as he had feared--the detectives had run him down. He put what he +possessed in a trunk and left town that evening for a place nearly a +thousand miles west. Here he was left undisturbed for fifteen months, +and made a new start in business. Then the chief of the local police +sent for him and said, "I don't want to be rough on you; but the best +thing you can do is to skip; we're on to you--understand?" "But I'm +doing a straight business," H. pleaded. "You may be; but you're a +crook," was the reply. + +We need not follow him further; he was driven from one place to another. +At last he was caught with stolen goods on him, he having undertaken to +help an old friend of his out of a tight place by carrying his gripsack +from one place to another; it proved to contain some plunder from a +recent burglary. He got off with a two year sentence; but it was the end +of his attempt to reform. "Crooked or straight, I'll end in jail," he +said to me, with that strange convict smile which means such unspeakable +things. "I've got two years more here; if I last it out, they'll get me +again." + +I firmly believe that he would have been an honest and successful man if +he had been let alone. + +It sometimes happens that the manhood of a convict is so sapped by long +sufferings that even his desire for freedom is lost. He is afraid to be +free; he cannot live at ease outside of his cell walls. Perhaps you will +say that goes to prove the gentleness and humanity of prison discipline. +To me it seems a thing so appalling that I must be content with the bare +statement of the fact. A man is afraid to be free, afraid of the great +wonderful world, and of his fellow creatures, and can endure what he +supposes to be life only in his steel cell. What has put that fear in +him? But our laws provide no penalty for dehumanizing a fellow creature +under the forms of law. If it be legal, it must be right. + +I knew a man in our prison who had been thirty-five years in +confinement, with short intervals of liberty. The best favor he could +ask was to be allowed to stay all day and all night in his cell, doing +nothing. Year after year, nothing else than this appeared to him worth +while. He was well educated, as prisoners go, quiet and inoffensive. "I +wish some doctor would examine me and tell me what is the matter with +me," he remarked to me once. "Maybe I'm crazy!" + +After all, the world, in its way, is as hard a place for ex-convicts as +a jail; more cruel, perhaps, inasmuch as it seems to offer hopes that +jails deny. But can a world be called civilized that is satisfied with +that arraignment? + + + + +XII + + +THE PRISON SILENCE + +How many convicts, during the past twenty years, have served their terms +and been released? and yet what does the public know of the real inside +of prisons? This used to perplex me at first. My fellow prisoners with +whom I talked were bitter and voluble enough in denouncing the +conditions; but no sooner had they passed the gates to freedom than they +became strangely silent. Some of them even were quoted in the local +papers as praising and upholding what they had just before condemned. + +There was a Japanese prisoner, for example, the only man of his nation +there, I think, who gained attention by copies of well-known pictures +which he made, to be hung on the walls of the chapel, and by designing +back and side scenes for the stage. I never talked personally with him, +or saw him but at a distance, as he hastened along the corridor; but men +who knew him said that he was especially savage in his diatribes against +the prison and its keepers, and had promised, as soon as he was freed, +to make numerous ugly disclosures to the world. But when we searched the +local papers after his release, what we found was a hearty and explicit +laudation of the prison and its officials. Had it been written by the +warden himself, it could not have been more sunny and satisfied. + +Again, there was a man with us who had been sentenced for life on a +murder charge of a singularly revolting kind; he had been in confinement +seventeen years when I first knew him, but had always consistently +protested his innocence. He applied for parole, and his application was +granted. At this time he occupied a large cell containing eleven other +prisoners, of whom I was one; and he attached himself very closely to +me, and upon coming in from his work each evening, would sit beside my +cot and hold my hand and pour out his heart to me in lamentations, +asseverations of his innocence, picturings of the horrors of his long +confinement, forecastings of what he meant to do when he was freed--to +address audiences from the pulpit and rostrum, and convince the world of +the horrors of penal imprisonment. He was deeply religious, and had the +moral courage to kneel down, before all the men in the cell, and spend +five minutes or more in prayer every evening before going to bed. Every +one believed that he had been wrongly convicted, if for no better +reason, because he had never once wavered from his claim of innocence +during those seventeen years, and because his conduct and bearing in the +prison had always been exemplary. He was a man of powerful body and +strong, impressive mind; his speech was simple and convincing, and I +told him that I thought he would succeed as an avatar of prison +iniquities. He professed an ardent affection for me, and expressed +enthusiastic anticipations as to the outcome of my own projects for +calling public attention to the evils in question. + +This man was tortured for five or six weeks by unexplained delay in +fulfilling the promise of his parole, during which time it fell to my +daily lot to comfort and encourage him; and I suffered no little +emotional stress myself from this constant drain on my sympathies. Every +evening, sitting beside my cot, he would repeat over and over again the +same lamentations and speculations, interjecting at the end of each +apostrophe, "It's terrible--terrible!" until at last I felt that I would +gladly give up my own "good time" for the sake of seeing him freed +without further procrastination. I was convinced, and so told him, that +the delay could be due to nothing but neglect, inadvertent or criminal, +on the part of LaDow, the President of the Parole Board, or of the +Attorney-General himself; the papers had been thrust into a pigeonhole, +and been forgotten or ignored. + +What were the tortures of a man imprisoned for seventeen years, and now +standing on the brink of salvation or despair, to a supercilious +official up in Washington? + +Finally, without explanation or apology, the order for release came; and +for me and his other friends, as well as for him, it was a day of +rejoicing and thanksgiving. But, remembering that he was on parole, and +therefore liable, on the least infringement of discipline, to be thrust +back in his cell, none of us expected that he would venture to denounce +the wrongs and expose the miseries of the imprisoned; we were glad to +learn that he had secured a position paying him twenty or thirty dollars +a month, with a chance of better things later, and that he had announced +his purpose of running down the real perpetrator of the crime for which +he had suffered, and forcing him to confess. For a few days, one or two +local papers gave him half a column, and then there was silence. + +I had been denied parole, and the restrictions thereof did not apply to +me when my own day of freedom arrived; and I gave a short interview to a +reporter, in which I said that the warden was unfit for his position, +that the food was abominable, and that punishment in dark cells and +otherwise was still practised, though under cover. + +The next day the newspapers printed an interview with my late friend, in +which he was quoted as declaring that every statement I had made was a +malicious lie, that the warden was in all respects the best, kindest and +most lovable man he had ever met, and that the men in confinement had +all the food they asked for, of the best quality, and that all tales of +hardships and cruel punishments were false and wicked. + +Is it conceivable that these statements were really given out by him? It +seemed more likely that the words had been put into his mouth, under a +threat, should he disavow them, of being sent back to prison. From such +a threat the bravest man might shrink. But that statement of his still +stands unmodified. And whether made spontaneously, or under the +compulsion of a threat, its motive seems to have been fear of punishment +for telling the truth. Such is the power of the System over its victims! + +It is a state of things nothing less than nauseating. It is bad enough +that men should be held in prison and maltreated; but that the truth +should be imprisoned with them, gagged and terrified into silence, is a +grave matter indeed. New York is complaining just now of the strength in +corruption of its police system; but it seems almost trivial compared +with this, for while the police ring profits by cooperating with the +criminals they are paid to suppress, the prison ring profits by maiming +or destroying human lives entrusted to their care to be restrained for a +season from their own evil impulses, and thus if possible reformed; and, +when they are released, it guards itself against exposure by the menace +of revenge more formidable still. The parole and the indeterminate +sentence, framed to open the way to reform of prisoners, is used by +prison officials to intimidate and debase them; and if any ex-convict +ventures to defy this fortified despotism, the immediate rejoinder is, +"Who can believe a jail-bird? A man wicked enough to steal or murder is +wicked enough to lie, and is not the malicious motive of the lie +apparent?" + +That rejoinder has been brought, and will continue to be brought against +me. Among those who protested against the statements in my interview +above mentioned was a lady whom I never spoke to--it is strictly against +rules for a prisoner to speak with a visitor--and never knowingly saw, +though I understand she was wont to sit on the stage during the Sunday +exercises. She is thus quoted: "Julian Hawthorne is nothing more than an +old grouch. A short time ago this old man told me himself that he was +getting plenty to eat and had no complaint to make of his own or anybody +else's treatment in the prison.... When he says such things as he is +reported to have said, he should be made to prove them, or keep his +mouth shut." Warden Moyer himself, less imaginative than this lady, +contented himself with denying all charges and courting investigation, +and added that he bore me no grudge, believed me to have been the dupe +of malignant guards (since dismissed) and considers my motive to have +been mainly the desire to make a little money. "The Department attaches +little importance to these outbreaks," he remarked, "and I consider it +unnecessary to place my word against that of convicts." + +This may seem feeble; it is the mere instinctive stuttering of persons +in a disturbed frame of mind. But the System will not depend for its +defense upon persons of this kind. It has many strong forces at its +command, of which the Secret Service, and the favorable prejudgments of +the Government and of a large part of the public are but part. Any one +opposing it may expect to be kept under strict surveillance in all his +movements, his mail will be violated, his words, written or overheard, +will be scrutinized for material that can be used against him. Nor is +the line drawn there. While I was in prison, I received the confidences +of many prisoners as to their own experiences, among others that of a +Maine boy who had been convicted of robbing a postoffice. He had been +arrested in the first instance as a vagrant, and while in the local jail +had been approached by a postoffice inspector who charged him with the +post-office crime. The boy had never been in the state in which the +crime was committed; but he was told that, if he would plead guilty to +it, he would be sent to Atlanta for a short term, whereas, should he +refuse, he could be kept in jail awaiting trial for a year, and would +then receive at least six months on the vagrancy charge. "Do as I tell +you, and I will see that you get off easy," the inspector, who posed as +a friend, told him. When he finally acquiesced, however, the judge +imposed on him a sentence of five years, the inspector having testified +that he was an old offender, implicated in many other crimes. The fact +was, of course, that the real perpetrators of this postoffice robbery +had not been caught, but it was expedient for the reputation and welfare +of the detectives that a perpetrator should be produced--if not the real +one, then one manufactured for the purpose. I learned of many cases +similar to this--it is a common routine practise with the System. +Moreover, when this innocent youth has completed his term, he will be +thenceforth a marked man--"an habitual criminal," with a record against +him; and he can be rearrested on general principles at any time. He will +be given no opportunity to earn an honest livelihood, and it would be +surprising indeed if his wrongs, not to speak of his empty stomach and +hopeless circumstances did not make him a bona fide criminal ere long. +Obviously, meanwhile, such a man is effectively gagged; if he be asked +whether prison be a paradise, he will reply ardently in the affirmative, +though his whole body and soul know it as a hell. For if, having +blasphemed the Holy System, he is returned to the cell whence he came, +every word of his rash revelation will be avenged upon him in torture +and misery. + +Am I attempting to retaliate upon the System for personal indignities +and mishandling; or am I the dupe and tool of designing +miscreants--convicts, guards or foremen--who plied me with false +statements to wreak revenges of their own? I have already said that I +was never harshly treated by any of the prison officials, and after the +two first months indulgences were allowed me beyond the customary prison +usage. During my two first months, to be sure, it seemed unlikely that I +could live out my term, because I was kept at work in an underground +place without ventilation or other than artificial light, and permeated +with the hot-water pipes which supplied the buildings with heat and +power. I was also unable to eat the prison fare, and was slowly +perishing for lack of food. I never complained of this treatment, for it +was in the ordinary prison course; but when the consequences of it +became visible in my physical appearance, I was put on a diet of oatmeal +and milk, morning and evening, and allowed to exercise in the open air. +I voluntarily, during this period, went without dinner, being unwilling +to poison myself with the rancid grease and garbage served under that +name; but I made the most of the simple but nourishing milk diet, though +it was insufficient in quantity; and I improved to the utmost the +outdoor privileges, besides adhering resolutely to a regimen of daily +calisthenic exercises; so that, when I was set at liberty at the end of +six or seven months, I was in physical condition quite as good as when I +went in. I was never denied leave to write "special letters," and my +intercourse with the warden and his deputies, though always as seldom +and brief as I could make it, was uniformly suave and smiling. The +reasons for all which I shall have occasion to discuss later. + +So much for the "grouch." As for being made the dupe of designing +persons among the lower officials, and my fellow prisoners,--beyond +replying tersely to questions put to me, I never had any communication +with the former, and never heard or spoke a word with them reflecting +upon the prison management. But what of my fellow prisoners? + +They looked me over keenly and thoroughly to begin with; and no +inquisitors have more sensitive intuitions or are quicker to suspect +double-dealing than they. My aspect, my bearing, my speech, my +affiliations, my treatment, all came under their scrutiny, and were +debated in that secret court which prisoners hold. Not at first, nor +lightly, did they give me the honor of their confidence. I might be a +spy sent in from without, or a stool pigeon made within, or I might be +indifferent or loose-mouthed. But when they did resolve to trust +me--when I was elected a member of the "inner circle," as one of them +phrased it,--they had no reservations. I was called on to make no +protestations, to register no oaths, nor did I solicit any +communications. They came to me freely, and either by laboriously penned +or penciled letters written on surreptitious scraps of paper in +ill-lighted cells, or by circumspect word of mouth mumbled into my ear +on the baseball ground of a Saturday afternoon, they would disclose +their long hoarded and grievous facts. "I wouldn't lie to you, Mr. +Hawthorne--what would be the use? it would come back on me!" But I was +listening to the break and tremor in their voices, the hurry and awkward +indignation, the eager marshaling of insignificant details, the dreary, +apathetic recital of sordid or callous outrages, the hopelessness +striving once more to hope. "If they'd only send us an inspector who +wouldn't be always dining with the warden, and junketting in his auto, +and taking the screws' word against ours--a fellow who'd peel off his +coat and size things up independent!" Their wish was not fulfilled in my +time; the inspections were a farce and a scandal. There was a tradition +of one inspector who had really effected something--who seemed to think +of his duty, as well as of good dinners and joy rides--but that was long +ago. That he never repeated his visit would seem to indicate that his +report was found inconvenient. + +Meantime, I did not need their asseverations of veracity; the truth +shone through their uncouth stories. They were widely different from the +glib patter that runs out of a crook's mouth in the presence of an +official. Some of these men were seasoned criminals; often they did not +themselves understand how iniquitous was the "deal" that had been given +them, being too much inured to the tricks and treachery of the +detectives' practises to feel special animosity regarding them; but more +or less dimly they felt that wrong was being done them that was not +contemplated or recognized by the law. The last thing to die in a man is +his sense of justice; "I'm as bad a man as you like, and I'm willing to +take my proper medicine; but they ought to give a man a square deal!" +There was a young fellow there, well educated, with an intelligent, +agreeable face and gentlemanly bearing; I got his story, not from him, +but from the reminiscences of others. One time "Bob got nutty, and +wouldn't come out of his cell, and started setting fire to his bedding. +His cell got filled with the smoke and he was near choking to death, and +fell down on the floor. A bunch of screws stood in front of his door +making fun of him, and they held a blanket up so the smoke wouldn't get +out. At last they opened the door and pulled him out, and they clubbed +him good and plenty, and then they dragged him down the stairs--he was +in an upper tier, understand--with his head bumping against every step. +They threw him into a dark cell, and left him there." There he had +leisure to recover from his "nuttiness." It was nothing much out of the +usual, only the incident happened to offer spectacular features which +served to keep the memory of it fresh. But does the Department of +Justice countenance such diversions? + +To return to my theme--I came to feel that whether or not I was handled +softly, others as deserving as I, or less deserving, or more deserving, +were not; and that if I had no personal grounds for complaint, they had. +I could not adopt the point of view of one of the "better" class of +convicts: "The warden has always treated me decently, and I don't mean +to bite the hand that caressed me." I need not affirm, either, that my +good fortune was due to an expectation that I would respond in kind; +that would be an unverifiable inference. But it was plain that the +officials took interest in the prison paper as a medium for advertising +and gaining credit for the penitentiary; and that when I began to write +for it, newspapers all over the country quoted the articles and +commented kindly on them. My name was given a prominence, unwelcome, +though well meant; accounts of my doings and condition, entirely +apocryphal (for I never saw a newspaper man during my stay, or gave out +any form of interview), were published and featured from time to time; I +was kept more or less in the public eye. If, now, I were to be starved +and clubbed, dungeoned and otherwise maltreated, not only would I be +incapacitated from contributing to the paper, but some hint of the facts +might leak out and impair the reputation of Atlanta Penitentiary as a +Gentleman's Club and Humane Paradise. Accordingly, if I were found +smoking out of hours, or were missing from count,--"Never mind--it's +only Hawthorne!" It may be, of course, that my personal charm was so +irresistible that every official from the warden down fell victim to it, +and would rather prove recreant to their oath of office than interfere +with me; my vanity craves to believe so, yet I hesitate. At any rate, +with whatever sugar the gag was sweetened, or whether the suggestion of +it was inadvertent, I did not feel justified in accepting it; and when I +got out, the waiting reporters at last obtained what they had so long +awaited. But though my eight hundred comrades seem to have been +gratified with my words, I cannot think that they were equally +satisfactory to the officials; for I am informed that Hawthorne's +writings are henceforth barred from the penitentiary. I must have hurt +their feelings in some way; no one can please everybody. + +The naive surprise expressed in some local quarters outside the +penitentiary went to show how unexpected and almost incredible my +statements appeared to be--or, from another point of view, how +successfully hitherto the truth had been suppressed. The truth being +once unshackled, I was anxious to get the widest possible circulation +for it, and therefore arranged for its publication in various newspapers +distributed over the country; but I was not altogether sanguine that my +plan of public enlightenment would prove an unqualified success. The +System, as I have indicated, had several guns which it might bring to +bear, and it was conceivable that some of the editors who had subscribed +to the syndicate might find reason to regard the articles as not adapted +to the taste of their readers, and decline to risk offending them any +further. If other guns of the System should prove inadequate, there was +always the great gun to be depended upon, known as the Law for Libel. I +took what precautions I could with respect to this formidable and most +respectable weapon; I stipulated that a competent lawyer should read +each article before it was offered for publication, and inform me of any +passage in any of them which might be obnoxious to the provisions of +this law, in order that such passages might be modified or expunged. He +carefully discharged his function; and if any reader should detect a +lack of continuity or explicitness in any of my statements, he may +charitably ascribe it to the consequences of the lawyer's advice; since, +even in this free country, the proprieties must be observed. If I were +fortunate enough to escape the missiles of the Libel gun, I had still to +be on my guard against more obscure and personal weapons; I am an +ex-convict, and any lenity of treatment which I had hitherto enjoyed is +not to be looked for in the future. If I were sent back to prison, my +shrift was likely to be short; and I could only hope, in that event, to +have been able to say enough to afford my entertainers ample provocation +for giving me, as my comrades would say, the limit. + +"You would have only yourself to blame!"--I hear that comment. If you +are kicked, be like the puppy--roll over on your back and hold up your +paws for mercy. But if canine models are in question, I feel more +inclination to the thoroughbred bulldog, who does what he can and would +do more if he could. I have undertaken a heavy responsibility, and must +make the best showing I may with it. I no longer have a lifetime before +me, but I have learned while I have been alive that the methods of the +puppy are not remunerative in the end. Every natural instinct in me +calls out for rest and peace, and to forget the valleys of grief and +humiliation; but there is another voice which summons me to other +issues. I am sensible of my lack of strength and fitness for the +enterprise; but I believe that it was no idle circumstance that called +me to it; I believe in a Divine government of the world, which chooses +sometimes to use unlikely instruments to accomplish its will. The little +I can do may inspire worthier deeds by more powerful hands. Emerson +found simple words for a mighty thought-- + + "One accent of the Holy Ghost + The heedless world hath never lost!" + +The prophets of old had no dignity or weight in themselves, but they +delivered messages which changed the world. "What! that old numskull be +the mouthpiece of Jehovah?" his townsfolk might exclaim. But so it was. +What is any one of us in himself? + +However, I don't wish to bear too hard on this pedal. It is easier to +look at things from the commonplace standpoint. One thing or another +prevented any of my companions in the jail from doing what it was +desirable to do, and circumstances quite unforeseen opened a way for me +to do it. What I have said above was with a view of showing how +difficult it may ordinarily be to bring prison facts to light; and if, +by chance, some individual should find means to his hand to open a +window, he would be a poltroon if he forbore to do it. I am under no +illusions as to the obstacles in my way, nor do I anticipate that what I +am trying to do will result in prompt or vital changes for the better in +prison management. The facts I adduce may be discredited, but if they +are true they will not be lost. My eight hundred inarticulate comrades +are always present in my thoughts. I have left them in the body, but I +see their faces wherever I turn. It is a crime that any human beings +should be arbitrarily kept in the conditions which surround them, and if +I can loosen one stone of the Bastile which, at Atlanta and elsewhere, +annually engulfs and destroys so many of them, I shall be content. + + + + +XIII + + +THE BANQUETS OF THE DAMNED + +The walls of jails are good non-conductors of what goes on behind them, +and this applies to other prisons as well as to that at Atlanta. Yet +once in a while a groan or protest, or a partial account of some +outbreak, finds its way through; and in many cases the gist of the story +is to the effect that the food is bad or scanty. Other things the men +behind the bars suffer stoically, or not so stoically; but lack of food +arouses them to despair and frenzy. We have lately heard reports from +Sing Sing illustrative of this condition there; and many another jail +could echo the complaints of the unfortunates in that gloomy +hell-chamber. + +Convicts know that they are to be punished, that the government has +sentenced them, that it is the law; and though they may find cause to +disagree with the decree that consigns them to hopeless and useless +servitude, they accept it as at least legal and incident to the game as +played. But they do not believe that the government has condemned them +to starvation, or to poisoning (and the condition in which food often +comes to the convicts' table is practically poisonous). They know that +no such punishment is included in the statutes; and they can only +conclude, therefore, that it is an arbitrary and illegal piece of +cruelty or neglect on the part of the warden or commissary officer. They +are prone to think that these persons profit financially by cutting down +their supplies; and that they are careful to conceal the fact in their +reports to the Department, or to disguise it as a meritorious economy. +At the same time, they are conscious that there is no regular channel +through which they can make their injury known to the authorities, and +that nothing is more readily denied, or more easily concealed from +inspectors, than is this very abuse. + +But the suffering which it occasions is constant and cumulative. They +are still required to perform their labor, as if in full physical vigor. +They are punished if physical weakness causes them to fall short in +their tasks. They feel their vitality ebbing, they find themselves ever +less able to resist the inroads of disease, their appeals to the doctors +are often met with sneers and even animosity; and what marvel is it that +stoicism and patience at last give way, and they break out in some wild +and savage excess which justifies the resort by their masters to the +dungeon and the bullet? But death may well seem to the rebels preferable +to the lingering pains of the alternative fate. + +The under nourishment and malnourishment of convicts is, in fact, one of +the worst crimes of the many which their despots perpetrate upon them. +From any point of view, it is barbarous and wicked--the crime of a +Weyler upon the defenseless Cuban revolutionists, which, as much as the +destruction of the Maine, impelled this country to declare war. Yet, +knowing as we do that it is perpetrated upon the human beings in our +prisons, we sit supine and acquiescent, and thereby make the crime our +own. + +Have you not imagination enough to put yourself for a moment in the +predicament of the prisoner? There you sit in the narrow gloom of your +cell, or you toil in the stifling confinement of your work room, and +such is not only your state to-day, but for years to come it will be +unchanged. You are isolated from sight of and association with every man +and woman in the world who cares for you or thinks kindly of you; +silence and rigid obedience are imposed upon you; you meet no looks that +are not harsh, and hear no words but sharp commands or angry menaces. +Your very toil is idle and unpaid, and its diligent performance brings +you no credit or hope, except treacherous promises of a good constantly +delayed. And then picture yourself when, after wearisome hours, the +whistle blows that means intermission of labor and the renewal of +strength by food. Yet that summons, instead of cheering you, does but +make the burden of your misery heavier. + +Sullenly and heavily, in the endless line, you tramp into the huge, +comfortless hall, with its hideous tables and benches, and as you pass +up the aisles you glance abhorrently at the dirty scraps and masses of +provender dumped carelessly out of noisome buckets by the filthy hands +of the servers upon plates still rough and foul with the hardened grease +of foregoing meals. You are faint for lack of nourishment, yet the sight +of what is provided, and the unclean smell of it, nauseate instead of +inviting you. Eat you must, if you would live and have strength to work, +yet if you eat you invite sickness and suffering, and if you could eat +all, and assimilate it, you would still leave the table but half fed. + +Every tyro in physiology knows the effect upon the general organism of +dejection and resentment at meals. Prisoners more than men in any other +condition need abundance to eat and good cheer while eating; but the +food they get, and the circumstances in which they get it, causes them +to degenerate physically, and the body affects the mind. Physical +disease breeds the disease of evil thoughts and impulses. Criminals +might be generated by prison food alone, without taking account of their +previous records and future prospects. + +We of Atlanta penitentiary used to hear occasionally of the +bills-of-fare of our repasts in the prison that were daily forwarded to +Washington, by way of reassuring the Department of Justice, and whom +else it might concern, as to the substance and excellence of our +nourishment. These alimentary documents might be compared with like +lists at Delmonico's and the Waldorf, and the names of the viands would +be found to be identical. The inference, to the legal mind, not to speak +of the penological one, was plain: the convicts at the penitentiary +fared as sumptuously as do the banqueters of the Four Hundred--at no +cost, moreover, to themselves, not even waiters' tips. + +For here were rich soups and gravies, substantial roast beef, succulent +steaks and chops, the renowned baked beans of legend, comforting hashes, +pies and puddings, fresh vegetables, including the famous sweet potato +of the South in its pride; and long draughts of milk from the tranquil +cows of the pasture, together with tea and coffee from the Orient, +sugar, mustard, salt and pepper and vinegar, enough to beguile the most +squeamish appetite, and, to top off with, fruits in their season, led by +the incomparable Georgia watermelon. I may have inadvertently omitted +some items from this toothsome list, but it is enough as it stands to +make an epicure's mouth water. And if any skeptic were still +unconvinced, a photographer would be admitted with his undeniable camera +at certain seasons--Christmas and Fourth of July, for example--who would +place a picture of the revelry and the revelers on the everlasting +records, with garlands and festive decorations, and actual dishes of +some sort on the groaning boards, and serried rows of plump felons ready +to fall to. + +The fame of all this went forth into the world, and Atlanta +Penitentiary, its warden, its guards, and its cooks shine in penal +annals as the acme and ideal of modern humanitarian ideas upon the +reclamation of convicts through gentleness and love, and a full stomach. + +I found opportunity to study some of these historic scrolls, and was so +much impressed by them that I caused a suggestion to be conveyed to the +warden. Instead of sending all the menus to Washington, and to admiring +friends in the Atlanta neighborhood, let one or two of them be placed at +each meal upon the tables of the diners, to the end that they might be +stimulated, by the perusal of these literary masterpieces, to choke down +their gullets the actual garbage which was furnished in the name +thereof. But the warden's views seem not to have been in harmony with +mine on this occasion. I am glad to learn, however, from certain +graduates of the institution since my own departure from it, that the +food has greatly improved in quantity and somewhat even in quality, +since these chapters began to appear in newspapers. + +I need not attempt to fathom the reason. If it were incomparable before, +why or how better it? + +It could hardly have been done at the instance of the old and warm +personal friend of the warden and the Attorney-General who was sent to +Atlanta recently in the guise of a Spartan inspector of the alleged +abuses; because, for one thing, the improvement had set in long before +he made his investigation, and the investigator, in his report, appears +to have discovered no room for improvement anywhere. It must have just +happened--one of those miracles in the way of gilding refined gold and +painting the lily which are so common nowhere else as in our model penal +institutions. + +I had ample opportunity to study the subject personally while a guest at +the prison table, and to compare my impressions with those of my fellow +prisoners, as well as to enlarge them by conferences with persons +employed in the kitchen and commissary department. Men who had served in +other prisons--and their combined experiences covered a great many--were +unanimous and emphatic in declaring that the table at Atlanta was the +worst they had ever known, not only as to scantness of supply, but as to +the unwholesomeness or positively poisonous quality of the food +furnished. But let me tell a little of what I saw and knew myself. + +When the change was made from long tables and benches to tables seating +eight and chairs, it was announced that table cloths would also be +supplied, and napkins. That was two or three years ago, but table cloths +have not yet appeared, and the eaters still wipe their mouths on the +backs of their hands in the good old way. Pepper and salt were on the +table, and a bottle of something that looked like beer and was supposed +to be vinegar, but was sampled only by the more reckless or +inexperienced convicts. Sugar was not provided except on rare occasions, +and to "diet" prisoners--men who were restricted to bread and milk and +oatmeal. Some beverage that dishonored the name of tea was served about +once a fortnight; a brown, semi-transparent rinsing of dirty kettles, +sugarless, thin and bitter, called coffee, came every day; but if your +stomach rejected either of these, you could fill up on plain water. + +The latter, however, like the "diet" milk and oatmeal and the drinkables +generally, had to be taken out of metal mugs covered with white enamel, +minute particles of which chipped off and mingled with what you drank. +These particles were hard and sharp, like pure glass, and they cut and +lodged in the intestines, causing, with other things, an excessive +predisposition to appendicitis--a frequent disease in the penitentiary. +This was also promoted by the bread, which was made of the poorest grade +of white flour, without nourishing quality, the value per loaf being +about two cents; the flour was ground in steel mills, and microscopic +particles of steel were rubbed off into it--this fact I had from a +physician who had examined it. The flour, when received at the prison, +was frequently full of weevils, most of which but not all were sifted +out before it was used. The bread was tasteless and light; it was baked +in large quantities, and what was not consumed by the prisoners was sold +outside. + +It is not provided in the prison regulations that officials shall be fed +at the expense of the prisoners. Nevertheless, a separate and superior +grade of flour is purchased at government expense, and is used to make +bread which is given to the officials; the loaves are placed in the +outer corridor, and are taken away by guards and others every day. +Separate cooks are also assigned to prepare the officials' food on the +prison ranges; the meats and vegetables are of a grade much better than +is supplied to prisoners; but some favored prisoners participate in +their consumption. The higher officials have the best food the market +affords and in such ample abundance that certain prison pets, usually +negroes, get their main subsistence from the surplus. + +The beef given to prisoners was of the third grade--the worst on the +market--it is cow or bull beef, never heifer or steer, and often it is +rotten, and must be treated chemically before being offered even to +prisoners. It used to come on the table in gristly and bony gobbets, +after having lain on the kitchen ranges for hours, until it was reduced +to a hardness which resisted all but the most efficient and vigorous +teeth (which, except with negroes, are rare in prison). I used to +compare these "steaks" and other pieces with old blackened boot heels; +they were hardly less eatable and nourishing. Often it smelt so that +nature rebelled against it; but complaints were liable to be met by +committal to the solitary cells. + +But groups of visitors used to appear in the dining room occasionally; +they were lined up along the wall adjoining the door, and were not +allowed to walk between the tables, so that the only food they could see +was what was put on the tables nearest the door; and this was always of +a quality superior to the rest, and there was more of it per man. It was +one of the little tricks employed to maintain the entente cordiale, by +which the prisoners who sat at those tables benefited, and the visitors +went forth to sing the praises of our warm hearted warden. On the days +when the bread was sour or the meat stank, visitors were headed away +from the dining room, and their attention directed to more important +matters. + +The hash, which often made the breakfast, was composed of fragments of +gristle and refuse left on the prisoners' plates after dinner, mixed +with potatoes and rancid grease; this, and the soups and gravies, which +had a similar origin, gave out a most nauseating smell. The men would +gulp it down--it was that, or starve--trying to help it on its way with +all the condiments they could lay hands on; but the effect of it, and of +the food generally, upon the digestive tract was so disastrous in most +cases that they might better have left it alone. I myself retired from +the enterprise in my second or third week, and would have literally died +of inanition had not the doctor, moved by I know not what suggestion +(not mine), put me on the milk and oatmeal diet during the remainder of +my sojourn. This applied for breakfast and supper; I sat at dinner, but +satisfied myself with nibbling bread crusts, and witnessing the forlorn +and perilous efforts of my friends to walk the line between starvation +and acute indigestion. Not many were successful. + +For vegetables we had Irish and sweet potatoes, turnip tops (uneatable), +black-eyed beans, bitter and greasy, and once a month, perhaps, a +tomato. The butter was made of an inferior quality of lard, and +cottonseed oil--a substance which entered into many other of our viands, +and of which, with grease, it was calculated by an expert in the +kitchen, we were offered as much as one pound per man every day. It +produced a calamitous effect upon the digestive tract, inasmuch as there +was hardly a white man in the prison who did not suffer chronically from +stomach troubles--constant suffering, often becoming acute. The +strongest digestions would resist for a while, but finally succumb. + +There was a poultry farm on the grounds, donated by outside benefactors +specifically and exclusively for the benefit of prisoners, beginning +with the tuberculous patients. After it got going, there may have been +an average of six hundred fowls on the place. Of these, not one ever +appeared on the prison tables. With the exception of a possible few that +were stolen by prisoners having access to the yard, all were +appropriated by higher officials, and the eggs as well. + +One official gave frequent dinner parties to his friends, and was said +to use as many as five or six chickens a day, though I cannot vouch for +that--it seems excessive. He certainly, sometimes, commandeered as many +as fourteen or more at one time. There was a story of a great cake which +he had made for some festival, into the composition of which entered one +hundred and four eggs from our farm. To neither chickens nor eggs had +he, of course, any title more legitimate than have you who read these +lines. He had a large and hungry household, and many guests--among them, +commonly, such government inspectors as were sent down from Washington, +to see whether he and his fellow officials were honestly discharging +their functions. + +As for the tuberculous patients, I was never able to find any of them +who had eaten chicken from the farm, or any part of one. Some chicken +soup was at one time ordered for a patient by the doctor; a prisoner (a +famous physician), a deputy of the doctor, happened to be at the +tuberculosis camp when the soup arrived from the kitchen. It consisted +of some warm water with the shank--not the drumstick, but the shank and +foot--of a fowl in it. This aroused his interest, and twice again he was +present when a chicken soup prescribed appeared at the camp. On both +occasions--he stands ready so to testify under oath--he found the same +foot and shank in it, but nothing else recalling chicken. The foot was +identified by an imperfection in one of its toes. + +Eggs were indeed provided for the hospital prisoners (never for the +general mass), but they were cold storage eggs, the cheapest grade that +could be bought in the market, and that is saying much for this sort of +product nowadays. Out of one mess of eight that were served in the +hospital, and of which I gained authentic news from the prisoner +physician already referred to, six were bad. I am informed that these +notes and comments of mine are not permitted to be read by the +prisoners; but perhaps the original donors of the poultry farm may see +them, and be prompted to inquire into their accuracy. Let us return to +the dining room. + +Sweet potatoes abound in the South, and subsistence upon them +exclusively would reduce the cost of living; the only trouble is that +the human stomach refuses to cooperate in this economy. Sweet potatoes +were served at Atlanta during the season three times a day, baked, +boiled and in pies; the men were hungry enough, and the supply of +potatoes was adequate; but had they been of the finest instead of the +worst quality in the market, the experiment would have failed; +starvation proved preferable; we could not get them down. That soft, +slimy sweetness, foul with dirt and often tainted with decay, +reappearing day after day at every meal for weeks on end, outdid +endurance, nor could we be stimulated by the argument that the +Government was saving money by it. Had the sweet potato season lasted +the year round, the warden would have lost his job from mere dearth of +prisoners to earn his salary on. + +I do not forget the corn, either; it was of the brand fed to farm +animals; but this enumeration becomes monotonous. We had apple pies once +a week or so; and I was told by an employee in the kitchen, who had been +a farmer in his time, that the apples were such as could be bought at a +dollar a barrel, and that the charge appearing in bills submitted to the +Government was five dollars. The quality of the apples in the pies +supports my informant's contention. As for the watermelons--a benefactor +of the prisoners bought a consignment of them sufficient for the prison +population, to be eaten on the Fourth of July, 1913. The contract was +for the best melons obtainable; and Georgia is famous for good melons. A +day or two before the Fourth, the benefactor called at the prison, and +asked to see the melons, which had been delivered some time before. +Examination showed them to be of an inferior grade, such as farmers used +for cattle and poultry. It was too late, however, to get a fresh supply, +and the benefactor had the mortification of seeing the kindly meant gift +dishonored. It is pertinent, here, that there is said to be an +individual in Atlanta not officially connected with the penitentiary who +is commissioned to make all purchases for the prison--food, tobacco, and +other supplies. He buys the stuff, and hands in his bills; but the bills +he pays are not submitted. It is conceivable that there may be a +discrepancy between the two amounts, and it might be interesting to +learn whether he alone benefits by it. + +Guards walk up and down the aisles between the tables, during meals, to +keep order and also to attend to complaints or requests from prisoners. +There is also the man in the window with the loaded magazine rifle, +ready to settle any complaints that become too insistent. The common +protest is against the badness of a specific piece of food, or against +some example of dirt. The former seldom get relief; in the latter case, +the dish or cup is sometimes changed. + +A prisoner at my table called the guard's attention to a quid of tobacco +which had got into his soup. The guard, who was of a humorous turn, +replied, smiling, "Well, you use tobacco, don't you?" and passed on. +This was the same guard who assaulted and clubbed a prisoner whom he was +taking downstairs, as described in a previous chapter. On another +occasion, a prisoner complained that there was a beetle in his hash. An +examination was made; but whether the beetle was alive and got away, or +whether the prisoner himself had "bugs," as the slang is, at any rate +the examiners reported no beetle. The matter was then brought before the +authorities, who ordered the complainant to the dark hole. + +Another day, following some months of constant deterioration in the +food, and diminution in the quantity of it, a dinner of hash and bread +was served, and both bread and hash were sour. The air of the room was +full of the sour smell; the captain came down the aisle near mine, and a +prisoner had the boldness to stop him and hold up his plate. "It's sour, +Captain!" said he. The captain looked the man in the eye and replied +sternly, "It is not sour!" "But, Captain--" "I say it is not sour!" the +other repeated with a threatening look. It was either submit, or the +hole; the man sat down. + +But a few minutes later, some one hissed; before he could be identified, +hisses came from every part of the room. It was a critical juncture. The +captain ordered the band to play, and play it did at the top of its +compass; but the hissing was audible and continued through the playing. +Presently the men got up and began to march out; it was then that a +group of guards from the smoking room below came running up the stairs +armed with clubs and revolvers and tried to get through the barred door +at the stair head, but were checked by the captain, who was a wise +tactician. The men went to their cells, and there began to howl and +screech like a crazy menagerie, and kept it up for hours. Twenty or +thirty of the supposed ringleaders were sent to the dark holes; but the +revolt was not checked until the warden personally promised reforms, and +gave his word that no further punishments should be inflicted--fair +promises, made to be broken. + +The dining room windows were protected by wire netting; but there were +many holes in it, as large as a man's head, through which the flies, in +summer, entered in swarms; and there was no provision for keeping them +out of the kitchen, which opened into the dining room. Complaints were +constantly made, but the holes were never mended, and no means were +taken to kill the flies. Food sometimes was placed on the tables hours +before the men sat down to their meals, and the flies, not having the +same delicacy of appetite as the men, feasted freely in the meanwhile. +There was also frequent protest against the bits of loose enamel in the +bowls; many of these were made direct to the doctor; but he did nothing. +If a man whose digestion had given way called on him for help, a dose of +salts was the only reply, and several deaths, while I was there, +unquestionably had their beginning in this neglect. Upon the whole, +contentment with starvation was the most prudent policy in Atlanta +Penitentiary. + +I am not a sybarite or an epicure. For fifteen years before I was sent +to prison I lived on the hardest and most Spartan diet, eating as little +food as possible and that of the simplest kind. Wheat, milk, a few green +vegetables, and fruit made my menus. I was therefore better fortified +against hardships than the majority of prisoners; I could hold out +against starvation longer; but against the poison of rotten or bad food +I had no protection. + +The wardens and the chief clerks of prisons often wish, for motives of +their own, to make an economical showing, and perhaps do not much care +if it is made at the expense of the health or lives of prisoners. Some +friends of mine in Atlanta prison and myself made an attempt to +determine just what was paid out per man in the prison for subsistence; +we quietly obtained statements from men in the kitchen and commissary +departments, and made our calculations. After careful revision, the +figures showed that we were being fed at the rate of from eight to +eleven cents per head, a day. + +About that time, a great scientific discovery was announced by the chief +steward. Food, he had been informed, contained a certain amount of heat +and power; and these heat units, called calories, could be estimated for +any given article of diet. (As I write this, an editorial on the subject +in a recent issue of a New York newspaper states the matter in terms +which I am happy to reproduce.) "Physiologists have determined by +repeated experiments that a definite quantity of certain foods furnishes +a definite number of calories or heat units, which produce a certain +quantity of energy in the animal or human body.... In twenty-four hours +a normal man of about one hundred and thirty pounds at rest, needs 1680 +calories or heat units, while a man doing severe physical labor would +require sufficient food to produce 3000 calories.... Since the +efficiency of labor depends upon the energy of the body and this energy +or power is produced by the food, it is not difficult to calculate the +actual outlay required for this purpose.... The household requirements +of a family where two servants are kept would at this rate be from $1.00 +to $1.40 a day, a sum sufficient to furnish all the energy for all +purposes of normal maintenance." + +Such being the case, our steward figured that the convicts could be well +enough supported by about 2500 calories apiece; and upon making a +scientific estimate of the calories in our average bill-of-fare, he +found that we were being overfed rather than the contrary. Meat, so many +calories; soup, so many; sweet potatoes, so many; bread, so many; and so +on. It was found possible, on this basis, to retrench here and there; +the bills were reduced--it was hoped that we might ultimately beat even +eight cents. The sole difficulty appeared to be that the men, the +subjects of the experiment, began incomprehensibly and perhaps +maliciously to starve. + +I was fortunate enough to have access to a physician (a fellow +prisoner), of forty years' eminence in his profession, who solved the +enigma for me. The sum of his comment was this: "Put a Delmonico dinner +in one bucket, and an equal bulk of swill or garbage in another; the +number of calories may be the same in both. The steward, in his +calculation, has forgotten to consider the condition in which the food +is served--its eatableness, in short. If men could devour swill, it +would be all right; but if they cannot, they will starve in spite of +calories." + +So the steward's calories became a byword and a mockery in the prison +for many weeks afterward. + +Similar conditions, perhaps due to the same cause, seem to have obtained +at Sing Sing and elsewhere. It is not enough that prison food should be +sufficient in amount; it must also be of a quality such that the men are +able to get it down their throats. Nor are the doctor's salts a remedy; +their violent and abnormal action finally paralyze the excretory and +digestive powers of the organism, and the man dies from poisons +generated by indigestible food in his own system. Even keeping him in +the dark hole fails to recuperate him, though it has been constantly +tried at Atlanta, and very likely in other reformatory institutions. + +Plenty of vigorous and hearty outdoor exercise would help much; not the +exercise of prison toil, which but deepens the darkness of the heart; +but exercise for its own sake, for the cheer and excitement of it. Much +has been said of the baseball at Atlanta Penitentiary; and doubtless it +has been of benefit. But only a handful of the prisoners, and +nine-tenths of them negroes, play the game; the others can only stand +and look on. The games occur, weather permitting, once a week, on +Saturdays. From Saturday at half past three until Monday morning at half +past seven, the men are locked in their cells, absolutely inactive in +body, and abandoned to such mental activities as, for the most part, +breed no good either for themselves or others. The only outlet is the +Sunday church service hour--a crowded session in a blank hall, with +rifles ready to subdue any disorder. A very apostle might fail in his +efforts under such circumstances; and very apostles are few. + +A man who is sick and sad day after day and year after year, and +conscious of his impotence to amend his state, is in no mood for moral +reform. Much of the sickness might be averted if the medical treatment +at the outset of disease were such as to encourage the patients to avail +themselves of advice. But each man, as he comes up in the sick line +every morning, is met with indifference or insults; he is presumed to be +a malingerer unless he can prove himself genuine on the instant; the +only other recourse is to become so sick as to be beyond help of +medicine, and then, taken belated to the hospital, to die outright. The +consequence is that the men will suffer silently in their cells rather +than appeal to the doctor; and many diseases become ineradicable from +this cause. + +Even a convict, when he is miserable and weak from illness, shrinks from +facing rough and unsympathetic handling and words in the doctor's room, +with a good chance of being sent to the hole if he remonstrates. The +doctor of a prison could be its good angel, if he would. + + + + +XIV + + +THE POLICY OF FALSEHOOD + +The subterranean brotherhood waxes curiously indignant over being lied +to by prison officials. For why should criminals, whose success in their +trade must depend largely on lies either spoken or acted, be resentful +when they are paid back in their own base coin? I am inclined to think +that the anomaly may be due to some survival in prisoners of the old +belief, that honor and fair play do, or should, exist in officers of +justice; although their own experience should admonish them that +officers of prisons, at least, cultivate the art and practise of +fighting the devil with fire (as we say), and so far from ever thinking +of keeping faith with a convict, study the art of deceiving and +hoodwinking him, and appear to derive no small amusement from their +results. Indeed, any tendency on the part of a guard or other official +in a prison to deal honestly and above board with their charges would at +once awaken suspicion of his loyalty to the "system," and his superiors +would be apt to improve the first opportunity of getting rid of him. + +The lies told to prisoners are sometimes told for art's sake merely--for +the delight of the artist in his fabrication. There is fun in overcoming +the suspicions and skepticism of some old timer, and beguiling him into +the belief that for once, and at last, he really is getting trustworthy +information--that he has finally succeeded in touching the elusive hem +of the robe of Truth. But commonly the official liar has some practical +object in view. This object is usually the tightening of the prison's +grip upon the convict; not only to strengthen the bonds which confine +his body, but to bring his spirit or soul under more complete subjection +and to make him feel that so far from moral reform being the end sought +in his incarceration, he will best consult his private interests by +abandoning all thoughts of decency and honor, and acting, with the +officials, against the welfare and hopes of his own fellows. + +The consequence of the falsehood policy in prisons is, for one thing, +that the men most worthless morally are uniformly those who get most +favors. Men of unbroken spirit are handled in a hostile manner, and are +subjected to a regimen calculated either to kill or cure their obstinacy +and themselves. "You have no right to do this--there is no law for it!" +the convict may protest. The reply is a sneer: "What are you going to do +about it?" What do you think you would do in such circumstances?--write +to the President, or to some Senator or Congressman? awaken the country +to these iniquities? The warden and the clerk will smile over your +letter, and drop it in the waste-basket, or will make it the basis of an +adverse report against you to the Department,--insubordination, +incorrigibility, insanity perhaps. + +Or, if you reserve your protest till after you get out, and can then +find any medium for ventilating it, the prison authorities will promptly +and smilingly "welcome an investigation"; and the Department will +eagerly send down some old friend and boon companion of the officials, +to make a "strict investigation," "without fear or favor." Now, at last, +the truth shall be known, let it hurt whom it may! So the severe and +incorruptible inspector comes down; and after snubbing and insulting a +few prisoners, and taking notes of the information of a few snitches, +and dining and wining with the officials, and inspecting the country in +the government automobile, he goes back to Washington with the +reassuring news that the reports of abuses, where they were not absolute +fabrications, were gross exaggerations. + +Is this an imaginative sketch--or colored a little--or a good deal? How +shall it be determined?--for I am only an ex-convict, and we all know +what an ex-convict's word is worth. I can only suggest that, for your +own individual satisfaction at any rate, you commit a bona fide crime +and get sentenced to prison for it. If you survive, we can converse +further on the subject. Or--to offer a bolder suggestion yet--perhaps +the head of the Department himself might take a hand; perhaps he would +oblige us by breaking a law. Let him be handcuffed and brought to +Atlanta or elsewhere--we are not particular--and there be numbered and +U.S.P.'d and set to work. After a ten years' experience, or, if his time +be valuable, a year and a day might do, let him write his report, and I +for one will abide by it. + +The prison policy of falsehood may be illustrated by the uses to which +the parole law is put. This unfortunate measure was no doubt conceived +by its parents in love and charity, to supply prisoners with a stimulus +to reform by rewarding them for it with early release from imprisonment. +If a man's conduct while serving his sentence had been orderly and +obedient to rules, he was to be freed after serving about one-third of +his appointed time; but he was required, for a reasonable period +thereafter, to make monthly reports to the prison, and to show that he +was usefully employed and was not frequenting drinking saloons or +otherwise going astray. A parole board was appointed to carry out the +law and to look after the paroled prisoner, helping him if necessary to +get employment. Meetings of the board were to be held at stated times, +to pass upon applications for parole; it was to consist of the warden +and the doctor of the prison, together with the president of the parole +board, who officiated at all Federal prisons, and who would, naturally, +be the superior official of the three. But two members of the board +would form a quorum; and meetings of the board at times other than those +regularly required could be held if thought desirable. + +This looked humane and innocent, and raised great hopes in prisoners; +and an improvement in their general demeanor was soon observable. +Question soon arising as to whether life prisoners could be brought +under the new law, it was decided that lifers who had served fifteen +years were eligible, if of good record,--not an extravagant act of +mercy,--and in obtaining this concession it was made known that the +warden of Atlanta Penitentiary was instrumental. Of course the +reputation of Atlanta as a model and humane prison was greatly enhanced +thereby. + +But the prisoners, and perhaps the framers of the law also, had +overlooked one little word in the language of the law, which grew to +have a large significance afterward. The language is, that if the +prisoner's conduct has been correct, etc., he may be granted parole. If, +for that harmless looking "may," had been substituted "shall," or +"must," the secret annals of federal prisons since then would have been +spared much rascality, corruption, cruelty, torture and death; and +prisoners would not have hated and distrusted their keepers as they do +now, and subordination on one side and humanity on the other would have +received an impetus. + +That "may" rendered it optional with the board to grant or to refuse +parole in any given case; they might not only determine whether or not +the conduct of the applicant had been, while serving his sentence, good +enough to justify clemency; but also whether, even then, it were +expedient to exercise it. No matter how unexceptionable the behavior of +a prisoner were shown to be, it was open to the board to say to him, "We +hold that your liberation would be inimical to the welfare of society, +and we cannot therefore recommend it to the Department." + +The prisoner, going before the board unsupported by the advice of +counsel, had no further recourse; he must go back to his cell feeling +that all his efforts to be obedient (persisted in through what +discouragements only prisoners know) had been futile; that he was not a +whit better off than was a man who had defied every regulation, and was +worse off in so far as he had taken all his pains and indulged all his +hopes for nothing. He must serve out his time; for if he renewed his +application at the next meeting of the board, he was told that nothing +could be done in his case except upon the presentation of "new +evidence." + +New evidence of what? The obstacle he had to meet was the arbitrary +opinion, or fiat, of the board that it would not be a good thing to set +him free; with what argument, except his good conduct, which had already +proved unavailing, could he hope to reverse it? The decision left him +helpless and hopeless, and with a sense of despotic injustice on the +part of the authorities which was anything but conducive to good +discipline in him or in his comrades who were conversant with his fate. + +Obviously, however, there was a weak point in this kind of arbitrary +rulings of the board; it was conceivable that some enterprising +Attorney-General might want to know why the board had not held the good +conduct specified in the law to be sufficient ground for freeing the +man. To guard against this, the services of a subordinate called the +parole officer were called in. This person's normal functions as +indicated in the law were to help paroled men to procure employment, to +aid them in general in their efforts toward a better life, and to stand +by them as an authoritative and kindly friend. But he was now required +to play a very different part. + +As soon as a man applied for parole, the parole officer betook himself +to the place where the applicant had formerly lived or been known, and +there busied himself in unearthing whatever gossip and scandal of a +hostile nature any enemy might be willing to supply. There was no time +limit on these revelations, nor were any apparent precautions taken to +determine whether the evil reports were founded in fact; the tale bearer +was not compelled to testify under oath, and his story might refer to +incidents which had happened years before, and which had nothing to do +with the crime for which the prisoner was now undergoing sentence. With +this budget of information the parole officer returned to his superiors, +who were now prepared for any contingency. + +When the prisoner comes up for examination, and has handed in his report +of good conduct while incarcerated, the president of the board fixes a +distrustful eye upon him, and says in effect, "Your behavior here seems +to have been unobjectionable; but the board cannot take the +responsibility of granting parole on that ground alone. It desires to be +informed what you were doing in such and such a place, in such and such +a year? Is it not true that you were arrested in this or that year for +this or that offense? Has your career, in short, been absolutely +blameless during the whole course of your life? Because, unless you can +prove such to be the case, it will indicate a predisposition to +law-breaking on your part which will render it imprudent for the board +to recommend you for parole to the Department." + +The president has a sheaf of papers in his hand, which he glances over +significantly while the mind of the prisoner goes groping back over the +past, asking himself what he has done amiss in forgotten years, and who +can be his accusers. He has no counsel beside him to tell him that he is +being tried before an unauthorized tribunal, on unsupported testimony, +on charges irrelevant to that for which he is now undergoing punishment; +or to remind him that the judge who passed sentence on him had specified +that if his behavior were good while serving that sentence, he would be +eligible for parole--that he had, perhaps, given him a longer sentence +than he would otherwise have done, upon this very understanding; and +that, consequently, the parole board was now arrogating the power to +override the purpose of the federal court, and to inflict additional and +unwarranted punishment upon him for something which he may or may not +have done in the past, or for which, if he had done it and been +convicted, he may already have served sentence. He has no one to argue +thus for him; he feels that he is alone and among enemies; and he can +make no effective defense. And the parole officer stands by with a sad +countenance, as of one who had done the best he could for a protege, but +was powerless to stem the tide of justice. + +It can't be done, legally or justly; but it is done; that is the gist of +the matter. There is no one to know the wrong and to insist upon the +right; and the wrong is perpetrated. Unnumbered victims of it, in every +federal prison of the country, substantiate this fact. The parole +board--which means, in practise, its president--exercises more power +than the federal court, and there is no appeal from his decision. At his +will, a man may be tried twice for the same offense, behind closed +doors, without aid of counsel. He may be condemned, though the offense +was never committed except in the imagination of an enemy. We tell our +convicts that they have no civic rights; but it is not generally +understood, I think, that the Spanish Inquisition of the Middle Ages can +properly be reproduced in Twentieth Century America even with men behind +the bars. + +But let that pass. Things are done under the parole law worse than this. +If it were used merely as a means to induce unruly men to be docile, no +one could complain; if men thus induced should after all be deprived of +the reward they had earned, we might condone it. But what if we find the +parole board turned into an accessory of the secret service or spy +system, and learn that an applicant for parole, whether or not he have +maintained good conduct during his term, may yet hope for a favorable +report on his case if he will consent to betray some man on whom the +police have not yet been able to lay their hand? + +Here comes a postoffice thief, for example. He was known to have had +confederates, but they escaped. He is up for parole, with only an +indifferent prison record to plead for him. "We do not find your case +meritorious," says the president to him (in substance), "but there were +two or three others concerned in your crime. If you are able to furnish +their names to the board, with such other information as may lead to +their arrest and conviction, we might see our way to recommend leniency +in your matter." I will not guarantee that the president expresses +himself in terms quite so explicit, but he makes himself perfectly +understood, and the prisoner perfectly understands that his liberty is +purchasable at the price of treachery. + +I don't know what percentage of the miserable creatures accept the +ignoble offer; but I know personally of many who refused it. And I do +not need to ask what are the prospects of an honest and worthy career +for those who chose to be traitors. If they go to ruin, is not the +parole board responsible? On the other hand, who shall blame the convict +if he accedes to the bargain? The alternative presented to him is one +which might cause even virtue to waver, and convicts are not supposed to +be virtuous, especially when such an example as this action of the board +is set them. The alternative is liberty, or continued incarceration with +the strong probability of increased severity of treatment, and always +the off chance of death. + +Meanwhile, is there not something humiliating in the reflection that a +tribunal authorized and appointed by the Government of the United States +should descend to such practises? Or are we content to accept the spy +system in toto, cost what it may? Perhaps, however, the president of the +parole board is prepared to deny that he ever entered into any such +compact with a prisoner; and perhaps the Department of Justice will be +astonished to hear that he ever did. Is the thing true, or not true? I +think men exist who have excellent reasons to believe, and who may be +willing to testify, that it is. + +But take the case of a prisoner who had no confederates--how does the +board deal with him? According to my information, which includes my +personal experience, question is put to the applicant whether or not he +admits himself guilty of the crime for which he is undergoing sentence? +My own reply was, "Not guilty"; and though the president was very +courteous to me, and gave me every assurance that I might expect +favorable action on my application, as a matter of fact and of record +the recommendation made to the Attorney-General was that my application +be denied, and denied it accordingly was. But in other cases nearly +contemporary with mine, which came to my knowledge, the reply of "not +guilty" called forth the rejoinder that in that case the matter was not +one for the board to pass on, but should be referred to executive +action--that is, that the President of the United States should be +petitioned for a pardon. Some men are so persistent or so infatuated as +to take the suggestion seriously; but their petition does not bear +fruit; probably its path to the President is by way of the Department of +Justice, where it is either pigeonholed, or reaches him with an +endorsement to the effect that it is not a case for clemency. But in +such cases as came to my knowledge, the President never saw the petition +at all. + +And what happens if our man pleads guilty? Why, in that event he is told +that such a person as he should not have made application for +parole--that he has not been sufficiently punished--that the best he +should hope for is to serve out his sentence, less the regular allowance +for good time. It is a case, in short, of heads the board wins, tails +the convict loses; and he withdraws, wondering, perhaps, what the board +is for. But let him beware of becoming restive under his disappointment, +or he may forfeit his good time too. + +That the parole law is interpreted, under all conditions, as being a +favor or privilege and not a right earned by good conduct, is perhaps no +more than one might expect; but no prisoner who lacks powerful friends, +or whose parole does not in some way inure to the advantage of the +prison quite as much as to his own, can make his application with +assured hope of success. Upon the whole, prisoners feel that parole will +not be granted if any means can be found or devised to prevent it; the +good report of an entire county where a man formerly lived will not +prevail against the adverse report of some inspector--one enemy of a +prisoner outweighs, in the board's estimation, the favorable words of +many friends. + +Moreover, men released on parole live in constant dread of the secret +service, for they know that unjust and trivial pretexts are often made +the occasion of their re-arrest; and a paroled man re-arrested must +serve out his whole time without rebate, and not including the period +during which he was at liberty. Some supervision by the Government is of +course proper; but the men feel it to be hostile, not friendly or +helpful; that any error they fall into or mishap they meet with will be +construed against them, not in their favor. In short, under the outward +forms of liberty, they are still in prison, and are often discouraged +from doing their best by this sleepless fear of the prowling spy. + +Atlanta prison records show that out of one thousand prisoners who +applied for parole up to June 30th, 1913, two hundred and seventy were +successful. These applicants were serving terms of from one year and a +day to twenty-one years. The two hundred and seventy who were paroled +had served an aggregate of eighty-three years beyond the period when +they were eligible for parole (that is, after one-third of their +original sentence), or an average of about 112 days each, and with an +average of from twenty-five to forty per cent, of the time contemplated +for them to reestablish and rehabilitate themselves. + +The one-year-one-day men lost about thirty-three per cent. of their time +during which they might have labored to reform themselves; and there +were about one hundred of the two hundred and seventy whose sentences +ran for a year and a day. Some sixty-five of the two hundred and seventy +had sentences of more than a year and a day and less than two years; +about thirty-five had over two years and under three years; from which +it would appear that short term men, convicted of minor offenses, were +given preference for parole over long term men. Yet it would seem to the +ordinary intelligence that it should be the long term men who most +needed parole and, if their conduct had been good, best deserved it. It +often happened that men would be paroled when they had but a few weeks +or even days yet to serve of their full sentence. In such cases, the +prison got whatever credit may belong to granting parole, but the men +got rather less than nothing, for they stood the risk of re-arrest and +further confinement. + +When an applicant goes before the board for examination, he is sometimes +turned down summarily; but more often he goes out ignorant whether or +not he will succeed, and, as I have already shown, he is not seldom kept +in this torturing uncertainty until the day when he is either turned +loose or told that he has been rejected. This seems unnecessary, and +often appears to be due to sheer carelessness; the papers are not +promptly submitted to the Attorney-General, or they are pigeonholed and +forgotten. It may be true that the law does not categorically demand +that a prisoner shall be released immediately upon a favorable report; +but there is no obvious reason why he should not be, and it is cruel to +keep him in suspense. + +There was a young fellow while I was there, a well educated and +agreeable man, whose conduct had always been unexceptionable; he applied +when eligible for parole, and was informed that he would be released. +Every morning thereafter for three weeks he arose with the hope that the +release would come that day; every night he went to bed with a heart +heavy with disappointment. He could not eat or sleep, he could not talk +connectedly, he trembled and turned pale, and was on the way to becoming +a nervous wreck; but no explanation was vouchsafed him. At last he was +suddenly told that he might go. The sole reason that I ever heard for +the delay was that the papers had been overlooked. There are a great +many government employees at Washington; it might be worth while to +appoint one more, charged with the duty of seeing that the overlooking +of parole papers be henceforth avoided. This was a very mild instance; I +have related how poor Dennis lingered for six months and finally died +from the same inattention or indifference. + +There was a friend of mine, M., a highly intelligent, good natured +fellow, active and efficient in his prison duties, always courteous and +obliging; he was serving a sentence of five years, I think, for some +theft or confidence game. He had "done time" some six or seven years +previously, but during the interval had lived straight. At the time of +his last arrest he had been kept in the local jail, somewhere in New +England, after conviction, for four months before being transferred to +Atlanta. Time spent in a local jail before conviction is not counted in +the prisoner's favor; for example, I was arrested several months before +my conviction, and the trial itself lasted four months, and after the +trial I spent ten days in the Tombs. + +With the exception of the last ten days, however, I was lucky enough to +be out on bail; but none of this time was applied to the lessening of my +sojourn in Atlanta, although the judge specified in his sentence that my +imprisonment there was to count from the time when the trial began; an +injunction which, had it been observed, would have caused my release on +parole a few days after my arrival at the penitentiary. But it appears +that such rulings by a trial judge have no weight with the Department of +Justice; and I am willing to admit that the judge's ruling in my case +seemed rather like whipping the devil round the stump--an evasion of the +manifest intent of the law, which, if I were guilty, I had no right to +expect. At all events, the Attorney-General made a decision, based upon +my case, that hereafter no such evasions were to be allowed; and I +presume his authority must be superior to that of any federal judge. + +But my friend's case did not come under this category. His four months +in jail came after, not before, his conviction; and yet, when he arrived +at Atlanta, he was told that this four months would not be deducted from +his penitentiary time. Turn this which way you will, you cannot escape +the conclusion that this man is getting four months more than the +sentence of the judge required. Well, M. applied for parole on the plea +of perfect conduct during his imprisonment; no denial of that was +offered; but he was informed that his conviction seven years before, for +which he had been duly punished at that time, prevented the board from +giving favorable attention to his application. + +This looks to me like trying a man twice for the same offense, and twice +condemning him; and I can find nothing to warrant it in the wording of +the parole law. If every actual or alleged mis-step of a man's whole +life can be quoted against him as ground for refusing parole, it would +seem tantamount to stultifying the law for parole. + +This is not done in every case; but the point is that it may be done in +any case, and thus the fate of the applicant is at the arbitrary and +absolute disposal of the board, whether or not he have complied with the +stated provisions of the law. + +The president of the parole board, in my time, was a Mr. Robert LaDow. A +former deputy warden of the Leavenworth Penitentiary, one W.H. Mackay, +wrote a letter to the Attorney-General on the 6th of November, 1913, +parts of which were published in newspapers about that time. In this +letter he said that Mr. LaDow was egotistical, arrogant, negligent, +extravagant, visionary and impractical, showed favoritism to prisoners, +and was totally unfit for the position he held. He goes on as follows: + +"Personally, he knows nothing of Leavenworth Federal Prison; he is too +cowardly to go among the prisoners in the yards to make a personal +investigation of conditions; he has dealt unfairly and hastily with so +many at the parole meetings that he is afraid to meet prisoners face to +face.... Prisoners will stand punishment without a murmur if there is a +just reason for it, and they will permit you to be the judge; but when +men under the law are entitled to parole, and the flimsy excuse to hold +them in confinement is made that they will be a menace to society, they +cannot see it in that way. The parole board at this time is arrogantly +dominated by LaDow; it is practically a one-man board.... + +"When the board meets here, the men do not know sometimes for weeks and +months afterwards what their fate is.... Instances occur here where the +board acts unanimously upon a parole. Mr. LaDow takes these cases to +Washington and holds them thirty, sixty, and even ninety days on some +flimsy pretext or other. He often claims press of business, until +finally some senator or congressman or influential politician calls on +him, and then he gets busy very suddenly.... + +"When he comes to a parole meeting he begins work generally with a rush +and a flurry.... Usually has about 180 cases; he rushes them at the rate +of 60 to 80 a day, without getting at the merits or giving them serious +deliberation. He brings a stenographer, his private secretary, from +Washington at a heavy expense.... Then, when they return to Washington, +the stenographer writes up the result of the meeting, while LaDow will +take a junketing trip at Government expense ... as a sort of recreation +from his arduous duties." + +I had not been long in Atlanta before a guard informed me that LaDow was +the best hated man in the prison, by officials and convicts alike. Nor +did I find any prisoner there, afterward, who did not speak to the same +tune. If he be really an efficient and trustworthy official, this is +singular and unfortunate. Mr. Mackay's charges against him at +Leavenworth are almost identically the same as what may be heard against +him any day in Atlanta. If there be any basis for them, perhaps it would +be expedient for the Government to supersede him. The parole law, at its +best, seems to be rather a weak-kneed and perverse institution, and it +would be a pity to deprive it of what value it may have by committing +its dispensation to the hands of a man not peculiarly fitted by nature +and temperament to carry out its provisions. It was Napoleon's opinion +that a blunder is worse than a crime. + + + + +XV + + +THE FRUIT OF PRISONS + +After weathering Cape Parole, I laid my course for the Port of Good +Time. Men whose prison records are clear are liberated after serving +two-thirds of their original sentences. This new posture of my mind +invited a review of the experience through which I had been passing, and +of the conditions with which I had become conversant, and their +significance in connection with the policy of penal imprisonment in +general. I will introduce some of these reflections in this place. + +As I have just said, men whose prison records are clear are liberated +after serving two-thirds of their original sentences. But part or all of +this abridgment may be lost by imperfect conduct. One man, at least, +within my knowledge, was punished by the dark hole several months before +the expiration of his original sentence, and was kept there until that +sentence had expired. Then, out of that filthy dungeon he was thrust +abruptly forth into broad daylight and the crowded world. It was a +miracle if he survived. What have most convicts to live for? Perhaps +those who have most to live for are unlikeliest to survive--their +anxiety is greater. + +On the other hand, severity itself may stimulate a convict. His human +mind cannot comprehend despair. Instinct forces him to hope. So weeks, +months, years go by, and hope seems to him more instead of less +justifiable, till at last, perhaps, he dies with the illusion still +strong in him. Real despair is un-human and possibly rare. Otherwise +prison mutinies and killings would be more frequent. The argument of +despair is, "Since I must die here anyway, I'll take two or three of +those devils with me!" But few men believe they will die in jail, +therefore the guard or other official escapes. + +Not ten percent of men in jail would regard such a killing as +unjustifiable. We were taught in school that resistance to tyrants is +obedience to God, and many who had disobeyed God in other ways would +gladly obey Him in this. I speak not merely of "ignorant and brutal" +convicts, but of educated and intelligent men like you and me. Even a +sensitive conscience may condone the killing of a tyrant who is slowly +and surely destroying you, body and soul, under sanction of law. But we +punish convicts who fight for revenge or liberty, and protect the +officials who taunt and torture them into doing it. + +What a hideous and almost unbelievable situation! Historians wonder that +the Aztecs of Cortez' time, with their comparatively high civilization, +tolerated human sacrifices. But their human sacrifices were merciful +compared with ours. What is cutting out a man's heart on an altar to +propitiate a god, to hounding him to death through miserable years in a +prison to placate the spite of an accuser, the justice of a court, or +the grudge of a warden or guard? + +And what is the fruit of it? For pure, carefree, smiling, remorseless +wickedness nothing in human annals surpasses the young criminals--black- +mailers, bomb-throwers, gunmen--now infesting our cities. "I think no +more of killing a houseful of human beings, men, women and children," +one of them was quoted as saying the other day, "than of crushing so +many beetles." How came such a monster to exist? Why, we bred him, +supplied him with the poisonous conditions that generate such beings and +can generate nothing else. He had intelligence enough to understand that +the established order made earning an honest living hard work; saw +thousands living well without labor apparently, other thousands robbing +under cover of legal technicalities; a legal profession living by +devising statutes to punish crimes and prosecuting the criminals thus +manufactured; often living better yet by teaching criminals to escape +the penalties which their law imposed. He saw reform schools which +instructed such children as he had been to become such men as he was; +prisons and penitentiaries which graduated such as he in the latest +devices of crime--and he made up his mind that goodness was at bottom +humbug, that only a fool would be honest or merciful when money could be +got by theft and murder. + +We breed poisonous snakes and scorpions, give them no chance to be +anything but that, and then wonder they are not doves and butterflies. +Things like this gangster are infernal spirits, irreclaimable; but we +gain nothing by extirpating the individuals; the black stream which +carries them must be dammed at its source. Of the conditions which +generate them, a part is the prisons and their keepers. But we are not +yet at the root of the matter--the keepers are not primarily to blame. +It is the principle which prisons illustrate which attracts and molds +keepers till they become often as bad as the men they have charge of, +and often much worse. + +Prisons mean social selfishness, the disowning of our own flesh and +blood. They segregate visible consequences of social disease; but the +disease is invisibly present in all parts of the body corporate, and +can no more be healed by cutting off the visible part than we can +heal small pox by cutting out the pustules. Prisons are not the right +remedy; they inflame and disseminate the poison we would be rid of +and prevent any chance of cure. The soul of all crime is self-seeking +in place of neighborly good will; we send men to prison to get them +out of our way, and that is criminal self seeking and ill will to the +neighbor--delegating to hirelings our own proper business. + +In attempting thus selfishly to extirpate crime, we commit the crime +least of all forgivable--the denial of human brotherhood and +responsibility. For that crime, no law sends us to prison; yet it is no +sentimental notion, but the truth, that it is a crime worse than those +for which we imprison men. Prisons are brimful of men less guilty before +God than is the society that condemned them. You and I are not excused +because we are not society--we are society. Society is not numbers but +an idea--a mutual relation; we cannot shift our blame to people in the +next street. "Am I my brother's keeper?" was an argument used long ago, +and its reception was not encouraging. + +Thoughts like these pass through a convict's mind when he discovers that +he is on the last leg of his disastrous voyage. He then begins to see +the whole matter in its general relations; what use was served? who is +the better for it? "Prisons make a good man bad and a bad man worse," is +the way I often heard the men at Atlanta put it. The situation, entire +and in detail, is preposterous and futile. Grown men, from all ranks of +life, or all degrees of intelligence and education, are herded +promiscuously, and treated now like wild beasts, now like children. +Discipline, in any condition of life, is a good thing, and no people +need discipline more than we do; but in prison, discipline means +punishment, and there is no discipline in the right sense of the word. A +man is "disciplined" when he is starved, or clubbed, or put in the hole, +or deprived of his good time. + +Military discipline might be beneficial; it implies respect for rightful +authority, and orderly conduct of one's own life. Officials in a +penitentiary wear uniforms; prisoners wear prison clothes; but, in warm +weather, officials go about, indoors and out, in their shirts and with +the bearing of loafers; they have no official salutes, and the men are +not allowed to salute them--to do so would expose them to "discipline." +There is no drill in the prison, no soldierly bearing, no physical +control of movement. The men are "lined up" to go to work, but it is a +line of slouchers and derelicts; no spirit in it, no respect for +themselves or one another, no decent example set by the guards. And yet +armies in all ages and in all parts of the world have proved the value +of discipline--its necessity, indeed--in all proper and intelligent +handling and control of bodies of men; and it is as important for +convicts as for soldiers. It would promote cheerfulness, smartness, +efficiency; half an hour's lively drill of all the men in prison every +morning and evening would do them good, improve relations between guards +and prisoners, and lessen the danger of revolts. Why refuse it then? Is +it because it would imply something human still lingering in convicts? +or because it is feared that convicts taught to act in unison by +military drill would combine more readily for mutiny? But order does not +naturally lead to disorder but away from it, and mutinies are mostly +impromptu affairs, contemplating revenge rather than escape. As for the +other argument, a lie is not a sound basis to build on, and it is a lie +that convicts are not human. To admit this would facilitate their +management. + +Physical exercise twice a day in the open air would diminish the sick +line, produce better work, and help to put a soul in any prison. +Desultory exercise--say two or three hours of baseball on +Saturdays--does not meet the need--it emphasizes it rather. But at +present the well-nigh universal aim seems to be to render the gray +monotony of prison slavery as monotonous and as gray as possible. Any +relief from it is opposed or made difficult. It is true that at Atlanta +and elsewhere we have music (that is what it is called, and I have no +wish to criticize the hardworking and zealous young fellows who produce +it in and out of season; and some of the men may like it for aught I +know); and that a vaudeville company performs for us occasionally. But I +must look these gift horses in the mouth, and say that often we have +them less for our own advantage than as an advertisement to the public +of the liberality of prison authorities. And there to be sure at my +prison, is Uncle Billy, who makes fiddles out of shingles, with nails, +and plays on them, all with one hand. But he is--I hope I may now say, +he was; for he was to have been paroled the other day; he was a lifer, +and a picturesque and wholly innocuous figure--he was, then, permitted +to pursue this industry, and visitors used to come and watch him do it; +but he, too, was most useful to the prison press agent, and owed the +indulgence to that functionary. On the other hand, there is a convict, +also a lifer, who cultivated a most remarkable skill in inlaid woodwork, +producing really beautiful and artistic boxes and other articles, and +found some consolation for his awful fate in making them. But one day +while I was there his cell was entered by the guard, his boxes and plant +taken away and broken, and he was forbidden to do that work any more. +Visitors did not know about him. + +This was malicious. But some of the things done by prison authorities +are apparently due to sheer stupidity and ignorance. For example, there +were some cows belonging to Atlanta prison, and some of them calved. So +there were half a dozen calves more or less, with prospects of more to +come. The authorities decided that the expense of rearing these +innocents was not justifiable; there was nothing in the rule book about +it; besides, the jail was not designed to harbor innocent creatures. The +minutes of the conference were not given out, and we can judge of what +passed only by the results. The order went forth that the calves be +killed; and the killing was actually perpetrated, and the bodies were +buried somewhere in the prison grounds. The story seems incredible, but +it was corroborated by several men cognizant of the facts. Why not, at +least, have turned them into veal? + +I was speaking just now of the promiscuous herding together of prisoners +in prisons generally. No effort is made to separate the old from the +young, the educated from the ignorant; the hardened sinners from the +impressionable youths or newcomers; or (at Atlanta, except in the +cells), the negroes from the whites. Association of negroes with whites, +on a footing of enforced outward equality, is bad for both; not because +a bad white man is worse than a bad negro, but because the physical, +mental and moral qualities of either react unfavorably upon the other. +The negro, being the more ignorant as a rule, falls more readily into +degraded vices; the white man, being as a rule the dominant element in +the situation, masters the will of the negro, but cannot or at least +does not erect barriers against the latter's subtle corruption. + +We must always bear in mind the abnormal conditions in a prison--the +misery of it, the dearth of variety and relaxation, the terrible +yearning for some form, any form, of distraction and amusement. The male +is parted from the female, and from the resource of children; his nerves +are on edge, his natural propensities starved, his thoughts wandering +and embittered; he finds no good anywhere, nor any hope of it. He will +seize upon any means of abating or dulling his cravings. The negro is +pliant, unmoral, free from the restraints of white civilization. In the +South especially, his subordination to the white is almost a second +nature; but he involuntarily avenges himself (as all lower races do upon +the stronger) by that readiness to comply which flatters the sense of +power and superiority in the other, and leads to evil. + +I wish to say, in passing, that my allusion to negroes in this +connection is by no means to be taken as reflecting upon them all; some +of the men in Atlanta for whom I had the highest respect were negroes; +and I am inclined to think that the negro in his right place and +function is a desirable element in civilization, and, if we would treat +him aright, would do us as much good as we can do him. But the negro in +jail is at his worst, just as white men are, and he is made worse by +white companionship. There are more than two hundred of them in Atlanta +jail, and some of them are the worst of their kind. + +What is true of the association of negroes with whites is not less true +of the association of what are called professional criminals with the +young and unhardened. Various prison authorities claim that they have +made some effort to prevent this contamination; but the only sign of it +that I could ever discover at Atlanta was that the old and the young are +not commonly assigned to the same cells. Obviously, however, a man young +in years may be old in crime; there can be no security in the age test +taken by itself; and no pretense of adopting any other test in a jail is +made. + +A young fellow, without inherited or acquired criminal tendencies, is +sent to jail for some inadvertent and insignificant infraction of law. +He had always meant to live straight; he had no enmity against society; +he had always thought of himself as well intentioned and law abiding. +But here he is; and he is shocked, shamed and appalled at the sudden +grip and horror of the jail. Upon a mind thus astounded and distraught +the professional criminal seizes and works. + +The man of the world--of the criminal world--befriends him, chats with +him, heartens him, and soon begins to fascinate him with ideas which had +never till now occurred to him. He preaches the injustice and hostility +of all mankind, and the hopelessness of the convict once in jail ever +again reestablishing himself in the world. He tells his pupil that he is +damned forever by his fellow men outside, and that unless he be prepared +to lie down and starve, he must fight for life in the only way open to +him--the way of crime. Then he proceeds to show him, progressively, the +profits and advantages of criminal practises. It is only too easy for +the trained crook to overcome the resistance of the unhardened youth; +his arguments seem unanswerable; and the wholly justifiable feeling that +prison is wrong and an outrage aids the corruptor at every turn. A few +months is often enough to turn an innocent boy into a malefactor; a year +or more of such instruction leaves him no chance of escape; and many an +innocent boy finds himself in a cell for what seems to him a lifetime. + +Last July, a justice of a State Supreme Court sentenced Thomas Baker, +little more than a child, to fifteen years in jail for--what? If your +mother was blind and helpless, and your stepfather came in and abused +her and beat her, in your presence,--a big brute with whom you could not +hope to contend physically,--what would be your feelings, and what would +you be prompted to do? Thomas Baker, trembling and sobbing with rage and +anguish, ran out of the house to a neighbor's, borrowed a shotgun, and +ran back and emptied it into the brute's body, killing him on the spot. +Fifteen years in prison for that! Shall we rejoice and say that justice, +at last, is satisfied?--But that is a digression. + +No doubt, meanwhile, Thomas Baker's one consolation in life is the +reflection that he did succeed in killing his stepfather; and he will be +very ready to give ear to an older and more experienced man who tells +him that the only difference between good and bad in the world is that +those are called good who have power over those who are called bad; and +that the only way for him to get even for his wrongs is to become a +crook--and not be a fool! + +The wardens and guards do not prevent these companionships; whether or +not they try to prevent them cannot be affirmed; but to my mind it is +plain that they could not prevent it, try as they might. It is an evil +inherent in prisons and ineradicable. As long as we have prisons, we +shall see judges like Thomas Baker's sending boys to jail for such +"crimes" as his, there to stay for fifteen years, more or less, and +there to be changed from innocence into diabolism. But Thomas was not +innocent, you say, but guilty. What is guilt? I find him innocent of the +guilt of standing inactive by and seeing that cruel fist strike his +blind mother's beloved face. + +Anything unnatural seems unreal. I remarked some time ago that when I +was sitting in the court room being tried on charges sworn to by certain +postoffice officials, the dull and sordid scenes would sometimes vanish +before me, and I would say to myself, "It is an illusion--what is really +taking place is very different from this appearance." + +This thought often recurred while I was in prison. + +At meal times, the men would file in and take their places at the +tables; anon, the meal over, they would rise and file out--men whom I +knew, creatures like myself, slaves of an arbitrary power acting in +accordance with principles long since known to be false and mischievous. +And I would see men whom I knew, men like myself, jeered, insulted, +clubbed, dragged to the hole. I would see the dead bodies of men whom I +knew, men like myself, rattled out of the gate to the dumping ground and +dropped there and forgotten--men with wives and children still living or +dead in poverty and shame, their pleas unheard and their wrongs +unrighted. I would contemplate the long rows of steel cells, cages for +me and men like myself, locking us in for months and years and +lifetimes, for an example to others and for the protection of society +against our menace. I would glance, as I passed, at the aimless toilers +in the workshops, standing or squatting in the foul atmosphere under the +eye and rifle of the guard. + +I would consider that this dismal and inhuman pageant was going on age +after age as a cure for crime--while crime, all the while, was +increasing by percentages so astounding that we seek through immigration +statistics and records of increase of population to account for it--and +in vain. And I would tell myself, once more, that the thing must be an +illusion; it was inconceivable that an intelligent nation should +tolerate it. + +If you found that you were taking bichlorid of mercury by mistake for a +sleeping draught, would you go on taking it? or would you clamor for an +antidote, waylay doctors for help, and disturb the discreet serenity of +hospitals for succor? But the nation, made up of such as you, continues +its prison nostrum, which slays a million for bichlorid of mercury's +one. + +A tragic farce--that is what prisons are. Enclosures of stone and steel +are built, and a handful of armed men are given absolute control over +several hundred beings like themselves. We, as a community, have erected +a system of laws which places us, as a community, in the attitude of +penalizing practises which we, as individuals, do not severely condemn. +Our morality, as publicly professed, is in advance of our morals as +privately exercised. When our neighbor steals or murders, we give him +the jail or the chair; but when you and I are charged with such deeds +and see the prison or the chair in our near foreground, we discover +ourselves to be less convinced than we had imagined of the rectitude of +our penal system. Of course, then, the faster we make laws to punish +crime, and the more we punish criminals, the more criminals are there to +punish. Our hypocrisy gradually is revenged upon us, one after another; +one by one we fall into the pit so virtuously digged for others. + +And criminal law, meanwhile, becomes constantly more searching and +severe in its provisions, seeking to prevent crime by the singular +device of employing the best methods for multiplying it. The victims of +its activities are miserable enough in jail, and languish and die there, +and, if they were not very wicked before, are furnished with every +facility to become so; but they have not the consolation of feeling that +their being thus immolated on the altar of an outraged but non-existent +morality is doing them or anybody else any good. A prominent business +man was put in a cell yesterday; a political boss arrives to-day; a +college graduate, a judge, and a religious fanatic are expected next +week. But business, politics, the Four Hundred, the Law and religion are +no better than they were before. + +The procession becomes ever more crowded; when is it to stop? Shall we +build more prisons, enact more laws? A leading counsel said the other +day, "Commercial crime is an effect and not a cause. The existing system +is responsible. We should prevent conditions that lead to crime and +resort to criminal courts as little as possible." And an +ex-Attorney-General observed, about the same time, "I sometimes think +that if we could repeal all the laws on our statute books and then write +two laws--'Fear God' and 'Love your neighbor'--we would get along +better"--but he added, "If we could get the people to live up to them!" +Yes, that is a prudent stipulation; and it applies just as well to the +myriad "laws on our statute books" as to these two. + +I call prisons a tragic farce, and am sensible of an unreality in them; +but they are fortunately unreal only in the sense that they stand for +nothing rational or in line with the proper and natural processes of +human life. They are false, and the mind spontaneously reacts against +falsity and denies it. But here are half a million (or some say, a +million) men every year who suffer actual and real misery from this +falsity, and many of whom die of it; that is the tragedy of the farce. +And the fact that this falsity, prison, exists among us and has legal +standing and warrant, tends to demoralize every one connected with it, +and, more or less, the entire community. If its misery and evil were +confined within the circuit of its walls we might endure it; but it +spreads outward like a pestilence. It creates little jails in our minds +and hearts, though we never beheld the substantial walls nor heard the +steel gates clang together. We become jailers to one another, and to +ourselves. + +There was a woman, the wife of a jailer, with a son four years old. At +first, her husband had lived in a house outside the jail, but latterly +he had been obliged to dwell within the jail walls. + +His wife had seen and known too much of jails to be happy in such a +residence. She thought of her son, growing up inside prison walls, and +seeing the squalor and daily misery of convicts, and witnessing the +cruelties of the guards--mere matters of routine, but horrible +nevertheless. Her husband had come up from the ranks in prison life, and +was an efficient officer. He had no thought of ever changing his +occupation. + +One day he left the jail on business, and did not return till one +o'clock the next morning. Two keepers who had been left in charge heard +four sounds like pistol shots about ten o'clock that night, but supposed +them to be torpedoes exploding on the railroad that passed the rear of +the jail. There was an interval of an hour or so, and then came two more +shots. This time they made a search of the jail, but it did not occur to +them to examine the quarters of the warden, where his wife and his +little son were. + +When the husband and father reached home, he went to his rooms; and +there he learned the extent of the misery and loathing which his +profession and his dwelling had created in the heart of the woman who +had loved him. She lay dead, with a bullet hole in her temple. The +little boy was also dead, shot through the heart by his mother's hand. +On the floor was the pistol, and four empty shells were scattered about. +Those first bullets she must have aimed at her son, but the horror of +the situation had shaken her hand, and she had missed him. Then had come +that interval, which the two keepers had noticed. What had been in her +mind and heart during those endless, brief minutes--her terrors, her +memories, her desperate resolve, now failing, now again renewed? If you +who read this are a mother, you may perhaps imagine the unspeakable +drama of that hour. At last, murder and suicide were better than the +jail, and she fired twice again, and this time did not miss. + +"Insane" was the verdict. But it is perhaps reasonable to ascribe the +insanity to the conditions which found their black fruition in the +woman's act, rather than to the despairing creature herself. She had all +that most women would ask for happiness--a good husband, a darling +little son, an assured support. But there was ever before her eyes the +ghastly, inhuman spectacle and burden of the jail; she knew it through +and through, and she could endure it no longer. She pictured her +innocent boy growing up and following his father's trade. The idea +tortured her beyond the limits of her strength, and she accepted the +only alternative--death. She was not a prisoner--she was only a looker +on; but that is what prison did for her. And our press, echoing our own +will, and our courts, voicing our own laws, keeps on shouting, "Put the +crooks in stripes; show them no mercy!" + +Shall we not pause a moment over the bodies of this mother and her son, +over this frenzied murder and suicide? They constitute an arraignment of +the prison principle not to be lightly passed over, or commented on with +rasping irony by witty editorial writers. That tragedy means something. +We cannot lease the community's real estate to hell, for building hell +houses and carrying on hell business, supported by our taxes and +advocated by our courts and praised (or "reformed") by our +penologists--we cannot do that without meeting the consequences. We see +how the consequences affected Mrs. Schleth in the Queens County, New +York, jail, last summer. It will affect other persons in other ways. But +it will affect us all before we are done with it. Hell on earth is a +tenant which no community can suffer with impunity. + +If prisons are a good thing, it is full time they made good. If they are +a bad thing, it is full time they were abolished. The middle courses now +being tried in some places cannot succeed; no compromise with hell ever +succeeds, however kindly intentioned. But the devil rejoices in them, +recognizing his subtlest work done to his hand. + +What shall happen if prisons are done away with? That question will +doubtless puzzle us for a long time to come. I have no infallible +remedy; but I shall touch upon the subject in my next and last chapter. + + + + +XVI + + +IF NOT PRISONS--WHAT? + +What would you advise to check law breaking? A good practical answer to +that question would save civilized humanity a great many millions of +dollars every year. + +The old answer was "jail" for minor cases and death for the others. +There was much to be urged in favor of the latter. Dead men not only +tell no tales, but they commit no crimes. Kill all criminals and crime +would cease. The device has been tried--it was tried in England for a +while--but the result was disappointing. It threatened to decimate the +population; and in spite of logic, it failed to discourage law breakers. +Criminals seemed to get used to being hanged, and drawn and +quartered--they no longer minded it. There is a psychological reason for +that, no doubt; though it is not so sure that psychology as understood +and practised to-day can find out what it is. + +Moreover, the spy system, which always accompanies and thrives upon +severe legislation, became so productive of informations that it was +soon clear that the end would be the indictment not so much of a tenth +part of the population as of all but a tenth--or even more. So a +compromise was made; only murderers should be killed. That did not +lessen the number of murders, and seems rather to have increased them; +for the impulse to murder is commonly a very strong impulse, producing a +brain condition in which consequences are not weighed. Also, when the +community takes life for life, it appears to weaken the general respect +for life, and men can be hired to do a killing job for small sums. +Sentimental persons, too, insist on making heroes of convicted +murderers, which in a degree, perhaps, counteracts the depressing +conditions surrounding them. So we made another compromise. + +This is not on the statute books, but it operates actively, +nevertheless. It is the development of the appeal industry among lawyers +for the defense. + +"I will teach you to respect human life," says the judge, "by depriving +you of your own." + +"Don't worry, my boy," says the culprit's counsel, patting him on the +back; "you'll die sometime, I suppose; but nothing is more certain than +that it won't be on the day set for your execution by his honor. And +I'll risk my reputation on your death being no less in the ordinary +course of nature than his honor's, and very likely--for he looks like a +diabetes patient--not so soon." + +These anticipations often prove well grounded. + +No one in the court room, therefore, is often more cheerful and +confident than is the prisoner doomed to the noose or the chair. +Besides, if all else fails, he may petition for pardon or for life +imprisonment. + +In short, the death penalty stays on the statute books, but the +community does not want it, though it has not the courage to demand its +abolition outright. It forfeits its self-respect, and the murderer draws +the inference that it is safer to murder than to steal. A thoroughbred +man does not compromise; he does one thing or he does the other, retains +his self-respect, and commands that of his fellows, whether or not he be +"successful." This nation is not thoroughbred as regards its laws, and +is neither self-respecting nor respected. + +However, there is agitation for the abolition of the death penalty; and +possibly the futility and absurdity of such a punishment may finally +strike the persons whom we have picked out as the wisest and ablest +among us, and have put in our legislatures to tell us what to do and not +to do. Absurd though legal killings may be, they are not so absurd as +the persuasion that death is the worst thing that can happen to a man. +It involves little or no suffering, and is over in a moment. +Imprisonment involves much suffering, and lasts long, not to speak of +the disgrace of it, to those who can feel disgrace. The serious feature +about killing is, that it is final for this state of being, and when we +do it we do we know not what. But that is for the community to consider, +not the victim. + +We cannot know what death means, but we can and do know what +imprisonment means, and so far as our mortal senses can tell us, it is +worse than death. But while we may abolish the death penalty easily, the +suggestion to abolish imprisonment staggers us like an earthquake. Every +moral instinct in our little souls leaps up and shrieks in protest; and +if that be not enough, we fall back with full conviction upon the +consideration of security of property. It is impossible to consider a +measure which would leave crimes against property unpunished. And what +other punishment for them than imprisonment is there or can there be? + +Argument upon this matter evidently bids fair to drag in pretty nearly +everything else--sociology, political economy, religion, politics, law, +medicine, psychology,--the whole conduct of our life and history of our +opinions. But I must content myself here with a few words, and leave +volumes to others. That personal property has value is undeniable; +whether it be worth what it costs us, in the long run, and from all +points of view, may be left to the judgment of generations to come. Law +in its origins is Divine; whether our human derivations from it partake +of its high nature is debatable. Medicine and psychology, professing +much, have not explained to us what or why we are, or what is our degree +of responsibility for what we are and do. Politics sits on the bench and +argues through the mouth of the public prosecutor; is justice safe in +their keeping? + +This age did not invent prisons, but inherited them from an unmeasured +past. It is a primitive device. The mother locks up her naughty child in +the closet or ties its leg to the bed-post. Society does the same with +its naughty children, though with one difference--the mother still loves +her child. She, following the example of God, chastens in love; but what +do we chasten in? If not in love, then in hate or indifference, or to +get troublesome persons out of our way without regard to harm or benefit +to them. And that is not Godlike but diabolical, being based upon +selfishness. The community being stronger than the individual, its +selfishness is tyranny or despotism. Many of us indeed may be willing to +admit that prisons are perhaps objectionable or altogether wrong in +theory; but surely something must be done with malefactors, and if not +prison, what? + +The only answer hitherto is compromise--the old answer, fresh once more +from the devil's inexhaustible repertoire. We are willing to abolish the +death penalty, which is more merciful than imprisonment; but we are +unwilling to abolish the latter, because in spite of its inhumanity, it +seems to protect our property. In other words, we consider our own +interests exclusively, and the culprit's not at all--though we still +protest that our object in imprisoning is as much the individual's +reformation, as our own security. The fact, however, that imprisonment +brutifies and destroys instead of reforming is beginning to glare at us +in a manner so disconcerting and undeniable, that we feel something has +to be done; and in accordance with our ancient habit and constitutional +predisposition, that something turns out to be compromise. We sentenced +for murder, but put obstacles in the way of carrying the sentence out. +On the same principle, we will now retain prisons, but make them so +agreeable that convicts will not mind being committed to them. + +That is the compromise; and it is already in operation here and there. +In the first place, numbers of good men and women, with motives either +religious or humanitarian or both, obtained leave to visit prisons, talk +with the inmates, give them religious exhortations, supply them with +some forms of entertainment, and in other ways try to lighten the burden +of their penal slavery. These persons deserve great credit. It was not +so much the exhortations or entertainments that did good, as the idea +thereby aroused in convicts that somebody cared for them. Between, them +and the community there was still war to the knife; but certain +individuals, separate from the community, were not hostile but well +disposed toward them. + +A man fallen into evil may sometimes be redeemed by coming to feel this; +he will try to be good for the sake of the person who was kind to him in +his misery. I once asked a comrade in Atlanta whether if the warden were +to give him twenty dollars and tell him to go to the town, make a +purchase for him, and return, he would do so? He said, "No," and when I +asked him why, replied that he would know the warden had something up +his sleeve, and was not on the square in his proposition. I then named a +certain benefactor of the prisoners outside the prison, and asked if he +would do it for that person? After some consideration, he said that he +would, because he "would hate to disappoint" that person, and would +believe in the bona fides of that person's request. This man was held to +be rather a bad case; but he was still capable of acting honorably, if +the right motives were supplied. + +But this is not enough. The great mass of convicts could not be reformed +by "hating to disappoint" any particular person who had been kind to +them or trusted them. Their personal gratitude to the individual would +not stem the tide of their well grounded conviction that people in +general were neither trustful nor kind; and the numberless and constant +temptations of their life after liberation would prove too strong for +them. There have been instances to the contrary; touching and beautiful +instances, some of them; but they are far from establishing the +principle that Christian Endeavorers, or Salvation Armies, or prison +angels, or angelic wardens can effect the reform of men in prison. Some +stimulus much more powerful is required. + +The next step in compromise was to improve the physical conditions in +the prison; to give more light and air and exercise, better food; to +mitigate or do away with dark holes, assaults and tortures. There were +many zealous critics of these leniencies; they said we were making +prisons so attractive that criminals, so far from being deterred from +crime by fear of punishment, would commit crimes in order to be sent to +prison. And they could quote in confirmation cases of men who had +accepted liberation at the end of their terms reluctantly, or had +actually refused it, or of men who had voluntarily returned to prison +after having been discharged. + +There have been such cases; but they prove, not the attractiveness of +prisons, but their power to kill the manhood in a man. What does it not +suggest of outrage and degradation perpetrated upon a human soul, that +he should come to prefer a cell and a master to freedom! There may be +slaveries so soft as to invite the base and pusillanimous, but they are +more rather than less depraving than cruelties to all that makes +honorable and useful manhood. The deepest and essential evil of prisons +is not hardship and torture, but imprisonment. If choice could be made +between the two, every manly man would choose the former. No disgrace is +inherent in hardship and torture; but imprisonment brands a man as unfit +to associate with his kind. No mortal creature has or can have the right +to inflict it, nor any aggregation of mortals. + +This is a hard saying, but I will stand by it. There were criminals of +all kinds in Atlanta with whom I was brought into contact. One had grown +rich by organizing a system of "white slavery" on a large scale. He +dealt in woman's dishonor and turned it into cash, and he saw nothing +wrong in it. This man was advanced in years, he was incapable of +regarding women in any other light than as merchandise, he was +insensible to their misery, and laughed at their degradation. He was +physically repulsive; his face and swollen body suggested a huge toad. +It would be foolish to associate the idea of reform with such a +creature. I felt a nauseous disgust of him; he seemed on the lowest +level of human nature. + +But, contemplating him during some months, I saw little touches of +kindliness and good humor in him; he did not hate his fellows, nor wish +them to hate him. If the other prisoners ostracized him or cursed him, +he was painfully sensible of it, and even perplexed, and would try to +win their favor. I perceived that he had always lived in a world of +filth and sin, and knew no other. In that world, he had doubtless not +done the best he might, but which of us can say he himself has done +that? Had I been born and bred as he was, what would I be? What right +had I to call him unfit for my companionship? I had no right to do it, +nor had any other man. At last I shook him by the hand and wished him +well. + +There were men there who had committed merciless robberies, cruel +murders, heartless swindles, abominable depravities. I have felt greater +temperamental aversion from many highly respectable persons than I did +from them. Their crimes were one thing, they were another. Not that +crime does not corrupt a man--stain him of its color. But there is +always another side to him, a place in him which it has not dominated. +Given his conditions, we cannot affirm that he is not as good as we +are--that he is unfit to associate with us. And it behooves us always to +bear it in mind that to affirm the contrary is an unpardonable sin +against him of whom we affirm it; it works more evil in him than +anything else we can do, and places us who repudiate him in a truly +hideous posture. Shall we be more fastidious than God? + +All crime is hateful; but I came to the conclusion that there is only +one crime which prompts us to hate the criminal as well as his crime +itself. For this crime is one which originates in our heart; it is not +forced upon us by need or passion or heredity. Therefore, it permeates +every fiber of our being, every thought of our mind, every impulse of +our soul; and we cannot say of it, this is one thing and we are another. +It is an unhuman crime; and yet there is no punishment for it among +human laws; rather, it is regarded as a mark of superiority. The most +respectable persons in the community are most apt to commit it. And it +was upon the suggestion and initiative of this crime that penal +imprisonment was invented, and is perpetrated to this day. + +Christ condemned it; Christianity is based upon its repudiation; we call +ourselves Christians; and yet it is the characteristic crime of our +civilization. The Law and the Prophets are against it; it defies every +injunction of the Decalogue, for it takes the name of God in vain, it +steals, murders, commits adultery, covets and bears false witness; but +we clasp it to our bosoms, and actually persuade ourselves that it is +the master key to the gates of Heaven. What is it? It is the thought in +a man's heart that he is better, more meritorious, than his fellow. + +It is engendered, most often, by a successful outward +morality--conformity to the letter of the Commandments--the whitening of +the outside of the sepulcher. But the stench of the interior +loathsomeness oozes through. The only person unaware of that stench is +the man himself. There is but one cure for it--what we call +Regeneration; which makes us sensible of that deadly odor, and drives us +freely and sincerely to detest ourselves in dust and ashes and bitter +humiliation, to pity, succor and love our brethren, and to wrestle with +the angel of the Lord for mercy. But we prefer to seek salvation from +evil in the building of prisons. + +Now, this crime may survive even in prisons; but it is rarer there than +in any other aggregation of human beings. Therefore, there is a +wonderful sweetness in the prison atmosphere. It is a sweetness which is +perceived amid all the dreariness, stagnation and outrage, and it rises +above the vapors of physical crime, for it is a spiritual sweetness. +There men are locked in their cells, but the whited sepulcher is +shattered, and its sorry contents are purified by the pure light of +humiliation, confession and helplessness; there are no hypocrites there, +no masks, no holier-than-thou paraders. Their crimes have been +proclaimed, and branded upon their backs; pretenses are at an end for +them. It was wonderful to look into a man's face and see no disguise +there. "I am guilty--here I am!" This experience took the savor out of +ordinary worldly society for me. I go here and there, and everywhere +there is masquerading--the weaving of a thin deception which does not +deceive. We were sincere and humble in prison; but that is a result +which the builders of prisons hardly foresaw. + +There was one more step toward compromise--to take the prisoner out of +his cell and send him outdoors without guards or precautions, nothing +but his promise that he would return when the work to which he was +assigned was done. + +I read the other day an agreeable account of this "honor system." The +men were employed on road making chiefly, enjoyed the benefit of free +air and the outdoor scene, and kept order and faith among themselves. +But the prison walls were still around them, though unseen. They were +told that any attempt to escape would be punished by deprivation +thenceforth of all liberties--any attempt! and if the escape were +successful, the fugitive would know that the chances of recapture were a +thousand against one. Moreover, it was laid down that the escape or +attempt of any member of the gang would react upon the liberties of all. + +This made the men guards over one another; it was not honor but +self-preservation that was relied on. And in any event, there was the +prison at last; the chain might be lengthened to hundreds of miles, but +it held them still. They were convicts; when their terms were up, they +would be jail birds. Society had set them apart from itself; they were a +contamination. "You are not fit to mingle with us on an equal footing." +Society might condescend to them, be friendly and helpful to them, +but--admit them of its own flesh and blood?--well, not quite that! "We +forgive you, but on sufferance; it is really a great concession; you +must show your gratitude by good works." + +Oh, the Pharisees! the taint of it will not come out so easily; and +until it does come out, to the last filthy trace of it, prisons will +continue to be prisons, and compromises will be vain. + +I repeat--the evil of prisons is the imprisonment. You must not deprive +a man of his liberty. His liberty is his life. He may, and probably he +will, use his liberty to the endangering of your property or comfort; +but has your own career been wholly free from infringement upon the +rights of your neighbor? If you send him to prison, you ought to link +arms with him and go there, too. You have not been convicted by a court, +but your own secret self-knowledge convicts you. When the prison doors +close upon you, you will discover that you have suffered an +injustice--that you are the victim of a blind stupidity. Not in this way +can you be reformed. All genuine reformation must proceed from within +you--it cannot be compelled by locks and bars; freedom is essential to +it. Locks and bars arouse only the impulse to break through them, and +this primal and righteous impulse leaves you no leisure to think of +relieving your soul from stains of guilt. + +The only imprisonment to which a man can properly be subjected is that +imprisonment of good in him which evil-doing operates automatically and +spontaneously; any outside meddling with that operation hinders, +confuses, or defeats it. Crime weakens and shackles you; to put shackles +on the body is no way to remove shackles from the spirit. It is the +gross blunder of a brutal and immature era, but we have continued it +down to the present day. Jail is still the remedy. + +The newspapers the other day told of a man who had been sentenced to +forty years in jail for an assault. A woman, hearing the verdict, said, +"Well, that's better than nothing; but he ought to have got life!" We +are told in the Bible that we must not let the sun go down upon our +wrath. The wrath of this lady could not be appeased with forty years. +Think of what that culprit will be after forty years in jail. Assuming +for the sake of argument the extreme absurdity that he is alive by that +time, picture to yourself a fellow creature of his--and a woman--saying, +"I won't forgive you yet." I pity her more than I do him, whose troubles +in this world will probably soon be over. But when her time comes, with +what face, on what plea, shall she ask forgiveness? + +But if there are to be no prisons, what shall we do to be saved from +crime? + +I cannot for my part imagine any hard and fast plan being laid down in +advance. But it would seem reasonable, to begin with, to free ourselves +from the social crime of claiming superiority to our brethren. Having +removed that beam from our eyes, we may see more clearly how to abate +the motes in the criminal's. If we can bring ourselves to regard +prisoners and jail birds as inferior to ourselves only in good fortune, +which has kept us out of jail and put them in, we may find ourselves on +the road to remedying their lapses from moral virtues. + +The majority of prison crimes are against property, and are motived by +want and poverty. If the man had opportunity to work for his living, he +would as a rule abstain from stealing. Other crimes are committed in +passion; but such criminals need education and training in self-control, +and (often) removal of the provocations which set their passions afire. +Many other crimes, and almost all vices, are due to physical or mental +disease, or to actual insanity. It is the doctor and not the jailer who +should seek the cure of these. + +But there are also some persons, chiefly brought up or brought down in +our cities, who practise crimes, apparently, for sheer love of evil. +These gunmen gangs are the most depraved and malignant members of the +community; they will not work, and they rob and murder not from want or +passion, but because the suffering of their victims gives them pleasure +and ministers to their pride and self-esteem. Most of these gangs, as we +have too much reason to believe, stand in with the police, giving them a +percentage of their plunder, and getting protection from them for their +misdeeds. + +These creatures, as I have already suggested, are the distillation of +the various evils in our cities which society has failed frankly to +face, or genuinely to attempt to lessen. They are not responsible for +their existence, and, as they indicate a general condition, it can do no +good to kill them or otherwise put them out of the way; others would +take their place. They are not insane in the common sense, but they are +the product of insane social circumstances, responsibility for which +rests on us. They must be taken in hand individually, by workers +self-consecrated to that duty, and deterred from doing evil, and showed +the value of doing good. One might work a lifetime with some of them, +and have little to show for it in the end; but it took a long time to +build the pyramids and the Panama Canal, and to advance from the dugout +of the savage to the _Mauretania_. It is work better worth doing than +any of these. + +Taking the situation by long and large, society must cease to be a sham +and become truly social. The thing seems inconceivable, and still less +practicable; but it is not. Nor has history failed to admonish us that +it has sometimes been the most difficult and improbable things which +have been nevertheless accomplished; as if their very difficulty, and +the labor and self-sacrifice involved in doing them, were themselves a +stimulus. + +Europe, a handful of centuries ago, at the behest of a fanatical priest +or two, forsook all else and spent a generation in journeying to +Palestine and trying to get a certain city from the Turks. + +The city was worth nothing to Europe; it was an idea that set them +crusading. Nothing else seemed so unpractical and feeble as the gospel +of Christ; but it crumbled the Roman Empire into dust, and has kept the +world guessing and maneuvering ever since--never more than to-day. On +the other hand, if you propose an easy job, something that can be done +with one hand tied behind you, and your attention is diverted, it is apt +to remain undone. Nobody can get up an interest in it. But talk of an +expedition to the South Pole, or a flight round the earth in a biplane, +with certainty of appalling hardships and all the odds in favor of +death, and you are mobbed with volunteers. Human nature likes to test +its thews and sinews. + +Perhaps, however, nothing else was ever so difficult as to turn from our +flesh pots, our dinners and tangos, our summer resorts and winter +resorts, our business and idleness, and undertake to substitute for +prisons our personal care and help for criminals--to remove the causes +which led them to crime, to convince them of our good faith and good +will, and to disabuse them of their suspicion that we distrust them, +condescend to them, and despise them. For this prodigal brother of ours +has become a very unsightly and unattractive object during these +thousands of years of his sojourn among the pigsties and corn husks. He +does not speak in our language or observe our manners or contemplate our +ideals, or care for our refinements. We shall have to read again the +fairy stories where the prince has been changed by evil enchantment into +some uncouth and repulsive monster, but was redeemed to human form by +sympathy. The evil spell was of our working, and it behooves us to +overcome it. No one else can. + +We must abolish the title of criminal as applied to any class or +individuals of our race in distinction from others, and use those of +unfortunates or scapegoats instead. They are our victims, and our +salvation depends upon our making good to them the evil we have done +them. It will not suffice to delegate the job to money, or to persons +chosen for that purpose; we must do it ourselves--make it one of the +main occupations of our lives. Riches and culture are fine things, but +making good out of evil is better. Its rewards may not be so immediate +or so visible, but they are real and permanent. + +But I do not think morality will be enough to energize the effort; +morality should always be the incident and consequence of religious +feeling, not an aim in itself. As soon as it becomes an aim in itself, +it leads to self-righteousness, and paralyzes human love in its marrow. +And it is love, far more than wisdom, that is needed here. Love God and +keep His commandments; unless you first love Him, His commandments will +be left undone, or done only in the letter, which is the worst form of +not doing. But the way to love God is to love the neighbor, and the +neighbor is the criminal. + +Who shall have the immortal credit of abolishing prisons--ourselves, or +our posterity? It will surely be done by our posterity if not by +ourselves. + + + + +APPENDIX + +Bubonic plague cannot be reformed; it is bad intrinsically and must be +extirpated. Born in Asiatic filth, ignorance and barbarism, it now +menaces modern civilization. While it killed millions in India or China +only, we endured it, but when we hear it at our own door we turn and +listen. The instinct of self-preservation, older and often more urgent +than Christianity, says, "Destroy it or it will destroy you!" + +We send our scientific martyrs to the front, who perish in the effort to +solve the deadly riddle. We would pour out billions of money in the +fight if need come. Rich men will spend all they possess rather than +die, and see those they love die of it. Nations will do the same. +Compromises are not considered; no one talks of reforming the Black +Death. Unless it be jettisoned from the Ship of Civilization, progress +and enlightenment go by the board. + +And yet the disease is but physical--attacks the body only. It does not +touch the immortal spirit. It has not rooted itself in the entrails of +our social economy and order. It does not undermine our common humanity, +or bankrupt human charity and infect it with indifference, suspicion or +mutual hostility. It does not prompt law and justice to play the roles +of persecution and oppression. It does not arrogate to itself the right +to judge between man and his brother man, protecting the one and damning +the other. It does not authorize us to say of the victim of sickness or +circumstance, "Throw him to the lions!" and to affirm of his torture and +death, "Serves him right!" Compared with such a plague as that, the +Black Death would appear benign. + +Penal imprisonment is an institution of old date, born of barbarism and +ignorance, nurtured in filth and darkness, and cruelly administered. It +began with the dominion of the strong over the weak, and when the former +was recognized as the community, it was called the authority of good +over evil. Man took the reins of government from the hands of the +Almighty, and amended the Ten Commandments with statute law. + +Evil is--to prefer the good of self before good of the neighbor; crime +is to act in accordance with that preference. Every son of Adam is born +to evil, and society is but his multiplication; but society could exist +only by the compromise that the hostility of man against neighbor should +mask itself as mutual forbearance. Impossible that every one should +possess every thing; therefore dissimulate your greed and divide. But +certain persons, missing their share either through non-conformity with +the doctrine, or by force of circumstances, stuck to the old principle +of each man for himself, and became "criminals." Their hand was against +society, and society's against them. + +In eras before society became integrated, some of these non-conformists +prevailed over such strength as could be mustered against them, and by +hearty and forthright robberies and murders came to be leaders and +rulers of men--earls, barons, kings. The aristocracy of modern Europe is +descended from such stout rebels. They became reconciled with, and +organized, society, and aided it in war against the weaker of their own +sort; and it was they who devised prisons for such captives as it might +be inexpedient to kill outright. + +All this did not alter the truth that all men are alike evil, and that +such as are not also criminals, forbear--at the outset at least--from +motives of enlightened selfishness. But in course of time, even enforced +good behavior breeds good intent, and "good" people. For God rules us +through our very sins, and will lead us, (with our passive cooperation) +to religion and regeneration in the end. + +But the segregation of a criminal class is manifestly human, not Divine; +economic, not moral; illusory, not real. Consequently, pains and +penalties inflicted by men upon other men, by society upon individuals, +by the community upon "criminals," have no warrant of Divine authority, +but only of superior numbers or physical strength. The only proper +punishment for crime is the criminal's conscience, and if he have none +available, he is liable to the natural contingency that violence breeds +violence, and may get him in the long run--though it often happens that, +measured by mortal standards, the run is not long enough for us to see +the finish. We may console ourselves with the reflection that a finish, +somewhere, there will be. + +Meanwhile, it is for persons of intelligence and good will to consider +whether, aside from physical penalties or jailing, we possess means for +inducing criminals to abstain from crime. Let us leave abstract +arguments and come to facts. + +My license to speak in the premises is due to my being an ex-convict, +sentenced to Atlanta Penitentiary for a year and a day, but recently +released on "good time." I shall first give you a notion of what jail +is, and of what is done and suffered there; then consider what has +hitherto been done to alleviate prison conditions and abuses; and end +with inquiring whether these measures, actively prosecuted, will prove +adequate to the need, or whether something else and more is demanded. If +so--_what_? + +Purgatory is usually understood to be--as its etymology indicates--a +place where persons encumbered with evil accretions may have them purged +out of them, or stripped off from them, and so be fitted for the purity +and innocence of Heaven. It is therefore a beneficent institution. Hell, +on the other hand, was the inheritance of those whose evil is ingrowing +and cannot be removed--a place where they may live out their diabolical +or satanic natures and be punished and tortured by those of like nature +with themselves. + +Our prisons were, in the beginning, frankly hellish in their object; men +who had incurred personal or society hostility were put in them to be +tormented from motives of hate and revenge. But during the last few +generations the humanitarian idea has come into being and has not only +ameliorated prison conditions in some prisons and to some extent, but +has caused prisons in general to cease being frank and to become +hypocritical--to pretend that they are purgatories, aiming not at +revenge but at reform. This pretense has been so industriously and +sagaciously put forward that ninety-nine outsiders out of a hundred are +misled by it, and believe that prisons are not, still, administered for +the destruction of their inmates, physical, mental and moral, with such +circumstances of cruelty and brutality as happen to suit the humor of +the arbitrary and irresponsible guards and wardens; but that they are +uniformly conducted with an eye to wooing away prisoners from sin and +crime, and persuading them of the beauty and policy of honesty, +gentleness and goodness. In fact it is probable that almost everybody +believes this, except the wardens and guards, and the prisoners +themselves--and a few Thomas Mott Osbornes and other prison workers who +have had an amateur peep inside the walls and caught a fleeting glimpse +of a horror or two before the discreet managers could get the door shut. + +Not only so, but we read indignant articles in our morning paper about +the coddling of criminals; and witty writers will have it that prisons +are gentlemen's clubs where all the comforts of refined life are +combined with a voluptuous idleness, or with only work enough to avert +ennui. Criminals are depicted as waiting in cues at the gates of prisons +for admission, like the public at the doors of a popular theater; though +at the same time in another column, you may find the statement that, in +view of modern legal technicalities, it has become almost impossible to +get a man into jail. According to the logic of the witty writers, this +near-impossibility should be more deplored by the technicality-inhibited +criminals than by anybody else. + +Prisons are not purgatories, nor gentlemen's clubs; they are just as +much hell as they ever were, and as their managers can make them. Apart +from any special leniency of local conditions, prisons are hell because +they are prisons--because you are confined there and cannot get out; +because you are a slave and have no redress; because your manhood is +degraded; because despotic power is entrusted to the men who handle you, +though they are never any better than you are, and are usually much +worse, and regard you as an asset to make profit from, a thing to be +driven and insulted to the last extremity and beyond it, and not as a +human being. Prisons are hell because convicts are punished for trivial +and whimsical reasons as much as for serious ones; and whether or not +the punishment involve actual physical torture, the insolence, disgrace +and injustice of it remain. Prisons are hell intrinsically, and always +will be; and whoever doubts it has only to commit a crime and be sent to +prison; that is the end of doubts. + +Let every judge, attorney general, district attorney, and juryman at a +trial spend a bona fide term in jail, and there would be no more +convictions--prisons would end. Every convict and ex-convict knows that, +and eternity will be too short to obliterate the knowledge in him. + +The unctuous plausibility of the pretense that prisons are beneficent +purgatories and not hells renders it the more sickening. Life is a +God-given discipline for men, and at best a severe one; but if we +believe in God, we know it is given in love, for loving ends. All mortal +life is an imprisonment; the laws of it are essential and natural, and +breaking them involves essential and natural penalties. God deputed this +regimen of love to parents, and to those who deal with their fellow +creatures from impulses of parental or brotherly love; but He never +licensed any man to punish another from revenge or hate, or in mere +indifference. He licensed no man to do it, nor any community or nation. +And whoever does it, serves not God but the devil; and if any crime be +unpardonable, it is that, because it is not essential or natural, but an +usurpation against nature, and breeds not reform but more evil. + +Prison officials, in their treatment of prisoners, are not actuated by +love, but by indifference to suffering, or by animosity and brutality, +or by desire of profit, and therefore their work is impious and wicked. +And the longer they hold their office, the more hardened do they become +to the spectacle of suffering and outrage; the more heedless of justice +and mercy do they grow. They grow to disbelieve in any human truth and +goodness; all men are to them criminals actual or potential; breathing +and dwelling amidst crime, it enters into their own blood and temper. +They will have their debt to pay; but neither may those escape who +ignorantly or carelessly appointed them to office and hold them +there--the Government, and the nation which creates Government as its +representative. Ignorance does not excuse; knowledge on these subjects +is a sacred duty. Man cannot break the bonds of his brotherhood with +man; the blood shed will be required of him, and the usury of misery and +tears. + +"Throw him to the lions!--serve him right!" Most of us have joined in +that barbarous cry upon occasion. But some of us have sickened at the +slaughter, and are for paring the lions' claws, or at least exhorting +them to roar less savagely, and to devour their prey in secret. But the +lions, with their attendant hyenas and jackals, have so long been +accepted as indispensable to the order and majesty of the State, that no +one likes to stand up to his God-given intuitions, and demand the +abolition of the whole prison circus. We hardly realize that the harm +criminals do society cannot equal the harm that society does to itself +by its handling of them and attitude toward them. The circus must go on, +of course; but--let us ameliorate its coarser features! + +Let us make our prisons hygienic--larger cells, drainage, air, exercise; +let us select nice, kindly persons for guards and wardens; let us give +the convicts useful industrial occupation, which will not only keep them +happy and sane, but pay the cost of their keep to a tender-hearted but +economic state; let us even be very venturesome, and--with reasonable +precautions--put the men on their honor, suffer them to run out a little +way and labor in the free sunshine, upon their promising to remember +that they are not really free, and to return at night to their cages. +And after they have served their terms, and the souls within them are +moribund or dead, let us get or solicit jobs for them, and at all events +keep a sentimental eye on them for a while. All this--only let us keep +our prisons! For think what would happen if those terrible creatures +were let loose upon us, to keep on murdering and robbing us with +impunity! Remember that they are a class apart, unlike ourselves, whose +perverted nature, though it may be lulled by gentleness and tact, can +never become truly human. + +No: the Laodicean spirit will not serve! I do not ridicule or belittle +the efforts of generous and genial men and women who give their spare +time, or their whole time, to bettering the plight of convicts. But the +diabolical spirit of the prisons sneers at them, and sits undisturbed. +Let air and sunshine come to outer courts and clean-swept cells; the +star-chambers and the secret dungeons remain. Let the outraged creatures +out, to stray to the extent of their honor-tether; they are slaves and +prisoners still. There were compassionate reformers in Ancient Egypt, +who tried to make the lot of the captive Israelites easier; but the +heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and God Himself must intervene before he +would let the people go. Nor does it help that the slaves themselves are +grateful for hard-won privileges, and that we read urbane descriptions +of smiling and rosy felons working on state roads in "Don't Worry" +camps. Is it ground for congratulation that the very victims of the +specious pretense of the eternal right and necessity of prisons should +have succumbed to that delusion? Does it not prove a need yet more +urgent to be up and at them? Is it not humiliating to know that men, our +brothers, partakers of our common nature, can be so abased as to kiss +the rod, and joke about their fetters, and accept as favor what none is +entitled to deny them? + +Prisons are hell--we come back to that; and they are not and cannot be +made purgatories. Men competent to make them purgatories are not to be +had at Government prices; no duties more onerous than those of a fit +conscientious warden exist under the state; and how can we look for such +a man at a four or five thousand dollar salary? Twenty-five or even +fifty thousand would be moderate, and the men who are worth that are in +some other business. The foremost citizens of the nation would not be +too good for the job, and we content ourselves with ward heelers and +rough-necks, who undertake it not for the salary, but for the graft that +goes with it and exceeds it. Politics and graft sit in the warden's +office, and walk the ranges in guards' uniform, and crush the manhood +out of our brothers for money, and out of sheer wanton inhumanity. Of +all the inmates of the jail, these men are the veritable and +incorrigible and unpardonable criminals; for they were not driven to +crime by passion, hunger, drink or ignorance, they have not been reduced +to the state of desperate pariahs, outcasts and scapegoats of the race, +but they willingly embrace the function entrusted to them--the +Government license to steal, bully, torture and murder--with a grotesque +sanctimonious leer for the public, and for the convicts--what! The +regimen of hell! + +This writer's statements seem a trifle emphatic, do they not? May we not +surmise that they are motived by some personal grudge? have we not heard +an old adage--"No thief e'er felt the halter draw with good opinion of +the law?" Would it not be prudent to take all this with a grain of salt? +Shall we be driven to rash measures by the objurgations of an +ex-convict? + +Of the right or wrong of my conviction and sentence I am not to speak +here, nor do they specially interest me now, except as illustrations of +the working of the machine. But personal grudge against officials of my +prison I have none. I was treated with consideration and lenity. I came +out in better condition upon the whole than I went in, both of body and +spirit, though nothing would have been easier than to murder me under +the forms of routine prison discipline. What was the reason of this? I +was never informed; I might guess at it, but I don't know. Nevertheless, +the sweetness and light of the prison dispensation as regarded myself +did not blind my eyes or stop my ears to what was being done to others, +not elected to dreams thus beautiful. I saw men beside whom I sat at +meat or labored in the vineyard, fading and failing day by day; I saw +some of them die of broken hearts or broken bodies; I heard their +stories and was certified of their truth; I saw the cart rattle out of +the gate with the pine box containing the body of the man who could only +thus find freedom; I visited the graves of those who had been needlessly +and sometimes wantonly slain. I could not ignore these things because I +myself escaped them. After a few months of durance, I went forth free, +leaving behind me men as good as I or better, sentenced to serve years, +lifetimes, under treatment which I cannot imagine myself as surviving at +all. My grudge is deep, but no personal one. + +I shall not at present discuss Government measures of so-called +mitigation--suspended sentence, parole, indeterminate sentence. In the +intention of their originators they may have appeared beneficent; in +practise, they proved sinister and abominable means to cruelty and +despotism. There can be no compromises with hell. + +But can I pretend to solve the age-long problem of the right handling of +crime in the community? I am not wiser than my fellows, but I have felt +and known at first hand more of certain grievous wrongs than most of +them have, and even those who have known and felt may not possess the +opportunity or facility to speak that I have. I must say what is in me, +and leave to the collective judgment of the nation, and to the further +teaching of time, what shall be changed, abolished, and done. + +One thing seems plain--there must be an act of faith. Worldly wisdom and +enlightened selfishness have been tried out thoroughly and are +thoroughly discredited. Their proposal was first to cure crime, and only +after that was done, to abolish prisons. But it turns out that prisons +generate, teach, perpetuate and inflame crime; never extirpate it, +though they often deter specific persons from continuing a criminal +career by either killing them outright, or destroying in them their +effective spiritual manhood. Therefore the selfishly enlightened and +worldly-wise shake their heads and declare that crime in criminals is +ineradicable. If medicine for crime be futile, save as a temporary +physical preventive, all that is left to us is to continue it as a +preventive, while admitting its impotence as a cure. Protection of +society is the paramount consideration. + +Yes: but is society protected by prisons? John Jones has been jailed for +burglary, it is true; but straightway Tom Brown, Jem Smith and Reginald +Montmorency start in as train-robber, murderer and confidence man. We +have sown the dragon's tooth, and reap three for one. Lynch your negro, +and before the smell of roast flesh is out of the air, several fresh +cases of rape are reported.--But there is no visible connection between +alleged cause and effect--it just happens so.--Yes, but if it does +happen almost invariably, we cannot avoid the suspicion that a +connection, even though invisible to the outward eye, there must be. + +Moreover, on what grounds does society claim protection against evils +for which its own constitution and administration are responsible? The +greatest happiness of the greatest number?--Are we so happy, then? The +happy man has been sought for long, but the seekers still delay to +return. To what end shall we cut the cancer out of the body politic, if +it sprout again in a more vital spot? If we could only reach the cancer +germ!--But the germ is not found by the knife. There are more criminals +than there ever have been heretofore. The jails are over-crowded; we +must either build new ones, or transform those we have into castles of +refuge to which good people may fly to escape the criminal nations +outside; there will be no over-crowding then! + +Let worldly wisdom and enlightened selfishness retire, and listen for a +while to believers--fanatics even. An act of faith: that is to say, +first abolish jails, and then see what can be done with criminals! It is +vain to beat about the bush; we must face the alternative. The syllogism +runs thus: criminality is incompatible with true civilization--with a +normal and secure society. Jails are a crime; society makes and warrants +jails; therefore society is criminal. And the abolition of +jails--repudiation both of the principle and of the concrete fact--is +the only way to social redemption. + +The one escape from this conclusion is, of course, denial that jails are +a crime. I will not further contest that point, but only repeat: Let the +deniers and doubters try a year behind the bars, themselves, and then +register their revised opinion. + +But, obviously, though jails are a crime, they are not the only crime; +there are also the specific crimes of individual malefactors; and it +seems inevitable that by relieving these of prison restraints, we must +increase the prevalence of crime in the community, however much we might +be absolving the community itself from its characteristic crime of +jails. Is there any answer to that? + +I am not logically constrained to make any, because if jails are a crime +they should be abolished, let the consequences be what they may. But I +will suggest two considerations. Individual crimes are the outcome +either of a pathological condition in the agent, or of conditions in his +nurture and environment which are due to social negligence or hardness +of heart. These conditions tempted him beyond his power of resistance, +or reduced him to desperation; in other words, no sane and normal man +commits crimes for the fun of it, and as not he but society created the +conditions, the latter must shoulder its part, at least, of the blame. +And this implies that it should devote itself to so improving these evil +conditions as to give the criminal a fair chance. + +That is easily written, but it involves nothing less than a radical +readjustment of our whole attitude toward life. It also brings me to my +second suggestion--that this should be accomplished. We must embark upon +a great adventure--the greatest, so far as I know, ever undertaken in +this world. We must overcome the anti-human prejudice that there is a +distinct criminal class; we must recognize the latent criminality in us +all, and regard those in whom from latent it has become active as such +men as we, but for fortunate circumstances, would have been. There is no +other distinction between them and us. + +Can brotherly companionship and trust reform them? If all of us +sincerely and practically united in trusting and companioning them,--so +sincerely as to convince them of the fact--I would have small +misgivings. But we can expect no universal revolution to kindness. Many +of us, probably the vast majority, would fail to rise to the height of +the occasion. Yet I can believe that many would achieve that faith and +stanchness; enough to make a beginning of success. And I have no doubt +whatever that, so far as the kindness was credited by its objects, they +would do their part. Few men that I or any one have known in jail have +been incorrigibly wicked at heart. There are indeed incorrigibly wicked +men, but they are at least as frequent outside as inside jails, because +the crime of wanton hatred and cruelty to others which is theirs, comes +only accidentally if at all under the cognizance of our law. + +When jails are razed and their inmates let forth, they are not to be +left to shift for themselves. They are to be taken heartily and +unreservedly into the community, made a part of us, protected against +want and against their sinister propensities, given work to do, taught +how to work, compensated for it, and shown by constant example the +wholesomeness and beauty of good and decent living. Will they rob and +murder their hosts? Such calamities will no doubt occur here and there; +there have been martyrs in all great causes, and will be in this. But +blood so shed will not be wasted. And if the nation, or a considerable +part of it, turns resolutely and persistently to its mighty task, it +will not fail in the end. + +There is nothing original or startling about the Golden Rule as a +proposition; but it will seem to tear us to pieces when it is put in +practise. But that will do us no harm; we have been long enough +compacted together in error and selfishness. The revolution will come; +it is still for us to say whether it shall be outward and terrible, or +spiritual and benign. Penal imprisonment and all that it implies is not +sane nor safe; and the cry, To the lions--serves him right!--belongs to +the dark ages, and not to the future.--_Reprinted by kind permission +from Hearst's Magazine for February, 1914_. + + +THE WALL + +The long, high wall that shuts out life-- +That death-in-life holds in its coil-- +Its height and reach cannot prevent +The sky, nor check the immortal strife +We wage with hungry Fate, nor spoil +Our desperate hope, nor circumvent +Dreams, that redeem our aimless toil! + +What Fear and Ignorance have built +Shall pass, with Ignorance and Fear, +Before the breath of Love; and men, +Casting aside the mask of guilt +That baffled, mocked and cursed them here, +Shall know each other once again! +--And must we die, release so near! + +_Written in Atlanta Penitentiary, +October, 1913_.) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Subterranean Brotherhood, by Julian Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD *** + +This file should be named 7sbbr10.txt or 7sbbr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7sbbr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7sbbr10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Subterranean Brotherhood + +Author: Julian Hawthorne + +Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8406] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on July 8, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD *** + + + + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + +FOOTFALLS + +In the cell over mine at night +A step goes to and fro +From barred door to iron wall-- +From wall to door I hear it go, +Four paces, heavy and slow, +In the heart of the sleeping jail: +And the goad that drives, I know! + + I never saw his face or heard him speak; + He may be Dutchman, Dago, Yankee, Greek; + But the language of that prisoned step + Too well I know! + + Unknown brother of the remorseless bars, + Pent in your cage from earth and sky and stars, + The hunger for lost life that goads you so, + I also know! + +Hour by hour, in the cell overhead, +Four footfalls, to and fro +'Twixt iron wall and barred door-- +Back and forth I hear them go-- +Four footfalls come and go! +I wake and listen in the night: +Brother, I know! + +_(Written in Atlanta Penitentiary, +May, 1913.)_ + + + +THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD + + +By JULIAN HAWTHORNE + + +CONTENTS + +CHAPTER + + I INTRODUCTORY + II THE DEVIL'S ANTECHAMBER + III THE ROAD TO OBLIVION + IV INITIATION + V ROUTINE + VI SOME PRISON FRIENDS OF MINE + VII THE MEN ABOVE +VIII FOR LIFE + IX THE TOIL OF SLAVERY + X OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER + XI THE GRASP OF THE TENTACLES + XII THE PRISON SILENCE +XIII THE BANQUETS OF THE DAMNED + XIV THE POLICY OF FALSEHOOD + XV THE FRUIT OF PRISONS + XVI IF NOT PRISONS--WHAT? +APPENDIX + + +PREFACE + +These chapters were begun the day after I got back to New York from the +Atlanta penitentiary, and went on from day to day to the end. I did not +know, at the start, what the thing would be like at the finish, and I made +small effort to make it look shapely and smooth; but the inward impulse in +me to write it, somehow, was irresistible, in spite of the other impulse +to go off somewhere and rest and forget it all. But I felt that if it were +not done then it might never be done at all; and done it must be at any +cost. I had promised my mates in prison that I would do it, and I was +under no less an obligation, though an unspoken one, to give the public an +opportunity to learn at first hand what prison life is, and means. I had +myself had no conception of the facts and their significance until I +became myself a prisoner, though I had read as much in "prison literature" +as most people, perhaps, and had for many years thought on the subject of +penal imprisonment. Twenty odd years before, too, I had been struck by +William Stead's saying, "Until a man has been in jail, he doesn't know +what human life means." But one does not pay that price for knowledge +voluntarily, and I had not expected to have the payment forced upon me. I +imagined I could understand the feelings of a prisoner without being one. +I was to live to acknowledge myself mistaken. And I conceive that other +people are in the same deceived condition. So, with all the energy and +goodwill of which I am capable, I set myself to do what I could to make +them know the truth, and to ask themselves what should or could be done to +end a situation so degrading to every one concerned in it, from one end of +the line to the other. The situation, indeed, seems all but incredible. +Your first thought on being told of it is, It must be an exaggeration or a +fabrication. On the contrary, words cannot convey the whole horror and +shamefulness of it. + +I am conscious of having left out a great deal of it. I found as I went on +with this writing that the things to be said were restricted to a few +categories. First, the physical prison itself and the routine of life in +it must be stated. That is the objective part. Then must be indicated the +subjective conditions, those of the prisoner, and of his keepers--what the +effect of prison was upon them. Next was to come a presentation of the +consequences, deductions and inferences suggested by these conditions. +Finally, we would be confronted with the question, What is to be done +about it? Such are the main heads of the theme. + +But I was tempted to run into detail. Here I will make a pertinent +disclosure. During my imprisonment I was made the confidant of the life +stories of many of my brethren in the cells. I am receiving through the +mails, from day to day, up to the present time, other such tales from +released convicts. The aim of them is not to get their tellers before the +public and win personal sympathy, but to hold up my hands by supplying +data--chapter and verse--in support of the assertions I have made. They do +it abundantly; the stories bleed and groan before your eyes and ears, and +smell to heaven; the bluntest, simplest, most formless stuff imaginable, +but terrible in every fiber. Before I left prison I had accumulated a +considerable number of these narratives, and had made many notes of things +heard and seen--data and memoranda which I designed to use in the already +projected book which is now in your hands. Such material, however, would +have been confiscated by the Warden had its existence been known, and none +of it would have been permitted to get outside the walls openly. The only +thing to do, then, was to get it out secretly--by the "underground +railroad." + +There is an underground railroad in every penal institution. There is one +at Atlanta. I attempted to use it, but my freight got in the wrong car. A +prisoner whom I knew well and trusted came to me, and said he had found a +man who would undertake to pass the packet through the barriers; he had +already served such a need, and was anxious to do it in my case. This man +was also a prisoner of several years' standing, and with several years +yet to serve; he had recently applied for parole, but had been refused. +I met and talked with him, found him intelligent and circumspect, and +professedly eager to do his share toward helping me get my facts before +the world. He intimated that he was on favorable terms with one of the +guards or overseers who was inclined to help the prisoners, and would +take the packet out in his pocket and mail it to its address. I addressed +it to a friend of mine living near New York and on a certain prearranged +day I handed it to my confederate. He hid it inside his shirt, and that +was the last I saw of it. + +The packet never turned up at its address, and it was only long after that +I was told what had occurred. My confederate wanted his parole badly, and +made a bargain with the Warden, by the terms of which his parole should be +granted in return for his delivering to the Warden my bundle of memoranda. +The terms were fulfilled on both sides, and my data are at this moment in +the Warden's safe, I suppose, along with the letter that I wrote during my +confinement to the Editor of the New York _Journal_ (mentioned in the text +of this book). + +The Warden thought, perhaps, that the lack of my accumulated data would +prevent or embarrass me in writing my book. I thought so myself at first, +but had not long been at work before I found that the essential book +needed no data other than those existing in my memory and supplied by the +general theme; my material was not scant, but excessive. My knowledge +of prison and my opinions and arguments based upon that knowledge were +not subject to the Warden's confiscation, and they were quite enough to +make a book of themselves, without need of dates, places, names and +illustrations. Indeed, even of such supplementary and confirmatory matter +I also found an adequate amount in my own unaided recollection--more +than I cared to give space to; for it was my belief that such things +were not required to secure confidence in the truth of what I had to say +in the minds of persons whose confidence was worth my winning. They would +believe me because they couldn't help it--because truth has a quality +which compels belief. Moreover, of illustrations of my statements the +public had of late had more than enough from other sources; what was now +wanted was not so much instances of the facts, as a general presentation +of the subject into which special and apposite cases could be fitted +by the reader according to his previously acquired information. Finally, +I reflected that the introduction of names, places and dates might injure +the men thus pointed out; secret service men, post-office inspectors and +other spies, and the prison authorities themselves, would be prompted +and helped to give them trouble. Accordingly, I was sparing even of such +data as I had; and I noticed, as the chapters appeared serially in the +newspaper syndicate which published them, that they were criticised in +certain quarters as of the "glittering generality" class of writings; +I made assertions, but adduced no specific proof of them. The source of +such criticisms was obvious enough, but they did no harm, and were not +accompanied by denials of my facts. The only other form of attack brought +against the book is comprised in the claim that I am a writer of fiction +and as such incapable of telling the truth, about anything; that I was the +dupe of designing persons who made me the mouthpiece for their factitious +grievances or spites; and that I was myself animated by a spirit of +revenge for the injury of my imprisonment, which must render anything I +might allege against prisons and their conduct worthless. + +I have touched upon the two latter counts of the indictment in the text of +the book; of the assertion that fiction writers cannot stick to facts or +convey truth, I will say that it is unreasonable upon its face. Fiction +writers, in order to attain any measure of success in their calling, must +above all things base their structures upon facts, and to seek and +promulgate undeniable truth in their descriptions and analyses. The +"fiction" part of their stories is the merest outside part; all within +must be true, or it is nothing. A novelist or story writer, therefore, is +more likely to give a true version of any event or condition he may be +required to present, than a person trained in any other form of writing, +with the exception, perhaps, of journalism. And I have been a journalist, +as well as a story writer, for more than thirty years past, and what +success I attained was due to the accuracy and veracity of the reports I +sent to my papers. In short, I am a trained observer of facts if ever +there were one; and no facts in my experience have been so thoroughly +hammered into my mind, heart and soul, digested and appreciated, as were +the facts of my prison life. Whatever else that I have written might be +cavilled at on the plea of inaccuracy, certainly this book cannot be. +Whether the statements which it contains be feebly or strongly put may +properly be questioned, but none of them can be successfully denied. + +But this aspect of the matter gives me small uneasiness. The important +consideration is, will the book, assuming that it is accepted as the +truth, do the work, or any large part of the work, which it was designed +to do? Will readers be influenced by it to practical action; will it be an +effective element in the forces that are now rising up to make wickedness +and corruption less than they are? The proposal toward which the book +points and in which it ultimates is so radical and astounding--nothing +less than that _Penal Imprisonment for Crime be Abolished_--that the +author can hardly escape the apprehension that the mass of the public will +dismiss it as preposterous and impossible. And yet nothing is more certain +in my opinion than that penal imprisonment for crime must cease, and if it +be not abolished by statute, it will be by force. It must be abolished +because, alarming or socially destructive though alternatives to it may +appear, it is worse than any alternative, being not only dangerous, but +wicked, and it breeds and multiplies the evils it pretends to heal or +diminish. It is far more wicked and dangerous than it was a thousand or a +hundred years ago, because society is more enlightened than it was then, +and the multitude now exercise power which was then confined to the few. +Whatever person or society knowingly and wilfully permits the existence +of a wickedness which it might extirpate, makes itself a party thereto, +and also inflames the wickedness itself. And the ignorance or the +impotence which we could plead heretofore in history, we cannot plead +to-day. We know, we have power, and we must act; if we shrink from +acting, action will be taken against us by powers which cannot be +estimated or controlled. This book is meant to confirm our knowledge and +to stimulate and direct, in a measure, our action; and to avert, if +possible, the consequences of not acting. Its individual power may be +slight; but it should be the resolve of every honest and courageous man +and woman to add to it the weight of their own power. Wonderful things +have been accomplished before now by means which seemed, in their +beginning, as inadequate and weak as this. + +In the sixth chapter of the Book of Joshua you may read the great type and +example of such achievements, the symbol of every victory of good over +evil, the thing that could not be done by man's best power, skill and +foresight, accomplished, with God to aid, by a breath. The defensive +strength of Jericho was greater, compared with the means of attack then +known, than that of Sebastopol in the fifties of the last century, or of +Plevna in the seventies, or of Port Arthur a few years since. Those walls +were too high to be scaled, too massive to be beaten down, and they were +defended by a great king and his mighty men of valor. From any moral point +of view, the enterprise of destroying the city was hopeless. Nor did the +Lord add anything to such weapons of offense as Joshua already possessed. +Seven trumpets of rams' horns were the sole agents of the destruction +provided; and not the trumpets themselves, but the breath of the mouths of +the seven priests who should blow through them, should overthrow those +topless ramparts, and give the king and his army and his people into the +hand of the men of Israel. Were such a proposition presented to our +consideration to-day, we can imagine what would be the comments of the +Army and Navy departments, of Congress, of the editors of newspapers, of +witty paragraphers, and of the man on the street. Possibly the churches +themselves might hesitate before giving their support to such a plan of +war: "We must take the biblical stories in a figurative sense!" But stout +Joshua had seen the angel of the Lord, with his sword drawn, the night +before; and he knew nothing of figures of speech. He got the seven +trumpets of rams' horns, and put them in the hands of the seven priests, +and led the hosts of the Israelites round and round the walls of Jericho +day after day for six days, the trumpets blowing amain, and the hosts +silent. And on the seventh day, the hosts compassed the walls of the city +seven times; "And at the seventh time, when the priests blew with the +trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout; for the Lord hath given you +the city.... So the people shouted when the priests blew with the +trumpets; and it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the +trumpets, and the people shouted with a great shout, that the walls fell +down flat, so that every man went up into the city, every man straight +before him, and they took the city. And they utterly destroyed all that +was within the city." + +Yes, the biblical stories are to be taken in a figurative sense; they +stand as symbols for spiritual actions in the nature of man; though that +is not to say that the events narrated did not actually take place as +recorded. But Joshua had faith; and faith in the hearts of the champions +of right begets fear in the hearts of supporters of wrong, and the +defenses they have so laboriously built up tumble distractedly about their +ears when the trumpets of the Lord blow and the people who believe in Him +utter a mighty shout. Our jails are our Jericho; the evils which they +encompass and protect are greater than the sins of that strong city; but a +breath may shatter them into irretrievable ruin. Not compromises; not +gradual and circumspect approaches; not prudent considerations of +political economy, nor sound sociological principles; but simple faith in +God and a blast on the ram's horn. + +My business in this book was to show that penal imprisonment is an evil, +and its perpetuation a crime; that it does not reform the criminal but +destroys him body and soul; that it does not protect the community but +exposes it to incalculable perils; and that the assumption that a +criminal class exists among us separate and distinct from any and +the best of the rest of us is Pharisaical, false and wicked. The +"Subterranean Brotherhood" are our brothers--they are ourselves, unjustly +and vainly condemned to serve as scapegoats for the rest. What the +criminal instinct or propensity in a man needs is not seclusion, misery, +pain and despotic control, but free air and sunlight, free and cheerful +human companionship, free opportunity to play his part in human service, +and the stimulus, on all sides of him, of the example of such service. +Men enfeebled by crime are not cured by punishment, or by homilies and +precepts, but by taking off our coats and showing them personally how +honest and useful things are done. And let every lapse and failure on +their part to follow the example, be counted not against them, but +against ourselves who failed to convince them of the truth, and hold them +up to the doing of good. Had we been sincere and hearty enough, we would +have prevailed. + +I do not underrate the difficulties; they are immeasurable; the hope seems +as forlorn as that of the Israelites against the walls of Jericho. But +they are forlorn and immeasurable only because, and so long as, we let our +selfish personal interests govern and mold our public and social action. +Altruism will not heal the inward sore, but at best only put on its +surface a plausible plaster which leaves the inward still corrupt; for +altruism is a policy and not an impulse, proceeding not from the heart but +from the intelligence--the policy of enlightened selfishness. It has +already been tried thoroughly, and proved thoroughly inefficient; it is +the motive power behind charitable organization; it breeds a cold, +impersonal, economic spirit in charity workers, and coldness, ingratitude +and resentment in those who are worked upon. It will not do to speak of +Tom, Dick and Harry as cases Nos. 1, 2 and 3. You must call them by name +and think of them as flesh of your flesh and blood of your blood, to whom +you owe more than they owe you, or than you can repay. Put a heart into +them by giving them your own heart; do not look down on them and advise +them, but at and into them and take counsel with them; or even up to them, +and learn from them. They know and feel much that you have never felt or +known. + +The book is full of shortcomings, imperfections, omissions, and +repetitions. But there is meaning and purpose in it, and I hope it may do +its work. + +JULIAN HAWTHORNE + + + + +I + + +INTRODUCTORY + +Conspiracies of silence--it is a common phrase; but it has never been +better illustrated than in regard to what goes on in prisons, here and in +other parts of the world. The conspiracy has been attacked sometimes, and +more of late than usual, and once in a while we have caught a glimpse of +what is occurring behind those smug, well-fitting doors. But they have +been mere glimpses, incoherent, obscure, often imaginative, or guesswork +based on scanty, incorrect, at any rate secondhand information; never yet +conclusive and complete. In England, Charles Dickens and Charles Reade +have personally visited prisons, talked with prisoners, written stories +that have stirred the world, and forced improvements. Great prisoners +like Kropotkin have related their experiences in Russia, and our own +George Kennan prompted us to congratulate ourselves, in our complacent +ignorance, that our methods of generating virtue out of crime were not +like those of the Russians. It was annoying, after this, to be assured by +writers in some of our magazines--called muckrakers by some, pioneers by +others--that after a sagacious, eager, well-equipped investigation into +our own prison conditions, peering into depths, interrogating convicts, +searching records, they had found little difference in principle between +our way of handling offenses against law, and that of our Cossack +neighbors. The latter are more sensational and red-blooded about it, that +is all. These revelations compelled some removals and a few reforms; but +they too failed to bring home livingly to public knowledge and +imagination the whole ugly, sluggish, vicious truth. + +Then, only yesterday, an amiable, naive and impressionable young gentleman +underwent a week of amateur convictship in one of our jails, and came +forth tremulous with indignation and astonishment; though, obviously and +inevitably, he did not have to endure the one thing which, more than +hardship or torture, is the main evil of penal imprisonment--the feeling +of helplessness and outrage in the presence of a despotic and unrighteous +power, from which there is no appeal or escape. The convict has no rights, +no friends, and no future; the amateur may walk out whenever he pleases, +and will be received by an admiring family and friends, and extolled by +public opinion as a reformer who suffered martyrdom in the cause. Yet what +he has experienced and learned falls as far short of what convicts endure, +as the emotions of a theater-goer at a problem play (with a tango supper +awaiting him in a neighboring restaurant) fall short of the long-drawn +misery and humiliation of those who undergo in actuality what the play +pretended. + +Meanwhile, scores of animated humanitarians, penologists, criminologists, +theorists and idealists have consulted, resolved, recommended, and +agitated, striking hard but in the dark, and most of their blows going +wide. Commissioners and inspectors have appeared menacingly at prison +gates, loudly heralded, equipped with plenipotentiary powers; and the +gates have been thrown wide by smiling wardens and sympathetic +guards--tender hearted, big brained, gentle mannered people, their +mouths overflowing with honeyed words and bland assurances, their clubs +and steel bracelets snugly stowed away in unobtrusive pockets--who +have personally and assiduously conducted their honored visitors +through marble corridors, clean swept cells, spacious dining saloons, +sanctimonious chapels, studious libraries and sunny yards; and have +stood helpfully by while happy felons told their tales of cheerful hours +of industry alternating with long periods of refreshing exercise and +peaceful repose; nay, these officials will sometimes quite turn their +backs upon the confidences between prisoner and investigator, lest there +should seem to be even a shadow of restraint in the outpourings. "Is all +well?"--"All is well!"--"No complaints?"--"No complaints!" What, then, +could inspectors and commissioners do except bid a friendly and +apologetic adieu to their ingenuous entertainers, and go forth bearing in +each hand a pail of freshest whitewash? And if, during the colloquies, +any malignant prisoner had happened, in a burst of reckless despair, to +venture on an indiscreet disclosure, the visitors were allowed to get +well out of earshot before the thud of clubs on heads was heard, and the +groans of victims chained to bars in dark cells of airless stench, +underneath the self same polished floors which had but an hour before +resounded to paeans of eulogy and contentment. + +This is not a fancy picture--no, not even of what is known to judges and +attorneys (but not to prisoners) as "The model penitentiary of America," +down in sunny Georgia. Fancy is not needed to round out the tale to be +told of conditions existing and of things done and suffered in this age +and country, behind walls which shut in fellow creatures of ours whom +facile jurors and autocratic courts have sent to living death and to +worse than death in accordance with laws passed by legislatures for +the benefit of--What, or Whom?--Of the community?--Of social order +and security?--Of outraged morality?--Of the reform of convicts +themselves?--These questions may be considered as we go along. Meanwhile +we may take notice that a number of persons, more or less deserving, gain +their livelihood by the detection, indictment, arrest, conviction and +imprisonment of other persons more or less undeserving; and whether or +not these proceedings or any of them are rash or prudent, straight or +crooked, just or tyrannous, lenient or cruel, honest or corrupt--is of +secondary importance. What is of first importance is to supply fuel for +the furnace of this unwieldy machine which operates our criminal system. +Our costly courts must have occupation, our expensive jails must be kept +full. We have succumbed to the disease which has been called legalism--the +persuasion that the craving for individual initiative born of the +unsettling of old faiths and the opening of new horizons, as well as +the consequences of poverty, misery, ignorance, and hereditary +incompetence--that this vast turning of the human tide, manifesting itself +in many forms, some benign, many evil--that this broad and profound +phenomenon can be met and controlled only by force, suppression, +punishment, the infliction of physical pain and moral humiliation. + +This disease perverts that beautiful and ideal impulse toward mutual +order and self-restraint, which is Law, into lust for arbitrary and +impudent power to control the acts and even the thoughts of men down to +petty personal details; so that human life, at this very moment when it +most needs and aspires to enlightened liberty, is crushed back into +mechanical conformity with statutory regulations to which no common +assent has been or can be obtained, and the logical consequences of which +are as yet but obscurely recognized, even by the limited portion of the +community which has been active in establishing them. To give it its most +favorable interpretation, it is a sort of crazy counsel of perfection, +incompatible with the healthy tenor and contents of human nature, and +sure in the end to involve in its errant tentacles not only those who are +the avowed objects of its pursuit, but likewise the lawmakers and +enforcers themselves. Like all abuses, in its own entrails are the seeds +of its destruction. Laws now on our books, if radically applied, would +land almost every mother's son of us behind prison bars. And no doubt, +when the murderer, forger, swindler, or white slaver, in his cell, begins +to recognize in his new cell mate the judge who sentenced him, the +attorney who prosecuted him, the juryman who convicted him, or the +plaintiff who accused him, we shall find it expedient to subject our +legal nostrums to a system of purgation, and our fever of legalism will +abate. But if we will take thought betimes we may meet the trouble half +way, and thus avert, perhaps, the danger that the fever will be checked +only by the overturning of all law, sane or insane. The following +chapters are designed to help in defeating a catastrophe so unlovely. + +Be it observed, first, that the only persons competent to reveal prison +life as it is are persons who have been sentenced to prisons and lived in +them as prisoners. Such showings might have been made long ago and often +but that those who knew the facts were afraid to speak, or could not win +belief, or had not education and capacity for expression requisite to get +their facts printed. Others, exhausted or unmanned by their sufferings, +wished only to hide themselves and forget and be forgotten; others have +indictments still hanging over them, to be pressed should they betray a +disposition to loquacity. Seldom, at any rate, has a man trained as a +writer lived out a prison sentence and emerged with the ability and +determination to throw the prison doors ajar and expose what has hitherto +been invisible, unknown, and unsuspected. + +Such a story has importance, because there is no group of persons +anywhere but has some relation near or remote to what goes on in prisons. +And the constant output of new laws, creating new crimes (so that one +might say a man goes to bed innocent and wakes guilty)--this delirious +industry must goad us all into feeling a personal interest in the +administration of our penal machinery. You saw your friend tried and +sentenced yesterday; you may yourself stand in the dock to-morrow, +knowing yourself morally innocent, astounded at finding yourself +technically guilty. Yet you yourself by your civic neglect or ignorance +contributed to the enactment of the statute which now catches you +tripping. You had better search into these matters, and find out what the +authorities whom you helped to office are doing with their authority. + +I have served my term in prison. The strain of that experience has not +sharpened my appetite to bear testimony; my desire, as evening falls, is +for rest and tranquillity. But I owe it to my American birth, parentage +and posterity, which connect me with what is honorable in my country, and +to my individual manhood, to do what I hold to be a duty. Especially am I +sensible of the claim upon me of those voiceless fellow men of mine still +behind the bars, who cannot help themselves, who have honored me with +their tragic confidences, who have believed that I would do my utmost to +let the truth be known and show the world what penal imprisonment really +means. I will keep faith with them. + +I do not know that my attempt will succeed. Not every reader has +imagination or sympathy enough to step into another's shoes--especially +into the sorry shoes of a convict--and to realize facts which, even if we +credit them, are disquieting and unpleasant. They make us uncomfortable +and keep us awake at night. It is pleasanter to ignore or forget them, to +say that they must be exaggerated, or that their purveyor has some ax of +his own to grind; besides, do not abuses cure themselves in time?--and +there is always time enough! + +Three or four men, while I was spending my months in jail, had time to +die of broken health and broken hearts, due to physical assaults or +neglect, combined with a system of mental torture yet more effective and +barbarous. Hundreds more are in similar plight, in Atlanta jail alone, +who might be saved by timely attention and common humanity. Of this, more +anon. I wish now to say that I undertake this work with a purpose as +serious as I am capable of; and that among the inducements that move me, +personal grudge and grievance are not included. Individual enmities are +foolish and sterile for the individuals, and a bore for everybody else. +Individuals are never so much to be hated as are the conditions which +prompt them to act hatefully. Improve the environment which produced the +murderer, robber, corrupt judge, rascally attorney, cruel warden, brutal +guard, and you are likely to get a creature quite humane and tolerable. +On the other hand, however, in the process of opposing evil conditions, +one cannot avoid contact with the human products of them--sometimes in a +stern and conclusive manner. Without going the length of the Spanish +Inquisition, which tortured the body on earth in order to save the soul +for heaven, it is not to be denied that punishment for evil deeds is +latent in the bowels of the evil doer and will make him suffer in one way +or another. We cannot strike a bad condition without hitting somebody who +is carrying it out; and I am in the position of the Quaker who went to +war: "Friend," he admonished his foe-man, "thee is standing just where I +am going to shoot!" + +I am not disposed to present here, in the way of credentials, any account +of the circumstances that landed me in prison; still less to plead +anything in the way of extenuation. The District Attorney, in his +address, described me as a member of one of the most dangerous band of +crooks and swindlers that ever infested New York. The government of this +country authorized his statement; the news was bruited afar, wherever men +read and write and invest money on the planet, and it appealed to every +city editor and scandal-monger. Julian Hawthorne, son of the author of +"The Scarlet Letter," a pickpocket. Well, what next! + +If ever I cherished the notion that the charge was too preposterous to be +believed, I was abundantly undeceived. To jail I went, and there served +out my time to the uttermost limit allowed by the law. But in this +connection I must touch on a matter which caused me some annoyance at the +time. + +In June of 1913 an editorial appeared in a New York newspaper endorsing +some petitions which had been circulated asking the President of the +United States to pardon me, mainly on the ground that in my ignorance of +business I had been more of an innocent dupe than a deliberate +malefactor. I had known nothing of these petitions; had I known of them, +I would have omitted no effort to prevent them. + +But I did get hold of the editorial; and found myself placed in the +position of admitting myself guilty of the crime charged against me, but +cowering under the pitiful excuse of having been bamboozled by others. +What was even less tolerable, it presented me as entreating pardon of a +government from which I would in fact have accepted nothing short of an +unconditional apology. The Government had done me an injury under forms +of law; I am only one man, and the Government stands for a hundred +millions; but justice has no concern with numbers. My mining company and +I were ruined; the iron and silver which we tried to put on the market +will enrich others after we are gone; but I knew that what I and my +partners had said of them was true. What had I to do with "pardons"? +Pardon for what? + +I lost no time in writing a letter to the editor of the paper, defining +my attitude in the matter; but it never reached him. It is in the private +safe of Warden Moyer, of Atlanta--or so I was informed by the Deputy +Warden, when I was released in October--and for aught I know or care it +may remain there forevermore. + +Whether my respect for Law is higher or lower than is that of those +persons who are responsible for my being sent to prison and kept there, +may appear hereafter. But if crime be the result of anti-social impulses, +then I hold that our present statutes fail to include under their +categories, numerous and inquisitive though they be, a class of criminals +who do, or intend, quite as much harm as was ever perpetrated by any man +now under lock and key. Many of these persons occupy high places; most of +them are respectable. We meet them and greet them in society. I know +them, and also the murderers, highwaymen and yeggs of the penitentiary; +and when I want sincere, charitable, generous human companionship, my +choice is for the latter. + + + + +II + + +THE DEVIL'S ANTECHAMBER + +The judge pronounced our several prison sentences; that they were not also +sentences of death was due to circumstances which developed later. The +jury had previously dispersed, clothed in the sanctity of duties +discreetly performed, knowing why they did them, and enjoying whatever +consolation or advantage appertained thereto. Marshal Henkel cast upon us +the look of the turkey buzzard as he swoops upon his prey, and we found +ourselves being hustled down the familiar corridors, and into a room which +we had not visited before; a few assistant marshals were there, and ere +long a knot of newspaper men entered, observant and sympathetic, ready to +receive and record the last words of the condemned. + +It was about six o'clock of a dark and rainy March evening. "Any statement +you would like to make?" One stands upon the brink of the living world, +facing the darkness and silence, and hears that question. + +Here is an end of things, a nothing, a sort of death. The support and +countenance of one's fellow creatures are withdrawn; you are no longer a +part of organized social existence. The rights, privileges and courtesies +of manhood are stripped from you. You are adjudged unfit to touch the hand +of an honest man in greeting; you are made impotent, disgraced, consigned +to the refuse heap. The helpless shame put upon you is borne tenfold by +those who bear your name, those you love and who love you. All that +touches you henceforth shall be sordid, base and foul. + +The prison officials who stand near you meet your eye with a leer of +familiarity; they have handled thousands of men in your situation; they +will have a grin or a growl for any remonstrance or protest you may make; +power over you has been given to them; in you there is no power. You +cannot blame them; their authority was deputed to them by men above them, +who in turn received it from others; they are parts of the great machine, +working irresistibly and automatically. + +The judge is blameless; he had said, "The verdict of the jury makes it my +painful duty to sentence you!" The jury is not to blame; they had decided +upon the evidence, in accordance with their oath. The witnesses who bore +testimony against you--did they not testify upon a solemn adjuration to +utter nothing but the truth, at the peril of their immortal souls? The +indictments to whose truth they bore witness--were they not made and +brought by officers appointed by law to seek only impartial justice, and +sworn to seek it without fear or favor? + +Go back yet another step if you will, and consider the inspectors and +detectives who gathered the complaints against you--is the beginning with +them? No: they did but act for the protection of the community against a +crime of which you were suspected, which was resolved to be a crime by the +representatives of the nation in Congress assembled--that is, by the +nation itself. You yourself, therefore, as part of the nation, share with +the rest the responsibility for your present predicament. Then, whether +the verdict against you were right or wrong--whether you be innocent or +guilty--the blame at last comes home to you. + +Such is the _reductio ad absurdum_--the lawyers' argument, technically +flawless, though proceeding upon a transparent fallacy. That fallacy I +shall consider hereafter; the question of the moment is the +reporters'--"Have you any statement to make?" + +Of what avail to answer? Has not enough been said during the trial of the +past four months, and in vain? The young fellow stands there, courteously +inquisitive, not unsympathetic perhaps, his pencil suspended. Have I any +last words for the world which I am leaving? Shall I declaim of injustice, +outrage, perjury? Shall I threaten revenge, or entreat mercy? Shall I +"break down," or shall I "maintain an appearance of bravado"--he is ready +to record either. + +No, I will do none of these futile things. In such extremities, a man's +manhood and dignity come to his support. I am helpless, to be sure, but +only physically so. All this portentous paraphernalia of court and prison +can touch nothing more than my body--my spirit is unscathed. It is the +ancient consolation, coming down through poetry and history even to me. +The Government--the Nation--can destroy my life, separate me from my +people, throw mud on my name; but they cannot take away one atom of my +consciousness of the truth. And it is better to have that consciousness +than to retain all the rest without it. Blessed ethical truisms, which +come to our succor when all else falls away! + +Accordingly, the reporters were supplied with a few grave, not sensational +words, suggested by the spur of the moment; they receded into the +background, and Marshal Henkel, zealous to do his whole duty, and prevent +the escape of an elderly gentleman through locked doors, echoing +corridors, and the resistance of half a dozen lusty guards, advanced to +the front of the stage and gave the order, "Handcuffs!" Knowing my marshal +as I did, I was prepared for him, and extended my arm, till I felt the +steel close round it with a solid snap. I was a manacled convict, and the +community was saved. + +But no time was to be lost; it was already after hours for the city +prison; and the stout party of the other part of the handcuff and I passed +out through the opening door promptly. As we turned the corner of the +corridor, I suddenly saw the face of one of my sons-in-law, pale in the +electric light; he forced a smile to his lips, and threw up one hand in +greeting and farewell. Ah, those who are left behind! who can compensate +them, and how can the injury done them be forgiven? I smiled a moment to +myself as I thought of the ready answer of the august purveyor of the +law--"You should have thought of that when you committed your crime!" +That answer is also a part of the automatic machinery, and comes out, when +the button is pressed, as inevitably as the package of chewing-gum from +its receptacle--even more so! + +I felt the rain on my face as we emerged from the old postoffice building, +and saw the slanting drops as we passed through the rays of the street +lamp on the corner. It was a memorable journey for me, short in its +material aspect, long otherwise; and I noticed the particulars. Newspaper +Row loomed on the right, strange in its familiarity, my work-place of many +years. Here was the Third Avenue terminal, whence, a few hours before, I +had confidently expected to take the train homeward, a free and vindicated +man. There were glimpses, in the wet glare, of black headlines of +newspapers, and the shrill professional cries of the gamins, "Hawthorne +convicted!" It was like living in a detective story--but this was real! + +But then came the thought that had often visited me in the past months, as +I sat in the dingy courtroom, and listened perfunctorily to the legal +wrangle, the abuse and defense, the long-drawn testimony of witnesses, the +comment of the precise and genial judge, and contemplated idly the jaded, +uncomfortable jury, the covert whispering of Assistant District Attorneys +and postoffice inspectors, the dangling maps and the piles of +documents--when I had asked myself, "Is all this real, or are they +transient symbols importing a concealed significance?" Then, to my +imagination, the empty walls would seem to melt away, and I saw a great, +benign face and figure above the bench of the judge, holding a trial of +those who labored so busily--a trial not entered in the books, and alien +from that which occupied us; and recording judgments, unheard here, but +eternal. + +Was that the reality? Then let come what might on this plane of foolish +contention, where we strive to cover the Immutable with the petty mask of +our mutabilities. We sweat and toil for ends which we know not, and our +paltry and blind decisions, our triumphs and failures, determine nothing +but the degree of our own ignorance and impotence. The Lord's aims and +issues are not ours, and ours do but measure our spiritual stature, and +direct our immortal destiny, in His sight. + +Yes, but this palpable world has its place and function nevertheless, to +be accepted and used while time lasts. If those who tried me were on +trial, I had no personal concern in the matter. My business, now, was to +keep pace with my companion, who obligingly allowed his arm to swing with +mine, so that passers-by, even if they could afford to divert their +attention from their own footing on the muddy pavements, and from the +management of their umbrellas, would not have noticed the bond uniting him +and me. For this courtesy--the only possible one in the circumstances--I +took occasion to express my recognition, to which he responded with easy +friendliness. "We don't never make no trouble for them as don't go to hunt +none," was his remark. + +We were now in Centre Street, and the Tombs was close at hand; and I drew +into my lungs full draughts of the open air, murky though it was, +reflecting that my opportunities of doing so in future would be limited. + +Here were the steps supporting the tall steel gate, through which, in +former days, I had seen many a poor devil pass; it was now others' turn to +commiserate, or to jeer, the poor devil that was myself. There was no +delay--we seemed to be awaited; and in the next minute I had felt what it +is to be locked into a prison. I was behind bars, and could not get out at +my own will--nor at any one else's, for that matter; only at the +impersonal fiat of the machine. + +My marshal chatted and laughed a moment with the keeper, then gave me his +buxom paw in farewell. I was led through stone passages, past rows of +barred cells from which peered visages of fellow prisoners, incurious and +preoccupied, or truculent and reckless--men under indictment and without +bail, convicts making appeal, and culprits jailed for minor offenses. Such +men were to be my comrades for the future. Some were out in the corridors, +pacing up and down or chatting with friends; for the laws of the Tombs are +unsearchable. + +It is a unique place, a Devil's Antechamber, where almost anything except +what is decent and orderly may happen. It is not so much a prison or +penitentiary as a human pound, where every variety of waif and stray turns +up and sojourns for a while; murderers, pickpockets, political scapegoats, +confidence men, old professionals, first-time offenders, even suspects +afterwards to be proved innocent. There is nothing that I know of to +prevent thorough-going convicts from getting in here permanently; the +Tombs is of catholic hospitality. But they do not properly belong here; it +is but their halfway house--the antechamber. + +And discrimination must be observed in classifying the inmates; no one +here likes to be regarded as beyond hope of bettering or escaping from his +restricted condition. He wears his own clothes, for one thing--and no +small thing; he is not known by a number; it is not, I believe, en regle +to club him into insensibility at will and with impunity, or to starve him +to death, or so much as to hang him up by the wrists in a dark cell. The +guards or keepers do not go about visibly armed with revolvers or rifles; +talking and smoking are not prohibited; the grotesque assemblage is let +out into the corridors occasionally, where they shamble up and down and +exchange observations and confidences; and they have an hour outdoors in +the stone paved, high-walled yard. + +Moreover, extraordinary liberties can be obtained, if you know how to go +about it, and possess the means of bandaging inconvenient eyes. Not only +are we permitted to stampede our quotas of bedbugs, but leave may be had +to decorate our cells with souvenirs of art and domesticity, to soften our +sitting-down appliances with cushions, to drape the curtain of modesty +before the grating of restriction, to carpet our stone flooring, to supply +our leisure hours with literary nourishment, to secrete stealthy cakes and +apples for bodily solace, to enjoy surreptitious and not over-hazardous +corridor outings when others are locked up, to write and receive any sort +of letters at any times, without having them first read and stamped by +licensed letter-ghouls. + +More, there was at least one man among my companions there who contrived, +by devices which I never sought to fathom, to pass the immitigable outer +gates themselves every day, attend to his business in the outer world for +as many hours as might serve, returning quietly in time for last +roll-call. He took a keeper with him, of course, but only in order to +assuage possible anxiety on the part of those responsible for his +security; and one cannot help suspecting that as soon as the two found +themselves under the free sky, the keeper betook himself to some friendly +saloon, moving-picture palace, or other inviting retreat, and only saw the +other again when they met by appointment in their trysting place. + +It was safe enough no doubt; the prisoner would hardly think it worth his +while to attempt actual disimprisonment; he was content to sleep at night +in his cosy and comfortable cell. But the Moral Powers who live in white +waistcoats and saintly collars might have been restless in their innocent +sleep, had they known what things are practicable under the austere name +of incarceration in the City Prison. + +Revolving these matters, I could only come to the conclusion that they +pointed in one direction, namely, toward the anachronism and absurdity of +our whole theory of punishment by imprisonment. As I shall have plenty of +cause to give full discussion to this subject later on, I will only touch +it here; but the fact is that we imprison malefactors or law-breakers (not +always synonymous by any means, since there are a score of artificial +crimes for one real one) not because we believe that to be the right thing +for them, but simply by reason of our inability to imagine anything more +suitable and sane. Moreover, there are the steel and stone jail buildings +themselves, which cost much in money and more in graft; what shall be done +with them? The wardens and guards, too--all the fantastic appanages of +these institutions--are they to be cast incontinently upon a frigid world? + +The law, in short, lags leagues and ages behind the moral sense of the +community, so encumbered with its baggage train that it can never fetch up +lost ground. We know perfectly well that the only punishments that can +improve men are punishments of conscience from within, and of love from +without--which is practically the same thing; and that punishment by +imprisonment is punishment by hate in fact, whatever it may be in theory, +and therefore diabolical and destructive. It can only inflame and multiply +the evils it pretends to heal; and this is no theory, but a certified and +established truth. Everybody who has been through it, knows it, everybody +who dares to think may know it. + +The whole thing is ridiculous, a huge and clumsy absurdity, stepping on +its own feet and smelling to heaven. And here in our America it is to-day +worse than in Italy or Russia, in some respects, because we know better +that it is wrong, and therefore try to hide its enormities from open +daylight. We lie and dissimulate about it, investigators whitewash it, +conservative citizens deprecate exaggeration about it, wardens and +guards--some of them, not all--are more wicked in their secret practises +with convicts than they would be if they did not know that they would be +stopped if the community knew of them. And it was inevitable that only a +low type of men would accept positions as guards and wardens, because no +honest man worth his salt could afford to work for the pay that these +officials get; and the latter themselves would not work for it, did they +not depend upon stealing twice as much, or more, by the graft. + +But the system, inwardly rotten, crumbles; and in the interval remaining +before it falls, the devil is getting in some of his most strenuous work. +I know, and rejoice, that enlightened and magnanimous methods are +obtaining in some places; hearty and brave men, here and there, are making +themselves wardens of the good in men instead of exploiters of the evil. +But in most prisons--among them, in that one down in Atlanta, whence I +come--the devil is laboring overtime, conscious that his time is short. + +The worst criminals there--as God sees criminals--are not the men in +branded attire who sit in their cells and slouch about their sterile +tasks, but men who walk the ranges in uniform, and who sit in the rooms of +managers; for the crimes of the former are crimes of poverty or of +passion, but those of the latter are voluntary, unforced, spontaneous +crimes against human nature itself. They are upheld in high places; they +are fortified by difficulty of "technical proof"; they are guarded by the +menace of the spy system, and of criminal libel; but there is some reason +to think that their term is near. + +But let us return to that queer Antechamber of the Devil at the corner of +Centre and Franklin Streets. + +There is a picture by that strange and unmatchable English artist of the +Eighteenth Century, William Hogarth, of the mad house in London know as +Bedlam. If he were here, he might draw a companion picture of the Tombs. +The one is as much as the other a crazy, incoherent, irrational, futile +place, yet embodying very accurately a certain aspect of the civic +attitude toward the insanity of vice and crime of the day. There is +nothing intelligent, purposeful, trenchant or radical about it; it is +planted in ignorance and grows by neglect. + +The keepers of it are good natured people enough, with a sense of humor, +and free from trammels of principle, official or ethical. Their greatest +severity is exercised toward those who stand outside the gates and crave +permission to visit their friends within; these find the way arduous and +beset with pitfalls of "orders," hours, and other mystic rites, except +where they blow in miraculously, enforced by some breath from on high. + +The inmates themselves, meantime, get on quite prosperously, so long at +least as their money or money's worth holds out. There is no license or +aptitude on their guardians' part to club them for relaxation's sake, or +to kick them into underground dungeons for "observation" (you will +understand that term by and by), or in any manner to hold a carnival of +wanton brutality with them. The general idea is merely to keep them +somewhere inside the building for the appointed or convenient time; beyond +that, a liberal view is adopted of the conditions of their sojourn. They +can buy eats to suit themselves, and have them served to them in their +cells; they can hold communication with one another and with the outer +world; I suppose they might wear evening dress after six o'clock if they +wanted to. They are not victims of despotic and irresponsible power, and +this is not only good for them, but also for the keepers, who are not led +into the degradation and monstrous inhumanities which the possession of +such power breeds in regular prisons. + +Most of these prisoners expect to get out before long, either to go on to +more permanent quarters, or to be liberated altogether; many of them +emerge with comparatively small loss of social standing; for, indeed, +highly respectable persons occasionally stray in here. The Tombs is not +regarded as a final or fatal misfortune in a man's career. Yet it has its +drawbacks. + +Dirt is one of the more obvious of these; I might call it filth, but it +depends on how one has been brought up. The impurity, at any rate, is not +confined to the surfaces of the cells, floors and walls, but it creeps +into the current language, and permeates the atmosphere. I am convinced +that there never has been or could be a houseful of people who hear or use +fouler and more unremitting obscenities than are those which flow +sewer-wise and unhindered from the lips of many of this population. + +It dribbles and exgurgitates, black and noisome, at the slightest +provocation--nay, at none whatever, but with the delight of the past +master and artist in verbal nastiness, anxious to display his erudition. +It is a corruption of thought and expression so foul and concentrated, and +withal so limited in its vocabulary and scope, that it fastens itself in +the ear by a damnable iteration which no diverting of the attention can +overcome; and it announces a depth of moral and mental debasement which +seems as far from human as from merely animal possibilities; it is of the +uttermost soundings of Tophet, and would probably be modified by +fresh-heated gridirons even there. + +This speech, or verbosity rather--for it has none of the logic or +continuity of mortal utterances--does not continue uninterruptedly during +the day, but observes special hours, when the guards are paying even less +than their usual attention to the vagaries of their charges. Of these +periods, the hours of early dawn are the most fertile. + +When I dwelt in the environs of the city, it was my fortunate habit, in +summer, to awake at dawn, just before sunrise, when the wide pasture +outside my window was still obscure with the shadows of night, but the sky +had begun to kindle with the splendors of day. In a group of darksome +trees beside a little stream two hundred paces distant a song thrush was +wont to trill forth the holy soul of awakening nature in such a paean of +deathless Pan as inspired John Keats to utter the melodies of his magic +ode. It consecrated the footsteps of the approaching sun, and the hearer +was borne back on its swelling current to those pure early aeons of the +human race, when love was the lord of life and innocence went forth +crowned with rapture. + +For this hymn of the primal gods was now substituted the hideous strophes +and antistrophes of the grimy spirits of darkest New York. As one +performer after another took up the strain, to and fro and from upper to +lower tiers of cells, one awaited some seismic cataclysm to put an end to +it and them; and the pauses of it were punctuated by bursts of dreary +laughter, applausive of the incredible gushings of blighting depravity. +They were the heralds of the prison day--the tune to which its steps were +set. After it was over--when the yawning keeper had rattled the bars and +threatened a twelve-hour close confinement to the perpetrators--one was +amazed to identify with the latter persons outwardly in human shape, +instead of malformed and sooty fiends from the bottomless abyss. I doubt +whether anything to range with this occurs in any other criminal cauldron +in the world; and therefore, with stopped nostrils, have I tried to give +some faint adumbration of its character. + +The head keeper of the menagerie I saw but once or twice; he was of +Falstaffian proportions, with a clear and steady masculine eye and a +demeanor of genial and complacent authority. He knew what and when to see +and not to see, and had his own measure of the legalities and the +proprieties. Little gusts of investigations and reforms passed by him as +the eddying dust of the street sweeps by granite skyscrapers. "_J'y +suis--J'y reste!_" was his motto. The subordinates had a general Irish +complexion to my feeling; they were there to gather tips under the +humorous guise of marshals of order. They were affable and easy, going as +far as they could with only so much show of resistance as might lend more +value to their yielding. + +The prisoners were as heterogeneous as the contents of a rag-picker's +auction. Yet they associated with little friction, herding uniformly kind +with kind, only rarely lending themselves to transient ructions. They +played little jokes on each other; a fat and serious captive was sitting +of an evening at his cell door, absorbed in the perusal of a wide-spread +newspaper; a gnome-like passerby in the corridor lit an unsuspected match, +and suddenly the newspaper was a sheet of flame. + +There were uglier spectacles; we had among us a fresh murderer, who after +killing his wife had retained grudge enough against her to hack off her +head. He kept darkly to his cell, sitting hour after hour with his head +leaning on his hand, and eyes unswervingly downcast. His crime was not +popular in that company, and none sought his companionship. At the other +end of the scale were dazed, foreign creatures, guilty of they knew not +what, gropingly and vainly striving to understand and to make themselves +understood. There was the scum of the gutters; and there were men of +intellect and high breeding, arming their hearts to resist shame and +despair, and bending to soften the plight of children of misery below +them. + +The soul of the new comer blenches and shivers occasionally as he +contemplates the grisly, crazy scene, and thinks of all that menaces the +women at home. And when, in the visiting hours, the women come and stare +palely at the faces of those they love between the bars, wishing to cheer +them, but appalled and made giddy by the abject and sordid horror of the +solid fact, those who stare back at them and try to smile feel the grating +of the wheels of life on the harsh bottom of things. But a man's manhood +must not give way; there must be no triumph over him of these assaults and +underminings of the enemy. Soul gazes at soul; but the talk is superficial +and trivial. He is drowning in the gulf, and she stands yearning on the +brink, but there shall be no vain outcries or outstretched arms. It is a +condition wrought by men, not countenanced by God, and the spirit must +command the flesh to endure. + + + +Punch the button and listen once more to the refrain--"You should have +thought of that before!" But can our posterity ever be induced to believe +that such inhumanities could have been committed in the divine name of +Law! + +I am not qualified to write the epic of the Devil's Antechamber; I abode +there but ten days, as we reckon time. On a cool and clear Easter Sunday +morning the summons came to go forth to further adventures. Accompanied by +three deputies, but free of the Henkel handcuffs, we passed the gates and +trod the sunny pavements. Not a cloud in the blue sky, nor a taint upon +the pure wings of the free air. None that saw us pass suspected our +invisible fetters. Yet to me at least the thought that had ministered to +me in the actual courtroom and prison, that the fetters were a dream and +freedom the reality, was not accessible then. The absence of physical +bonds seemed to render the imprisonment more, not less undeniable. + +But we stepped out briskly, and breathed while we might. + + + + +III + + +THE ROAD TO OBLIVION + +Five of us stood on the platform of the Pennsylvania station; one stayed +behind as the train moved out. He was the answer to the question, "_Quis +custodiet ipsos custodes?_"--"Who shall watch the watchman?" Our two +marshals were to see that we did not escape; he was to see that they saw. +But his function ended when the departing whistle blew. He was a lean, +pale, taciturn personage in black; Marshal Henkel had perhaps substituted +him for the handcuffs. There was nothing between us and freedom now but +our brace of tipstaves, the train crew, the public in and out of the +train, the train itself moving at a fifty mile an hour pace, the law, and +our own common sense. Moreover, we had decided to see the adventure +through. Something more than nine hundred miles, and twenty-six hours, lay +between us and Atlanta. + +The elder of our two guardians was a short but wide gentleman of +forty-five, of respectable attire and aspect, as of one who had seen the +world and had formed no flattering opinion of its quality, yet had not +permitted its imperfections to overcome his native amiable tolerance. He +was prepared to take things and men easy while they came that way, but +could harden and insist upon due occasion. Human nature--those varieties +of it, at least, which are not incompatible with criminal tendencies--was +his "middle name" (as he might have phrased it), so that in his proper +social environment he was not apt to make social mistakes. This +environment, however, could not but be constituted, in the main, of +convicts either actual or potential; and there was probably no citizen, +however high his standing or spotless his ostensible record, who in this +official's estimate might not have prison gates either before him or +behind him, or both. To be able to maintain, under the shadow of +convictions so harsh, a disposition so sunny, was surely an admirable +trait of character. + +His assistant in the present job was still in the morning stage of his +career; a big, red-headed, rosy-cheeked, and obtrusively brawny youth of +five and twenty. He might be regarded as the hand of steel in the glove of +velvet of the combination. He may have carried bracelets of steel in his +rear pockets; but his associate earnestly assured me that such was far +from being the case. "I don't mind telling you the truth, Mr. Hawthorne," +he confided to me with a companionable twist of the near corner of his +mouth, "I'd as soon think of cuffs, for gentlemen like you two, as nothin' +in the world! Why, it's like this--as far as I'm concerned, I'd just put a +postage-stamp on you and ship you off by yourselves--I'd know you'd turn +up all right of yourselves at the other end! That's me; but of course, we +has to foller the regulations; so there you are!" And the ruddy youngster +stretched his herculean limbs and grinned, as who should say, "Cuffs! +Hell! What d'yer know about that? Ain't I good for ten of yer?" + +As the comely Pennsylvania landscape slid by, my friend of a lifetime and +I looked out on it with eyes that felt good-by. For us, the broad earth, +bright sunshine and fresh air were a phantasmagoria--we had no further +part in them. From college days onward, through just fifty years of life, +we had traveled almost side by side, giving the world the best that was in +us, not without honor; and now our country had stamped us as felons and +was sending us to jail. It had suddenly discovered in us a social and +moral menace to its own integrity and order, and had put upon us the +stigma of rats who would gnaw the timbers of the ship of state and corrupt +its cargo. The end of it all was to be a penitentiary cell, and disgrace +forever, to us and to ours. + +But was the disgrace ours and theirs? When you kick a mongrel cur it lies +down on its back and holds up its paws, whining. But the thoroughbred acts +quite otherwise; you may kill it, but you cannot conquer it. We would not +lie supine under the assault of the blundering bully. Disgrace cannot be +inflicted from without,--it can only come to a man from within. And the +disgrace which is attempted unjustly must sooner or later be turned back +on those who attempted it; the men whom our country had deputed to handle +the machinery of law had blundered, and had convicted and condemned those +who had done no wrong. I had never felt or expressed anything stronger +than contempt for any particular persons actively concerned in our +indictment and trial--the pack that had snapped and snarled so busily at +our heels. Till the last I had believed that their purpose could not be +accomplished,--that the nation would awake to what was being done in the +nation's court, under sanction of the nation's laws. The public must at +last realize the moral impossibility that men who had all that is dearest +to men to lose, should throw it away for such motives as were ascribed to +us--ascribed, but, as we felt, not established. And when the public +realized that, thought I, they would perceive that the shame which the +incompetent handling of the legal machinery aimed to fix on us must +finally root itself not in us but in the public; since the world and +posterity, which, more for our names' sake than for our own, would note +what was being done, would not distinguish between the employee and the +master--the country and the country's attorneys, and would hold the former +and not the latter accountant. + +I was mistaken; the public took the thing resignedly to say the least. And +though I consented to no individual animosities--for individuals in such +transactions are but creatures of their trade, subdued to what they work +in, like the dyer's hand--I could not so easily absolve the impersonal +master. The fault inhered of course not in any grudge of the community +against us, but in the prevalent civic neglect (in which, in my time, I +had participated with the rest) of duties to the state, theoretically +impersonal, but which cannot proceed otherwise than on personal accounts. + +Man is frail; but, next to sincere religious conviction, no principle +exists so strong to control him as _noblesse oblige_--the impulse to keep +faith and to deal honestly imposed not by his individual conscience alone, +but by the pure traditions of his inheritance. The man who has the honor +of his forefathers to preserve--an honor which may be a part of the +nation's honor--is a hundred-fold better fortified against base action +than is the son of thieves, or even of nobodies. The latter may find +heroism enough to resist temptation, but the former is not tempted; he +dismisses the thing at the start as preposterous. It is no credit to him +to put such temptation aside, but it is black infamy and treachery to make +terms with it. If he do make terms with it, no punishment can be too +severe--though I take leave to say that the external penalties which state +or nation can inflict are trivial compared with those deadly ones which +torture him from within; but before crediting him with having yielded, the +state or nation should not merely assume his innocence--a stipulation +which our law indeed makes, but which is notoriously disregarded by +prosecuting attorneys--but should weigh and sift with the most anxious and +jealous scrutiny anything and everything which might appear inconsistent +therewith. A son of a thief who steals does but follow his inborn +instinct; but a thief whose ancestors were gentlemen is a monster, and +monsters are rare. + +In England and the other older countries, the principle of _noblesse +oblige_ still has weight with the public as well as with the individual; +here, the welter of democracy, which has not evolved into distinct human +form, uniformly ignores it; leveling down, not up, it is quick to see a +scoundrel in any man. Meanwhile, instead of taking thought to abate the +public mania for success in the form of concrete wealth which multiplies +inducements to crime, it creates shallow statutes to punish acceptance of +such inducements, with the result that while in its practical life it +rushes in one direction, it erects in its courts a fantastic counsel of +perfection which points in a direction precisely opposite. Our law tends +not merely to the penalizing of real crimes, but to the manufacture of +artificial ones; and the simple standard of natural or intuitive morals is +bewilderingly complicated with a régimen of patent nostrums, conceived in +error and administered in folly. + +Sitting in the car window with my friend, I revolved these things, while +the sunny landscape wheeled past outside, and our guardians chewed gum in +the adjoining section. After all was said and done, amid whatever was +strange and improbable, he and I were going to the penitentiary in the +guise of common swindlers. A pioneer on the western plains, in the old +days, riding homeward after several hours' absence, found his cabin a +charred ruin, his property destroyed, his wife lying outraged with her +throat cut, his children huddled among the débris with their brains dashed +out. Sitting on his bronco, he contemplated the immeasurable horror of the +catastrophe, and finally muttered, "This is ridiculous!" + +"This is ridiculous!" I remarked to my companion; and he consented with a +smile; when language goes bankrupt, the simple phrase is least inadequate. +"We may as well have lunch," he said; and we rose and journeyed to the +rear of the train, sedulously attended by our deputies. The spontaneous +routine of the physical life is often a valuable support to the spiritual, +reminding the latter that we exist from one moment to another, and do +wisely to be economical of forecasts or retrospects. We journeyed back, +through innocent scenes of traveling life, to the smoking compartment, +which happened to be vacant; and under the consoling influence of tobacco +our elder companion sought to lighten the shadows of destiny. + +"You gentlemen," he said, uttering smoke enjoyingly through mouth and +nostrils, "don't need to worry none. It's like this: the judge figured to +let you off easy. He's bound, of course, to play up to the statute by +handin' you your bit, but, to start with, he cuts it down all he can, and +then what does he do but date you back four months to the openin' of the +trial! All right! After four months you're eligible for parole on a year +and a day's sentence, ain't yer? Your trial began on November 25th, and +to-day is the 24th of March. That means, don't it, that you make your +application the very next thing after they gets you on the penitentiary +register to-morrer! Why, look-a-here," he continued, warming to his theme, +and becoming, like Gladstone as depicted by Beaconsfield, intoxicated with +the exuberance of his own verbosity, "it wouldn't surprise me, not a bit, +sir, if you and your mate was to slip back with us on the train to-morrer +evenin', and the whole bunch of us be back in little old New York along +about Wednesday! That's right! An' what I says is, that ain't no +punishment--that's no more'n takin' a pleasure trip down South, at the +suitable time o' year! An' I guess I been on the job long enough to know +what I'm talkin' about!" + +We guessed he knew that he was talking benevolent fictions; and yet there +was plausibility in his argument. The law did not allow parole on +sentences of a year or under, but on anything over one year, a convict was +eligible, and our sentence of twenty-four hours over the twelvemonth +therefore brought us within this provision. In imposing that extra day, +the judge could hardly have been motived by anything except the intention +to open this door to us; and although the regular meeting of the parole +board at the prison was not due just then, we were informed that an extra +meeting might be summoned at any time. The board consisted of the warden +of the prison, the doctor, and the official who presided at all parole +board meetings at the various federal penitentiaries throughout the +country,--Robert LaDow. The law declares that a majority of the board +decides the applications that come before it; and as two members of the +board make a quorum, it seemed obvious that the warden and the doctor of +Atlanta Penitentiary would serve our turn--if they wanted to. Mr. LaDow, +of course, might be appealed to by telegraph if expedient. + +Turning the thing over, therefore, with the cozening rogue in front of us +drawing our attention to the buttered side as often as it appeared, we +could hardly avoid the conclusion that there was a possibility of his +being right. We might be required to remain in Atlanta barely long enough +to don a suit of prison clothing and to have our bertillons made, and +forthwith make a triumphal return home, with our scarlet sins washed white +as snow. Of such an imprisonment it might be said, as wrote the poet of +the baby that died at birth, + + "If it so soon was to be done for, + One wonders what it was begun for," + +but it would not be the first thing that we had noticed in Federal +administration of justice which might have been similarly criticized. + +My allusion to this subject here is only by way of leit-motif for a +thorough discussion hereafter. The juggling with the parole law, by the +Department of Justice and the parole boards, is one of the most +indefensible and cruel practical jokes that "the authorities" play upon +prisoners. It caused two deaths by slow torture while I was at Atlanta, +as shall be shown in the proper place; and there is no reason to suppose +that the percentage at other prisons was not as large or larger. The +sufferings short of death that are due to it cannot be calculated. A +practical joke?--yes; but there is a practical purpose back of it. The +miserable men who are practised upon by this means, helpless but hoping, +are led to believe that they may buy freedom at the price of treachery +to their fellows. Can it be credited that a convict in his cell, with +perhaps years of living death before him,--you do not yet know what that +means, but if I live to tell this story, you will be able to guess at +its significance before we part--will refuse the opportunity offered to +end it at once in return for merely speaking one or two names?--a +convict--a creature outlawed, crushed, damned, dehumanized, +despised,--can we look from him for a heroism, a martyrdom, which might +shed fresh honor on the highest name in the community? I confess that I +would not have looked for it a year ago, and I doubt whether you look +for it now. But, I have to report, with joy in the goodness and +selflessness in men whom you and I have presumed to look down upon, that +in very few instances that I have heard of, and in almost none that I +know, has a convict thus terribly tempted even hesitated to answer--NO! +But many an old and cherished prejudice will begin painfully to gnaw its +way out of your complacent mind before we are done. + +The City of Brotherly Love flickered by and was left behind, like the +sentiment which it once stood for. We were headed for Washington, where +the will and conscience of the nation take form and pass into effect. +Government of the people by lawyers, for lawyers; did they know what +they were doing? The Constitution, bulwark of our liberties; the letter +of the law, technicalities, precedents, procedure, the right of the +individual merged in the public right, and lost there! The House--five +hundred turbulent broncos, each neighing for his own bin; the +Senate--four score portentous clubmen, adjusting the conservative +shirt-front of dignity and moderation over the license of privilege and +"the interests"; the Executive--dillydallying between nonentity and the +Big Stick; the Supreme Court--a handful of citizens and participators in +our common human nature, magically transmuted into omniscient and +omnipotent gods by certificates of appointment! And the rest of our +hundred millions, in this era of new discoveries and profound upheavals, +on this battlefield of Armageddon between Hell and Heaven, in this +crumbling of the old deities and the looming of the Unknown,--are we to +lie down content and docile and suffer this hybrid monster of +Frankenstein, under guise of governing, to squat on our necks, bind our +Titan limbs, bandage our awakening eyes, gag our free voices, sterilize +our civic manhood, and debase us from sons of divine liberty into the +underpinning of an oligarchy? + +My friend and I--while our licensed proprietors napped with one eye +open--smiled to each other perhaps, recognizing how the prick of +personal injury and injustice will arouse far-reaching rebellion against +human wrongs and imperfections in general. But our famous American sense +of humor may be worked overtime, and, from a perception of the +incongruity and relative importance of things, be insensibly degraded +into pusillanimous indifference to everything, good or bad. The soberest +observer may concede that there is a spiritual energy and movement +behind visible phenomena, whose purport and aim it is the province of +the wise to understand. The peril of Armageddon lies in the fact that +evil never fights fair, but ever masks itself in the armor of good. Not +only so, but good may be changed into evil by hasty and misdirected +application, and do more harm--because unsuspected--than premeditated +evil itself. Public endowment of chosen persons with power is good and +necessary in our form of civilization, and the chosen ones may accept it +in good faith. But in a community where everybody has business of his +own to mind, and is put to it so to conduct it as to keep off the poor +rates, deputed powers, designed to be limited, always tend to become +absolute. It is heady wine, too, and intoxicates those who partake of +it. And it is only a seeming paradox that absolute and irresponsible +power is more apt to develop in a democracy than under any other form of +human association. Holders of it, moreover, instead of fighting for +supremacy among themselves, and thus annulling their own +mischievousness, as would at a first glance seem likely, soon learn the +expediency of agreeing together; each keeps to his own area of +despotism, cooperating, not interfering with the rest. But the system +inevitably takes the form of rings within rings, each interior one +possessing progressively superior dominion. At last we come to a central +and small group of men who are truly absolute, and are supported and +defended in their stronghold by the self-interested loyalty of the rest. +But they do not proclaim their supremacy; on the contrary, they hide it +under clever interpretations of law, and, at need, by securing the +enactment of other laws fitted to the exigency of the occasion. If there +is remonstrance or revolt among their subjects, they subdue it partly by +pointing out that it is the law, and not themselves, that is +responsible; and partly by employing other legal forms to put down the +resistance. You cannot catch them; they vanish under your grasp as +principles, not men. Their voice is never heard saying, "I will!" but +always, "The law requires." And these autocrats--this oligarchy--are +only men like ourselves, with like passions, limitations and sinful +inheritance. They were not born to the purple--they just happened to get +to it. But being possessed of it--and apart of course from any crude and +obvious malfeasance in office--they cannot be "legally" dislodged; and +if they step aside, it is only to let alter egos take their place. The +King of England--the Emperor of Germany--can be deposed by the people, +and his head cut off; but the free and independent--but +law-abiding--citizens of the United States cannot throw off this subtle +tyranny, because it is identified with legal provisions which we have +insensibly allowed to creep into the inmost and most personal fibers of +our lives. As for modifying or abolishing the law itself--that would be +anarchy! + +It would be foolish to contend that our rulers are actuated by any +personal malevolence or even, at first, by unlawful personal ambition; +they are, as I have said, for the most part lawyers, and law is their +fetish--their magical cure-all and philosopher's stone. They almost +persuade themselves, perhaps, that we the people make the laws; whereas +not more than one man in ten thousand--even of lawyers--knows what the +law in any given case is, nor would the majority of us approve any +particular law, if we were afforded the chance. Any one of us will +support the law against his enemy, but not, in behalf of his enemy, +against himself. But our legalized sultans and satraps, Councils of Ten +and Grand Inquisitors, keep an easy conscience; the Law is King and can +do no wrong. A few centuries ago it was law in England to kill a man for +taking any personal liberties; there was not much harm in that, for most +of the persons that counted were above the law, being nobles or +gentlemen. But our way is far more injurious; if a man takes a personal +liberty, the cry is, Put him in jail! Death is a penalty which only +disposes of a man forever; but jail is poisonous; the man survives, but +he becomes criminal, and an enemy of society. And this cry for jail does +not appear to emanate from legal tribunals merely, but we the people +ourselves have caught it up, and invoke cells and chains for the +lightest infraction of public or personal convenience; nay, we clamor +for more laws to supplement our already overburdened statute-books. Thus +do we thoughtlessly strengthen the hands of our masters. The nostrum +which they manufactured to govern us withal, and which at first had to +be administered to us willy-nilly, has now become like that notorious +patent medicine for which the children cry. We kiss the rod--as long as +it is laid across our fellows' backs and not our own. And the rule of +Law, by lawyers, for lawyers, shows no signs of vanishing from our +earth. Only convicts and ex-convicts dissent; for they know what they +dissent from. As an unidentified friend wrote to me of late, "No thief +ere felt the halter draw, With good opinion of the law"; but the thief +had reason on his side. And it may yet come to pass that his reasons may +be listened to. + +Darkness set in as we entered the sacred soil of Virginia; night lay +before us--our next night would be spent inside penitentiary walls. Was +it a dream, or would some cosmic cataclysm occur in season to prevent +it? No: the ancient routine of one fact after another, of cause and +effect, would keep on with no regard for our sensibilities; however +important we might appear to ourselves, we were but specks infinitesimal +in the vast scheme of things. Miracles and special providences are for +story books; if you are the victim of abuses, be sure that the remedy +will come not through averting them, but by carrying them out to the +finish. On the morning of his execution, it seemed incredible that +Charles I should be beheaded; but he mounted the scaffold, laid his head +upon the block, and the masked man lifted his sword and cut it off. All +that is left for you is not to falter--to keep down that tremor and +sickening of the heart; when Danton of the French Revolution reached the +guillotine, he was heard to mutter, "Danton, no weakness!" And many an +unrecorded Danton, on the night before his appointed death, has lain +down and slept soundly. It recurred to my memory that my father, shortly +before his death, had said to an old friend of his, "I trust in Julian." +On the day following his death, that friend had journeyed to Concord to +tell me those words--returning to Boston immediately. My father's son +had lived to be proclaimed a felon; but I slept sound that night. + +All next day we were passing through the raw red soil of the South, with +its cotton plantations, forlorn at this season, its omnipresent idle +negroes, and its white folks, lean and solemn, standing guard over what +fate had left to them. At stopping places we would step out for a few +minutes on the platform of the observation-car, to breathe the air and +feel the sunshine,--the affectionate deputies close at our elbows. Some +of our fellow passengers were bound for Florida or Cuba, to escape the +crudity of the northern March; "May be we'll meet up again there!" some +of them said, innocently unsuspicious of what sort of characters they +were addressing. Paradise and the Pit travel side by side on this earth, +and find each other very tolerable company. + +Into Atlanta station the train at last rolled; the journey to oblivion +was all but finished. The restless little city, turmoiling in its boom, +swarmed around us; we had to wait half an hour, our gripsacks in our +hands, for the surface-car to the prison, three miles or more beyond the +town. We awaited it with some impatience--such is the unreasonableness +of our mortal nature. At last we were rumbling off on our trip of twenty +minutes, sitting unnoticed in the midway seats, our considerate but +careful guardians on the watch at the front and rear platforms. The car +took its time; it stopped, started again, stopped, started, after the +manner of ordinary cars; oh, for a magic carpet or pneumatic tube, to +make an end of this! or for a thousand years! It was as if the headsman +were making preliminary flourishes with his sword, ere delivering his +blow. These were difficult minutes. + +They ended; "Here we are!" We alighted, and advanced to the entrance of +an expanse of ornamental grounds, with a cement pathway leading up to an +extensive fortified structure--a wall thirty feet high sweeping to right +and left from the tall steel gateway, with the summits of stone towers +emerging beyond. I stepped out briskly, in advance of the others; I +noticed some bright-hued flowers in a bed on the right. In a few moments +I was ascending a wide flight of steps; as I did so, the gateway yawned, +and two men in uniform stepped out. There was a transient halt, a few +words were exchanged; we went forward, and the gate closed behind us. + + + + +IV + + +INITIATION + +"Put the fear of God in his heart!" + +This phrase, impious and ironic, is used by officials in prisons, and +repeated by prisoners. It has no religious import. The naming of God in +that connection reminds me of a remark I heard from a moonshiner--as the +distillers of illicit whiskey in the mountain regions of the South are +called--who had lately arrived at the penitentiary. He said, "I allus +thought this here Jesus Christ was a cuss-word; but these folks say he +was some religious guy!" His enlightenment was doubtless due to the +first aid to the unregenerate administered by our chaplain. + +To "put the fear of God in a man's heart" means to break his spirit, to +cow him, to make him, from a man, a servile sneak; and this is effected +not by encouraging him to remember his Creator, but by instilling into +him dread of the club, the dungeon, and the bullet. He must learn to +fear not God, but the warden, the captain and the guard. He is to be +hustled about, cuffed, shoved, kicked, put in the hole, punished for not +comprehending surly and half inarticulate orders, or for not +understanding gestures without words; all of which encouragements to +obedience are, indeed, specifically forbidden by the rules which were +formulated in Washington and disseminated for the information of the +investigation committees and of the public, but which are disregarded +nevertheless by the prison authorities from the highest to the lowest. +For they risk nothing by disregarding them; there is no one except +prisoners to complain of illegal treatment, and there is no one for them +to complain to except the very persons who are guilty of the +illegalities; and the warden at Atlanta, at any rate, has repeatedly +stated that he would not accept the oaths of any number of prisoners +against the unsupported denial of a single guard. To do otherwise would +be to "destroy discipline." Moreover, these unverified complaints--such +is their inevitable category in the circumstances--are themselves fresh +causes of offense, and productive of the severest punishments--not only +clubbing and close confinement, often in the dark hole, but loss of good +time, which of course is more dreaded than anything else. + +But may not the prisoners complain to the committees or inspectors, +appointed precisely to enquire into and relieve abuses of this sort? + +I shall have a good deal to say about these agents of humanity +presently. I will only say here that no prisoner who cares whether he +lives or dies, or who possesses common sense or the smallest smattering +of experience of prison affairs, ever is so reckless as to impart any +facts to the persons in question. If he accuses any guard or other +official of cruelty, the entire force of prison keepers can and will be +at need marshaled to deny point-blank that any such thing occurred, or, +if any did, it was because the accused official was at the time quelling +a dangerous revolt, and deemed his own life in peril. If this evidence +be insufficient, it is a pathetic truth that some prisoners can always +be found so debased by terror and abject as to perjure themselves +against their comrades. It is among negro prisoners that such traitors +are commonly sought and found. White men uniformly have a sense of +honor--thieves' honor, if you please--which keeps them loyal. There are +exceptions to this rule, and there are also exceptions to the rule that +negroes betray. I have the pleasure and the honor of the acquaintance of +some negro prisoners at Atlanta who would sooner die than ingratiate +themselves with the officials by a falsehood. + +Accordingly, complaints of brutal treatment at Atlanta are not frequent, +either to the officials or to investigators; otherwise, I need not tax +your imagination to picture what happens to the complainants after the +investigators have departed. + +Order and discipline--as appertaining to prisoners, not to +officials--must be preserved; of course they must, if we are to have any +prisons at all. And since there is no way for the prisoners to compel +the guards to keep within the license accorded to them, we must compel +the prisoners to accept whatever injustice or outrage the unrestrained +despots of the ranges have the whim to inflict upon them. There are +desperate revolts at times--desperate in the literal sense, since they +have no hope of relief in them, but only the tragic rage against tyranny +which will sometimes blaze up in victims--and on the other hand there +are officials who will resign their positions rather than connive at +abuses. But every means is taken to avert this last; for guards know +things, and the System could be shaken by men who not only know, but, +unlike prisoners, have a chance to make what they know believed. + +All this time we have been waiting just inside the prison gates. The +difference between just inside and just outside is important; for nine +convicted men out of ten, it would be punishment for their misdeeds more +than sufficient to be taken no further on the way to retribution than +that. Whatever humiliation and disgrace they are capable of feeling or +have cause to feel is at that first moment at its height; it strikes +upon them unaccustomed and defenseless--never so acutely sensitive as +then. Afterward, familiarity with misery and shame renders them +progressively more and more callous, without adding one jot to the +public odium of their position. They can never forget that first clang +of the closing gates in their ears; the whole significance of penal +imprisonment is in that. Many a man, the moment after that experience, +might turn round and go forth a free man, yet with a soul charged with +all the mortal burden that man-devised penalties can inflict upon him. +Moreover, not having been unmanned and his nature violated by physical +insults and outrages, he might find strength and spirit to begin and +pursue a better life thereafter. The "lesson" (word which our shallow +and officious moralists roll so sweetly under their tongues) would have +been taught him to the last tittle, and withal enough of the man remain +to profit by it. Whereas, under the existing conditions, no more than +four or five years in jail destroy any possibility of future usefulness +in most men; they have been hammered into something helpless, dazed, or +monstrous; and even if they have courage to attempt to take hold of life +again, they are defeated by the unremitting pursuit of our spy system, +which depends for the main part of its livelihood upon getting +ex-convicts back to jail--whether on sound or on perjured evidence is +all one to the spies. So, as I said some time ago, most prison sentences +are life sentences, to all practical intents. To the manhood of the man, +prison means death. + +Do some of the above statements appear extreme? Read on, and decide. +Meanwhile I will observe that so long as prisons endure, such abuses as +have been hinted at must persist. Whatever reforms have in special +instances ameliorated them, have in so far only gone to show that the +whole system is vicious and irrational. + +My friend and I looked at our new masters with curiosity; they looked at +us with what might be termed arch amusement. With such a look do small +boys regard the beetles, kittens, or other animals, power to torment +whom has been given them. It was after prison hours--the men had been +already locked in their cells, and the warden and deputy had gone home. +It was left to the subordinates to put the fear of God in our hearts; we +could only surmise how far they would go in that instruction. We did not +then know that their power was limited only by their good pleasure. But +it is an accepted and reasonable principle with them that the sooner one +begins to take the nonsense out a prisoner, the better. The strangeness +of his surroundings intimidates him at the start, and he more readily +realizes that he has no friends and that he is in prison--not (as one of +the guards afterward took occasion to remark) in a "sanitarium for +decayed crooks." A good scare thrown into him now will bring forth more +fruit than greater pains taken--and inflicted--hereafter. + +Our anticipations, however, were the less formidable, because we had +been exhaustively assured during the past ten days that Atlanta +Penitentiary was not so much a penitentiary as a sort of gentlemen's +summer resort and club, where conditions were ideal and treatment almost +foolishly humane and tender. This information came not only from all +court officials with whom we had held communion on the subject, but from +our own counsel at the trial; the judge himself seemed to believe it, +and if you ask the prison authorities at Atlanta, they will earnestly +assure you that prisoners there are treated like gentlemen, are given +every material comfort consistent with their being prisoners at all, are +sumptuously fed and housed, and are helped in all ways to build up their +manhood, maintain their self-respect, and prepare themselves for a +career, after liberation, as valuable and industrious citizens. We were +naturally disposed to credit assertions so emphatically and variously +made,--some basis for them there must be. And it was obvious, at a +glance, that the corridor in which we stood was spacious and airy, with +a clean limestone pavement; that the disorder and shiftlessness of the +Tombs was absent here. The guards who attended us wore neat dark +uniforms of military cut; and if their caps were tilted back on their +heads, or cocked on the northeast corner, that was a pardonable +expression of their authority and importance. I saw no firearms and no +blood, nor were the groans of tortured convicts audible. I remembered +the flowers in the garden outside, and was prone to think that things +might have been very much worse; they were certainly better, at a first +glance, than at Sing Sing, which I had visited on a newspaper assignment +about fifteen years before. I had resolved beforehand to make the best +of everything, and it seemed already possible that I might not have to +make believe very much to do so. + +No resolve, however, could overcome the influence of that locked and +barred gate, nor the realization that I was a convict, and that nobody +inside the penitentiary had any doubt that I was justly convicted. +Friends were remote and helpless; the support of former good repute was +annulled; I stood there impotent, one man against the Federal +Government, with nothing to aid me but the weight of my personal +equation (whatever that might be worth) and my private attitude on the +question of my guilt, which the trial had not modified, but which could +be of no practical benefit to me here. The sensation of confronting +everywhere a settled and hostile skepticism as to one's integrity was +novel, and hard to meet with a firm countenance. And I felt how easily +this sensation might crush the courage of one who was conscious of being +justly condemned. How many men must be sitting yonder in those cells who +lacked the moral consolations that I had! The thought sharpened my +perception of the horror of all imprisonment, but at the same time +stiffened my fortitude; for if these men could live through their +ordeal, how much more could I! + +Meanwhile we were being hurried through the handsome corridor, and down +a flight of iron steps to a less presentable region. There was no +aggressive brutality, only a peremptory curtness, entirely proper in the +circumstances. Our only defense against physical severity was a bearing +of cheerful but not overdone courtesy, and we gave that what play we +might. I could not foretell how I might behave under a clubbing, and +would not bring the thing to a test, if I could decently avoid it. In a +long, low, shabby, ill-lighted room we were lined up against a counter, +on the other side of which were two or three of our fellow +prisoners--the first we had seen--whose function it was to fit us with +prison suits. They consisted of a sack coat and trousers of gray-blue +cloth--rather heavy goods, for the warm season had not yet begun--and +this was obviously far from being their first appearance on a convict; +suits are handed down from one generation of prisoners to another until +they are entirely worn out; my own was of an ancient vintage and a good +deal defaced, but I had no ambition to be a glass of fashion in jail. Of +course I could only conjecture what diseases previous wearers of it +might have suffered from; but I hoped for the best. Every new arrival at +the penitentiary is presumed to be dirty until he is proved clean, and +the only way for him to prove his bodily purity is to submit to a bath. +The regulation is commendable, and was welcome to us after our day and +night in the train; but a comrade of mine from the mountain wildernesses +of South Carolina, where bathing is still regarded as a degrading +innovation, described to me long afterward what a sturdy battle he had +put up against the disgrace, and being a lusty youth, it had taken the +best efforts of several guards to hold him under the spout long enough +to wet him--and themselves into the bargain. Though this was the first +time since infancy that I had bathed under compulsion, I complied very +readily, and even said to my friend, "This isn't so bad!" It is not +permitted, under the law, to give out any news about prisoners to the +world without, after they have once passed the portals; nevertheless, +this memorable remark of mine was printed next day in the New York +newspapers, together with the scarlet hue of my necktie, and some other +details,--my registered prison number among them, my own first knowledge +of which was derived from the published paragraph. It was my first +intimation of a fact which afterward exercised no small influence on my +destiny in the prison--that I was a "distinguished," or at least a +notorious prisoner. This influence had its good as well as its bad +aspect, in the long run, but the latter was in the beginning the more +conspicuous. The unidentified press-agent who disseminated to an eager +world the news about the bath and the necktie, continued to be active +during our stay in Atlanta, but his other communications were not even +approximately so accurate as the first one, and nearly all of them were +children of his imagination exclusively, and were more likely to be +gratifying to the officials than to my fellow prisoner and myself. + +From the bath to the bedchamber. Up the darksome stairs again into the +stately corridor; through an inner gateway, and into a wide hall which +communicated to right and left, through small steel doors, with the west +and east ranges (dormitories). The west door was unlocked, and we were +pushed into a huge room, about two hundred feet by a hundred and twenty, +with tall barred windows along each side. Inside this space had been +constructed a sort of inner house of steel, seven or eight stories in +height, with zig-zag stairways at either end, leading to narrow +platforms that opened on the individual cell doors. These doors were +barred, and were locked by throwing a switch at the near end of the +ranges; but any particular door could also be opened by a key. The cell +doors of the inner structure were at a distance of some twenty feet from +the walls and windows of the outer shell, and got what light and air +they had from these--none too much of course. Also, the guard on duty in +the range, if the weather be chilly, will close the windows, against the +protests of the prisoners, and against the regulations too; but most of +the guards are thin-blooded Southerners, and diseased into the bargain, +and do not like cold air. The consequence is that the four hundred pairs +of lungs in each range soon vitiate the atmosphere; the prisoners turn +and toss in their cots, have bad dreams, and rise in the morning with a +headache. + +We mounted three or four flights of iron steps, and were introduced into +a cell near the corner. It was, like all the others, a steel box about +eight feet long by five wide, and seven or eight high. On one side, two +cots two feet wide were hinged against the wall, one above another; they +reduced the living space to a breadth of three feet. The wall opposite +was made of plain plates of steel, and so was the inner end of the cell, +but in this, at a man's height from the floor, was a round hole an inch +in diameter. That was a part of the spy system; for between the two rows +of cells is a narrow passage, in which the guard can walk, and, himself +unseen and unheard, spy upon the prisoners and listen to their +conversation. All prisoners are at all times of the day and night under +observation. This seems a slight thing; but the cumulative effect of it +upon men's minds is disintegrating. At no moment of their lives can they +command the slightest privacy. And what right to privacy, you ask, has a +prisoner? Would he not use it to cut his way through the chilled steel +walls with his teeth and nails, or to plot revolt with his +cellmate?--Possibly; but even a beast seeks privacy at certain +junctures; and to deny all privacy tends to bestialize human beings. It +is a part of the "put-the-fear-of-God-in-his-heart" principle--to break, +humiliate, degrade the man, and render him unfit for human association. +There are a washbasin and a toilet seat at the foot of the cot, facing +the barred door. What difference can it make to a convict if the guard, +or any other passer-by, watches him while he uses them? + +There had been issued to us sheets, a pillowcase, and a gray blanket of +the army sort; our first duty was to make our beds. Mattress and pillow +were stuffed stiff with what felt like wood chips, and was probably +straw and corn-husks; the pillow was cylindrical; the mattress was +hillocked and hollowed by the uneasy struggles with insomnia of +countless former users. There was a campstool whose luxuries we might +share. We had, each, a prison toothbrush, and a comb. In the ceiling of +the cell, beyond reach of an outstretched arm, was an electric bulb +which would be darkened at nine o'clock. But all this was welcome; I had +often roughed it in conditions quite as severe; my spirits could not be +dashed by mere hardships or inconveniences. We put our domestic menage +in order cheerfully, glad that we had been celled together, instead of +doubling up with strangers. Nor would it have discouraged us to know +that the west range was the one occupied by negroes and dangerous +characters. The place was silent; none of the demoniac chantings and +hyena laughter of the Tombs. We had our little jests and chucklings as +we made our arrangements; Courage, Comrade! the period of suspense and +anticipation is passed; we are at grips with the reality now! + +Moreover--"Every prisoner, on installation in his cell, is supplied with +rolls and hot coffee, and with pipe and tobacco!" Thus would the +statement run in the report to the Department. What if the bread be +uneatable, the coffee undrinkable, and the tobacco unsmokable? The mere +idea of such things is something; besides, prisoners do contrive, being +hard put to it, to consume them. We ourselves at least tried all three; +if it proved easier to be abstinent than self-indulgent, that was our +own affair. Meanwhile, our mental appetites were appeased by a little +gray pamphlet, containing the rules governing the conduct of convicts in +the penitentiary. There were a great many of them, and not a few +required thought to penetrate their significance. Why, for instance, +should special emphasis be laid upon the injunction to rest one's shoes +against the bars of the door upon retiring? We were never informed; but +I presume it must have been to prevent a man being tempted to reach out +an arm a hundred feet long through his bars, throw the switch, steal +along the platform, open the steel door, unbar the two outer gates, +climb over the thirty-four foot wall, and escape--all the while avoiding +the notice of the range guard, of the guards in the corridors, and of +the watchman on the tower outside, all of whom were armed with magazine +rifles and were yearning for an opportunity to use them. Of course, he +would want to have on his shoes for such an enterprise, so that if the +shoes were visible inside his door, it was prima facie evidence that he +himself was also within. Another rule was italicized--"_Do not try to +escape--you might get hurt!_" I refrained from testing the validity of +either prohibition. + +In the midst of our perusal, we were interrupted by the arrival of a +visitor. He was a slight-built, slope-shouldered young fellow, in prison +garb, with a meager visage heavily furrowed with sickness and +suffering--he had tuberculosis, chronic bronchitis, and the indigestion +with which all prisoners who eat the regular prison fare are afflicted. +Not that Ned (as I will call him, since it was not his name) mentioned +his condition; it was determined long afterward by the diagnosis of my +friend; Ned's object in visiting us was not to air his own troubles, but +to assuage, so far as he might, the gloom and uneasiness of the new +arrivals. In his haggard face shone a pair of very intelligent and +kindly gray eyes, and above them rose a compact, well-filled forehead. I +was fortunate enough to keep in touch with this young man during my +stay, and I found no more lovable nature in the penitentiary. He made no +secret of the fact that he had been guilty of a Federal offense, and he +never expressed contrition for it; "I made a mistake in taking another +man in with me," he remarked; "you are never safe unless you go it +alone." He had not been systematically educated, but he had read widely +and judiciously, talked correctly, though with occasional colloquial +idioms thrown in, and he was a concentrated and original thinker. His +opinions were bold, independent, and sound, his insight was very +penetrating, and his knowledge of matters of criminal procedure and of +prison conditions was accurate and ample. Facts which I afterward +learned for myself were never out of accord with information he had +given me; and the sanity and clarity of his judgments were refreshing +and remarkable. His courage was undemonstrative but indomitable; he +never complained of his own condition and experiences, but was instant +in his sympathy with the misfortunes of others. No more welcome and +valuable counselor than he could have come to us in those first hours of +our durance. + +That he was able to visit us was due to his being a "runner," as those +prisoners are termed who are assigned to carrying messages and doing odd +jobs in the ranges. He leaned against the bars and spoke manfully and +pungently, with touches of gay humor now and then; advised us to our +conduct--what to do and what to avoid; and when he noticed the little +gray pamphlet, said scornfully, "Don't muss up your ideas with that! +There's a hundred rules there, and every one of 'em is broken every day. +Those rules are for show; what happens to you depends on who the guard +is, and how he happens to be feeling. You can go as far as you like +sometimes, and other times you'll get hauled up if you turn your head +sideways. The screw" (guard) "on this range is decent; he won't crowd +you too much. Keep quiet, and do what they tell you, and the odds are +you'll get by all right. Of course, if some fellow gets a grudge against +you, he's liable to hammer you like hell; there are some prisoners here +that get on the wrong side of a screw, and--well, it goes hard with 'em! +But if you're a little careful, I guess you'll get through all right. + +"I've read all about your case in the papers, and I know you oughtn't to +be here; and Bill" (the Warden) "likely knows it too, and as folks on +the outside are on the watch for what happens to you, he'll think twice +how he treats you. Bill is a cunning one; he keeps his ear to the +ground; when he sees that the reform people are going to put something +across, he backs it up, and gives out that he suggested it himself; but +up to a year or two ago, he did the worst sort of things to the men; +even in his early reports and addresses he advocated treatment that he'd +never dare stand for now--except on the quiet! He gets himself written +up in the local papers here as the model warden--warm-hearted and +broad-minded, and all that flap-doodle! But if he had his way, you'd +think you were back in the dark ages in this penitentiary. Wickersham +threw a bit of a scare into him a couple of years back; and there have +been others; but most of the inspectors that are sent here stand in with +him; he gives them good feeds in his house, and takes them out in his +auto, and fills 'em up with soft talk--about 'his boys,' and his +fatherly interest in 'em, and all that--but he keeps the dark cells and +the rest of the dirty work out of their sight, and of course none of the +men dares say anything to 'em--it would be all day with them if they +did--as soon as the inspector turned his back. That's what gets the +men's goat--that he puts up such a humane front, and all the while +hammers them on the sly. They'd prefer being told at the start they were +going to get hell, and then getting it; but it goes against their grain +to get it, and meantime have folks outside believe they're in a +gentlemen's country club!" + +Ned imparted his information by fits and starts; ever and anon he would +break off abruptly and walk off down the range, to give the guard the +idea that he was about his ordinary business; then he would return, +squat down on his hams beside the door, and murmur along in his rapid, +distinct tones. All that he said was abundantly confirmed later. + +Finally--"Good night--sleep well--they'll put you on some job in a few +days; it's the first days that go hardest with most men, but you'll get +used to it; you might get out on parole, too--but don't count on it; of +all the frauds in this prison, parole is the worst! And if they ever +pass that 'Indeterminate Sentence' law--good-by! Imagine Bill with that +thing to use as a club over us! He'd make every other man here a lifer!" + +He laughed in the prison way--silently, in his throat--and went away, +after warning us that it was near nine o'clock. Our watches had been +taken away from us; no doubt, a prisoner might commit suicide by +sticking his watch in his windpipe, or he could bribe a guard with it to +bring him cigarette papers, or "dope." Besides, what has a man in jail +to do with time? Our warm-hearted and fatherly masters desire their +charges to exist so far as practical in a dead, unmeasured monotony, +where a minute may seem to prolong itself to the dimensions of an hour; +to feel themselves utterly severed from the world they have annoyed or +injured. That is the penitentiary ideal; but it has of late become +impossible fully to realize it. A prison will always be a prison; but at +any rate, light shall be let in on it. + +Meanwhile, our cell light went out; and we waited for the dawn. + + + + +V + + +ROUTINE + +I lay in the upper bunk. It was a six-foot drop to the cement floor +below. The mattress, though irregularly dented and bulged, was upon the +whole convex, and not over two feet wide. A vertical fence or bastion, +six or eight inches high, along the outer brink of this precipice would +have averted the danger of rolling off in the night; but nothing of the +sort had been provided. One must remember not to roll, even in the +nightmare. Convicts educate the subliminal self to a surprising degree, +and do not fall victims to this trap as often as one would expect; but +occasionally one of them forgets, and down he comes, sometimes getting +bruised only, but generally with a broken bone or so. I do not have +nightmares, and I lay prone, gripping the sides of the mattress with my +knees, as if it were a bucking broncho. So I journeyed, Mazeppa-wise, +through the abysses of that first night, and was not unhorsed. + +Light glimmered obscurely through the bars of the cell from the +night-burner below. Odd sounds broke out at intervals. Half suppressed +coughs, sudden, brief cries, irregular wheezings and gurglings, due to +defective plumbing, occasionally a few muttered words; then a man in an +upper tier began to moan and groan dismally--a negro with a colic, +perhaps. Long, dead silences would be interrupted by inexplicable +noises. In the dead vast and middle of the night the prisoner in the +cell over mine began to pace up and down his floor, eighteen inches +above my head. Four paces one way, four back, over and over +interminably. Who was he? What was he thinking about? Something seemed +to goad him intolerably; that forging to and fro, like a tormented +pendulum with a soul in it, gave a stifling impression, as of one +tortured for air and space. How many years must he endure--how many +centuries? Was his wife dying, his children abandoned? Up and down he +padded; had he committed some ugly crime, for which he longed to +atone--but prison is not atonement! Had his conviction been unjust, and +was he raging impotently against injustice? Let him not rage too loudly, +for there was a guard yonder, indifferent to tortured souls, but +licensed to stop noises. A prison is a prison, not a sanitarium for +diseased crooks. But if the world could hear those footfalls, and +interpret their significance, how long would prisons last? A jail at +night is a strange place--eight hundred men packed in together, each +terrifyingly alone! + +Some of the earlier workers had been roused at six or five o'clock or +earlier; but for the majority the six-thirty bell was the reveille. It +screeched violently and was silent. The watching devils or the guardian +angels of the night vanished, and up got the eight hundred members of +the Gentlemen's Country Club, to live as best they might through one day +more; coughing, hawking, spitting, murmuring--but all with a sense of +repression in it, the life-sapping drug of fear in its origin, but long +since become a mechanical habit with most of them. Eight hundred +criminals, herded beneath one roof to be cured of their crimes by +indifferent or threatening and hostile task-masters and irresponsible +discipline-mongers, and by association with one another--a régimen of +hell to extirpate deviltry! The twentieth century solution of the +problem of evil, unaltered in principle after thousands of years! + +Civilization has progressed wonderfully, but always with this +death-house on its back. And the death-house gets bigger and more +populous every year. Reformers, exhorters, Christian Endeavorers, +humanitarians, Salvation Armies, social reformers, penologists, +scientific experimentalists with surgical apparatus, together with +parole laws, indeterminate sentences, commutations, pardons, not to +speak of a good warden here and there and a kind guard--all toiling and +tinkering to make prisons better, to sweep them, to air them, to instil +religion and education, to supply work and exercise and to pay +wages--and all the while the tide of criminals gets larger and the +accommodations for them less adequate. What can be the matter? Are we to +end by discovering that everybody is a criminal, and ripe for jail? or +shall we be driven to the realization that the fundamental idea of +imprisonment for crime is itself the most monstrous of crimes--and try +something else? What else is there to be tried? Are we to leave +criminals to their liberty among the community? + +There will be time enough to discuss these riddles. It is time now to +get into your prison suit, with its "U.S.P." on the back of the coat, +and your number; its "U.S.P." on the back of the shirt, with your +number; its "U.S.P." on the front of your trousers-legs, and your +number; your canvas shoes and your vizored cap. But beware of putting on +the cap within prison walls, lest the guard report you to the captain, +the captain to the deputy, the deputy, if necessary, to the warden, and +ye be cast into the inner darkness. There shall there be thin slices of +bread, and water, and gnashing of teeth. + +With a guard acting as cowboy, shepherd dog, or convict compeller, we +shuffled in a continuous line down the iron stairways and across the +hall into the dining room, a cement-floored barred-window desert sown +with tables in rows, seating eight men each; guards with clubs standing +at coigns of vantage or pacing up and down the aisles, and in one +window, commanding the whole room, a guard with a loaded rifle, licensed +to shoot down any misbehaver. At no time and in no part of this model +jail are you out of range of a loaded rifle, in the hands of men quick +and skilful in their use. They are the sauce for meals and the +encouragement to labor. But casualties seldom happen; when they do, they +are hushed up, and the body of the man is buried next day in the prison +graveyard. + +I will postpone to a future chapter the subject of the dining room and +what is done there. As we filed out, I noticed "MERRY CHRISTMAS," and +"HAPPY NEW YEAR" emblazoned in green above the door. It was to remind +us, perhaps, of what we lost by being criminals. As we debouched into +the inner hall, separated from the corridor leading to the warden's +office, and to freedom, by a steel-barred gate, we saw a guard seated in +a chair with a rifle across his knees. Rats in a steel trap might have +mutinied with as much hope of success as we at that juncture; but the +guard had to be used for something, and convicts must not be allowed to +forget that they are in prison. At all events we forbore to mutiny, and +were rounded into our cells and locked up for half an hour, during which +we might smoke Golden Grain tobacco, fifty per cent, dirt, and the rest +the refuse of the weed, supplied to the prison by contract; or we might +read, or comb our hair, or do calisthenics, or invoke the Divine +blessing upon the labors of the coming day. + +The interval is really provided as a measure of security; many of the +prisoners do their work outside the main buildings; but it is deemed +unsafe to unlock the outer gates while the whole body of prisoners is on +the move. They might make a concerted rush, and get out in the yard, to +be shot down in detail by the guards in the towers. + +Mr. Sidney Ormund, to be sure, a special writer on the _Atlanta +Constitution_, makes the following statement in an issue of the paper +shortly after I had left the jail and recorded my opinion that "Warden +Moyer was unfit."--"It is safe to assume," Mr. Ormund affirms, "that if +all the prisoners at the Atlanta federal penitentiary were life-termers +and each had a voice in the selection of a warden to serve for a like +term, William Moyer, the present incumbent--a man who has done more to +make prison life bearable than any man in this country--would be +selected without a murmur of opposition." + +That is a fine, explicit statement of Mr. Ormund's, such as any warden +in dire trouble and perplexity might be glad and proud to have a +faithful friend make concerning him. It has no strings to it, and is +followed up by similar sentiments throughout the article. But why, in +that case, are the gates into the yard locked, and the man with the +rifle provided? If Warden Moyer renders life at Atlanta prison more +bearable than at any other in the country, what conceivable grounds are +there that his affectionate inmates should wish to run away from him? +That warmhearted and big-brained gentleman would hardly put the +Government to the expense of supplying safeguards against a contingency +which his own tender and lovable nature renders unthinkable, even if the +thirty-four foot wall outside does not. There seems to be a non-sequitur +here, which Mr. Ormund, perhaps, may feel inspired to clear up. When he +has done that, it will be time to call his attention to a score or more +other incongruities which a residence of only six or seven months in +this humane institution has been sufficient to disclose. + +At the expiration of the half hour, we laid aside our pipes, or our +prayer-books, and were ready for the activities of the day. The others +were detailed to their regular work; but my friend and I had our final +rites of initiation still to undergo. A young official, whose +countenance readily if not habitually assumed a sullen and menacing +expression, beckoned to us with his club, and we followed him downstairs +to an elevator, in which he ascended to the upper floor, while we +pursued him upward by way of the staircase. The cap of Mr. Ivy--such was +his poetic given name--was worn on the extreme rear projection of his +head, and he used his club in place of speech; not that he actually +pummeled us with it, but by wavings and pointings he made it indicate +his will, and kept us mindful how easily we might afford him a pretext +for putting it to its more normal use. Mr. Ivy, as I afterward learned, +was a Southerner by birth, as are the majority of the guards in the +penitentiary, and may have been, like most of them, a graduate from the +Army. In reporting the case of Private George, of the U.S. Army, now a +prisoner in stripes in the Leavenworth Penitentiary, it was stated by +Mr. Gilson Gardner that "The common soldier in the U.S. Army has no +rights. When he enlists, he gives up the guarantees of the Constitution, +the protection of jury trial, and even his right to petition for a +redress of grievances. He may be unjustly charged, secretly tried and +cruelly punished, and he has no remedy." + +As regards unjust, cruel and despotic treatment, the status of the U.S. +soldier and of a penitentiary convict are on all fours, though of course +the former has the advantage of belonging to a service traditionally +honorable, of open air service and exercise in all parts of the country +or abroad, of reasonable freedom when off duty, and of whatever glory +and advancement campaigning against an enemy may bring him. But we may +readily perceive that a soldier who has felt the rough edge of +discipline and finds his health broken, perhaps, by indiscretions +incident to Army life, might say to himself, on receiving his discharge, +"I am bred to no trade, I am good for nothing, but I should like to get +back at somebody for the humiliations and hardships I have endured. Why +not take a job as a prison guard; the pay is only $70 a month, but +instead of being the under dog, I shall be on top, licensed to bully and +belabor to my heart's content, to insult, humiliate and berate, and to +get away with it unscathed!" + +For my part, I can imagine no reason more plausible to explain the large +number of ex-soldiers among prison guards, and their conduct in that +position. With some shining exceptions, they are petty tyrants of the +worst type, sulky, sneering, malignant, brutal, and liars and +treacherous into the bargain. Their mode of life in a jail, immersed in +that sinister and unnatural atmosphere, hating and hated, with no sane +or absorbing occupation, encouraged by the jail customs to play the part +of spies and false witnesses, ignorant and demoralized,--tends to create +evil tendencies and to confirm such as exist. No worse originally than +the average of men, they are made baser and more savage by their +circumstances. And no man able to hold his own in the free life and +competition of the outside world, would stoop to accept a position as +guard in a jail. + +I know nothing of the private biography of Mr. Ivy, and it is quite +possible that he may have possessed endearing traits which he had no +opportunity to manifest in our intercourse. It would be foolish and +futile for the ends I have in view in this writing to cite or comment on +individuals, save as they may illustrate the point under discussion. But +I am the less reluctant to animadvert upon this or that employee of the +penitentiary, because I feel satisfied that, so far from compromising +him with the higher prison authorities, abuse from me would only +recommend him to their favor.--Mr. Ivy, such as he was, conducted us to +a bench outside a closed door, already partly occupied by three or four +half naked convicts, white and black. We gathered from his gestures of +head and club that we were to remove our upper garments and our shoes +and stockings, and place them on the floor in front of us. It was a cold +morning, and the floor was of limestone. We obeyed instructions, and for +the next twenty minutes sat there, objects of pardonable curiosity or +amusement to our fellow benchers and to passers-by in the hall, and with +nothing to keep us warm but the genial influences of the occasion. +Finally, each in his turn, we were passed through the door into a sort +of office, with clerks and Dr. Weaver, the prison physician, at $1500 a +year,--a tall, wooden faced young medical school graduate, who +cultivated a skeptical expression and a jeering intonation of speech. He +and an assistant put us through a physical examination, and took a +series of measurements, all of which were entered by the clerks in +ledgers. Our photographs were then taken, and afterward (it was the next +day, but may as well be told here) we were further identified by taking +the impressions of our finger prints, and by a second photograph without +our mustaches--these having been removed in the meantime. We were now +convicts full-fledged and published, and our pictures were disseminated +to every prison and penitentiary in the country, to be enshrined in the +rogues' gallery and studied by all police officials. + +This may sound silly, in the case of two men much nearer three score and +ten than three score, and untrained to gain a livelihood by crime. +Bertillon measurements were not needed to identify us, nor photographs +without mustaches. But, in the first place, prison rules apply to the +mass, not to individuals; and secondly, it has been resolved by the +wisdom of our rulers that a man who reverts to crime after one or more +convictions shall be more severely punished than a first offender. +Nobody stops to question the logic of this ostensibly prudent provision. +But the convict knows that his chances of making an honest livelihood +after a conviction are many times less than before. Spies are on his +trail at every turn, and if ever he succeed in securing legitimate +employment, an officer of the secret service presently informs his +employer that he has a jail-bird on his pay-roll. Naturally he is +promptly paid off and dismissed, and he may go through the same +experience as often as he is foolish enough to try it. But even if he be +inactive, he is not safe--far from it. He is known to the police and +liable to arrest at any moment as a vagrant, without visible means of +support. Nor is this all. Suppose him to be recorded in prison archives +as a safe-blower, and that a safe is blown somewhere and the culprits +escape. The credit of the police department demands that an arrest be +made, if not of the person or persons actually guilty of this particular +crime, then of some one who may be plausibly represented as guilty of +it. Accordingly, our friend is apprehended and charged with the crime; +there is his record, and it is easy to secure "evidence" that he was on +the spot at the time, though he may have been, in fact, a hundred or two +miles away from it. Detectives are experts at providing this sort of +evidence; and it frequently happens that they get the corroboration of +the victim himself by assuring him that, if he will confess, the judge +will let him off with a light sentence, whereas if he prove "stubborn," +it will go hard with him--a matter of ten years or so. Ten years in jail +for something you did not do! Six months or a year if you confess! +Perjury is wrong no doubt; but, were you who read this placed in that +predicament, which horn of the dilemma would you select? If you have +never served an actual jail term, you might virtuously hesitate; but it +is the world against a mustard seed that you wouldn't hesitate if you +had. The crisp of the joke is, however,--and of course it serves you +right,--that the judge, after all, gives you the ten years, and that +means life, for you will never be long out of jail afterward. As I write +this, I have in mind several instances of it among my personal +acquaintances at Atlanta. + +If then our convict, upon his release, cannot keep himself in any honest +employment, and cannot avoid arrest even when he is doing nothing at +all, good or bad, it seems plain that he must either hunt out a quiet +place where he may starve to death before the officer can arrest him for +starving, or commit suicide in some more sudden and active manner, or he +must accept the opportunity which is always at hand in "revert to a +career of crime," as the saying is. Ex-convicts are often still human +enough to be averse from starvation, and even from easier forms of +self-destruction; and they yield to the temptation to steal. Like the +idiots they are, they may hope to make a big strike and get away with +it, and in some remote or foreign place, under another name, live out an +unobserved and blameless existence. + +Thereupon there is rejoicing in the ranks of the secret service; armed +with their bertillons, they swoop upon their quarry and bear him away. +"May it please the Court, this man is an incorrigible; not deterred by +previous punishment, immediately upon release he plunges again into +crime; he should receive the limit!" The Court thinks so too; the limit +is imposed, and the malefactor is led out to the living death which will +end with death in reality. And now will some righteous and competent +person arise and proclaim that this man's yielding to his first +temptation to crime did NOT involve greater moral turpitude than did his +yielding to the second temptation or to the third--greater or at least +as great--and that therefore the severer sentence is justified? His +first misdeed was prompted by hunger, ignorance, drunkenness, or +cupidity; the others were the fruit of desperation itself--and how many +of you have known what desperation means? + +You perceive that this story proceeds by digressions; such value as it +may have it will owe mainly to such digressions, so I will not apologize +for them. My friend and I, our ordeal completed, were returned to our +cells to think it over. The walls and ceiling of the cells are painted a +light gray color; it is against the rules, except by special indulgence, +to affix pictures or other objects to them. The "coddling of criminals," +so widely advertised, does not include permission to give a homelike +look to their perennial quarters; it is more conducive to moral reform +that they should contemplate painted steel. There was one camp-stool in +our cell; later, cells were supplied with two wooden chairs, the seats +sloping at such an angle with the backs as rendered sitting a penance; +cushions were not provided. I remember seeing similar contrivances in +old English cathedrals, relics of a day when monks had to be kept from +falling asleep during the religious rites. We might also sit upon the +lower bunk, bent forward in such an attitude as would avert bumping our +heads against the upper one. Each convict, early in his sojourn, has a +religious interview with the Chaplain, who presents him with a copy of +the New Testament--not also of the Old; you may remember that the latter +records certain regrettable incidents of a sinister and immoral sort, +calculated, I presume, to shock the tender budding impulses toward +regeneration of prison readers. One may get other books of a secular +kind from the library, upon written application; and prisoners of the +first grade may subscribe for newspapers that contain no objectionable +matter. But only a small proportion of the inmates is addicted to +reading, and the opportunities for doing so are limited. And as months +and years go by, the desolation and sterility of the place weigh heavier +upon the spirit, the mind reduces its radius and grows inert, and +stimulants stronger than current fiction are needed to rouse it. Prison, +prison, prison; steel walls and gratings; the predestinate screechings +and clangings of whistles and gongs; the endless filings to and fro, in +and out; the stealthy insolence of guards, or their treacherous +good-fellowship; the abstracted or menacing gaze of the higher +officials; the dreariness, aimlessness, and sometimes the severity of +the daily labor; the sullen threat of the loaded rifles; the hollow, +echoing spaces that shut out hope; the thought of the stifling stench of +the dungeons beneath the pavements, hidden from all save the victims, +whose very existence is officially denied; the closing of all personal +communication with the outer world, except such as commends itself to +the whims of the official censors; this morgue of human beings still +alive--the impenetrable stupidity, futility and outrage of it +all--slowly or not so slowly unbalance the mind and corrupt the nature. +Meanwhile, newspapers clamor against the coddling of criminals, and the +too indulgent officials smile sadly and protest that they have not the +heart to be stern. "Coddling criminals"--the alliteration makes it roll +pleasantly off the tongue! + +But do I forget the many indulgences given to prisoners--and so +profusely celebrated in every mention publicly made of Atlanta +Penitentiary? Let me name them once more. Saturday being a non-working +day, it used to be the custom to lock the prisoners in their cells from +Saturday morning till Monday morning--a custom still followed at many +penitentiaries; for how could they be controlled if not split up into +working gangs, and thus prevented from conspiring to mutiny? It is one +of the obsessions of prison authorities that the prisoners are severally +and collectively a sort of wild beast, always straining at the leash, +and ready at the least opportunity to break forth in wild and deadly +disorder. It is obviously expedient, too, to impress the public with +this conviction, and therefore, in part, we have the clubs, rifles, and +general parade of watchfulness. As a matter of fact, meanwhile, nothing +is more easy to handle than a prisonful of convicts, if the most +elementary tact be used; and they are eagerly grateful for the smallest +unforced and spontaneous act of kindness. + +Until about eighteen months ago, however, severe restrictions were in +vogue, and the warden declared that it was his belief and policy that +men in prison should be taught by precept and illustration to regard +themselves as dead to the world; that they should be held practically +incommunicado, no visitors, letters at most but once a month, no +conversation between prisoners--silence, solitude, suffocation in this +terrible quicksand of jail for months, years, or a lifetime, at the +mercy of men to whom mercy is a jest. Such a régimen is still in force +at many jails, and when combined with contract labor, nothing in the +age-long history of penal imprisonment shows a blacker record. It is +advocated as the best way to induce men to reform, and become, after +release, useful and industrious members of the community. + +A couple of years or so ago, Atlanta was visited by an Attorney-General, +who was not prepared for what he saw, nor had the things he should not +have seen been removed from sight before he saw them. He demanded some +improvements on the spot, and soon after a new deputy warden was +appointed--a young man, of kindly disposition, though weak, not inured +as yet to the conventional brutalities, and with a backing in Washington +which gave him unusual powers. Among good things which he instituted and +insisted on were--two and a half hours outdoors on Saturday afternoons, +for baseball and general relaxation; conversation at meals; music at +dinner by a band made up from convicts; regular bi-weekly letters, with +extra letters allowed between times by special request to orderly +convicts; concerts or vaudeville performances every month or so in the +chapel, by professionals. + +Insanity became less frequent after this, and the general health of the +men improved. They had something to look forward to, and to look back +to, and the freedom of the baseball concession led to no disorders; +something like hope and cheerfulness began to appear, like green blades +of grass in spring. The warden cleverly seized the opportunity to take +credit to himself for all the improvements, and to circulate +industriously in the local papers the praise of the model penitentiary. +But neither did he fail to take advantage of the new situation to +tighten his grasp upon the reins of control. The majority of jails, in +addition to the ordinary spy system operated by officials, organize a +supplementary one composed of convicts themselves--stool +pigeons--certain carefully selected prisoners, who are rewarded for +treachery to their fellows by various indulgences and secret liberties. +The principle is detestable, and has evil effects. The stool pigeons +themselves are of course the basest members of the community, and the +other prisoners, soon learning to suspect them, come at last to a +miserable distrust of one another--for the comrade apparently most +sincere may be at heart only a more artful traitor. In this, they play +into the officials' hands, whose theory of government is fear, and who +find aid to themselves in the mutual misgivings and hatreds of their +charges. + +Evidently, the relaxations of the baseball afternoons afforded a capital +opportunity to the stool pigeons, and the results were soon apparent. +The spies, in order to curry favor with their employers, reported not +actual infringements of discipline only, but guessed at what might be, +and even invented what was not, often by way of retaliation against +personal enemies. I shall return to this subject hereafter; enough, for +the present, that it counterbalanced in a degree the physical benefits +of the new concessions by engendering mental disquiets and animosities +among the entire population, and especially inflaming them against the +officials. I am not myself sure, for example, whether or not one or +another of my most intimate acquaintances among the prisoners may not +all the while have been on the watch to betray me behind my back. For +aught I know, it may have been to some such sordid treachery that I owe +the refusal of my parole, when it became due. And any respect for +constituted prison authorities, upheld by such means, was impossible. + +When the coddling of prisoners involves feeding them on poison, they +would prefer Spartan severity and fair warning. + + + + +VI + + +SOME PRISON FRIENDS OF MINE + +Vague noises are at all times audible in jail--stirrings, foot-falls, a +subdued voice now and then, the sharp orders of an official--"bawlings +out" as they are termed; the clanging of steel gates, the murmur of +machinery, the cacophany of musical instruments during practise hours in +the chapel; as well as the periodical screeches and ringings of whistles +and gongs. The general impression on ear and eye alike is of stealthy +repression, a checked unrest--a multifarious creature, uneasy but kept +down. The place is perhaps hardly less silent than a cloister; but the +peace of the cloister is utterly absent. An atmosphere of animosity and +contention pervades all--a constant apprehension of sinister things +liable to happen, a breathless struggle, the sullenness of hate, the +whispering of treachery. The eyes of officials peer, watch and threaten; +those of the convicts are downcast but privily rebellious, or +deprecatingly servile. + +It is the everlasting pregnancy of war between slave and master, quite +different from submission to rightful authority. Whatever the law may +say, the rightfulness of prison authority is never admitted by +prisoners. Honest authority is tranquil and secure; prison authority +goes armed, conscious of its unrighteousness, and there is unremitting +nervous stress on both sides. Both sides seem secretly to await a signal +to sudden conflict. + +At dinner, soon after my arrival, amid the omnipresent murmurous palaver +of conversation, there fell an unusual noise. The unusual is always +formidable in jail. The noise was nothing in itself, and would have +passed unheeded in a hotel dining-room. But over us, crowded together +there, spread an instant hush. All knew that men had been stabbed, +frenzied affrays had broken out in that room. What was it now? The guard +in the window stiffened and poised his rifle. The guards on the floor +caught their breath, but assumed a confident air. The men sat staring in +the direction of the noise, tense and waiting. + +Nothing happened; somebody had dropped a plate and broken it, perhaps. +But had some natural leader of the enslaved leaped up and shouted at +that juncture, murder would have followed the next moment. Among every +hundred convicts there are eight or ten whom misery and wrong have made +reckless, whose morbid rebelliousness needs, to break forth, only the +shadow of opportunity to kill before being killed, and they accept it. +But it was not to be that day, and we relaxed, and grinned, nervously or +grimly, and resumed our meal. + +Eight hundred men, clad in a shapeless monotony of dingy blue, labeled +on the back with their disgrace, stepping lightly or shuffling hastily +to and fro, heads bent and eyes downcast, performing various offices, +menial, clerical or industrial, with a certain obsequiousness and +ostensible zeal that was yet inwardly repulsion and protest--these were +men born under the great flag, Americans, my countrymen, and now my +companions! What a change, what a degradation from the free American +citizen of the streets and boundless expanses! Not men, now, but slaves, +condemned to penal servitude; not citizens, but a class apart and alien; +felons, criminals, no longer entitled to life, liberty and the pursuit +of happiness, but existing in shame and on suffrance, ruined, nameless, +parted from friends and families, with present physical pain and mental +misery, and with a future of hounding and helplessness, of fear and +hiding, of uselessness and aimlessness, of insanity and base death! + +Upon what plea are these conditions established? Because the slaves had +broken the law--been guilty of crimes. But what crimes? Some had done +murder, others committed rape, some had held up a train, another had +blown a safe, another was a pickpocket, another a white-slaver, this one +had stolen food to avert starvation, that was a confidence man or bank +embezzler, here was one snared in some technicality of new finance laws, +yonder an ignorant moonshiner from the hills, who had grown corn in his +back yard and thought he had a right to make whiskey out of it--he had +no other means of livelihood. Breakers of God's laws; of man's; victims +of tricks and legal technicalities, of torturing want and of headlong +passion, and of sheer court errors or of perjured testimony--here they +were, all on the same footing, no discriminations made! To what end? So +that they might be punished and repent and go forth better men and +useful workers, and so that society might be protected and its integrity +vindicated. That is the ostensible reason; no other is alleged. + +It sounds like a jest; but the men are here, the thing is done. In some +moods I would say to myself, "It's too preposterous--it can't be--it's +an hallucination--a bad dream!" But there it was, visible and palpable. +Was it protection for society to shut up a man from ability to support +those dependent on him, who were thus themselves driven to want and +perhaps crime, multiplying the original criminality by three or four or +half a dozen? Could any injury which the culprit could do to the +community equal the injury thus done by the community to him and his, +and indirectly to itself, by such treatment? Or could the technical and +perhaps unconscious violator of an obscure and whimsical law be reformed +by putting him on an equality with a cold-blooded murderer, or with a +man who had grown rich by selling the shame of women? Was the punishment +equable which handled with equal severity a brutish negro from the +cotton fields, and a man brought up in refinement and gentleness? + +But I would go further, and challenge the right of the community to +inflict penal imprisonment as we know it at all. Some criminals belong +in hospitals, others in insane asylums, for others the thoughtless +neglect and selfishness of society is responsible, and they should be +succored, not punished; and the remainder should be constrained, under +surveillance but not in confinement, to compensate for the harm they did +by labor or self-denial aimed directly at that result. But of this +hereafter. + +Meanwhile, I paid attention to my companions themselves. + +In their intercourse with one another there was a singular amenity or +pleasantness, and with some who had been prisoners for a long time, a +sort of childlikeness. But it was like the childlikeness of a person +partly dazed, or recovering from a severe illness or shock. They greeted +one another with a covert smile, an unobtrusive movement of head or +hand; only when under direct observation of an official would they pass +without a sign. The usual words were, "How're you feeling?" or, "How're +they comin'?" not in the perfunctory tone of greetings in the outer +world, but with an accent of real interest and solicitude. The answer +would be, "Good!" "Fine!" with as much heartiness as could be thrown +into it--though it might be obvious enough that the truth was far from +being that. + +There was one dear old fellow who had a variation on these forms; he was +an alleged moonshiner, though, as he said, "Yes, I did make some +whiskey, but I never sold none!" "How're you feeling, Joe?" I would say; +and he would reply, with his pathetic smile, and his high, soft voice, +"Pretty well--pretty well, for 'n old man!" with a drawling emphasis on +the "old." He was about seventy, with the soft brown hair of youth, but +bent and stiff and wrinkled with hard years and rheumatics; and if I +questioned him more closely, he would confess that he suffered from +"lots o' misery here!"--passing his gnarled old hands over his digestive +tract. Indeed, four-fifths of the men had that trouble in more or less +acute form, owing to the atrocious food supplied as our regular diet. + +Joe's face, though lined with the hardships and privations of a long +life, was beautifully formed, aristocratic in its delicate contours; and +he possessed, and constantly used, one of the most delectable, +contagious and genuine laughs that ever made music in my ears. The men +would ransack their humorous resources in conversation with Joe, merely +for the sake of making him laugh. He would fix his old eyes squarely on +yours, and laugh and laugh with infinite mirth and good nature. Such a +sound in such a place was rare and wonderful, and helped one like fresh +water in a desert. + +The general friendliness among the men--so contrasted with their +demeanor toward the officials--was due to the identity of their common +interests; they were in the same boat, facing the same perils and +disasters, united in the same aims and hopes, and leagued against the +same oppressors. They lived in the constant dread of some calamity; and +if I met the same man three or four times in the same day, he would +never fail to make the same enquiry--"How're you feeling?" recognizing +that I might have received some ugly blow in the interval. There was a +spontaneous courtesy and a charitableness in it that touched the heart. + +The same sentiment was manifested at meals; if anybody got hold of +anything that seemed to him a little better than usual, he could not +rest till he had offered some of it, or all of it, to his neighbors at +table. "Here, take this--take it--I got more'n I want!" Or, watching his +opportunity, Ned the runner, who had comforted us on our first night in +prison, would come to the door of my cell, with his Irish humor and +cordiality shining in his eyes. "Say, Mr. Hawthorne, there's a dividend +been declared!" and out of some surreptitious receptacle he would +produce three or four crumpled cigarette papers--of all contraband +articles in the prison the most prized. "No--take 'em--I got no end of +'em!" + +A peculiar consideration was manifested by the men toward "the old man"; +my hair was white enough, to be sure, but it had been so for nearly +twenty years, and I was in much better physical condition than most of +them. I accepted their kind offices with gratitude and emotion, and, +when I saw that to do otherwise would hurt their feelings, their +concrete gifts, too. + +But there were many instances of self-sacrifice greater than these; men +would go to the hole sooner than betray a comrade; and you are fortunate +in being unable to comprehend what that means. If a comrade in his range +was sick and unable to come to meals, I have constantly seen a man +secrete half of his miserable breakfast or dinner in his pocket, to be +carried up to the invalid and smuggled into his cell. It was a matter of +course, nobody remarked it. Any mistake or indiscretion committed by a +prisoner would be instantly and almost mechanically covered by the man +nearest him, though at the risk of punishment--and the punishment for +betraying human sympathy in this way is--of course it is!--especially +severe; it is conspiracy to cheat the Government. + +The traditional tale of a prisoner's devotion to animals is also true; a +man next me at table--a yegg--for two weeks poured half his allowance of +milk (he was on milk diet for acute indigestion) into a surreptitious +bottle, and bore it off for the sustenance of a couple of little forlorn +kittens that he was acting as special providence for. The meditative +smile with which he perpetrated this theft upon the prison authorities +was a wonderful sight. Another convict, a hardened old timer, for +several weeks lavished cargoes of tenderness upon a rat which he had +laboriously conciliated and tamed. "What makes you so fond of that +animal?" enquired one day a sentimental and statistical old lady visitor +to the prison. After struggling with his emotions for a minute, he burst +out, "Yah! he bit the guard!" This dialogue was overheard, and enchanted +the whole penitentiary for months. + +But one reflects that, whatever humane or lovable traits prisoners may +exhibit, they are after all criminals! The existence in a lost soul of +good qualities or impulses side by side with evil ones has long been +recognized. Victor Hugo illustrated the discovery in his Jean Valjean, +it was a staple with Dickens, Bret Harte's heroes are all of that type, +it was the inspiration of much of Charles Reade's eloquence, Kipling has +more than a touch of it, our contemporary fiction-mongers sentimentalize +over it, and the train-robber in the movies usually has a full line of +sterling virtues up his sleeve. The lost soul, in short, brims over, +upon occasion, with the wine of regeneration. Therefore (so runs the +moral) let us of the elect furbish up our charity, and be as tolerant +toward this non-human class of people as may be consistent with our own +safety and respectability. Scraps of our own lustrous impeccability have +somehow found their way into them, and we cannot afford wholly to +disavow them, in spite of their wretched lodgings. + +This phariseeism is so inveterate with us, that I may fairly say that +one has to be sentenced to jail as a criminal in order to correct it. +From that vantage ground or Mount of Vision it presently dawns upon us +that these men are no more lost souls than we are--are, in fact, woven +out of the same yarn and cut from the same cloth. And from this same +vantage ground it also gradually dawns upon us that, in one respect at +least, the aggregate in a jail is better than the same number of men +taken haphazard from the city streets. For the former have now laid +aside self-righteousness and dissimulation, which are of the essence of +our unrestrained civil life: "I killed a man, yes; I robbed a bank, I +picked a pocket, I lived off a woman, I swindled my stockholders, I +counterfeited a banknote." No disguise here--no evasion. + +But when you go into the details of the transaction, weigh the causes +which led up to it, consider the conditions surrounding it, realize the +temptations or provocations that precipitated it, you step into your +confessional: "Lord, my nature and heart are not different from this +sinner's, and but for accidents and good fortune which were none of my +providing, I should stand accountant to-day as he does!" You bring the +whited sepulcher home to you, and find that you have been living in it +yourself. And if you have a little intelligence you will acknowledge in +your convict the scapegoat who--not more and perhaps less blameworthy +than you--is bearing your iniquities as well as his own. + +So, instead of condescending, with supercilious eyebrows and spotless +broadcloth, to concede that these unfortunate members of a non-human +class sometimes betray traces of saving grace after all, it might better +become you to wish that some of their saving graces appertained to +yourself. At your best showing, you are a pharisee and a hypocrite, and +he is not; he stands confessed; your sin is still secret in your soul. +By what right do you look down upon him? + +These things which I now say to you, I said first to myself, sitting in +my cell, or watching the endless gray-blue files shuffle past me on +their way to and from meals. It was of small help or significance that I +claimed innocence of the particular offense that happened to be charged +against me; I was as indistinguishable from these men in heart as I was +in outward garb and rating. And I had manhood enough to feel glad that, +since they had to be here, I was here with them. The burden of the +scapegoat has its compensations. + +On my first Sunday in the chapel, there came an exhorter or revivalist, +accustomed to dealing with prisoners from the platform, and dubbed "The +Old War-horse of Salvation," or some such title. He had his white +waistcoat, his raucous, shouting voice, his phrases, his anecdotes, his +"my men," "my friends," "fellows"; his "I'm saved, I hope, and you can +be!" Oh, the phariseeism of that "I hope!" At the end of his uproar, he +called upon those of his hearers (we had all sat quite silent and +impassive during the performance) who were willing to be saved, to stand +up in their places. All the stool pigeons arose (poor devils), and a few +other bewildered persons who fancied it expedient to be on the side of +the angels, "Thank you--thank you--thank you!" hoarsely cried the +exhorter, naively accepting their response as a personal compliment to +himself. + +But that great audience sat dark, silent and impassive, and it could +only have been the tough hide of the Old War-horse that made him immune +to their cold contempt. I said to myself, "What a terrible audience it +is! Who is fit to stand before it?" These men had seen, known and +suffered the terrible, nameless things; the Unknown God, perhaps, had +spoken to many of them in their solitude; and now this being of white +waistcoat and phrases must get up and urge them to wash their sins in +the blood of the Lamb! In their silence they were preaching to him a +sermon such as no mortal pulpiteer ever uttered; but his ears were deaf +to it. "One--three--six--nine souls saved to-night! Thank you--thank +you--thank you!" And he turns to receive the polite congratulations of +the distinguished guests who sat behind him on the stage. + +In prison, and only in prison, the veil is lifted or rent in twain, and +men are revealed as they are. As they stand before their Creator, they +stand now before their fellows. They are helpless--so warden and guards +think--but they have gained a power beyond any physical might of man. +They are voiceless, but they challenge mankind. They endure every +indignity and outrage; but an account will be required of those +responsible for it. + +I wish to emphasize this dropping of the mask--this stop put to +posturing and pretending--this going forth in rude nakedness before +one's fellows. The man in the church pew chants out with the rest of the +congregation, "We are sinners, desperately wicked, and there is no +health in us;" but he says it with his tongue in his cheek, and fitting +his mask on only the more tightly. Or the man "convinced of sin" on the +anxious seat at the revivalist meeting frenziedly accuses himself of all +the sins in the decalogue, but finds protection in the very generality +and promiscuity of his confession, which includes and at the same time +conceals the particular fact that he robbed the till and got away with +it. We seldom hear of a penitent of this kind being indicted by a Grand +Jury, tried, convicted and jailed on the basis of his salvation +outcries. He talks figuratively. + +There is nothing dramatic or hysterical in the attitude of the felon in +his cell. He robbed the till, he admits to you; but he does not drag in +the rest of the decalogue to divert your attention. And his penitence, +when he feels any, is not, in nine cases out of ten, prompted by the +expectation of getting a clean bill of health on his entire life-account +(the empty till included) from a good natured Savior not too keen about +details. He tells you, as a rule, "I was foolish and took too many +chances!" or, "If I'd handled the thing by myself, instead of admitting +a partner, it would have been all right;" or, "Oh, of course, I was a +damned fool; what's the use of bucking up against the fly cops!" In the +case of a murder, it might be, "I'm sorry I killed him, but I guess any +fellow would have done the same in my case." + +Duration of confinement does not modify this attitude; the man of ten +years says the same as the man of ten months, except--and the exception +is worth noting--that the former's moral sense, whatever he originally +had of it, has been blunted or discouraged, and he has conceived a +settled animosity against human authority, and disbelief in the justice +and sincerity of its administrators. He has been the subject, during his +incarceration, of such numberless acts of gratuitous tyranny, outrage +and cruelty, and has seen so much of "the way things go," in general, +that though he may concede that honesty is the best policy, he can find +no other recommendation for it, and is prone to the secret conviction +that honesty itself is somehow only a cleverer way of cheating. + +Such a state of mind is bred by prison experience--not otherwise. Prison +obstructs or altogether closes every door to genuine moral reform in +prisoners. + +A few larger souls overcome the obstructions; for example, our John +Ross, who more than thirty-three years ago, in the blindness of a +drunken spree in Yokahoma, killed a shipmate who angered him. He died in +jail last June (1913). He was sentenced to death, but got commutation to +life imprisonment. He was a fine type of man, physically and mentally. +His spirit was never broken by what he endured, and some years before +being transferred to Atlanta, he became, in a simple, non-sensational, +but profound way, religious. At Atlanta, in his cell, he was a center of +good influence on his fellow convicts; truthful, hearty, faithful, +manly, cheerful; his preaching was by personal example, and by support +and help given at need to the weak and despairing. He was promised +freedom on parole; the promise was not kept; but even this last betrayal +failed to break his staunch heart. He died like a man, with composure +and dignity. + +With a few such exceptions, prisoners are unrepentant except for +business reasons--that is, either because they recognize that crime does +not pay, or in order to influence in their favor the pardoning power. +Many of them, of course, employ their prison opportunities to devise new +crimes and to train fresh recruits from the younger convicts. Men who +have been imprisoned more than once lose hope of anything better than +transient freedom; they know they will be prevented by the police from +earning an honest livelihood, and that they must either starve or steal. +They become in the end mere prison creatures, destitute of evil or of +good, active or passive. + +I repeat that the experience of associating with men without disguises +is novel and refreshing. A tedious burden is lifted from the shoulders; +the bones in the sepulcher are less revolting than the whitewash +outside; it is pleasanter to know what a man is than to suspect him. It +is certainly much wholesomer, on the other hand, to uncover your own +deformity than to hide it, especially when you know, or fear, that the +hiding is unsuccessful. + +There is a sense of brotherhood, long since unfamiliar to human +intercourse under usual conditions, but welcome even at the cost of +conditions such as these. The truth gradually emerges to our +consciousness--it is not the evil in us that kills brotherhood, but the +vain, unending effort to make the evil seem good. Now our eyes meet one +another's frankly; the skilfullest counterfeit was worse than the worst +reality. There is nothing in us to be proud of, but something to be +thankful for. Society has done its worst to us; but it could not take +away from us our mutual kindliness, or the qualities that justify it. We +are condemned as wicked, but we are comforted by one another's good. + +Prison, in short, more convincingly than any abstract argument, +demonstrates its own futility as a means of either taking revenge upon +the prisoner, or of inducing him to hate crime and to turn to good. +Revenge, of course, is officially discredited nowadays, though it is +practised as actively as ever under guises more or less civilized; but +the pretense of moral reform by penal imprisonment is becoming too +preposterous to be tolerated much longer. On the contrary, prison +renders the great aggregate of prisoners collectively self-conscious; +the goats find themselves, and are forced into antagonism with the sheep +not only as individuals but as a body. They make common cause together, +and in obscure ways achieve a degree of organization. They learn to +regard the community not as better than themselves, but as more +successful pensioners of fortune; they fear them because the advantage +of numbers is on their side, but they hate them because they feel, +either justly or unjustly, that they have suffered injustice at their +hands, and they will prey upon them when opportunity serves not only +from the original motive of physical need, but from the additional and +more sinister one, bred in prison, of retaliation for the wrong done +them. + +When you sap a man's faith in plain justice, and terrify him with the +threat of irresistible power, and torture him in mind and body through +the exercise of that power, you drive him to the support and society of +men similarly circumstanced, and thus create the precise analogue in the +body politic of a cancer in the individual body. Prison attempts to +segregate this cancer, but only promotes its increase. Its poison is in +the blood and circulates everywhere. + +As I passed out of the dining-room after meals each day, I came to +notice a young man who sat at a table near the door. He sat with folded +arms, and with a set and gloomy countenance; his eyes were fixed on +vacancy, and he did not speak with his companions. A crutch leaned +against his shoulder; he had lost one leg. + +I learned his story. In the settlement of a small estate of which he was +an heir, a sister of his had obtained money that belonged to him, and +when asked to restore it to him, had refused to do so. After some +fruitless negotiation, he got angry, and sent her through the mails a +message containing violent expressions of reproach and animosity. The +young woman took this paper to a United States marshal, who brought it +to the attention of the district attorney, with the result that the +brother was indicted under some law of libel or of obscene matter, was +arrested, tried, and convicted, and sentenced to Atlanta penitentiary +for five years. After he had been lodged in his cell, his sister +repented of her action, and sought to have him freed; but the law does +not recognize such changes of heart, and the brother must serve out his +time. + +We all know how easily family quarrels arise, how bitter they may be +while they last, and how readily, withal, they may be accommodated by +tactful handling. The sister had done wrong; the brother had lost his +temper; in what family has not such an outbreak occurred? But because +the brother had happened to put his bad temper on paper, the law, being +rashly invoked, seizes him, takes five years out of his life, and brands +him with the shame of the jail bird. Upon what plea can such an act be +construed as justice? But the district attorney shows the court that the +statute has been violated; the judge charges the jury, the jury finds +its verdict in accordance with the legal evidence, and the thing is +done. It is a mechanical process--nothing human about it. + +Review your own life, and discover whether you have ever stood in the +shadow of a similar catastrophe. Were you ever angry with a relative or +with any other person, and did you express your anger to him in words? +Then you are as guilty as this one-legged boy, sitting there at his +table with his life ruined. Only, he happened to write his anger, and +the sister happened to show it to a lawyer, and the machine was set in +motion which no repentance or forgiveness or remorse can stop. But the +machine does not increase the culprit's fault, and for such a fault the +legal penalty may be five years in jail. You are not so remote from the +subterranean brotherhood as you may have supposed. + +Will prison reform him? Is society protected? Is faith in human justice +promoted by such things? His case is but one of scores in every jail +that are as bad and worse. But--"throw him to the lions--serves him +right!" is still the cry. + + + + +VII + + +THE MEN ABOVE + +The men below would like to feel respect for the men above, even if it +be a respect married to fear. It is more humiliating to be dominated by +worthless creatures, of no character or genuine manhood, whose authority +is effective only because it happens to be the tool through which works +the irresistible power of a government, than to obey men of native +energy and force, captains as well of their own souls as of the bodies +of their subjects. The despotism of a cur is revolting, and rouses the +wild beast in the victims. Those responsible for its infliction insult +human nature. + +As far as I have had opportunity to observe, or have been informed, the +despotism of the cur in our jails, and in those of other countries +perhaps (though not to nearly the same extent as in ours) is the rule; +and that of self-respecting and respected men is the rare exception. +Hate inflamed with contempt is a dangerous and evil passion to +stimulate. It awakens a thirst for savage retaliation which hate alone +does not produce. Moreover, weak and cowardly tyrants are always more +cruel than courageous and masculine ones, and they do not observe any +consistent line of conduct; in the intervals of their debauches of +brutality they are oily and ingratiating, make favorites, offer +pusillanimous apologies, protest humane intentions, and allege absurd +excuses for past outrages. A brute is bad enough, and we are all brutes +at bottom; but a brute who covers his hyena snarl with the smug mask of +a saint is monstrous and detestable. + +The wardens of many of our jails are double men. Behind the imposing +façade of their physical aspect we detect an uneasy, hurried, shrewdly +contriving little creature, quite incommensurate with the material +bodily structure built up for his concealment and protection. He will +not come out in the open, but seeks some advantage, plans to get behind +us and execute some cunning coup-de-theater, while our suspicions are +lulled by the hospitable and comfortable glow of the exterior. In his +dealings with the convicts as a body, he is apt to imitate Macbeth's +witches, and keep the word of promise to the ear, but break it to the +hope; he has vanity without self confidence, lacks the truthfulness of +the strong, his voice does not resound and compel, he dances and +fidgets, grins and is grave in the same instant. If the men's attitude +be sullen, he tries to be bluff and hearty, "my-boys" them, claps them +heartily on the shoulder, or lapses into whining and gushing. It is all +of worse than no avail with these undeceivable readers of character. It +is a curious effect of the working of esprit de corps in jails that the +prisoners may feel ashamed of such unmanly antics in their warden, +especially should strangers be within eyeshot. + +Of course, in his encounters with prisoners singly, a man of this type +may show more of his real nature, especially if the prisoner be one of +the inoffensive sort. He will be bland, insolent, indifferent or cruel, +as suits his mood of the moment. "For God's sake, won't you let me write +her just one letter?" implored a prisoner who had just got news of the +fatal illness of his wife. Picture the situation--two human beings face +to face, one helpless and in agony, the other with absolute power! The +official faced the man deliberately, with an amused smile. "I can," he +said, slowly, "but--I won't!" How would you have felt in such a case? +Could you ever forget it? and would you not be ready, for that +official's sake, to hate mankind, and to curse God and die? But you +perhaps believe that convicts have no human feelings, and that they are +cheerful under such treatment. + +The value of these remarks lies, of course, in their general character; +the conduct of an individual, regarded by itself, would have small +importance. And if I do not instance the conduct of those honest and +manly officials who are to be found here and there, it is because the +public is already informed concerning them; their deeds do not seek +darkness, but are visible by their own light. It is the rascals that we +do not hear about, or if we do, it is through reports of press agents in +newspapers and otherwise, who are mere mouthpieces for the lying +self-praise of the rascals themselves. + +While I was in jail, I had access, by a fortunate circumstance, to the +annual reports to the Department of several wardens of prisons in +various states, and was able to compare their stories of themselves with +the accounts given me by prisoners who had lived under them and with my +own first hand knowledge of prison conditions, which, with a few shining +exceptions, are so terribly and remorselessly alike the civilized world +over. After making every allowance for the different point of view of +master and slave, it was very plain that the author of the report was +not merely prevaricating, or coloring his facts to render them +acceptable to his superiors, but was lying outright often, both directly +and by omissions. He would pose as a broad-minded and compassionate +father to his inmates, when all the time he was subjecting them to cruel +and needless severities and tortures. There was one man, who has lately +resigned, I believe, full of years and honors, whose addresses at the +meetings of federal wardens were almost angelic in tone and tenor, who +was in fact notorious among persons who had actual knowledge of his +official conduct as one of the most remorseless tyrants toward the men +in contemporary prison annals. Many men of bad conduct may be excused on +the plea that they are ignorant--know no better; but this man was an +intelligent student of penology, and knew exactly how wicked and wanton +he was. He was an innocent baby once upon a time, and might have grown +up to be no worse a man than is the estimable person who now reads these +lines; but he took up prison work, and the atmosphere of crime, and +preoccupation with it, and the license to use arbitrary powers, made a +devil of him. It is a common story. + +Another series of reports showed a man who, beginning as a reactionary +of an extreme type, advocating the most ruthless measures toward +convicts, finally felt the pressure of the wave of prison reform which +is gathering force just now, and adjusted his reports and addresses so +as to make himself appear as a leading apostle of the new ideas. But +though his public professions changed, the chief difference in his +practises was that, from having been undisguised, they became secret, +and so far as circumstances permitted, he acted, and permitted or +encouraged his subordinates to act as cruelly as before. However, a new +deputy warden was presently appointed, with more liberal ideas, and +endowed with large powers, and for a while the condition of the +prisoners improved; the warden, with his ear to the ground, and his eye +on the handwriting on the wall, deftly adjusting himself to the +situation, and industriously claiming for himself credit for all +betterments introduced by the deputy--who, having no press agent, was +forced to stand inactively by and see his honest credit filched away +from him--in public opinion, at least. Of course, the prisoners knew +perfectly well on which leg the boot was. But prisoners cannot make +themselves heard outside the jail. + +Accordingly, this warden, whose methods I know well, is now quoted as a +signal champion of the new and more merciful dispensation, though only +two or three years ago, according to his own personally written and +signed reports, he was for keeping prisoners practically +incommunicado--dead to the world; writing and receiving letters to be +nearly or wholly done away with; newspapers withheld; visitors denied. +Prisoners, he urged, were sent to prison for punishment, and punished, +continually and thoroughly, let them be. Punish the man, kill his +health, his hope, his spirit, his soul, his body too at need, and thus, +and only thus, reform him. It was a simple plan, and likely to bring +results--of a kind. Shall we believe that this man's professions of a +change of heart are genuine? or feel surprise to discover that at the +very moment he is receiving visitors in his commodious office upstairs, +and purring out to them his fatherly affection for his prisoners, and +denying that the old, bad methods of repression any longer are +tolerated, there are miserable wretches being hung up by the wrists in +dark and noisome cells under his feet? + +Regarding the personnel of the officials at Atlanta I can for obvious +reasons say little. They are a good deal like such officials anywhere. +The warden is a Pennsylvania Dutchman; the deputy a young Kentuckian, +gigantic and fresh faced; his first assistant is a stalwart man of +middle age, a good deal of a martinet, but the men are inclined to like +him because they see in him a solid, masculine creature, who stands pat, +says what he means, and does what he says. Then there are the prison +doctor, the steward of the commissary department, and the parole +officer, and under them are the guards and the "snitches"--the latter +not being officially recognized, although they wield an important +influence, their reports against their fellow prisoners being seriously +considered, and often made the basis of action by their superiors, which +has no small effect upon the welfare of the jail. Yet these poor +wretches--they are mostly negroes--sell their brethren for a mess of +pottage of secret favors and immunities; none save the most abject would +accept such employment. Could any inspiration or procedure be more +insecure? Yet it is an essential factor in the present principle of +prison management. + +The guards are, with some exceptions, such a body of men as might be +expected from their salary--seventy dollars a month, with no raise for +length of service or meritorious conduct. They cannot be rated as high +as the average police officer, and the conditions amid which they live +are so unfavorable to manly development that it is small wonder they +grow worse as they grow older in service. They either dislike the men +and use them accordingly, or they make secret compacts with them for +surreptitious favors, which undermine discipline and corrupt such morals +as prisoners may be supposed to possess. Often, however, they will +solicit favors from prisoners, and, when the latter seek some +accommodation in return, grin in their face, or austerely threaten to +report them. Their brutality is sometimes quite whimsical and +unexpected,--the outcome of some personal dislike, without bearing on +the prisoner's conduct,--though they are voluble in assigning some +alleged infraction of the rules, should a superior happen to call them +to account. And the superior, I may almost say, never believes the +prisoner against a guard, or rather, never acts upon such belief. That +is the settled policy of the penitentiary; the warden himself has placed +himself on record numerous times to the effect that under no +circumstances would he take the word of a prisoner over that of a guard. +To be reported means to be punished, be the report baseless or not. It +follows naturally that guards never scruple to give full rein to any +animosity they may privately feel against a man, knowing that they will +be able to "put it across" with the higher official to whom complaint +may be made. + +I happened to be in the corridor one day when one of the guards, a tall, +strapping fellow, was bringing downstairs a convict of stature much less +than his own, a poor half demented youth, whose dementia was +unfortunately wont to express itself in foul or abusive language, which +came from him almost involuntarily, without any particular personal +application. The two men were half way down the final flight of steps, +when, without any visible pretext, but, I presume, on account of some +unlucky epithet or utterance let fall by the convict, the guard suddenly +seized the youth violently by the throat, hammered his head against the +wall, and dragged him headlong down the rest of the descent. They were +now in the corridor; the man, bewildered and giddy, was whirled round +and shoved to the head of another short flight of steps leading out to +the yard; the door was open. The guard came behind him, caught him by +the collar, and exerting his strength, hurled him through the door; he +fell prone on the ground, and lay there. + +Here, my own view of the incident was cut off; but ten minutes afterward +I met a comrade, who, bristling with wrath, described the continuation +of the affray, which he had just witnessed. He said that the guard, +following the man, grasped him by the coat and jerked him off the ground +and shoved him, staggering, toward the isolation building on the other +side of the yard. There happened to be two visitors, a man and a woman, +under convoy of another guard, passing at the moment; the first guard +was by this time too much blinded by his own passion to notice them; the +other laughed, and apparently reassured the visitors. Upon nearing the +isolation building, a third guard, who was on duty at the gate, ran up, +and struck the prisoner several times on the head with his club. The man +put up his arms in an effort to ward off the blows, or to beg for mercy, +but without effect; he was dragged between his two assailants to the +deputy's office, as if he were a dangerous giant struggling to get away, +though, in fact, he was quite helpless and partly insensible. From +there, as we learned later, he was taken to a dark cell, charged with I +know not what misdeeds, and nothing was ever done to either of the +licensed ruffians who had mistreated him. + +I recall such scenes with reluctance; they are ugly things to think of; +but some illustrations are necessary in order to put in your mind some +notion of what jails mean. An episode which, as it turned out, had +elements of the ridiculous, but which came within a hair's breadth of +having very fatal consequences, occurred a short time before I became an +inmate; it is still spoken of with emotion by those who participated in +it. + +A large number of prisoners, some twenty or more, I think, were +collected in one of the basement work-rooms, when a fire broke out +there. The smoke soon became suffocating, and crept up into the ranges +above, alarming the whole prison. But conditions in the room itself were +immediately intolerable; the door had been locked, and the men were +jammed together there, frantically shrieking for the door to be opened. +Death for all of them would be a matter of only a few minutes. The guard +in the corridor above, a huge, burly personage, with the brains, it +would be flattery to say, of a calf, and exceedingly punctilious in his +notions, came down the stairs to see what was the matter. One of the men +shouted out to him, forgetting decorum in the desperate hurry of the +moment, "Why don't you open the door, you ---- ---- ----?" Now, it was +not only against the rules that the door should be opened between +certain hours, but it was altogether irregular and intolerable to +miscall an official. The guard stopped short. "Who's that called me a +----?" he demanded indignantly. But there was none to answer him, for +the men were by that time strangling and fainting. + +Down the stairs at this juncture came one of the higher officials, +choking and gasping. "Open that door, why don't you?" he managed to call +out, seeing the guard below him. "I'm trying to find out," replied the +latter, "who it was called me a ----." The higher official was +understood to say something which penetrated the hide of his +subordinate, and stirred him at last to action--not a moment too soon. +The door was unlocked, and the captives tumbled and crawled out. The +burly personage, who rated punctilio and seemly language above the lives +of men, still retains his position in the corridor; but the prisoner who +had insulted his dignity has never been identified. + +But what can be expected of men in the position of guards of a prison? +The function is abnormal, and unless it be undertaken from high motives +and with an exceptional endowment of intelligence and humane feeling, it +will steadily deteriorate a man; from being at the start to all +practical purposes a social derelict, incompetent for productive +employment, and often suffering from an incurable disease, he will sink +lower and lower in the scale of manhood and morality. He has two chief +aims in life--to requite himself upon defenseless convicts for the +kicking-out bestowed upon himself by the community; and to get an +increase of pay. + +I had not been three days in the prison, when one of them came to me in +my cell and asked me to write for him a letter to the Department urging +a raise of salary. So be it by all means, if higher pay will get better +men; but men who can command higher pay do not care to do such work. + +Since my guard saw no impropriety in asking for it--though, of course, +it was against the rules--I wrote his petition for him. The rules +governing guards are explicit, but so far at least as they regard +treatment of prisoners they are freely disregarded. For example, guards +are forbidden by the rules to address prisoners insultingly, to apply +names or epithets to them, to lay hands upon them or to strike them +"upon whatever provocation" unless they believe their own lives are in +danger. A rabbit has as much chance of throttling a bulldog as the +ordinary prisoner of endangering the life of a guard; yet hardly a +prisoner in the penitentiary has not repeatedly either undergone or +witnessed, or both, insults and physical violence offered by guards to +the men. As to the impropriety of asking favors of the men, the guards +might plead distinguished precedent for it. One of the higher officials +of the penitentiary summoned me to his office one morning. He informed +me that he intended to devote his life to prison work, but that he was +still a young man, and that advancement was slow and difficult. "When +you were outside, you lived in society, and knew a lot of big men," he +was kind enough to say; "you will be going out of here again before +long. If you should find it in your way to speak a good word for me in +quarters where it would be likely to do me good, I should appreciate +it." I should perhaps have premised, lest he appear in the light of +asking something for nothing, that he had opened the conversation by +handing back to me the Ingersoll watch of which I had been deprived on +entering the institution. I knew that my young friend and benefactor was +deep in the darksome intricacies of prison politics, and was just then +getting rather the worst of it; but I was unable to give him any +positive assurance that my influence with the Department, or elsewhere, +would suffice to give him a lift. + +Favoritism rules in all parts of the prison administration; it and +prison politics are, indeed, twin curses of our whole prison system. In +spite of all the specious official promises of reward for good conduct +in the form of parole and obedience to the rules, every prisoner knows +that they are apples of Sodom; the most correct conduct, maintained for +years, will gain a man nothing, while a worthless and heedless fellow, +if he has a friend among the men above, will have his way smoothed for +him. An official's pet snitch enjoys all manner of indulgences in the +way of food and freedoms, and if he be an intelligent fellow, he can +ride on his superior's neck and influence his conduct to a surprising +degree. Again, certain guards, in the eyes of their superiors, can do no +wrong whatever wrong they do; and others, who are apt to be men who +retain some conscientious notions as to their duties, find their path +difficult. Some guards, too, though they may be obnoxious to their +officers, are not dismissed because they know too much, and might reveal +uncomfortable facts were they cashiered. I could name an example of +this--a young guard who, a few years ago, committed a cold blooded crime +upon a convict, for which in the outside world he would have been liable +to a hanging. But the prison authorities did not find it expedient to +punish him, and he still saunters about the prison, with his cap tilted +on his head, and his rifle. He is a good shot, and is employed a good +deal on the towers, where quick marksmanship might be useful. He knows +too much. + +Evil conditions breed evil deeds and dangerous secrets. Conditions have +improved somewhat during the last two or three years, but the +improvement has been more outward than inward. One day, two or three +years ago, suddenly appeared at the gates the Attorney-General from +Washington. He had not been looked for so early. He walked straight into +the dining-room, where he noticed a number of convicts standing up with +their noses against the wall. "What is this for?" he asked one of them. +The convict couldn't exactly tell; he was waiting to be had up for +examination. "How long are you kept there?" "From seven in the morning +till seven at night." "Have you had anything to eat?" The man had not, +nor any opportunity to discharge the functions of nature either. + +This Attorney-General, in Washington, had never showed himself a friend +of convicts; but when he saw--and smelt!--this comparatively slight +instance of prison discipline, his gorge rose. He ordered all the +culprits to the kitchen for a meal, and issued an edict against this +punishment, and against some other things that he discovered. What he +would have done had he seen the dark cells, and the condition of the men +who had been kept there for a few months, may be conjectured. The public +is indeed assured that the use of these cells has long been +discontinued; but seven or eight hundred prisoners know that, as late as +last October, a certain convict commonly referred to as "the old +Englishman" was hung up by the wrists in one of them. And there were +others. + +Prison officials are political appointees, whose controlling aim must +therefore be the security and prosperity of themselves, and only +afterward (if at all) the welfare and just and decent treatment of the +convicts. They have their salaries (niggardly enough if we regard the +work they are supposed to do, but affluent in view of what they actually +do), and they have the government appropriations for expenses and +supplies for the penitentiary, which they are expected to handle +economically. But economy, and decent and humane treatment of prisoners +in a jail, are incompatible, even were the men kept steadily and +productively at work under proper conditions, and paid for what they +produced. A jail properly administered would be one of the most +expensive investments in the world; but Congress, as at present advised, +thinks only of cutting down the already miserably insufficient stipend; +and that warden who can, at the end of his fiscal year, show a balance +in favor of the government, may depend upon holding his position, and +nobody considers the mortal tears, misery and outrage from which that +favorable balance is derived. For not only if it be wisely and honestly +expended is the supply of money insufficient, but much of it is wasted +by mere ignorance, negligence and incompetence, and much more of it--as +recent exposures in newspapers indicate--leaks away in the form of +graft. For all this waste the convict must pay in privations and +cruelties not authorized or contemplated by a government none too +considerate at best; and men above grow fat and rosy gilled. + +But nothing is so difficult to prove or so easy to conceal as graft; all +the ingenuity and resources of the grafters are primarily and +undeviatingly devoted to covering their tracks. So much is allowed for +maintenance, subsistence, construction; the bills and receipts are +shown; all seems right. And yet, somehow, buildings remain unfinished, +grounds are a raw wilderness, men are clad in rags inherited from +previous generations, and are starved and abused. Meanwhile, a warden on +a four or five thousand dollar salary contrives to live at the rate of +ten or twelve, and may own valuable real estate in the city. + +Do miracles occur in jails, after having been so long discontinued +elsewhere? Or must we at last realize that the comfort and soft living +of a handful of rascals is obtained at the cost of the flesh and blood +and despair of thousands of men--I believe there are five hundred +thousand convicts in this country annually--gagged and helpless, to whom +we give the name of convicts, but who, whatever their crimes, are still +our own flesh and blood, brothers of ours, our own very selves but for +special circumstances for which we can claim no merit; but for their +souls and lives we are responsible, and to strive to redeem and succor +them our own intelligent self-interest should prompt us to spend and +labor lavishly. Instead of that, our habitual attitude toward them is +that of indifference or even hostility. For why should we honest people +waste our good money and precious sympathy on a convict? Has he not +already robbed us enough? + +It would be a shallow thing to hold up as monsters of hardheartedness +and depravity the officials who have been entrusted with the conduct of +our prisons. If they do wickedly and corruptly, it is not because they +are to begin with preterhuman sinners, but because we summoned them to +duties far above their capacity and training, which involve temptations +and provocations which they lack will and power to resist, which give +them power over fellow creatures which the most magnanimous and purest +men might hesitate to assume, and which inevitably plunge men who are +not magnanimous or pure into deeds of injustice, dishonor and +inhumanity. In a sense, the officials are no less victims of the +ignorance and frivolity of the community than are the prisoners +themselves. + +But, at any rate, the officials are few and the prisoners are many. If +anything is to be done to make things better, there is more hope in +dealing with the officials first. After they have been driven out, and +their places filled with honorable and enlightened men, who will at +least administer the law as it stands with integrity and judgment, we +shall be in a better position to consider whether the law itself be +beyond criticism, and its penalties justly and prudently devised. Crime +as it exists is an enormous evil, and it costs us enormously; and cheap +and pinchbeck methods will never rid us of it. + + + + +VIII + + +FOR LIFE + +When a man hears rumors that his application for parole is likely to be +acted upon favorably, a guard pauses at his cell door some morning, and +tells him to go to the clothing shop at a certain hour. The prisoner, +unless he has been forewarned, accepts this as proof positive that he +will really be set at liberty, and presents himself before the head +tailor with a smiling countenance. He is solemnly and specifically +measured for a suit, looks over the material out of which it is to be +made, perhaps ventures to mention some predilections as to the cut, and +takes his departure with a light heart. The fact that the cloth is +cheap, unshrunken goods, which will shrivel up at the first shower or +severe humidity, and will, at all events, get wrinkled out of shape in a +few days, does not dash the hopeful prisoner's jocundity; nor even the +consideration that the "prison cut" will be instantly recognized all +over the country, by every detective, private or federal, and acted upon +as circumstances may indicate. It is not the clothes, good or bad, that +makes his long-tried heart glad; it is the assurance of freedom. He +would be more than content with a simple loin-cloth, if only freedom +might go with it. + +As a matter of fact, this measuring commonly means little, and +guarantees nothing at all. Indeed, it has rather the appearance of a +pleasant jest of the authorities--one of the cat-and-mouse plays with +prisoners with which every old timer is familiar. One would say the +authorities find amusement, amid the monotonous round of their +avocations, in thus stimulating hopes which they know are not likely to +be fulfilled. "Come, here is a heart not yet thoroughly broken; let us +try another blow at it!" Days, weeks, months, drag tediously by, and +nothing more is heard of the parole, or of the suit of new clothes. They +have never been made up, or if they by chance have been, they are put +away to gather dust on a shelf underground; they are old clothes +now--years old, sometimes. And when at last they are brought out again, +it is probable that they will be worn by some other, more fortunate man, +who ignored the misfit for the sake of getting past the prison doors. + +When this little drama was acted for my benefit, I noticed a man sitting +in a certain chair amid the other tailor prisoners, stitching away +perfunctorily at a piece of goods. I call him a man, but he looked, to +my fancy, like an ancient frog, or the semblance of what had once been a +frog, from which, however, all the impulses and juices that had made him +alive had slowly leaked away, until nothing but the shell was left. He +was a pithless automaton, in whom mind and emotions had long since +become inert, and only enough sensibility was left to enable him to feel +dimly miserable. Who was he--or, better, who had he been? I learned that +for seven years he had sat in that same chair from morning till night, +doing the same job of sewing on one suit after another of prison +clothing. Seven years! But was he capable of no other employment? Might +he not have been given the relief of a change? Maybe; but what would be +the use? They couldn't be bothered finding him new stunts all the time, +since he had learned how to do that one thing satisfactorily. He was a +"lifer." + +Life--your entire lifetime--means, perhaps, a good deal to you; even its +sorrows, in the retrospect, were good in their way; they meant +something. And you look forward to happier things in the future; it will +be a long and on the whole a successful future perhaps. Think of the +variety and the opportunity which this great, multiform, breathing world +holds forth to a man; the friends, the activities, the changes of scene, +the surprises, the conflicts, success and failure, hope and fear, +triumph, defeat--life, in a word. It is a divine thing, a glorious +thing, the God-given birthright of all men. It is the molding of +character, the endless, stimulating struggle, the growing sense of human +brotherhood, the faces and hands of our fellow creatures, the longer, +deeper thoughts aroused by the slow revelations of experience as to the +plan of human destiny,--and therefore are the words well chosen which +condemn a man like yourself to penal servitude "for life"? + +But human language has no word to convey the significance of lifelong +imprisonment. It is surely not life: nor is it death--Oh, death would be +welcome! For death means either (as you may imagine you believe) total +extinction, or it means increased life, free from material trammels. But +death in life is a monstrous thing; life, for example, spent in a chair +in a squalid tailor's shop, doing over and over again the same piece of +squalid, meaningless work, with ever another squalid year stretching out +its length before you when the last one has been completed. Is life so +endured _life_--the sacred Creative gift, imparted to all things, +conscious or unconscious, without restriction? Life, the mystery, which +we are impotent to bestow, and which even death, self-inflicted or +inflicted by others, cannot take away; which one thing only can take +away--the death-in-life of penal imprisonment; is it not a formidable +thought that we have incurred the burden of this crime, which does not +transfer life from one phase to another, but seeks to annihilate it +absolutely? + +Death would be welcome; the infliction of it can find forgiveness; but +how can we forgive the infliction of death-in-life? How can God forgive +it, this profane meddling with sacred and fathomless life? Will He +accept the plea that we did it "for the protection of society?--for the +man's own good?--or a warning to others?" In that day of questioning, I +would rather take my chances with the man sitting in the chair in the +prison tailor's shop for seven years, a "lifer"! Infinite mercy may find +means to compensate him for what we robbed him of; but what can it do +with us, the robbers? + +In the Federal prison there were a score or more of lifers, with some of +whom it was my fortune to become acquainted. I stood in a sort of awe of +them; the thought of their fate was so overwhelming that my mind could +not compass it, though my heart might approach some conception of it +through obscure channels of intuition. Their treatment by the prison +officials was not ordinarily severe; even a warden or a guard could feel +that clubbing and dark-celling would be a kind of anticlimax for a man +sentenced for life. Some of them--usually negroes--would be given easy +jobs, and not held too strictly to the petty regulations whose special +object is to humiliate the ordinary prisoner, under guise of +disciplining and reforming him. Nothing was to be gained by disciplining +or reforming a "lifer." Others, however, in whom despair had taken the +expression of obstinacy or savagery, were savagely handled; one of them +bears terrible scars from a shooting by one of the guards, and he told +me that, out of the twenty-two years he had already served, eight had +been spent in the punishment cells. Others are maltreated for a while, +experimentally, or to "put the fear of God in their hearts," and +afterward let alone. But as a rule, there is not much fun to be got out +of a "lifer" by the prison keepers, and they prefer to ignore him. + +The introduction of the law allowing the privilege of applying for +parole, did, to be sure, place in the hands of the authorities a weapon +with which they could "get beneath the hide" (as they might term it) of +these obdurate subjects. Needless to say, this measure, which provides +that "lifers" may be paroled (at the discretion of the parole board) +after having served fifteen years with a good prison record, did not +contemplate introducing thereby a new element of misery into their +lives. But the men to whose hands the "lifer" is entrusted found in it a +means of making him more readily amenable to discipline by holding over +him the threat of an adverse report should he prove intractable. They +could keep him indefinitely in that state of torturing suspense as to +his fate, which is perhaps the worst of all tortures, by withholding +from him all information as to whether or not his appeal was likely to +succeed. + +Several cases of this kind came under my observation. In one, the +release came before the man had collapsed; in others, too late. In only +one or two that I know of was there any pretext that his conduct during +imprisonment had been unsatisfactory. The delay was never explained; it +was due to wilful or careless neglect. Two men were carried out feet +foremost in a deal box after they had endured suspense up to the extreme +limit of mortal capacity. They died of broken hearts--gradually broken +through long months of hope slowly fading into despair. + +The warden sat serene in his office, attending to business as a good +official should, writing reports to the Department which testified to +his efficiency and economy, welcoming visitors with his genial smile, +occasionally reading encomiums upon himself in a local newspaper, +written and inserted there by somebody; the guards sauntered jauntily +about, cocking their caps and making their clubs dance at the end of the +cords; eight hundred unsightly felons, who had once been men like you +and me, filed drearily in to their meals, and out again, the worse for +the experience; and all the while, from morning till night, Dennis sat +on the corner of his cot in the hospital room, waiting for the news of +his release. He felt, and said, at first, that it was sure to come; it +would come in a day or two, or at the end of the week anyway; or at the +beginning of the week after. He knew his application had been accepted; +of course, those big officials had lots to do, and could not be expected +to attend to him at once; but they would not forget him. + +For several weeks--a month or two--Dennis kept up his spirits well; he +had been in prison many years, more than the number required for parole, +and he had no bad marks against him. His wife and two daughters were +still living, however, and he was full of plans for his future life with +them; what he would do, where he would live, how happy they all would be +together, after that separation. But one day as he sat on his cot, or +paced slowly up and down the hospital chamber, news was brought to him, +bad news, news that his wife had died unexpectedly. + +He survived it; some men survive miraculously in prison, and some die +easily. Dennis had his daughters left to him still; and the release was +sure to come now--they would not surely delay it any longer. He had been +a tall, powerful mulatto when he first came to prison; he was a gaunt, +bent skeleton of a man now, with great, bony, strengthless hands, that +closed round mine with a sort of appealing, lingering pressure when we +met, as if he feared to let go his hold upon a man who was sorry for +him. The doctor knew--any competent physician, at least, might have +known--that he could not last much longer; but the doctor said nothing +and did nothing. Then--for the stars in their courses seemed to fight +against Dennie--came another piece of news for him; not news of parole, +but news that his daughters, both of them, had followed their mother; +they too were dead. Dennis, who had begun to plan out a life with them, +to be father and mother both to them, to comfort them and work for them, +and to die at last with their love and companionship comforting him, was +now alone in the world, and still in prison. + +Time had gone by; it was six months since he had begun to look for +freedom. What would freedom mean for him now, with no one in the world +to go to or to be with? Probably he gave up looking for it at this +point; at any rate, he spoke of it no more. He spoke very little after +that, and he very seldom rose from his seat on the corner of his cot, or +took notice of any one or of anything in the hospital room. He sat +there, day after day, all day long, with his eyes fixed upon a certain +point of vacancy; what he saw, what he thought, no one knew. His hands +lay before him on his bony knees, lax and inert. Half a lifetime in +prison, and now he was nearing the end, mute and motionless, making no +complaint or protest--the power for that had gone by. He no longer spoke +of parole; and no parole came. No doubt, the great officials were busy, +and what was Dennis that they should remember him, and draw out that +paper from its pigeonhole, and sign it, and send it to him? The world +could get along without Dennis. + +So, one day, Dennis died; and after his body had been laid in its box, +the old market wagon, with the old mule between the shafts, was backed +up to the door, and the box with the gray old corpse in it was shoved in +and driven round to the prison burying ground and dumped into its red +clay hole. There it lies; but I am not sure that that is the end of +Dennis. A time may be coming, after this earthly show is over, when +persons who were so much pressed for time that they could find no moment +to sign a paper to save a fellow man's life, may see him again under +awkward circumstances, and be asked to explain. Justice, after all, is +an Immortal, and belongs to eternity. We should beware of measuring, by +the apparent slowness of her movements on this lower plane, the +likelihood of her final victory. + +If you have some imagination to spare, put yourself in the place of a +convict who finds himself, to-day, facing a sentence of imprisonment for +life. The imagination of it, even, is so appalling that you will need +more than common courage to picture it to yourself. What, then, must the +reality of it be? It is hard to understand how any human heart and brain +can withstand the prospect of it. If it has not stopped your heart at +once--if your brain has not immediately collapsed under the shock--you +will think of suicide. But, perhaps, before you can find means or +resolution to seek that escape, you will become conscious, in the +background of your mind, of a stirring of that almost ineradicable thing +that we call hope. You cannot quite bring yourself to believe that your +entire earthly future is to be passed in a prison cell. Some event will +occur, some beneficent freak of destiny, some earthquake or lightning +bolt, some national revolution or catastrophe, some belated sense of +humanity in your brother man, some new law repealing the impious cruelty +of the old law, that will break your bars before the end can come. You +cannot believe that you will actually live and die in jail. + +Thus you are tided over your first hours and days, and with each new day +that you survive the chances of your surviving altogether increase. By +and by, you fall into the prison routine, and your existence becomes +mechanical and automatic. There will be occasional flamings-out of rage +and despair, but they pass, and become progressively more infrequent. +You have slipped down into a merely animal stratum of existence; you +live to-day because you lived yesterday, and you do not forecast +to-morrow. Perhaps you learn to assuage and deceive the hunger of your +immortal soul by forcing your attention upon the petty ripple of daily +events and duties, until you present, to the outsider, the appearance of +a commonplace, non-tragic person, bearing no noticeable scars of the +crime which society perpetrated on you. You perhaps lose, at last, the +realization of your own inhuman plight, and are received, unawares, into +the gray prison protoplasm, no longer really sensitive to impressions, +though presenting the semblance of human reactions. You drift down the +stream, passive, in a sort of ghastly contentment. You have forgotten +that you ever were a man. + +But I am merely speculating in the direction of truths that I do not +know and cannot reach. The lifers themselves whom I knew could tell me +nothing; they were less demonstrative than the men of five or ten years' +sentence. We can never fathom the dealings of the Almighty with His +creatures, and they, perhaps, can fathom them as little as we can. In +ways inconceivable to us, they are supported. + +There was a little old man known as Uncle Billy. If the parole board has +kept faith with him, he should have been set free the 23rd of December. +Uncle Billy's right arm had been amputated at the shoulder, the result +of a shot through the arm from his own gun while he was getting out of a +buggy. He lived in Oklahoma, Indian Territory, at the time of his story. +Billy was married to a woman who must have had some attractiveness, for +a journeying pedler, who periodically passed through the region, formed +a liaison with her. There was at that time a daughter, who had just +reached marriageable age. The pedler was wont practically to put Billy +out of his own house during his sojourns, and usurped his place as +master of the household. At one time he secured Billy's conviction on +some minor offense, and had him jailed for six months. What Billy +thought of the situation I don't know; he was a small, slight man, under +five foot three, and of an intellectual cast. But he seems not to have +attempted active measures, until one day he discovered that the pedler, +not satisfied with the wife, was attempting the seduction of the +daughter likewise. + +Then, one night, Billy came to his house, and found that going on which +his patience could not tolerate. He got hold of an ax, and, stealing +into the room, struck the pedler, as he lay in bed, with his one arm, +and split his head open. What passed then between him and his wife is +not known. Billy, I believe, was for giving himself up to the +authorities at once; but the woman prevailed upon him to conceal the +deed. She tied the body to the tail of the horse, and dragged it across +the fields to a ditch, where she covered it with dirt and rubbish. There +it lay for some weeks, until a couple of men out hunting saw an end of a +suspender sticking out of the ground, and pulling at it, discovered the +murdered corpse. Billy confessed, and he and his wife were lodged in +jail pending their trial. The woman died there; but Billy was tried and +convicted, and in consideration of the peculiar circumstances, was "let +off" with a life sentence. When I knew him, he had been in a cell nearly +fifteen years. + +The weather was chilly; some of the prisoners were let out in the yard +every day at one o'clock, to pace round in a ring for forty minutes. I +saw the little, bent, thin old man, with one arm, hobbling round and +round with his cane. Conversation was not permitted under the rules, but +the rule was often overlooked. After I had gained an outline of his +story from some old timers, I spoke to him, and he looked up at me with +a pair of singularly intelligent brown eyes, and with a kindly +expression of his meager little face. We conversed a little on general +subjects, and I found him well educated, observant, thoughtful, with a +distinct vein of subdued humor. Afterward I saw him in his cell, though +there was a rule against that, too; but the guard was tolerant. + +He had a violin there which he had made himself, his tools being a knife +made out of a nail hammered flat and the edge sharpened, and a piece of +broken glass. It was admirably fashioned, and except that it was not +varnished, would have been taken for such an instrument as you buy in a +shop; its tone, too, was pleasing, and Billy could discourse excellent +music on it. It was in the manufacture of these fiddles that his time +was passed; the fact that he had but one hand to work with did not +embarrass him. His contrivance for playing on the instrument was as +remarkable as the instrument itself; he had rigged up a sort of jury arm +of wood and metal, with an elbow to it, and a grip to lay hold of the +bow. Persons who play on violins will doubtless be more puzzled than I +was to conceive how he could do it; but he did it. And for aught I could +see, he was content with his singular industry; it gave him constant +occupation and enabled him, I suppose, to keep thoughts of other things +out of the way. Otherwise, he was utterly unobtrusive, almost invisible, +and the guards let him alone. But the government of the United States +had kept him there for fifteen years, as a menace to society. You can +see him in fancy, had he been set free for doing what most human beings +must have done, ranging up and down the country, dealing out terror and +slaughter. Such wild beasts must be restrained. They must be disciplined +and reformed, and jail is the way to do it. + +Just before I left the jail, I spoke to Billy about his parole. "You and +I will get out almost together," I said. "No, no," he replied, with his +curious little humorous smile, "they can't get rid of me as easy as +that; I've got three months yet, and I'm going to stick it out to the +end." I have not heard the sequel; but I can hardly believe that the +authorities mean to play the cat-and-mouse game with him. + +I have perhaps mentioned John Ross, who died, under promise of parole, +after thirty-three years behind the bars. And there was Thomas Bram, a +prisoner hardly less remarkable, freed on parole after seventeen years' +confinement. He had persistently asserted his innocence from the first, +and nobody so far as I know doubted his assertion. The evidence against +him was entirely circumstantial, and there was another man in the case +who seemed, to judge by the reports of the trial, to have been at least +as likely to be guilty. Bram's record in prison was wholly blameless, +and though there was some opposition to freeing him, it sufficed only to +obtain a delay of a few weeks beyond the date set for his release. But +during those few weeks, his sufferings were trying to witness, and he +was near collapse before the end came. He told me that the +Attorney-General had personally promised him freedom two years before, +but had done nothing toward keeping his promise. "It wasn't right, Mr. +Hawthorne," was all the comment he allowed himself to make. Bram's +self-control was great, and his manner always soft and ingratiating; he +was politic and prudent, and had probably resolved from the outset of +his prison career to obtain pardon or mitigation if good conduct and +unfaltering adherence to his plea of innocence could compass it. He was +given a job which procured him some indulgences, and was never punished. +But if a life sentence for a guilty man be intolerable, what shall be +said if he were guiltless? Think it over in your leisure moments. + +I find my list is far too long to be dismissed in one chapter; and in +cases where the men are still in confinement, discussion of them might +prove injurious. There was a young fellow there who looked like a +slender boy of seventeen; he was really over thirty years of age. But he +had been imprisoned since his fifteenth year, and his face since then +had not developed or taken the contours of manhood; and his manner was +boyish. He was well educated in the grammar school sense, however, +though I believe he had picked up most of what he knew in prison. He had +a distinct, emphatic way of speaking, and believed, I fancy, that he was +quite a man of the world, though, of course, he was almost totally +devoid of other than prison experience. He would have been an +interesting study, had not the pathos of his condition, of which he was +himself unaware, made one shrink from probing it. + +He had killed a man at the instigation of and under the influence of a +step-father, who wished the man removed for ends of his own, and forced +the child (he was nothing else) to take the job off his hands, and the +law of Indian Territory, which was the scene of the affair, condemned +him for life. After serving fifteen years, he applied for his parole +under the law; there appeared to be no grounds so far as his prison +record went for denying it; nevertheless, he was rejected. He asked the +reason, and was told that it was not considered safe to set him at +liberty; he had a "bad temper"--that was, I think, the explanation. + +Psychological insight is a good thing in its way and place, but it may +be carried too far, or employed amiss; and this looks like an +illustration. The boy, in more than fifteen years, had never done +anything in prison that called for discipline; but because some +self-constituted and arbitrary psychologist chose to believe, or to say, +that his temper was not under full control, he was doomed to spend the +rest of his life in a cell. This prisoner knows, of course, that he has +been wronged, but he does not know how much; he does not know what life +in a world of free men is. But he, after being kept for half of his +lifetime under duress, must submit to the caprice of a man to whom the +country has entrusted absolute power. No man is qualified to exercise +absolute power; no man is justified in accepting it; but we bestow it +upon every chance political appointee, and what he does with it puts us +to shame, whether or not we can as yet realize it. + +There was at least one life prisoner in Atlanta who merits a chapter to +himself; but I cannot speak of him now. He is one of the unreconciled, +and his horoscope is still too cloudy to make it safe to tell his story. +A desperate criminal, he would be termed by prison experts. In truth, he +is a warm-hearted, generous, high minded man, sentenced to death in his +boyhood for a deed which would have been properly punished by a few +months in a reformatory, afterward obtaining a commutation to life +imprisonment, and now a man of more than forty years, bearing upon his +body terrible scars of severities practised upon him for trying to +resist wrongs which no manly man could tamely endure. A Balzac might +find in him a more human and lovable _Vautrin_; a Victor Hugo could make +him the hero of another _Les Miserables_; a Charles Reade could win new +renown by summoning us to put ourselves in his place. But the best +service I can do him now is to give him silence. He is not quite +desperate yet; should he become so, the world will know his history. + + + + +IX + + +THE TOIL OF SLAVERY + +Before the Civil War there were some millions of negro slaves in the +South, whom to set free we spent some billions of dollars and several +hundred thousand lives. It was held that the result was worth the cost. +But to-day we are creating some five hundred thousand slaves, white and +black, each year--or that is about the number of made slaves each year +in the United States; it costs us several millions to keep them in an +enslaved condition, and their depredations upon society, before and +after slavery, amount to several millions more. I have not the precise +data, but the figures hazarded are not excessive. A sound statistician +would make a more sensational showing; and when he proceeded to cast up +his account for the aggregate of the years since the war, and of the +estimated amounts for the coming fifty years, the bill would look large +even with a hundred million paymasters to foot it. + +In that bill, probably the smallest item would be the cost of crime +itself--the actual loss caused to the community by the thieving of +thieves,--of the thieves, that is, who have been convicted and condemned +as such; for there is no way of figuring on how much the undetected +thieves steal. Every time we shake the social body, in this or that +spasm of probing and reform, hundreds drop out, like moths from an +unprotected garment; so that at last we are prone to suspect that the +thief, overt or covert, is more the rule than the exception, and that a +good part of the cash in circulation was more or less dishonestly come +by. But, leaving this aside, the money or values appropriated by thieves +accredited as such and sent to jail, is an amount relatively +inconsiderable, and by no means enough to pay the expenses of their +apprehension, trial, and prison sojourn. It is, then, politically +uneconomical to imprison them. + +The reply to this is, of course, that penal slavery is preventive of +crime; that if we did not prosecute malefactors, crime would multiply +and abound, like weeds in a neglected garden. Perhaps it would; but the +point is, that it multiplies and abounds even in the teeth of +prosecutions; every year the number of convictions is greater, and the +jails are already cracking their seams to contain the convicts. One +might almost conclude that prisons, as now administered, stimulate crime +instead of preventing it, and that we are in the predicament of Hercules +in the fable, who, as fast as he cut off a head of the hydra, saw two +others sprout in its place. At which rate, we might be led on to the +surmise that it would be financially cheaper to let crime run on; the +cost of our futile efforts to stop it would be saved, and might be set +over against the loss from the increased annual depredations. + +But finance is not the whole story; what about morality? and who can +forecast the ruin of anarchy? The problem cannot be so crudely solved. + +Crime must be prevented; doubtless nine-tenths even of the men in jail +would agree to that proposition. The question is, can the jail system +prevent it? and the answer is that, judged by long experience--the +experience of thousands of years--it cannot. There are several reasons +why it cannot, into some of which we may enquire later; but the +objection to the jail system which I wish to emphasize just now is, that +it not only makes slaves of convicts, but, unlike the more reasonable +southern negro slavery, it makes them unproductive slaves. Either it +withholds this vast body of men from production altogether, or else it +forces them to toil under conditions which bring forth results the +smallest possible and the most unsatisfactory. The men are not paid for +what they do. Whatever profit (in "contract" prisons) accrues from their +toil goes into the pockets of the contractors, or, perhaps, is used to +defray the cost of their keep to the community. Or, again, if it is made +to appear to go into the prisoners' pockets, it is deftly taken out +again the next moment by an ingenious system of fines, which no prisoner +can escape. + +In short, prison labor is slave labor, and slave labor of a worse kind +than was ever practised in negro slavery times. For on southern +plantations, though slaves were not paid wages, they got wages' worth in +good food and lodging, and (uniformly) in humane treatment, including, +above all, the companionship of their wives and families; and they were +able, in many instances, to buy themselves into freedom. Most of the +negroes, moreover, had never known what it was to be free; their race, +for generations unknown, had been slaves in their own country; they had +never been free citizens of the United States, never had education, were +unconscious of any disgrace in their condition, and were as happy as +ever in their lives they had been or were capable of being--happier, +indeed, than most negroes are in the community to-day. In all respects +their condition compares favorably with that of our half million annual +prison slaves, manufactured deliberately out of our own flesh and blood. + +I used to contemplate the population in the Atlanta Penitentiary--the +eight hundred of us--and then look at the construction work, the +gardening, the tailoring, the carpentering, the product of the forge, +the farming in the prison grounds outside the walls, and the work of +clearing and grading on the area which the walls enclosed, and I +marveled at the disproportion. Eight hundred men, many of them skilled +in this or that industrial employment, most of them physically capable +of active labor, and almost all of them eager to work if given +intelligent and useful work to do; not a few, too, intellectually and +educationally equipped to plan and direct industrial operations; and +yet, with all this great potential force at command, all that was +actually accomplished might have been done as well or better by a +corporal's guard of willing and well managed men. The mere economic +waste of such material was criminal, without regard to the evil effect +of inadequate or misapplied labor upon the men's moral and mental state. +Can it be, I asked myself, that this extravagant idleness is forced upon +the prisoners as part, and not the least evil part of their punishment? +Or is it the result of ignorance, incompetence, or indifference on the +part of those appointed and paid to take care of men sentenced to "hard +labor"? + +That the men suffer from it is beyond question. And I cannot find that +the law provides or intends that their suffering shall be of this kind. +Much of the insanity in the prison is due to the way they are made, or +made not, to work. There is a legend of a warden who, being unable to +keep his prisoners otherwise busy, set them to piling up paving stones +on one side of the yard, and then taking down the pile and repiling it +on the other side. After a week of this, most of them were maniacs. It +was not the severity of the labor that destroyed their minds, but the +uselessness and objectlessness of it. Sane men require reasonable +employment; idleness, or irrational work disintegrates their minds. They +want to see and to foresee intelligible results from their toil; mere +toil without such results is maddening, or it rots men's minds as scurvy +rots their bodies. The reason is, that the men are human; and if you +have hitherto supposed that convicts are not human, the insanity which +so constantly follows upon prison idleness or mis-employment should +correct you. + +Others may describe the horrors, almost indescribable, of contract labor +in prisons; I saw nothing of that at Atlanta--type of another widespread +system of prison work--though I heard enough about it from men who had +undergone it in state prisons. But during the few first days of my +imprisonment, I saw a building gang at work (to call it work) upon a new +wing destined to contain dormitories for the inmates. It was to be a +seemly structure of granite, massive and well proportioned. But after +three days, work on it was stopped, and was not resumed until a week or +so before I left this prison, six months later. Meanwhile, I read in the +_Congressional Record_ the report of a debate in the House, in which, on +the authority of a Texas representative, charges of graft or waste were +laid against persons concerned in the erection of this building which +seemed incredible, but of which I was able to find no refutation. The +hospital building is open to the same criticism, and another, which I +believe is designed to be the laundry, had got no further, at the date +of my arrival, than a square hole in the ground, and when I left had +been furthered by a single course of stone or cement laid round the +hole. A New York contractor, graft or no graft, would have had all three +of them finished and in commission in the same time, and with no better +material in the way of laborers than our prison could supply. + +The thirty-four foot wall surrounding the buildings, a mile in circuit, +built of cement, had been completed before my time. I read in a report +of the warden's that its existence was due to his enterprise, and that +he looked upon it as a worthy monument to his activity and intelligence. +At every hundred yards or so of its length it was strengthened by a +tower, containing accommodations for a guard, day and night, who watches +with his rifle in hand, ready to shoot down any prisoner who seems to be +acting suspiciously. No such shooting by a tower guard has as yet taken +place to my knowledge, and none ever will on the pretext suggested; for +the wall is absolutely unscalable; being five or six feet thick, it is +impenetrable, and its foundations going down six or eight feet below +ground, it cannot be beaten by tunneling; yet the towers and the guards +are there. + +But the point is that the wall itself is quite preposterous and +unnecessary. Escape for prisoners was quite as difficult before it was +built as after. There are a hundred guards in the penitentiary--one for +every eight prisoners--all armed and eager for action; every article of +a prisoner's clothing bears the prison mark; and the population outside +the walls is penetrated with the idea that the apprehension of escaping +prisoners is morally as well as financially profitable. Every prisoner +knows that an attempt to escape would be suicide--"you might get hurt," +as the prison rule book euphemistically phrases it--and they generally +prefer suicide in some other form. + +The wall, then, is superfluous; a fence of electrified wire would have +served as good a purpose at about one-thousandth of one per cent. of the +cost. And what did the wall cost? Let the prison archives declare. And +then, perhaps, it would be interesting to investigate the discrepancy, +if any exist, between the price which the United States paid for the +work, and the actual cost of erecting it. + +The wall was some time in the building, but it seems to have been the +only thing built in the prison, work upon which was continuous and +energetic. And it was a useless work, better left undone. The warden was +proud of it, however, and there it stands. + +As for the twenty-seven acre enclosure, in which the prison buildings +are, which is--according to official prognostics--to be graded, leveled, +drained, cultivated and planted till it looks like a private +millionaire's park, it is a raw, rough unsightly waste of red clay and +weeds, gouged out here and there with random and meaningless +excavations, heaped up in other places with piles of earth; diversified +in one quarter with some forlorn chicken coops and fences, made by the +voluntary and unskilled labor of one of the convicts; and adjoining +these, with the Tuberculosis Camp, a row of a dozen or more tents +mounted on wooden platforms, with little flower beds in front and +behind, and a pigeon house at one end. The only part of these grounds on +which any visible thought and labor has been expended is the baseball +diamond, adjoining the northeast corner of the wall. Here, the ground +has been leveled and smoothed over a space sufficient to include the +diamond itself, and a few yards on its south and north sides; beyond +that is waste ground, and along the northern boundary is a parapet of +earth five or six feet high, presumably made of the material scraped off +the diamond. A ball vigorously struck by a batter either goes over this +parapet into the swamp ground beyond, or sails away toward the +Tuberculosis Camp, to be retrieved from the weeds and rubbish in that +vicinity. + +There are some forty score men behind the bars who would rejoice to be +allowed to put these grounds in order, and who, under proper guidance, +could do the job in a month. It would be a useful work, it would benefit +the men both in the doing and in the accomplishment, and it would be an +excellent advertisement of the penitentiary for the visitors who daily +stroll about the enclosure; yet months and years go by and nothing +whatever is changed. + +One day, in midsummer, I saw a gang of negroes digging a trench in front +of the southern gate, and cutting out a heavy growth of weeds and +underbrush on the slope above. Drain pipes were carted out and dumped in +the vicinity of the trench, and three or four of them were laid down in +it. This went on for three or four days, the whole gang of ten or a +dozen men not achieving in that period more than one or two capable +Irish or Italian navvies would have done in the same time. Then the gang +disappeared; the open trench and the pipes remained in statu quo, and +the weeds gradually resumed their ancient sway. So far as I know, work +has not been resumed there since. + +It is a typical example; even such work as is done, is done in such a +discontinuous and futile way that it is impossible for any one doing it +to feel any interest in it, or stimulus to do it well. Time, toil and +money are frittered away, with nothing definite or substantial to show +for it. Intermittent and barren tasks are doubly onerous. The overseers +may not be to blame; they may be incompetent; they may be hampered by +the ignorance, incompetence or voluntary policy of the prison +authorities; the consequences, at all events, are disastrous. If a +handful of hearty, clever, driving men were given control of the various +industrial operations in the prison, the results would seem magical. + +There is dry rot or something worse everywhere; and it is difficult to +believe that anything is gained by it either for the convict or for the +country. It is to be sure punishment for the former, and a bad form of +punishment, but it would be grotesque to assume that it is inflicted by +design of our lawmakers. It cannot be that the government deliberately +proposes to destroy convicts, mind and body; on the contrary, we must +suppose that it wishes to reform them and render them again useful +agents in the community. There is no way to do this better than to give +them honest and productive work while in jail, so that they may acquire +the habit of such work, and be encouraged to pursue it when they get +out. + +But in order to induce them to work economically, it is indispensable to +give them continuous, intelligent, and manifestly useful work, and to +pay them for doing it. It can be and it is done in some jails even now. +Warden Fenton, of the Nebraska State Prison, has been putting his men on +the honor system, and sending squads of them out to work on farms or for +contractors, without guards or other precautions, sometimes for weeks at +a time; all he asks of them is their promise to return when the job is +done, which they uniformly do. And for this work, he causes them to be +regularly paid; he retains their wages for them until the term of their +imprisonment has expired, and then hands it back to them. The men are +encouraged and inspirited by this treatment, and the neighbors among +whom their work is done, seem disposed to take a helpful and cooperative +view of the enterprise. If the neighbors--the community--loses nothing +by this system, and if the convicts gain by it, why should it not be +made the general practise? Convicts in Nebraska are the same sort of +people as those in Atlanta. + +Warden Fenton is progressive, but most other wardens are not, and there +is no certainty that future wardens of Nebraska prisons will be; +therefore he has not solved the problem for good and all; something more +than the benevolent or wise ideas of any individual is needed for that. +Mr. Fenton has absolute power--power, therefore, to give or withhold +favors as he may choose. Enlightened legislation would deprive him and +other wardens of absolute power, and make it mandatory to treat +prisoners as he is doing it voluntarily. + +Moreover, if men will go off and work without guards for three weeks at +a stretch, and then return uncompelled to the prison, what is the use of +making them return to the prison at all, or of having any prison for +them to return to? Is not their conviction prison enough for most of +them? And for such as prove incorrigible, or are criminal degenerates, +ought not pathological care, instead of penal slavery, to be provided? +Professor Marchiafava, physician to the Pope, said recently, "Eighty per +cent of youthful criminals are children of drunkards." That is a serious +indictment of alcohol; but it indicts no less the policy which punishes +victims of disease as if they were deliberate and freely choosing +malefactors. + +But leaving sick folk out of the argument, I say that, in view of Mr. +Fenton's experiment, and others like it, conviction is prison enough for +most persons who have slipped a cog in their moral machinery. Means +could readily be found to make such persons recognizable at need, and +they would have as great a stimulus to render themselves free from that +stigma as they have now, and far better opportunities for doing it. They +would have their families with them, or within touch, and they would no +longer be slaves; and if they had been slaves to their own passions and +propensities, the expediency of breaking such chains would become far +more obvious than it ever can be when a guard and a warden is always +round the corner waiting to club or dungeon them for infringement of a +whimsical prison rule. It does not help a man to his manhood to see his +keepers acting constantly the part of tyrants and torturers. + +This is perhaps a novel doctrine, because, as the editorial writer in +the _Saturday Evening Post_ remarked the other day, "The truth is that, +at least two times out of three, we send a man to jail because we do not +know anything rational to do with him, and will not take the pains to +find out." We lack imagination to devise more effective treatment, and +we are wonderfully ignorant as to what prison treatment really means. +And this indictment lies not only against the public at large, but +against the Department of Justice and the Congress, who pass their +judgments and inflict their penalties without in the least understanding +what they are doing to human bodies and souls like their own. + +Jail is the conventional and time-honored nostrum, which is administered +with a glow of moral self-esteem, and no more thought about it. When a +murderer is sent to jail for life, or a bank burglar or white slaver or +financial crook for his specified term, do we not sit back in our chairs +and clear our throats with a self-satisfied "hem!" and "There's one +scoundrel has got his deserts, anyway!" Had it been your brother, +father, son, or yourself, would you employ such language? Would you not +rather say, "If the whole truth were known, this could not have +happened?" But every case is a special case to the victim. And which of +us who has not been a convict in prison has the right to declare that +prison is the "desert" of any man? We do not know what we are talking +about. + +I was looking out of the window of the Isolation Building one day, with +the runner, Ned, beside me; I did my writing there, and he was assigned +for duty to the same building. Ned, to whom I have already referred, was +a thoughtful young man, and often said a word that went to the center of +the subject. We had no business, of course, to be conversing together, +but the guard was absent for the moment. We were watching the convicts +form in the yard for the march to their several places of occupation; +there was a double row of them down there in front of us being marshaled +to go to the stone-shed, about fifty yards away. There they would remain +till evening, chipping away at blocks of granite, and breathing the dust +created by their labor. + +The stone-shed men were mostly recruited from the so-called hard cases +among the convicts; the work was hard, and rapid-fire guards were +generally picked to take care of them. A man had been shot to death +there about five years before by a guard, on no better grounds than that +the man had not moved quickly enough in response to an order. No action +against the guard was taken, and he is still on duty in the prison; +perhaps he knows too much. The stone-shed men prepare the stone used in +the construction of the buildings already mentioned; and they are also +employed at times, by no regulation to be found in any of the books, to +do odd jobs for members of the prison force; as when, for example, they +were required to turn out a monument for the wife or other relative of a +guard who had died, and for whom he was unable to provide a suitable +memorial at his own expense. For whatever purpose the stone work is +done, legitimate or illegitimate, the workers are not enthusiastic about +it, and probably not many of them will live long enough, at least in +prison, to see their handiwork in practical use. + +Arrayed near them was another file, destined to work on the grounds +belonging to the prison outside the warden's famous wall, where +turnips, potatoes, corn and other vegetables are grown. The +vegetables grow--it can hardly be said that they are cultivated; I +don't know what a New York market gardener would say to them. They +grow, and in due season some of them appear on the prison table; +others do not appear, but whether they are left to rot in the ground, +or are put to a more remunerative use, I do not personally know. +There is no great enthusiasm among the gardeners, either. + +Suddenly, Ned groaned out, "Oh, the aimlessness of it! Why don't you +write a piece in our paper about the aimlessness of prison work? +Aimless--that's what it is! How can a fellow feel interested in what +he's doing, when he never knows what he's doing it for, or what +becomes of it when it's done--let alone that he isn't paid for it? +Aimlessness--that's what we get here in prison, and that's all we +learn here. Did you ever think what a prison would be if there was +any common sense aim in anything? Those fellows could make this place +the finest thing you could imagine, if they were taken hold of by +somebody with common sense, and put on jobs that had any sense in +them. But they are kept dawdling around, and never know where they're +at. It kills 'em--that's what it does! You'd think a criminal would +be taught anything but aimlessness; it was aimlessness that got him +here in the first place, nine times out of ten. + +"Why, take what goes on in the printing office that you were assigned +to, for instance," he went on, with a sidelong grin at me. "You have a +month to get out the paper, four to six pages large quarto. How long +would it take to do that stunt in New York?" + +"I suppose it could be done in twenty-four hours," I admitted. + +"Yes, and there are six men down there, and they have thirty times +twenty-four hours. They are in a cellar underground, with the air that +hasn't been changed in years, and the heat-pipes making it worse. Their +health can't stand it--you know that--but there they've got to stay +every day from eight till half after four, pottering round with their +types and proofs and stuff, and trying to drag it along till time's +up--what's the good of it to anybody? It's the same everywhere; look at +the tailorshop! Those fellows sit and fool around there, with the guard +slinging language at 'em every few minutes, and taking an hour to sew a +hem six inches long; and all the time here's you and me wearing clothes +that were new maybe five or six years ago, as you may see by the numbers +that have been stamped on your back and then blotted out, and were worn, +since then, by some poor devil with tuberculous trouble or worse; but +they'll be worn out for fair before we get any others. Why, look at your +pants! They're split all down the leg, and there's your knee sticking +out of the hole! The prison authorities call that economy, may be; what +do you call it?" + +I said that I was not competing for the glass of fashion just then. Ned +offered to sew up the rent for me, but I said that the safety-pin now on +duty would suffice. He still had some of his theme left in him, and he +went on: + +"Look at that power house, that's kept going night and day, the year +round, with coal at government expense, running all sorts of machinery, +and what do they get out of it? I was in the carpenter's shop the other +day, and there was all kinds of machines going, lathes, and I don't know +what; you'd think by the noise of them they was building the Ark at +least. But I nosied round, and couldn't find anybody that seemed to be +working much. At last I came to one of the big steam lathes, and there +was a man that looked to be busy about something, so I went up to watch +him. Well, what do you think he was doing? He was making one of these +here little sticks that a fellow cleans his nails with! The power house +was burning tons of coal, and everything humming, and that was what came +out of it all. A nail stick! What do you think of that?" + +No doubt there was rhetorical exaggeration about this; but Ned's +arraignment was on the whole not devoid of justification. There are +abundant means in the prison for carrying on useful and energetic work, +but they are not properly employed. Neither the convicts nor the +community benefits by it. + +Not that it is wholly without benefit to anybody, either. Good clothes +are made in the tailor shop, but they are not worn by convicts. At least +one excellent dwelling house has been made by prisoners, but it is +occupied by a high prison official. Unexceptionable meals are cooked in +the convict kitchen, but convicts do not eat them. There is an admirable +and productive kitchen garden attached to the prison, but its contents +never appear on convict tables. There is a fine lawn, diversified with +brilliant flower-beds, in front of the main prison building, and it is +greatly admired by visitors and passers-by; but the convict sees it +twice only during his term--once when he is brought into the prison, and +again when he is led out. On neither occasion is he, perhaps, in the +best mood to profit by it. Perhaps the prison officials do profit by it; +but if so, the results are not seen in their intercourse with the +prisoners. There is nothing flower-like in that. + +Idleness is an evil thing; purposeless work is idleness in another and +worse form. Aimlessness, as my friend Ned said, is a miserable state for +a man; it tortures him in prison, and the habit of it, acquired in +prison, cripples and degrades him after he gets out. Contract labor is a +crime which is getting recognized as such; it disgraces the nation or +the state which tolerates it, and the shame of it, if not its +immorality, may lead to its general suppression. Unpaid convict labor +for the state, as on roads and so forth, is better than private contract +labor, but is also a disgrace to the employer--a contemptible saving of +pennies at the cost of human souls. Honest work is a manly thing, and +those who do it should be treated like men, and as laborers worthy of +their hire. Because we have rendered them helpless to demand their +rights is no excuse for denying them. It is cheap, but shameful, and can +only teach them that the community can be as dishonest as the veriest +thief of them all. + +But a system of work of which that at Atlanta is a type (and, alas! the +type is far too numerous) is anomalous and abominable; it is aimless, +and abhorrent to man, God and devil alike. It is difficult to absolve +such a prison from the charge of being run at the expense of prisoners, +for the benefit of its officials, since they alone appear to prosper by +it. + + + + +X + + +OUR BROTHER'S KEEPER + +Tigers love their cubs, hens their chickens, dogs love their masters and +all these will fight and die in defense of what they love. Human mothers +generally love their offspring. Love in the common sense is common or +instinctive, and involves no moral quality. It is love of one's own, and +contains a better form of self love. + +But mercy is of higher birth. Animals know nothing of it; savages and +the lower types of man ignore it. We ascribe a divine source to it when +we pray God to have mercy on us; we do not ask Him to love us. All +higher religions enjoin it. Mercy is love purified from self, or wholly +altruistic. It is a man loving another not because of blood +relationship, or because of expected benefits, or even because of +benefits bestowed, but on the simple ground that he is his human +brother, child of the same Divine Father. It is purer than the racial +feeling, and it includes the animal creation outside humanity in its +scope--as the Bible puts it, "the merciful man is merciful to his +beast." + +It is the Golden Rule in manifestation; we see in the one to whom we are +merciful ourself in another form, under different conditions, and we do +to him as we would have him do to us. It seems to require a certain +maturity of mind, acquired or inherited; children below puberty seldom +have it. It is easily forfeited, and indifference to the suffering of +others is readily established. It is to be guarded and developed as a +sacred possession of man at his highest, and constantly nourished by +thought and deed. And no man is so high and strong but he may and does +need the mercy of some being loftier and more powerful than himself, +which he cannot claim if he have not himself done mercifully to those +below him. + + + +I have remarked heretofore that officials of prisons should be men of +the highest character in the state--at least as high as what we would +wish to ascribe to our judges of the criminal bench. Judges send men to +prison; but prison guards and wardens have charge of them during their +imprisonment, with powers practically unlimited. + +Unlimited power is a trust too arduous for any mortal, for it should +presuppose perfect knowledge, all-penetrating intelligence, boundless +experience, and the mercy which is born of these--for there is a bastard +brother of mercy which is of the parentage of ignorance and cowardice, +which shrinks from the sight of suffering from mere pusillanimity of the +nerves, and does not recognize that suffering may be mercifully +inflicted or permitted and beneficently endured. + +But the community does not select its prison officials on the basis +above indicated; it is satisfied if they be competent to "handle men," +have a sagacious familiarity with human depravity, will tolerate no +nonsense, can indict plausible reports for the Department, and show a +good balance at the end of the fiscal year, or, as guards and +under-strappers, keep the men submissive and orderly and allow no +outbreaks. As for knowledge, a public school education is ample, with +such intelligence as may be supposed to go with it; and the experience +of a ward heeler or a thug will ordinarily suffice to pass a candidate. +As a matter of fact, the community never knows anything about its prison +officials until some special scandal transpires under their +administration, or unless some heaven-sent phoenix of a warden +unaccountably manifests humane and enlightened tendencies. Their +appointment is left to the political machine, which hands it out on the +principle of what is he, or was he worth to us? As for justice and +mercy--my good sir, you seem to forget we are talking of convicted +criminals! + +I affirm, however, that justice--which is intelligent mercy--is required +nowhere so urgently as with convicts; that any punishment which aims at +more than restraining convicts from practises calculated to injure their +own best interests, is a crime; and that cruelty to persons imprisoned +and helpless, be the plea in extenuation of it what it may, is damnable +and unpardonable wickedness. Meanwhile, there is not and has never been +in the United States a jail in which revengeful, malicious and +unjustifiable punishments have not been inflicted, and in which cruelty +does not stain the record of each year and day. + +There have appeared lately in the newspapers stories of enormities +perpetrated in Russian prisons. Terrible barbarians, those Russians! +Yet, barring one feature of them only, they can be paralleled by what is +currently done in prisons here. This one feature, is the absence in the +Russian infernos of all hypocritical protestations to the public of +humane treatment and of aversion from severities. The Russian cannot do +more than beat, torture and kill his prisoners; but we do the same. It +is done at Blackwell's Island, at Sing Sing, at Auburn, at Jefferson +City, at Leavenworth (until the other day at least), in San Quentin, and +countless others, including my own Atlanta: only, there, the policy of +suppression of news and promulgation of falsehood is perhaps carried to +a more nearly perfect extreme than in most other prisons. + +A few years ago, but under the present régimen at Atlanta, the workers in +the stone shed there were pursuing their occupation in the torrid heat +of a summer day, when one of them, a young man named Ed Richmond, asked +the guard on duty for leave to retire for a few moments. Such requests +must of course often be made. But Richmond was a man who had not been +lucky enough to win the favor of the higher officials in the prison, and +this was known to the guards, who felt that they might with impunity +treat him harshly. Richmond had been a good deal abused, and his mind +had become somewhat unbalanced; he would sometimes talk incoherently and +act oddly. It had been noticed that the stone shed guard "had it in for +Ed," as the prisoners say; but nothing very serious was looked for. + +Be that as it may, something serious was about to occur. Five or six +years after this day, I was walking, under convoy of the Deputy Warden, +in the prison grounds that lie outside the walls, when we stumbled upon +the prison graveyard. It lay at the crest of some rising ground, partly +overshadowed by second growth timber, and was merely an unenclosed +clearing in the rough undergrowth with rows of headstones standing one +behind the other, each with a name and date on it. But under all of them +lay all that remained on earth of prison tragedies; for even if a +prisoner die a natural death in prison, he dies with a broken heart and +poisoned mind, abandoned, in gray despair, friendless, shut out from sky +and freedom, hearing with dulled ears the clanging of steel gates, +seeing the blank walls, deprived of the sympathetic words and glances of +friends--a miserable, unknown death. Silence and obliteration close over +him; and here he lies. + +On one of the headstones I read the name of Ed Richmond, and the date of +his end. He had not died a natural death, but there was nothing on his +tombstone to show it. I already knew his story, having heard it from +several eyewitnesses. + +On the day above mentioned, the guard had granted his request; but after +the man had been absent a few minutes, he called to him to come out. +Richmond did not at once respond. The guard called to him again, more +peremptorily, and advanced toward the place where he was, outside the +stone shed building. Richmond, as the guard came nearer, mumbled +something; the guard seemed angered, and stepped up to him, raising his +club to strike. Richmond instinctively put up an arm to ward the blow, +and as it descended he caught the end of the club in his hand. This was +the head and front of his offending, and for this he was to die. + +The guard dropped the club, drew his revolver, and shot Richmond four +times in the body. He also fired another shot, the bullet going through +a wooden partition into a part of the shed where some prisoners were +working, barely missing one of them. Richmond slowly dropped where he +stood and lay huddled on the ground; the guard stood looking coolly at +him. One of the prisoners, a negro, ran up and took the dying man's head +on his knee; others looked on. After awhile an official came up and +ordered the man taken to the hospital. But his hurts were mortal, and in +a few minutes he was dead. The men in the stone shed continued their +work. + +An investigation within the walls was held, the guard was exonerated, +and was still on duty when I was in the prison. The officials who had +disliked Richmond were relieved of the annoyance of his presence. There +were no inconvenient newspaper reporters about. If the dead man had +friends outside, they never were able to do anything. It seems unlikely +that the guard who killed him would have done it had he not felt +confident that the higher officials would condone the deed. Perhaps, had +he been arrested and indicted, he might have uttered some names; but he +was exonerated, and he has kept his mouth shut. This happened before the +date of Attorney-General Wickersham's visit to the prison, and therefore +before the change in Warden Moyer's ideas as to the expediency of severe +measures in the handling of convicts. Were the thing to be done again +to-day, it would probably not occur out in the open air and sunshine, +with persons looking on, but under circumstances of decent seclusion. +The outside public is becoming a little squeamish about prison killing. + +But in Russia there is no public opinion, or none that is audible, and +the prison guards there are not hampered in their work by the necessity +of doing it under cover, as they are here. It is a question which method +is preferable. I believe some of our prisoners would vote for the open +way of killing and torturing. It is exasperating to be "done up" in +secret, in the dark, stifled and gagged, with no chance to die fighting. +I have no comparative statistics as between us and Russia, but it would +not be surprising if our record of men beaten, starved, poisoned, hung +up in chains in dark cells, and killed by neglect and cruelties, were to +size up fairly well against what Russia has to show. Considering the +restrictions put upon them, our prison autocrats certainly do well. + +Some doubt has been created in the public mind as to whether there +really are dark cells in the Atlanta Penitentiary, or, if there be, +whether their use has not been long discontinued. I never heard any +categorical statement in denial of it from any of the officials, though +I have read something to that effect in local newspapers. Visitors never +see them, and I know of no prison inspectors who have done so; they are +shown instead the light cells on an upper floor, which are habitable +enough, with windows admitting daylight, and a cot bed. But the dark +cells are another story altogether, and their existence can no more be +denied successfully than that of the prison itself. + +A man named H.B. Rich was employed in the prison for nine years as +foreman of the blacksmith's shop; he says that he helped build two dark +cells in the basement, and often riveted chains on convicts there. "They +were chained to the door," he goes on, "hanging by their hands, +sometimes for twenty-four hours. Often they were thus chained up during +the day, but at night the chain attached to the frame of the door was +loosened; the other chain was attached to a vertical rod, the ring +sliding up and down, so that the man was able to lie on the bare cement +floor. There were no cots. The food was generally one slice of bread and +a cup of water a day, sometimes two or three. Men were often kept thus +for weeks at a time, and would come out so pallid and weak that they +could scarcely walk, and blinded from long confinement in darkness. A +convict named S. was kept in the dark hole two weeks; I was often called +to chain him, as he was a powerful man; but when he would come out, he +was so weakened that he could scarcely move." + +I may add here that I have often talked with the convict here mentioned, +and he told me details of his experiences. I would print his name and +story, but he is still in confinement--he has lived two and twenty +continuous years in prison--and he might be made to suffer for his +revelations. Among other things, he said that he had been in the +punishment cells, in the aggregate, eight years! If he were not a lion +of strength and courage, he would have been dead long since. The Atlanta +penitentiary claims to be the most humane in the world. But eight years +in chains and darkness seems a long time, even taken in instalments. + +A man lately released has this to say: "The administration of the +penitentiary is a sham and pretense. 'Reform' is a show, for the benefit +of government inspectors and visitors, with, underneath, a callous and +brutal disregard for the welfare of the convicts moral and physical. No +tortures? I was trussed up, face to wall, with arms outstretched, for +ten hours. When loosed, I just dropped to the floor from exhaustion, and +did not rise till the next morning. That was during the present +administration. When visitors and newspaper reporters go through the +prison, 'there isn't any hole'; but the prisoner who thoughtlessly +infracts a rule knows that there is one! + +"In the Isolation Building there is a number of three-cornered cells +where men are chained to the doors; they have little cots; these cells +are shown. But down beneath there is the real hole. These underground +cells have no cots; when a man drops, he drops on the cement floor. If +they wish severely to discipline a man, they can make these cells +practically airtight, and then turn on the steam through the pipes." + +Let us have more testimony as to the dark hole. "The hole," writes +another inmate, "is not a hole in the wall or in the ground, but it is a +place to turn a man's cheeks white and to make his knees shake and his +lips tremble, when, for some infraction of very strict rules, he is +ordered to the hole. It is a row of holes; far down in the bottom of the +big bastile is a row of little cells, six feet wide, nine feet long, and +perhaps ten feet high. Solid concrete, with iron grating in the narrow +door. Absolutely dark. Furniture, one iron rod, one blanket. The man is +handcuffed between the rod and the wall, hands apart as far as he can +hold them; at night the wall fastening is loosed, and he can lie down +sliding the ring of his handcuff down the rod. No mattress or bed--just +floor. Food, three ounces of bread and a glass of water at noon. The +rules are said to be less severe than formerly; but two half-breed +Indians, former friends, recognizing each other in Sunday school, +ventured to whisper a greeting; they were put in the hole two days and +nights, and one of them, a stout hardy boy, came out trembling and +shaking as with mortal illness." + +A man who served as guard in the prison under the present warden, but +left in 1907, affirms that barbarities were not the exception at that +time, but the "horrible custom. The dark hole is a reality; men were +kept there weeks at a time, to my certain knowledge, within stifling +walls, chained standing for intolerable periods, with great suffering. +The public understands 'solitary confinement' to mean a cell by one's +self; but this cell is a dark dungeon below earth level. One convict had +to be brought out on a litter, his legs swollen to a frightful size; he +could not stand erect. I was reprimanded for entering his cell and +helping him to sit up. A man named L. who had drawn back his hammer +threateningly when a guard advanced upon him armed with a 'square,' but +who ceased to resist when the guard drew his revolver, was sentenced to +one hundred and forty-five days in the dungeon, with three slices of +bread, with water, per day. Christian Endeavorers," this witness adds, +"never have an opportunity to observe the real conditions. No outsider +comes in contact with things as they are. No outsider in Atlanta has +ever seen the dungeons." + +G.W., formerly employed in the prison, says that "the hole near the +plumber's shop was built while Morse, the banker, was in the prison, for +I helped build it, and the warden, with another official, was down to +see it at ten in the morning." Speaking of the statement that the dark +hole was no longer in use, he adds, in his letter to me, "You know of +the hanging up in the dark cell of the old Englishman, in October"--the +month I left the penitentiary. I do know of it; the fight of this +stubborn old fellow against the oppression of the prison authorities was +the talk of the ranges just before my departure; he had done nothing +worse than to use bad language; he would not give in; and I believe that +it was found advisable at last to release him. + +The case of poor little B. had a less agreeable sequel. He was dying of +diabetes during the latter months of his confinement; he was an +incorrigible little thief, a man of extraordinarily acute mind, and a +sort of saturnine humorist withal. He had been repeatedly convicted and +imprisoned, but "I can't let it alone," he would say. He was plump and +flabby, ghastly pale, with protruding eyes, very clear and penetrating. +He was ridiculously impudent, but being so soon to die, as he himself +well knew, none of the prisoners bore him a grudge. The authorities, +however, thought it well to discipline him, and he was so repeatedly +maltreated by them, and put in the dark hole, that his disease was +greatly inflamed and the end hastened. I said something designed to be +encouraging to him shortly before I left; but he fixed me with those +singular eyes, and said, "I am doomed!" + +The last I heard of B. was in a letter from a lady who has done much to +help and relieve the sufferings and wrongs of prisoners in the jail. "B. +is in a dying condition," she writes; "he was severely punished while +suffering from his disease. W.," she goes on, "died three days after a +ten-days' punishment. He had to be lifted from the dark cell and carried +to the hospital by attendants." Upon the whole, one has grounds for +believing that the dark hole is not a fairy tale, and that it still +exists and is at work in Atlanta Penitentiary, in spite of the +impression to the contrary of the humane warden and his officials. + +The geography of the places is, however, obscure, and is known to the +elect only; it is said by inmates of old standing that underground +passages connect the prison buildings and lead from one dungeon to +another. This sounds romantic, but would be obviously useful in +practise. A map of the premises, surface and subterranean, would be +interesting, and may hereafter be achieved by some inspection which +really inspects. I have not spoken of some features of the dark cells, +as described by men who have experienced them, because they are so +revolting that editors of newspapers would decline to print them. Human +beings are compelled to endure many things which the fastidiousness of +other human beings cannot tolerate even the hearing of. + +A prisoner named Keegan was killed at Atlanta not long before I was +released, not by a guard's bullet, but by means as sure though slower +and more cruel. We were all conversant with his case at the time, but I +will quote the man who knew him and his sufferings most intimately. Here +is his crude narrative written to me on prison paper. + +"William Keegan died in August of this year (1913) at the Pen. He was +first taken sick with pains in the legs, hands and arms, and went to +morning sick call, but could never get anything done, because he was a +little deaf and could not hear what the doctor said, and so could +explain no further, and he was in a very bad fix. They did nothing for +him, and he was afraid to see the doctor, because he would have been +impatient, and would have sent him to the hole, and then he would lose +time. But he did go up to see him after the pains got into his back +also, and he told him he would like to get out of the stone shed; and +the doctor told him there was nothing the matter with him, but he was +only faking and trying to get out of work--which I know and can swear to +as being true. + +"If ever there was a sick man, Keegan was him. He told M. the foreman +about it one day, who told him to have the doctor look him over, and +sent him up one afternoon; the doctor looked him over and told him he +was only a crank--nothing at all the matter with him. Soon after he was +taken very sick, and one night I called the prison nurse to his cell, +and he had him taken to the hospital, where he stayed some time, but it +did him no good, for he came back to the cell house in just as bad a fix +as before. Then they put him to work in the paint-house, and after he +had been there about a week, they said he was crazy, and put him in the +hole. He was treated shamefully in the hole, for the prison nurse even +told me so. Then he was taken again to the hospital, and he never came +out of it, for he died there, and the prison nurse told me he suffered +terribly before his death. This I will swear is true before God. + +"Very near every man in the Pen had a bad stomach, and could get nothing +for it, for if you went to the doctor, he would tell you you ate too +much, and give you a big dose of salts, and if you did not take them, he +would put you in the hole, and then you would lose good time. But if a +man had a pull, he would get along right enough. There was A., a bank +wrecker, he was clerk in the stone shed, and I have seen him have eggs +right in the kitchen, when we had only rice to eat with cold water and +bread which was sour. If he didn't want to work he didn't have to, for +when I worked as runner for the plumber I have seen A. lying down and +smoking and reading or pretty near anything he wanted to do; but if +other men had done less than half the things he did, they would have +been put in the hole and lost good time also. Things should be looked +into, for it is sure run shamefully." + +Readers would perhaps like to know more of the doctor, whose +professional activities are so engagingly described in the above +statement. He is a medical graduate of recent vintage, poor but +aristocratic, engaged to attend four hours a day at the penitentiary at +a salary of fifteen hundred dollars a year. "I need the money," he once +admitted to a colleague in the prison. Keegan, as we have seen, was +under his penetrating eye for months, and he died a few days after the +young gentleman had assured him that there was nothing the matter with +him. The doctor dresses well, and has an air; he has the use of an +automobile, and sometimes escorts good looking young nurses, or other +young ladies, about the prison grounds. He has a knack at surgical +operations, and urges prisoners to be operated upon; they sometimes +recover, and sometimes do not. His use of drugs in his practise seems to +have been mainly restricted to prescribing salts, and the hole, both +effective in their way, but not always happy in their application to the +cases under consideration. + +He was always civil to me, and put me under the obligation of saving my +life, for he ordered me a milk diet when I was succumbing to the +influences of prison hash and "hot dog." It was part of his duty to +visit the dining room every day--or was it every other day?--and inspect +the food served to the prisoners. During my six months' stay, he +appeared twice in the doorway, where he exchanged amenities with the +guard; and once he traversed the aisle between my row of tables and the +next, accompanied by some very nice looking girls. He had other duties, +which he discharged with similar punctuality and fervor. And all for +fifteen hundred a year. + +There was a hearty, full-blooded, good natured young fellow, with red +hair, who worked in the blacksmith's shop, and worked well. His overseer +was a negro--this often happens in Atlanta Penitentiary. The heat in the +forge room during summer was intense, and the red haired boy used to get +rush of blood to the head, and finally asked a high official for leave +to step out in the open air occasionally and cool off. It was granted. +But on one of these outings his negro master ordered him to go back and +do a job of work for him; the other quoted his official permission; +there was a wrangle, ending in an appeal to a higher official still. The +latter, in the face of the lower official's testimony that he had +authorized the recess, supported the negro, and the young blacksmith was +sentenced to five days in the dark cell and thirty days' loss of good +time. Discipline must be preserved. + +Are such conditions as I have described general? The newspapers during +my stay at Atlanta described a discussion in local prison circles as to +the propriety or expediency of whipping female prisoners in the Georgia +female prison (not connected with the federal penitentiary), and +confining them in the dark hole. The warden of the prison, a gentleman +named Mitchell, and his guards, said that women did not mind confinement +in the dark hole, and got no harm from it--though it was shown that +after being so confined for a day or two, they were scarce able to stand +and wholly unfit for work. The guards declared that the women could not +be effectively disciplined except by flogging, and threatened to quit in +a body if the practise were disallowed. Dr. MacDonald, of the prison, +testified that although some wardens might abuse the power of flogging, +and had lashed women on the bare back instead of over covering of one +garment, as prescribed by the rules, still he favored whipping for them; +he said the use of the "leather" was really more humane than the +dungeon. Secretary Yancey, of the Prison Commission, also favored the +lash. + +On the other hand, State Representative Blackburn said that it was "a +dangerous policy to give such wide discretionary powers to wardens +scattered about the state. It would give rise to terrible abuses and +mistreatment. The sovereign power of the state should not be delegated +to individuals only remotely accountable. The punitive system should be +carefully guarded, and the line of punishment mapped out, otherwise +evils will creep in; no corrective measures that border upon cruelty +should be used." Representative Smith added that if we "put the power to +use the whip on women in the hands of brutal and incompetent wardens, +the same cruelties and atrocities which have shocked the civilized world +will be repeated. Wardens, drunk with power, abuse their positions; they +are appointees of a system, inexperienced and incompetent in many cases; +chosen, not because of their fitness, but more likely to repay some +political favor. When a good warden is found, it is more or less an +accident. Give permission to whip, and the public would be horrified at +the result, if ever they should learn the circumstances." + +That is fine; but the concluding words mean more than they say. How is +the public to know? If you had a mother or a sister or daughter in that +jail, would you feel entirely reassured by the declamations in the +legislature of these kindly gentlemen? Would it not occur to you that, +when this little flurry had blown over, the warden and his guards might +possibly, and as quietly as might be, revert to what they held to be the +only effective means of keeping order? It is easy, in a prison, to gag a +woman so that she cannot scream, and to take her down to a secluded +place, and there to lay on the leather heartily, with or without first +removing the inner garment. Who is to know, or to tell? We are not +Russians, to boast of these things openly. + +At the turpentine camp at Atmore, Alabama, thirty-five convicts whose +contract had been annulled by Governor O'Neal, were brought to Mobile +October 10th, 1913, and placed in the county jail. All but fourteen had +been whipped with heavy straps loaded with lead, and affidavits were +offered showing that two of them had been whipped to death. But +Superintendent of Prisons Riley of New York, in a letter to Warden +Rattigan of Auburn prison, writes: "I do not believe that any one was +ever reformed by physical torture." This was not the view taken, +apparently, in Jefferson City (Mo.) prison, for there, a few weeks ago, +a negro was given a very hard task each day (says the _Post-Dispatch_ of +St. Louis), more than he could perform. At evening he would be taken +out, strapped to a post and beaten with a heavy strap. There were cuts +and sores all over his body. Favored prisoners were allowed to break +rules, while others were severely punished for the same thing. The +penitentiary there is described as a "small hell entirely surrounded by +masonry and incompetent officials." Dozens of men were brutally whipped +for minor offenses. + +We have all heard about Blackwell's Island, New York City, where +"beatings by officials, and much worse, resulted in the death of a man." +Trustee Hurd found two men in dark cells, one stupefied, the other +hysterical and sobbing. They had been punished for whispering. The dark +cells had been ordered discontinued some weeks before. Warden Hayes, on +being asked by the official why he had permitted them to be used, +replied, "Well, the fact is, I've been so busy I haven't had time to get +round to it!" What is his business? + +In Atlanta we do not use the leather; we find the club handier, and some +guards are skilful in so applying it to the bodies of their patients +that, while the external evidences are negligible, it occasions internal +troubles which can be ascribed to "natural" causes. And there are +indications that we do use the dark cell, described by Dr. MacDonald, +above, as more inhumane than the lash. If this expert be correct, he +gives us a standard whereby to measure how inhumane they must be. + +I cannot go on, though I have used only a fraction of my notebook. +Moreover, I am inclined to think that the physical punishments I have +instanced are not the worst that are administered in Atlanta and perhaps +in other prisons. Great ingenuity is shown in the application of mental +tortures, which have their outcome in insanity, but which never can be +investigated by commissions and inspectors. An insane man is as safe as +a dead man--if he tells tales, no one will pay attention to him. The +cat-and-mouse game is a favorite with the inhumane type of wardens. Give +your man alternations of hope and despair, and the results will soon +reward your pains. Then there are the insults, the gibes and threats, +the obscure forms of tyranny and outrage, the degradation of +manhood--there are a hundred subtle ways of destroying and corrupting +the spirit of a man. To be compelled to occupy the same cell with +certain types of criminals is a most successful form of inhumanity; and +when, as often happens, one of the two is a comparatively innocent boy, +the results are awful. "Insufficient number of cells" is the explanation +given; and at Atlanta at least there are the unfinished cell houses, +which might have been finished years ago, had the appropriations been +properly applied. + +"Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner!" we pray in our churches. But He +says, "With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again." +We do not set the Lord a good example of mercy in our prisons. + + + +XI + + +THE GRASP OF THE TENTACLES + +I have spoken of punishments inside the prison. When a man has served +his time and is set free (as it is called) another punishment begins, +which may be worse and more disheartening than the suffering endured +inside the walls. + +As I listened, on Saturday afternoons, or at other times, to the stories +hurriedly and guardedly told me by my fellow convicts who had served +more terms than one, I said to myself, "The wrong of prison is bad +enough; but this of what happens to a man after prison is worse, and +monstrous." The endless tentacles follow him, reach out after him, +surround him, fasten upon him, and draw him back whence he came. And not +that only, but they mark him and isolate him, disable him from free +action, make honesty impossible for him. No citizen of whatever +integrity and standing, if so pursued, maligned and undermined, would +have any choice left him but either to perish or to break the laws. The +spies of the government, with the prestige and power of the government +behind them (however despicable and vicious they may be in themselves), +can ruin any man; but ex-convicts are their staple food. + +In the latter part of June, 1913, a federal judge named Emory Speer was +accused of evil deeds on the bench, and a congressional investigation +was announced. The judge was taken ill, and at this writing the +investigation still hangs fire. Now, the evidence against him had been +collected, it would appear, by the agency of government spies, and this +fact caused great indignation in some quarters. Here was a man not +convicted of felony, but a pillar of the state, being pursued by +detectives just as if for all the world he were an ordinary person--an +obscure private citizen, say, or an ex-convict! The judge himself was +very indignant, and his friends on the local press were rasping in their +comments. In a long editorial entitled "The Shadow of the Spy," one +Atlanta paper denounced the proceedings root and branch. It affirmed +that the governmental spy system had assumed such proportions during the +past few years as to threaten one of the mainstays of free government. + +All this interested my comrades, not because the spy system was news to +them, but because no public notice had been taken of it until it began +to wring the withers of persons who had hitherto supposed themselves to +be in the position of promoters instead of victims of the practise. A +federal judge had never protested against pursuing with spies men +suspected of crimes, or men who, having served time upon conviction, had +then gone out into the world and attempted to lead a new life. The spy +system, so conducted, seemed to such persons proper and normal. But the +moment they found their own acts investigated, their own footsteps +dogged, they became indignant, and denounced the whole principle of the +thing. + +No man convicted in a federal or state court, or set free after having +done his time in prison, but is abundantly conversant with the methods +of the American spy. + +As we all know, the first thing done with a new prisoner is to take his +bertillons, and the record of these measurements and observations, +together with two photographs of him, or with four, if he had a beard +when convicted, is sent to every police office in the country, and is +there studied by the detectives and police. The intention, of course, is +to render easier the recognition of "old offenders," and to curtail +their future industries. It is generally affirmed that bertillons cannot +be mistaken; but in a Detroit court, on January both, 1914, an expert +declared that "a difference of one-eighth of an inch in the laying on of +the fingers made an entirely different impression"; and "judgment was +awarded against the bank," which, relying upon the infallibility of the +finger record, had brought the action. At any rate, the bertillon is +still a potent weapon with the police, and when they want a man for a +crime committed, or when they desire to drive out of any given place on +the face of the earth a man who has been previously a convict, they have +but to point to his bertillons, and the thing is done. + +Let us see how this may work out in practise. A convict, having served +his term, is presented by the United States (or a state, as the case may +be) with a suit of new clothes, and with a five dollar bill. He also +gets a ticket on the railway to the place of his destination, and, +though he is in theory a free man from the moment that he passes the +prison gates, as a matter of fact an official is assigned to take charge +of him and put him on his train; he cannot remain in Atlanta (supposing +for the once that Atlanta Penitentiary has been his abiding place during +his sentence) on penalty, if he do, of forfeiting his ticket and having +to pay his own way. This may be a provision of the law, or it may be +simply a measure to prevent ex-convicts from talking to newspaper +reporters or other enquiring persons. The thing is invariably done, +unless the man's residence happens to be Atlanta itself. + +In my own case (to cite an instance) the regular procedure was observed, +with only one accidental modification. I received my suit of clothes, my +five dollars, and my railway ticket--at least, the latter was given to +the guard detailed to accompany me to the station, to be by him +delivered to the conductor of my train. But I had previously made up my +mind to say a few things to the reporter of a certain local newspaper, +and I was ready, in case of necessity, to abandon my eleemosynary ticket +and to pay my own way to New York on a later train. I had money of my +own to do this with; most ex-prisoners, of course, have not. But the +sacrifice was avoided by the circumstance that Mr. Moyer, the warden, +was absent at the moment in Indianapolis, and the deputy incautiously +let me out an hour or more before my train started. I lost no time in +meeting my reporter, and during the next forty minutes, in an automobile +provided for the occasion, we drove about the streets of Atlanta, while +I imparted to his astonished ears my reasons for thinking that the +penitentiary was not the paradise on earth that it had hitherto been +believed to be. He brought me to the railway station in season for my +train, and I got safely away, leaving mischief behind me. + +That was my good luck. On the other hand, a friend of mine recently +released told me that the warden had called him into his office at the +last moment, and had extracted from him a promise not to talk to any +reporter in the town before leaving. That is the usual way; but it is +the exception, sometimes, that counts. + +Let us return to our average convict, just out, and with the world +before him, where to choose to display his prison-made garments and to +spend his five dollars. It not seldom happens, to begin with, that he is +not so much out as he had imagined. Our present method with convicts has +peculiarities. Here is a common example. + +A man was convicted and jailed for robbing a postoffice. The sentence +was five years. The specific charge was of stealing postage stamps. +Having done his bit in the federal penitentiary, he was given his outfit +and the gates were opened. He was proceeding joyfully on his way, when a +sheriff laid a hand on his shoulder, and informed him that he was his +prisoner. What for? The sheriff smilingly explained that the sentence he +had just served was for a federal offense; he was wanted now on a state +charge of breaking into the grocery store in which the postoffice was +housed. For this, the state prison accommodated him with lodging for +five years more. The man outlived that, and fatuously imagined that his +payment of that debt was fully discharged. He was awakened by the hand +on his shoulder again. What was the matter now? Why, he had, while in +the grocery store, and in addition to stealing the federal postage +stamps, possessed himself unlawfully of a box of matches, thereby +committing a second state crime, involving a further detention in the +state prison of five years more. + +This is an example of our cat-and-mouse way with convicts, and is, of +course, much more destructive to the victim than an outright sentence of +the same length would have been. But in what manner it tends to reform a +man, or to protect a community, does not clearly appear. + +Sometimes, the sheriff is dilatory in arriving to make the second or +third arrest, and it would seem that the prisoner might have a chance to +escape. But in such a case the warden himself would take a hand in the +game. In an instance of which I heard a good deal, the man's sentence +expired, we will say, on June 1st. The warden had been apprised that he +was to be re-arrested, but the sheriff was not on hand--could not get +there for two days. But the law, or prison regulations, or something, +enables a warden to detain a prisoner beyond his fixed time, in the +event of his committing some prison irregularity. The warden informed +the man that he was reported to have broken a plate in the dining room, +the penalty for which was three days more in his cell. Before the three +days were up, the sheriff had arrived, the man was re-arrested, and +justice was satisfied. We will suppose, however, that our man has no +second or third or other indictments hanging over him, and that he +really does get clean away. What will be his adventures? + +If the weather be not rainy he reaches his train unscathed. But if that +new suit, with "jail-bird" written all over it in characters which all +detectives and police, at least, can read as they run, chance to get +wet, the raw shoddy forthwith shrivels miserably up, and the wearer's +ankles and wrists stick out so betrayingly that a mere child might +recognize the sinister source of the garments. But, anyhow, a few days' +wear will so wrinkle and crease and deform the suit that it becomes +unwearable, and the man might as conveniently and more prudently go +about in shirt and drawers. Should he present himself in it requesting a +job from some virtuous citizen, the latter is less likely to grant it +than to step to the 'phone and call up the police station. "There's a +suspicious character here--better look him over!" The officer looks him +over accordingly, and either advises him to betake himself promptly +elsewhere, or, if a crime happen to have been committed recently in that +neighborhood, the perpetrators of which are still at large, he takes the +man into custody on suspicion. + +That the man is utterly innocent makes small difference; his status as +an old offender is readily established, and the rest follows almost +automatically. "You did the job all right; but, if you didn't, you're a +vagrant, without visible means of support, and they'll put you in the +lockup for six months or a year. And let me tell you, our lockup is no +joke! Likely you'll get on the chain gang, and then, God help you! If +they don't take a fancy to you, they're liable to croak you any time. +Now, I'd like to see you get out of this easy, and here's what you'd +better do. You own up to the crime, and I'll have a word with the judge, +so he'll let you off with a short sentence in a place where they treat +men right, and you'll get out in about three or four months. That's what +you'd best do; and if you don't, I wash my hands of you! What do you +say?" + +What would you do? Stand on your rights, demand a full and fair trial, +prove your innocence, and be acquitted without a stain on your +character? That is the proper and righteous course for a free and +independent American citizen. + +But you are not a citizen, in the first place; your civic rights are +gone for good, and instead of your innocence being assumed till your +guilt is proved, it is the other way about. Your friend the detective is +prepared, for one, to swear that to the "best of his knowledge and +belief," you are the culprit; and there is commonly a number of other +easy swearers hanging about the court room to support him. You have no +friends; on the contrary, every eye you meet is hostile. You have no +money to hire a lawyer, for that five dollars had gone before you had +mustered courage to ask for the job that got you into this trouble. And +above all, your spirit is cowed and prostrate from years in prison; you +have known the long, sterile bitterness of penal servitude, and you have +no stomach for a fight. No, you will not fight--you cannot. You will +stand up in the dock and confess to something you never did, and throw +yourself on the mercy of the court. Your friend the detective whispers +to the judge--"He's an incorrigible--he ought to get the limit!" And His +Honor gives you ten years. It is less than a week since you put off +stripes, and went out into the world resolved to make good. If you +outlive your undeserved sentence, will you ever resolve to make good +again? + +Can such things be? Indeed they can, and they are. There is poor C. in +Atlanta now, the victim of such a deal; and S., and H., and many more. +C., indeed, told me, and I believe him, that he never committed any +crime at all, other than to get drunk and to sleep out on the road; he +was apprehended for vagrancy, then charged with a post-office robbery in +another state (which he had never visited), advised by the detective who +"took an interest" in him to confess, upon the promise of being let off +with a light sentence; he got the limit, and will wear out his youth in +jail, while the detective is complimented for his efficiency. + +The Government is extravagant. What is the use of spending money on a +shoddy suit of clothes for each one of thousands of convicts every year, +and giving each of them a five dollar bill, with the certainty that, in +a large majority of cases, they will be back in their cells in a few +days or weeks, or months? Look up, if you please, the statistics as to +the number of convicts who are second or third offenders. Nay, the +Government is itself the prime and most effective cause of their getting +back, since it is government spies that provide the evidence that sends +them up. + +But can we afford to trust ex-convicts? Must we not keep a strict eye on +them? If the strict eye were also a friendly one, it might be of some +avail. But our hand is against them, and we need not wonder that theirs +is against us. Not only are we their enemies when they emerge from jail, +but (as has been repeated interminably by every investigator who has +been qualified to speak on the subject) jails are the best and only +schools of crime. In other words, we first educate men to be criminals +by putting them in places where they can learn nothing else, and then we +keep them criminals by shutting against them, when freed, every +opportunity to earn food and lodging in legitimate ways. And then we +complain that they are not to be trusted. + +Neither can men fed on poisons be trusted to be well. Jail life is +poisonous; I think it was Judge McLeland who said, last summer, "Our +million dollar reformatories offer university courses in bestiality and +crime; it is as logical to send a man to jail to make him better as to +shut him up in a garbage-can to improve his digestion. Forty per cent. +of those who go to jail, go back again," he added; "one man went back +one hundred and seventy-six times. Others are sent because they are poor +and cannot pay a fine, and they are there made real criminals." + +An instance of this occurred in a Georgia chain-gang while I was in +Atlanta. A man was sentenced for playing cards for money. He could not +pay the $45 fine demanded, and in default, was sent to the chain-gang +for eight months. He wore stripes, night and day, and if contumacious, +was whipped by the guards. His work was in a stone quarry, a deep hole, +into which the summer sun poured an insufferable heat. He was forced to +do his work with a 49-pound hammer in that funnel-shaped pit, at a +hundred degrees in the shade--if he could find any shade. One day he +told the guard he was sick, and could not work any longer. The guard +shifted the quid in his mouth and remarked that he ought to have said so +that morning. But the man meant what he said, and proved it by dying a +day or two later. Probably you may have played cards for money at some +time in your life. Did it ever occur to you that you merited torture and +death for it? + +Or do you think that, after such an experience (if you survived it), or +after being twice arrested for the same crime and kept in jail five +years three times over, or after doing time for a crime you never +committed--that you would come out at the end of it all, smiling, full +of energy and enterprise, loving your neighbor, eager for honest toil? +Would you embrace Mr. Moyer (or whomever your jailer was) and tell him, +with tears of gratitude, that you could never repay him for his +warm-hearted, big-brained care of you--the starving, the dungeoning, the +clubbing, and all the rest of the university course? + +Would you feel like that? Or would you stare out upon the world into +which you were contemptuously tossed with dull, hating, revengeful eyes, +suspicious of all men, hopeless of good, but resolved to get even, so +far as you might, by plying the evil trades which your life of slavery +had taught you? Would you behave like Christ upon the Cross, or like an +ordinary man? Convicts are ordinary men, except that they are often, to +begin with, diseased men, or hemmed in by conditions so untoward as to +make an honest life ten or a hundred times harder than it ever was for +you. + +But you did not scruple to put this diseased or unfortunate version of +yourself into the jail cauldron, to stew there with others like or worse +than himself, for doing what, in most cases, he actually could not help +doing; and when at last he was ejected like stale refuse, you were +indignant because his looks did not please you, because he bore upon him +the stains and the stench which the cauldron had fastened on him, +because he did not, in the teeth of the secret service, the postoffice +inspectors, the detective bureaus and the police, at once begin to lead +an honest life and support the commonwealth. Do you say that none of +this was your doing? But it is your doing, in just so far as you have +not striven in every way open to you to extirpate the doing of it by +this representative government. + +The wonderful thing--the unexpected and pathetic thing--is, that so many +convicts come out of jail in a kindly and inoffensive state of mind. +They are men who were born weak, humble and yielding, never esteemed +themselves, were always ready to take a back seat and give precedence to +others. They do not understand the rights of the matter, but suppose it +must be all right, that penal servitude is the proper thing for them, +that laws were made by wise men and must be enforced. They admit their +stealings and their trickery, and blame themselves, observing +regretfully that they didn't seem able to help it. Next time--if they +get a next time--they will try very hard to be straight, and perhaps +they will succeed after all! + +There was little J., in the barbers' gang, a cheerful, smiling, sweet +tempered fellow, who had served I know not how many terms for small +larcenies and turpitudes. "I've always been such a damned little fool," +he would say to me, as he smoothed off my chin. "The boys would get +round me and rope me into some scheme, and I didn't seem able to keep +clear of 'em. But I'm goin' to be let out again next July, and I've made +up my mind I'll never be seen here again! No, sir! Oh, I've been talkin' +with the chaplain, too, and I've been reading the Bible, and all that, +and I'm going to be a good man. Yes, sir! I've had my fling, and I'm +through with it; when the boys get round me and tell me of some easy +job, I'll tell 'em, No! Not for J." + +He was a man of forty, as naive and "innocent" (in the unmoral sense) as +a child; and he had been in jail off and on since he was ten years old. +I happened to be in the front office at the moment when J. was signing +receipts and receiving his property preparatory to leaving. He was +dressed in a neat business suit of his own--not a prison-made +monstrosity. He was clean and smooth and bright, and tremulous with +excitement. He signed his papers with a shaking hand, he took up and put +down again his well packed gripsack, he shook hands with a sort of +clinging, appealing grasp, as if he were afraid of being left alone, he +giggled and looked profoundly solemn by turns. The officials stood +about, indifferent and contemptuous, the men who had been hard and cruel +to him, and those who had not been so hard. + +It was a bright, beautiful day, full of sunshine; J. picked up his grip +and marched down the corridor and out into the free air. He wore a brave +air of hope and determination, but one could detect underneath it +symptoms of misgiving. He had vowed to be good, but could he keep the +vow, when "the boys got round him"? I wished him good luck with all my +heart. Six months have passed, and J. is not back in jail yet, so far as +I have heard. But the spies are watching him, and he won't be safe till +he is dead. + +A man with whom chance brought me frequently in contact was H., a yegg, +as the term is. + +When a guard is escorting a batch of visitors about the prison, he +speaks of the yeggs in an ominous tone, as if they were some deadly +monster, hardly to be even looked at with impunity. But yeggs, as a +body, are the best men in the prison; they have a code of honor, and +strength of character. Outside, they blow open safes, and do other risky +jobs; and they will shoot to kill on the occasions when it is their life +or the other man's. They will do this, because they know what a prison +is, and also what spies outside prison are. But they will spare your +life, if possible; not because they care for you--they hate and despise +you, as being a man who would be and have in the past been merciless to +them, and as a hypocrite who is either a rascal on the sly or would be +if you possessed the courage or were subjected to the temptation--they +spare you not from mercy but a settled policy; killing is bad business, +and means sooner or later a violent end for the killer. + +Most yeggs are men of more than average intelligence, and sometimes of +fair education; they were not born outlaws; but, if you can win them to +speak of themselves, you will generally find that they have undergone +things both in and out of prison enough to make an outlaw out of a +saint. Most men succumb under such things, and either die, or become +cowed in spirit; the yeggs have survived, and their spirit is unbroken. +They hold the highest place in the estimation of their fellow prisoners; +and the warden and the guards fear them. By that I mean that they fear +to inflict severities upon them except upon some pretext at least +plausible; for the yeggs know the rules, and though they will submit +without a whimper to the crudest punishments if cause can be alleged for +it, yet wanton liberties, such as prisoners less well informed or more +pusillanimous submit to, cannot safely be taken with them. + +The yeggs stand together; they have esprit de corps, and if, as happened +last summer at Atlanta, the food supply drops actually to the starvation +point in both quantity and quality, they stand forward--as they did +then--as champions for the rest of the men; they protest openly, they +will not be wheedled or terrorized, and they go to the hole as one man. +Nor will they come out thence until the warden comes to them and +promises improvement. The warden promises, not because he desires +improvements, but because he fears the scandal of mutiny in the +prison--an inconvenient thing when one is supposed to be conducting a +model institution; and even an easy going public, which will tolerate +other forms of cruelty to convicts, feels compunction about starving +them, especially when it is taxed to provide them with wholesome and +sufficient food. + +About my friend H.--I have no space here to tell his story, nor to +outline it even; it is a terrible one. I may be able, some time, in +another place, to present it in full. I will say now only that he was +once confined for three years in a contract labor jail which has the +worst features conceivable in any prison of to-day or of a hundred years +ago, and men are killed there by overwork and punishments as a matter of +routine; few survive the treatment so long as H. did. Once during his +three years he uttered three words aloud; for that he was punished so +long and so savagely that the horror of it yet remains with him. +Prisoners constantly maim their hands voluntarily in the machinery in +order to be quit of the torture of the work; the bleeding stumps of +their fingers or hands are roughly bound up, and they are driven back to +their machines. The warden is an oily, comfortable rogue, who beams upon +visitors and fools the prison commission to the top of its bent, and he +bears an excellent reputation for the large amount of work he gets out +of his prisoners; "They just love it, my boys do," he avers; "nothing +like work to keep men happy, you know." And then, when the coast is +clear, he turns upon his boys like a bloodthirsty tiger. + +But what I wish to say here is, that when H. at last finished his term +and was thrust forth into the crowded street of the city, his legs +failed him, and he tottered along scared like a wild beast at the noise +and bustle. A man addressed him, and he stared at him blankly, and could +not command his tongue to speak words. He wandered on irregularly, +starting at imaginary dangers, unnerved at the height of the sky, the +noise, the movement. He sought the least frequented streets, but his +aspect and bearing made people look suspiciously at him, and he found +his way to the slums, where he got a room and shut himself in with a +feeling of relief. It was several days before he could school himself to +talk and act like an ordinary human being. His health was shattered, +though he was naturally a strong and hearty man; eating made him sick, +though he was faint for lack of right feeding. + +He could find no steady employment, but helped himself along with odd +jobs here and there. He was resolute to keep straight, but an old pal of +his happened to meet him, did him some good turns, and finally proposed +his joining two or three men in a promising burglary. H. asked time to +think it over, and that night he left the city in a sort of panic, and +traveled to a large town a hundred miles away. Here he succeeded in +getting a good job; his spirits began to revive; he made some good +acquaintances, and prospered beyond all expectation for nearly a year. +One day he noticed a man in the street who stared hard at him; not long +after he saw the same man standing in front of the house in which he +lodged; the next morning his landlord came to him and, with some +embarrassment, said that he would have to ask him for his room; a +relative was about to visit him and he needed the accommodation. + +It was as he had feared--the detectives had run him down. He put what he +possessed in a trunk and left town that evening for a place nearly a +thousand miles west. Here he was left undisturbed for fifteen months, +and made a new start in business. Then the chief of the local police +sent for him and said, "I don't want to be rough on you; but the best +thing you can do is to skip; we're on to you--understand?" "But I'm +doing a straight business," H. pleaded. "You may be; but you're a +crook," was the reply. + +We need not follow him further; he was driven from one place to another. +At last he was caught with stolen goods on him, he having undertaken to +help an old friend of his out of a tight place by carrying his gripsack +from one place to another; it proved to contain some plunder from a +recent burglary. He got off with a two year sentence; but it was the end +of his attempt to reform. "Crooked or straight, I'll end in jail," he +said to me, with that strange convict smile which means such unspeakable +things. "I've got two years more here; if I last it out, they'll get me +again." + +I firmly believe that he would have been an honest and successful man if +he had been let alone. + +It sometimes happens that the manhood of a convict is so sapped by long +sufferings that even his desire for freedom is lost. He is afraid to be +free; he cannot live at ease outside of his cell walls. Perhaps you will +say that goes to prove the gentleness and humanity of prison discipline. +To me it seems a thing so appalling that I must be content with the bare +statement of the fact. A man is afraid to be free, afraid of the great +wonderful world, and of his fellow creatures, and can endure what he +supposes to be life only in his steel cell. What has put that fear in +him? But our laws provide no penalty for dehumanizing a fellow creature +under the forms of law. If it be legal, it must be right. + +I knew a man in our prison who had been thirty-five years in +confinement, with short intervals of liberty. The best favor he could +ask was to be allowed to stay all day and all night in his cell, doing +nothing. Year after year, nothing else than this appeared to him worth +while. He was well educated, as prisoners go, quiet and inoffensive. "I +wish some doctor would examine me and tell me what is the matter with +me," he remarked to me once. "Maybe I'm crazy!" + +After all, the world, in its way, is as hard a place for ex-convicts as +a jail; more cruel, perhaps, inasmuch as it seems to offer hopes that +jails deny. But can a world be called civilized that is satisfied with +that arraignment? + + + + +XII + + +THE PRISON SILENCE + +How many convicts, during the past twenty years, have served their terms +and been released? and yet what does the public know of the real inside +of prisons? This used to perplex me at first. My fellow prisoners with +whom I talked were bitter and voluble enough in denouncing the +conditions; but no sooner had they passed the gates to freedom than they +became strangely silent. Some of them even were quoted in the local +papers as praising and upholding what they had just before condemned. + +There was a Japanese prisoner, for example, the only man of his nation +there, I think, who gained attention by copies of well-known pictures +which he made, to be hung on the walls of the chapel, and by designing +back and side scenes for the stage. I never talked personally with him, +or saw him but at a distance, as he hastened along the corridor; but men +who knew him said that he was especially savage in his diatribes against +the prison and its keepers, and had promised, as soon as he was freed, +to make numerous ugly disclosures to the world. But when we searched the +local papers after his release, what we found was a hearty and explicit +laudation of the prison and its officials. Had it been written by the +warden himself, it could not have been more sunny and satisfied. + +Again, there was a man with us who had been sentenced for life on a +murder charge of a singularly revolting kind; he had been in confinement +seventeen years when I first knew him, but had always consistently +protested his innocence. He applied for parole, and his application was +granted. At this time he occupied a large cell containing eleven other +prisoners, of whom I was one; and he attached himself very closely to +me, and upon coming in from his work each evening, would sit beside my +cot and hold my hand and pour out his heart to me in lamentations, +asseverations of his innocence, picturings of the horrors of his long +confinement, forecastings of what he meant to do when he was freed--to +address audiences from the pulpit and rostrum, and convince the world of +the horrors of penal imprisonment. He was deeply religious, and had the +moral courage to kneel down, before all the men in the cell, and spend +five minutes or more in prayer every evening before going to bed. Every +one believed that he had been wrongly convicted, if for no better +reason, because he had never once wavered from his claim of innocence +during those seventeen years, and because his conduct and bearing in the +prison had always been exemplary. He was a man of powerful body and +strong, impressive mind; his speech was simple and convincing, and I +told him that I thought he would succeed as an avatar of prison +iniquities. He professed an ardent affection for me, and expressed +enthusiastic anticipations as to the outcome of my own projects for +calling public attention to the evils in question. + +This man was tortured for five or six weeks by unexplained delay in +fulfilling the promise of his parole, during which time it fell to my +daily lot to comfort and encourage him; and I suffered no little +emotional stress myself from this constant drain on my sympathies. Every +evening, sitting beside my cot, he would repeat over and over again the +same lamentations and speculations, interjecting at the end of each +apostrophe, "It's terrible--terrible!" until at last I felt that I would +gladly give up my own "good time" for the sake of seeing him freed +without further procrastination. I was convinced, and so told him, that +the delay could be due to nothing but neglect, inadvertent or criminal, +on the part of LaDow, the President of the Parole Board, or of the +Attorney-General himself; the papers had been thrust into a pigeonhole, +and been forgotten or ignored. + +What were the tortures of a man imprisoned for seventeen years, and now +standing on the brink of salvation or despair, to a supercilious +official up in Washington? + +Finally, without explanation or apology, the order for release came; and +for me and his other friends, as well as for him, it was a day of +rejoicing and thanksgiving. But, remembering that he was on parole, and +therefore liable, on the least infringement of discipline, to be thrust +back in his cell, none of us expected that he would venture to denounce +the wrongs and expose the miseries of the imprisoned; we were glad to +learn that he had secured a position paying him twenty or thirty dollars +a month, with a chance of better things later, and that he had announced +his purpose of running down the real perpetrator of the crime for which +he had suffered, and forcing him to confess. For a few days, one or two +local papers gave him half a column, and then there was silence. + +I had been denied parole, and the restrictions thereof did not apply to +me when my own day of freedom arrived; and I gave a short interview to a +reporter, in which I said that the warden was unfit for his position, +that the food was abominable, and that punishment in dark cells and +otherwise was still practised, though under cover. + +The next day the newspapers printed an interview with my late friend, in +which he was quoted as declaring that every statement I had made was a +malicious lie, that the warden was in all respects the best, kindest and +most lovable man he had ever met, and that the men in confinement had +all the food they asked for, of the best quality, and that all tales of +hardships and cruel punishments were false and wicked. + +Is it conceivable that these statements were really given out by him? It +seemed more likely that the words had been put into his mouth, under a +threat, should he disavow them, of being sent back to prison. From such +a threat the bravest man might shrink. But that statement of his still +stands unmodified. And whether made spontaneously, or under the +compulsion of a threat, its motive seems to have been fear of punishment +for telling the truth. Such is the power of the System over its victims! + +It is a state of things nothing less than nauseating. It is bad enough +that men should be held in prison and maltreated; but that the truth +should be imprisoned with them, gagged and terrified into silence, is a +grave matter indeed. New York is complaining just now of the strength in +corruption of its police system; but it seems almost trivial compared +with this, for while the police ring profits by cooperating with the +criminals they are paid to suppress, the prison ring profits by maiming +or destroying human lives entrusted to their care to be restrained for a +season from their own evil impulses, and thus if possible reformed; and, +when they are released, it guards itself against exposure by the menace +of revenge more formidable still. The parole and the indeterminate +sentence, framed to open the way to reform of prisoners, is used by +prison officials to intimidate and debase them; and if any ex-convict +ventures to defy this fortified despotism, the immediate rejoinder is, +"Who can believe a jail-bird? A man wicked enough to steal or murder is +wicked enough to lie, and is not the malicious motive of the lie +apparent?" + +That rejoinder has been brought, and will continue to be brought against +me. Among those who protested against the statements in my interview +above mentioned was a lady whom I never spoke to--it is strictly against +rules for a prisoner to speak with a visitor--and never knowingly saw, +though I understand she was wont to sit on the stage during the Sunday +exercises. She is thus quoted: "Julian Hawthorne is nothing more than an +old grouch. A short time ago this old man told me himself that he was +getting plenty to eat and had no complaint to make of his own or anybody +else's treatment in the prison.... When he says such things as he is +reported to have said, he should be made to prove them, or keep his +mouth shut." Warden Moyer himself, less imaginative than this lady, +contented himself with denying all charges and courting investigation, +and added that he bore me no grudge, believed me to have been the dupe +of malignant guards (since dismissed) and considers my motive to have +been mainly the desire to make a little money. "The Department attaches +little importance to these outbreaks," he remarked, "and I consider it +unnecessary to place my word against that of convicts." + +This may seem feeble; it is the mere instinctive stuttering of persons +in a disturbed frame of mind. But the System will not depend for its +defense upon persons of this kind. It has many strong forces at its +command, of which the Secret Service, and the favorable prejudgments of +the Government and of a large part of the public are but part. Any one +opposing it may expect to be kept under strict surveillance in all his +movements, his mail will be violated, his words, written or overheard, +will be scrutinized for material that can be used against him. Nor is +the line drawn there. While I was in prison, I received the confidences +of many prisoners as to their own experiences, among others that of a +Maine boy who had been convicted of robbing a postoffice. He had been +arrested in the first instance as a vagrant, and while in the local jail +had been approached by a postoffice inspector who charged him with the +post-office crime. The boy had never been in the state in which the +crime was committed; but he was told that, if he would plead guilty to +it, he would be sent to Atlanta for a short term, whereas, should he +refuse, he could be kept in jail awaiting trial for a year, and would +then receive at least six months on the vagrancy charge. "Do as I tell +you, and I will see that you get off easy," the inspector, who posed as +a friend, told him. When he finally acquiesced, however, the judge +imposed on him a sentence of five years, the inspector having testified +that he was an old offender, implicated in many other crimes. The fact +was, of course, that the real perpetrators of this postoffice robbery +had not been caught, but it was expedient for the reputation and welfare +of the detectives that a perpetrator should be produced--if not the real +one, then one manufactured for the purpose. I learned of many cases +similar to this--it is a common routine practise with the System. +Moreover, when this innocent youth has completed his term, he will be +thenceforth a marked man--"an habitual criminal," with a record against +him; and he can be rearrested on general principles at any time. He will +be given no opportunity to earn an honest livelihood, and it would be +surprising indeed if his wrongs, not to speak of his empty stomach and +hopeless circumstances did not make him a bona fide criminal ere long. +Obviously, meanwhile, such a man is effectively gagged; if he be asked +whether prison be a paradise, he will reply ardently in the affirmative, +though his whole body and soul know it as a hell. For if, having +blasphemed the Holy System, he is returned to the cell whence he came, +every word of his rash revelation will be avenged upon him in torture +and misery. + +Am I attempting to retaliate upon the System for personal indignities +and mishandling; or am I the dupe and tool of designing +miscreants--convicts, guards or foremen--who plied me with false +statements to wreak revenges of their own? I have already said that I +was never harshly treated by any of the prison officials, and after the +two first months indulgences were allowed me beyond the customary prison +usage. During my two first months, to be sure, it seemed unlikely that I +could live out my term, because I was kept at work in an underground +place without ventilation or other than artificial light, and permeated +with the hot-water pipes which supplied the buildings with heat and +power. I was also unable to eat the prison fare, and was slowly +perishing for lack of food. I never complained of this treatment, for it +was in the ordinary prison course; but when the consequences of it +became visible in my physical appearance, I was put on a diet of oatmeal +and milk, morning and evening, and allowed to exercise in the open air. +I voluntarily, during this period, went without dinner, being unwilling +to poison myself with the rancid grease and garbage served under that +name; but I made the most of the simple but nourishing milk diet, though +it was insufficient in quantity; and I improved to the utmost the +outdoor privileges, besides adhering resolutely to a régimen of daily +calisthenic exercises; so that, when I was set at liberty at the end of +six or seven months, I was in physical condition quite as good as when I +went in. I was never denied leave to write "special letters," and my +intercourse with the warden and his deputies, though always as seldom +and brief as I could make it, was uniformly suave and smiling. The +reasons for all which I shall have occasion to discuss later. + +So much for the "grouch." As for being made the dupe of designing +persons among the lower officials, and my fellow prisoners,--beyond +replying tersely to questions put to me, I never had any communication +with the former, and never heard or spoke a word with them reflecting +upon the prison management. But what of my fellow prisoners? + +They looked me over keenly and thoroughly to begin with; and no +inquisitors have more sensitive intuitions or are quicker to suspect +double-dealing than they. My aspect, my bearing, my speech, my +affiliations, my treatment, all came under their scrutiny, and were +debated in that secret court which prisoners hold. Not at first, nor +lightly, did they give me the honor of their confidence. I might be a +spy sent in from without, or a stool pigeon made within, or I might be +indifferent or loose-mouthed. But when they did resolve to trust +me--when I was elected a member of the "inner circle," as one of them +phrased it,--they had no reservations. I was called on to make no +protestations, to register no oaths, nor did I solicit any +communications. They came to me freely, and either by laboriously penned +or penciled letters written on surreptitious scraps of paper in +ill-lighted cells, or by circumspect word of mouth mumbled into my ear +on the baseball ground of a Saturday afternoon, they would disclose +their long hoarded and grievous facts. "I wouldn't lie to you, Mr. +Hawthorne--what would be the use? it would come back on me!" But I was +listening to the break and tremor in their voices, the hurry and awkward +indignation, the eager marshaling of insignificant details, the dreary, +apathetic recital of sordid or callous outrages, the hopelessness +striving once more to hope. "If they'd only send us an inspector who +wouldn't be always dining with the warden, and junketting in his auto, +and taking the screws' word against ours--a fellow who'd peel off his +coat and size things up independent!" Their wish was not fulfilled in my +time; the inspections were a farce and a scandal. There was a tradition +of one inspector who had really effected something--who seemed to think +of his duty, as well as of good dinners and joy rides--but that was long +ago. That he never repeated his visit would seem to indicate that his +report was found inconvenient. + +Meantime, I did not need their asseverations of veracity; the truth +shone through their uncouth stories. They were widely different from the +glib patter that runs out of a crook's mouth in the presence of an +official. Some of these men were seasoned criminals; often they did not +themselves understand how iniquitous was the "deal" that had been given +them, being too much inured to the tricks and treachery of the +detectives' practises to feel special animosity regarding them; but more +or less dimly they felt that wrong was being done them that was not +contemplated or recognized by the law. The last thing to die in a man is +his sense of justice; "I'm as bad a man as you like, and I'm willing to +take my proper medicine; but they ought to give a man a square deal!" +There was a young fellow there, well educated, with an intelligent, +agreeable face and gentlemanly bearing; I got his story, not from him, +but from the reminiscences of others. One time "Bob got nutty, and +wouldn't come out of his cell, and started setting fire to his bedding. +His cell got filled with the smoke and he was near choking to death, and +fell down on the floor. A bunch of screws stood in front of his door +making fun of him, and they held a blanket up so the smoke wouldn't get +out. At last they opened the door and pulled him out, and they clubbed +him good and plenty, and then they dragged him down the stairs--he was +in an upper tier, understand--with his head bumping against every step. +They threw him into a dark cell, and left him there." There he had +leisure to recover from his "nuttiness." It was nothing much out of the +usual, only the incident happened to offer spectacular features which +served to keep the memory of it fresh. But does the Department of +Justice countenance such diversions? + +To return to my theme--I came to feel that whether or not I was handled +softly, others as deserving as I, or less deserving, or more deserving, +were not; and that if I had no personal grounds for complaint, they had. +I could not adopt the point of view of one of the "better" class of +convicts: "The warden has always treated me decently, and I don't mean +to bite the hand that caressed me." I need not affirm, either, that my +good fortune was due to an expectation that I would respond in kind; +that would be an unverifiable inference. But it was plain that the +officials took interest in the prison paper as a medium for advertising +and gaining credit for the penitentiary; and that when I began to write +for it, newspapers all over the country quoted the articles and +commented kindly on them. My name was given a prominence, unwelcome, +though well meant; accounts of my doings and condition, entirely +apocryphal (for I never saw a newspaper man during my stay, or gave out +any form of interview), were published and featured from time to time; I +was kept more or less in the public eye. If, now, I were to be starved +and clubbed, dungeoned and otherwise maltreated, not only would I be +incapacitated from contributing to the paper, but some hint of the facts +might leak out and impair the reputation of Atlanta Penitentiary as a +Gentleman's Club and Humane Paradise. Accordingly, if I were found +smoking out of hours, or were missing from count,--"Never mind--it's +only Hawthorne!" It may be, of course, that my personal charm was so +irresistible that every official from the warden down fell victim to it, +and would rather prove recreant to their oath of office than interfere +with me; my vanity craves to believe so, yet I hesitate. At any rate, +with whatever sugar the gag was sweetened, or whether the suggestion of +it was inadvertent, I did not feel justified in accepting it; and when I +got out, the waiting reporters at last obtained what they had so long +awaited. But though my eight hundred comrades seem to have been +gratified with my words, I cannot think that they were equally +satisfactory to the officials; for I am informed that Hawthorne's +writings are henceforth barred from the penitentiary. I must have hurt +their feelings in some way; no one can please everybody. + +The naive surprise expressed in some local quarters outside the +penitentiary went to show how unexpected and almost incredible my +statements appeared to be--or, from another point of view, how +successfully hitherto the truth had been suppressed. The truth being +once unshackled, I was anxious to get the widest possible circulation +for it, and therefore arranged for its publication in various newspapers +distributed over the country; but I was not altogether sanguine that my +plan of public enlightenment would prove an unqualified success. The +System, as I have indicated, had several guns which it might bring to +bear, and it was conceivable that some of the editors who had subscribed +to the syndicate might find reason to regard the articles as not adapted +to the taste of their readers, and decline to risk offending them any +further. If other guns of the System should prove inadequate, there was +always the great gun to be depended upon, known as the Law for Libel. I +took what precautions I could with respect to this formidable and most +respectable weapon; I stipulated that a competent lawyer should read +each article before it was offered for publication, and inform me of any +passage in any of them which might be obnoxious to the provisions of +this law, in order that such passages might be modified or expunged. He +carefully discharged his function; and if any reader should detect a +lack of continuity or explicitness in any of my statements, he may +charitably ascribe it to the consequences of the lawyer's advice; since, +even in this free country, the proprieties must be observed. If I were +fortunate enough to escape the missiles of the Libel gun, I had still to +be on my guard against more obscure and personal weapons; I am an +ex-convict, and any lenity of treatment which I had hitherto enjoyed is +not to be looked for in the future. If I were sent back to prison, my +shrift was likely to be short; and I could only hope, in that event, to +have been able to say enough to afford my entertainers ample provocation +for giving me, as my comrades would say, the limit. + +"You would have only yourself to blame!"--I hear that comment. If you +are kicked, be like the puppy--roll over on your back and hold up your +paws for mercy. But if canine models are in question, I feel more +inclination to the thoroughbred bulldog, who does what he can and would +do more if he could. I have undertaken a heavy responsibility, and must +make the best showing I may with it. I no longer have a lifetime before +me, but I have learned while I have been alive that the methods of the +puppy are not remunerative in the end. Every natural instinct in me +calls out for rest and peace, and to forget the valleys of grief and +humiliation; but there is another voice which summons me to other +issues. I am sensible of my lack of strength and fitness for the +enterprise; but I believe that it was no idle circumstance that called +me to it; I believe in a Divine government of the world, which chooses +sometimes to use unlikely instruments to accomplish its will. The little +I can do may inspire worthier deeds by more powerful hands. Emerson +found simple words for a mighty thought-- + + "One accent of the Holy Ghost + The heedless world hath never lost!" + +The prophets of old had no dignity or weight in themselves, but they +delivered messages which changed the world. "What! that old numskull be +the mouthpiece of Jehovah?" his townsfolk might exclaim. But so it was. +What is any one of us in himself? + +However, I don't wish to bear too hard on this pedal. It is easier to +look at things from the commonplace standpoint. One thing or another +prevented any of my companions in the jail from doing what it was +desirable to do, and circumstances quite unforeseen opened a way for me +to do it. What I have said above was with a view of showing how +difficult it may ordinarily be to bring prison facts to light; and if, +by chance, some individual should find means to his hand to open a +window, he would be a poltroon if he forbore to do it. I am under no +illusions as to the obstacles in my way, nor do I anticipate that what I +am trying to do will result in prompt or vital changes for the better in +prison management. The facts I adduce may be discredited, but if they +are true they will not be lost. My eight hundred inarticulate comrades +are always present in my thoughts. I have left them in the body, but I +see their faces wherever I turn. It is a crime that any human beings +should be arbitrarily kept in the conditions which surround them, and if +I can loosen one stone of the Bastile which, at Atlanta and elsewhere, +annually engulfs and destroys so many of them, I shall be content. + + + + +XIII + + +THE BANQUETS OF THE DAMNED + +The walls of jails are good non-conductors of what goes on behind them, +and this applies to other prisons as well as to that at Atlanta. Yet +once in a while a groan or protest, or a partial account of some +outbreak, finds its way through; and in many cases the gist of the story +is to the effect that the food is bad or scanty. Other things the men +behind the bars suffer stoically, or not so stoically; but lack of food +arouses them to despair and frenzy. We have lately heard reports from +Sing Sing illustrative of this condition there; and many another jail +could echo the complaints of the unfortunates in that gloomy +hell-chamber. + +Convicts know that they are to be punished, that the government has +sentenced them, that it is the law; and though they may find cause to +disagree with the decree that consigns them to hopeless and useless +servitude, they accept it as at least legal and incident to the game as +played. But they do not believe that the government has condemned them +to starvation, or to poisoning (and the condition in which food often +comes to the convicts' table is practically poisonous). They know that +no such punishment is included in the statutes; and they can only +conclude, therefore, that it is an arbitrary and illegal piece of +cruelty or neglect on the part of the warden or commissary officer. They +are prone to think that these persons profit financially by cutting down +their supplies; and that they are careful to conceal the fact in their +reports to the Department, or to disguise it as a meritorious economy. +At the same time, they are conscious that there is no regular channel +through which they can make their injury known to the authorities, and +that nothing is more readily denied, or more easily concealed from +inspectors, than is this very abuse. + +But the suffering which it occasions is constant and cumulative. They +are still required to perform their labor, as if in full physical vigor. +They are punished if physical weakness causes them to fall short in +their tasks. They feel their vitality ebbing, they find themselves ever +less able to resist the inroads of disease, their appeals to the doctors +are often met with sneers and even animosity; and what marvel is it that +stoicism and patience at last give way, and they break out in some wild +and savage excess which justifies the resort by their masters to the +dungeon and the bullet? But death may well seem to the rebels preferable +to the lingering pains of the alternative fate. + +The under nourishment and malnourishment of convicts is, in fact, one of +the worst crimes of the many which their despots perpetrate upon them. +From any point of view, it is barbarous and wicked--the crime of a +Weyler upon the defenseless Cuban revolutionists, which, as much as the +destruction of the Maine, impelled this country to declare war. Yet, +knowing as we do that it is perpetrated upon the human beings in our +prisons, we sit supine and acquiescent, and thereby make the crime our +own. + +Have you not imagination enough to put yourself for a moment in the +predicament of the prisoner? There you sit in the narrow gloom of your +cell, or you toil in the stifling confinement of your work room, and +such is not only your state to-day, but for years to come it will be +unchanged. You are isolated from sight of and association with every man +and woman in the world who cares for you or thinks kindly of you; +silence and rigid obedience are imposed upon you; you meet no looks that +are not harsh, and hear no words but sharp commands or angry menaces. +Your very toil is idle and unpaid, and its diligent performance brings +you no credit or hope, except treacherous promises of a good constantly +delayed. And then picture yourself when, after wearisome hours, the +whistle blows that means intermission of labor and the renewal of +strength by food. Yet that summons, instead of cheering you, does but +make the burden of your misery heavier. + +Sullenly and heavily, in the endless line, you tramp into the huge, +comfortless hall, with its hideous tables and benches, and as you pass +up the aisles you glance abhorrently at the dirty scraps and masses of +provender dumped carelessly out of noisome buckets by the filthy hands +of the servers upon plates still rough and foul with the hardened grease +of foregoing meals. You are faint for lack of nourishment, yet the sight +of what is provided, and the unclean smell of it, nauseate instead of +inviting you. Eat you must, if you would live and have strength to work, +yet if you eat you invite sickness and suffering, and if you could eat +all, and assimilate it, you would still leave the table but half fed. + +Every tyro in physiology knows the effect upon the general organism of +dejection and resentment at meals. Prisoners more than men in any other +condition need abundance to eat and good cheer while eating; but the +food they get, and the circumstances in which they get it, causes them +to degenerate physically, and the body affects the mind. Physical +disease breeds the disease of evil thoughts and impulses. Criminals +might be generated by prison food alone, without taking account of their +previous records and future prospects. + +We of Atlanta penitentiary used to hear occasionally of the +bills-of-fare of our repasts in the prison that were daily forwarded to +Washington, by way of reassuring the Department of Justice, and whom +else it might concern, as to the substance and excellence of our +nourishment. These alimentary documents might be compared with like +lists at Delmonico's and the Waldorf, and the names of the viands would +be found to be identical. The inference, to the legal mind, not to speak +of the penological one, was plain: the convicts at the penitentiary +fared as sumptuously as do the banqueters of the Four Hundred--at no +cost, moreover, to themselves, not even waiters' tips. + +For here were rich soups and gravies, substantial roast beef, succulent +steaks and chops, the renowned baked beans of legend, comforting hashes, +pies and puddings, fresh vegetables, including the famous sweet potato +of the South in its pride; and long draughts of milk from the tranquil +cows of the pasture, together with tea and coffee from the Orient, +sugar, mustard, salt and pepper and vinegar, enough to beguile the most +squeamish appetite, and, to top off with, fruits in their season, led by +the incomparable Georgia watermelon. I may have inadvertently omitted +some items from this toothsome list, but it is enough as it stands to +make an epicure's mouth water. And if any skeptic were still +unconvinced, a photographer would be admitted with his undeniable camera +at certain seasons--Christmas and Fourth of July, for example--who would +place a picture of the revelry and the revelers on the everlasting +records, with garlands and festive decorations, and actual dishes of +some sort on the groaning boards, and serried rows of plump felons ready +to fall to. + +The fame of all this went forth into the world, and Atlanta +Penitentiary, its warden, its guards, and its cooks shine in penal +annals as the acme and ideal of modern humanitarian ideas upon the +reclamation of convicts through gentleness and love, and a full stomach. + +I found opportunity to study some of these historic scrolls, and was so +much impressed by them that I caused a suggestion to be conveyed to the +warden. Instead of sending all the menus to Washington, and to admiring +friends in the Atlanta neighborhood, let one or two of them be placed at +each meal upon the tables of the diners, to the end that they might be +stimulated, by the perusal of these literary masterpieces, to choke down +their gullets the actual garbage which was furnished in the name +thereof. But the warden's views seem not to have been in harmony with +mine on this occasion. I am glad to learn, however, from certain +graduates of the institution since my own departure from it, that the +food has greatly improved in quantity and somewhat even in quality, +since these chapters began to appear in newspapers. + +I need not attempt to fathom the reason. If it were incomparable before, +why or how better it? + +It could hardly have been done at the instance of the old and warm +personal friend of the warden and the Attorney-General who was sent to +Atlanta recently in the guise of a Spartan inspector of the alleged +abuses; because, for one thing, the improvement had set in long before +he made his investigation, and the investigator, in his report, appears +to have discovered no room for improvement anywhere. It must have just +happened--one of those miracles in the way of gilding refined gold and +painting the lily which are so common nowhere else as in our model penal +institutions. + +I had ample opportunity to study the subject personally while a guest at +the prison table, and to compare my impressions with those of my fellow +prisoners, as well as to enlarge them by conferences with persons +employed in the kitchen and commissary department. Men who had served in +other prisons--and their combined experiences covered a great many--were +unanimous and emphatic in declaring that the table at Atlanta was the +worst they had ever known, not only as to scantness of supply, but as to +the unwholesomeness or positively poisonous quality of the food +furnished. But let me tell a little of what I saw and knew myself. + +When the change was made from long tables and benches to tables seating +eight and chairs, it was announced that table cloths would also be +supplied, and napkins. That was two or three years ago, but table cloths +have not yet appeared, and the eaters still wipe their mouths on the +backs of their hands in the good old way. Pepper and salt were on the +table, and a bottle of something that looked like beer and was supposed +to be vinegar, but was sampled only by the more reckless or +inexperienced convicts. Sugar was not provided except on rare occasions, +and to "diet" prisoners--men who were restricted to bread and milk and +oatmeal. Some beverage that dishonored the name of tea was served about +once a fortnight; a brown, semi-transparent rinsing of dirty kettles, +sugarless, thin and bitter, called coffee, came every day; but if your +stomach rejected either of these, you could fill up on plain water. + +The latter, however, like the "diet" milk and oatmeal and the drinkables +generally, had to be taken out of metal mugs covered with white enamel, +minute particles of which chipped off and mingled with what you drank. +These particles were hard and sharp, like pure glass, and they cut and +lodged in the intestines, causing, with other things, an excessive +predisposition to appendicitis--a frequent disease in the penitentiary. +This was also promoted by the bread, which was made of the poorest grade +of white flour, without nourishing quality, the value per loaf being +about two cents; the flour was ground in steel mills, and microscopic +particles of steel were rubbed off into it--this fact I had from a +physician who had examined it. The flour, when received at the prison, +was frequently full of weevils, most of which but not all were sifted +out before it was used. The bread was tasteless and light; it was baked +in large quantities, and what was not consumed by the prisoners was sold +outside. + +It is not provided in the prison regulations that officials shall be fed +at the expense of the prisoners. Nevertheless, a separate and superior +grade of flour is purchased at government expense, and is used to make +bread which is given to the officials; the loaves are placed in the +outer corridor, and are taken away by guards and others every day. +Separate cooks are also assigned to prepare the officials' food on the +prison ranges; the meats and vegetables are of a grade much better than +is supplied to prisoners; but some favored prisoners participate in +their consumption. The higher officials have the best food the market +affords and in such ample abundance that certain prison pets, usually +negroes, get their main subsistence from the surplus. + +The beef given to prisoners was of the third grade--the worst on the +market--it is cow or bull beef, never heifer or steer, and often it is +rotten, and must be treated chemically before being offered even to +prisoners. It used to come on the table in gristly and bony gobbets, +after having lain on the kitchen ranges for hours, until it was reduced +to a hardness which resisted all but the most efficient and vigorous +teeth (which, except with negroes, are rare in prison). I used to +compare these "steaks" and other pieces with old blackened boot heels; +they were hardly less eatable and nourishing. Often it smelt so that +nature rebelled against it; but complaints were liable to be met by +committal to the solitary cells. + +But groups of visitors used to appear in the dining room occasionally; +they were lined up along the wall adjoining the door, and were not +allowed to walk between the tables, so that the only food they could see +was what was put on the tables nearest the door; and this was always of +a quality superior to the rest, and there was more of it per man. It was +one of the little tricks employed to maintain the entente cordiale, by +which the prisoners who sat at those tables benefited, and the visitors +went forth to sing the praises of our warm hearted warden. On the days +when the bread was sour or the meat stank, visitors were headed away +from the dining room, and their attention directed to more important +matters. + +The hash, which often made the breakfast, was composed of fragments of +gristle and refuse left on the prisoners' plates after dinner, mixed +with potatoes and rancid grease; this, and the soups and gravies, which +had a similar origin, gave out a most nauseating smell. The men would +gulp it down--it was that, or starve--trying to help it on its way with +all the condiments they could lay hands on; but the effect of it, and of +the food generally, upon the digestive tract was so disastrous in most +cases that they might better have left it alone. I myself retired from +the enterprise in my second or third week, and would have literally died +of inanition had not the doctor, moved by I know not what suggestion +(not mine), put me on the milk and oatmeal diet during the remainder of +my sojourn. This applied for breakfast and supper; I sat at dinner, but +satisfied myself with nibbling bread crusts, and witnessing the forlorn +and perilous efforts of my friends to walk the line between starvation +and acute indigestion. Not many were successful. + +For vegetables we had Irish and sweet potatoes, turnip tops (uneatable), +black-eyed beans, bitter and greasy, and once a month, perhaps, a +tomato. The butter was made of an inferior quality of lard, and +cottonseed oil--a substance which entered into many other of our viands, +and of which, with grease, it was calculated by an expert in the +kitchen, we were offered as much as one pound per man every day. It +produced a calamitous effect upon the digestive tract, inasmuch as there +was hardly a white man in the prison who did not suffer chronically from +stomach troubles--constant suffering, often becoming acute. The +strongest digestions would resist for a while, but finally succumb. + +There was a poultry farm on the grounds, donated by outside benefactors +specifically and exclusively for the benefit of prisoners, beginning +with the tuberculous patients. After it got going, there may have been +an average of six hundred fowls on the place. Of these, not one ever +appeared on the prison tables. With the exception of a possible few that +were stolen by prisoners having access to the yard, all were +appropriated by higher officials, and the eggs as well. + +One official gave frequent dinner parties to his friends, and was said +to use as many as five or six chickens a day, though I cannot vouch for +that--it seems excessive. He certainly, sometimes, commandeered as many +as fourteen or more at one time. There was a story of a great cake which +he had made for some festival, into the composition of which entered one +hundred and four eggs from our farm. To neither chickens nor eggs had +he, of course, any title more legitimate than have you who read these +lines. He had a large and hungry household, and many guests--among them, +commonly, such government inspectors as were sent down from Washington, +to see whether he and his fellow officials were honestly discharging +their functions. + +As for the tuberculous patients, I was never able to find any of them +who had eaten chicken from the farm, or any part of one. Some chicken +soup was at one time ordered for a patient by the doctor; a prisoner (a +famous physician), a deputy of the doctor, happened to be at the +tuberculosis camp when the soup arrived from the kitchen. It consisted +of some warm water with the shank--not the drumstick, but the shank and +foot--of a fowl in it. This aroused his interest, and twice again he was +present when a chicken soup prescribed appeared at the camp. On both +occasions--he stands ready so to testify under oath--he found the same +foot and shank in it, but nothing else recalling chicken. The foot was +identified by an imperfection in one of its toes. + +Eggs were indeed provided for the hospital prisoners (never for the +general mass), but they were cold storage eggs, the cheapest grade that +could be bought in the market, and that is saying much for this sort of +product nowadays. Out of one mess of eight that were served in the +hospital, and of which I gained authentic news from the prisoner +physician already referred to, six were bad. I am informed that these +notes and comments of mine are not permitted to be read by the +prisoners; but perhaps the original donors of the poultry farm may see +them, and be prompted to inquire into their accuracy. Let us return to +the dining room. + +Sweet potatoes abound in the South, and subsistence upon them +exclusively would reduce the cost of living; the only trouble is that +the human stomach refuses to cooperate in this economy. Sweet potatoes +were served at Atlanta during the season three times a day, baked, +boiled and in pies; the men were hungry enough, and the supply of +potatoes was adequate; but had they been of the finest instead of the +worst quality in the market, the experiment would have failed; +starvation proved preferable; we could not get them down. That soft, +slimy sweetness, foul with dirt and often tainted with decay, +reappearing day after day at every meal for weeks on end, outdid +endurance, nor could we be stimulated by the argument that the +Government was saving money by it. Had the sweet potato season lasted +the year round, the warden would have lost his job from mere dearth of +prisoners to earn his salary on. + +I do not forget the corn, either; it was of the brand fed to farm +animals; but this enumeration becomes monotonous. We had apple pies once +a week or so; and I was told by an employee in the kitchen, who had been +a farmer in his time, that the apples were such as could be bought at a +dollar a barrel, and that the charge appearing in bills submitted to the +Government was five dollars. The quality of the apples in the pies +supports my informant's contention. As for the watermelons--a benefactor +of the prisoners bought a consignment of them sufficient for the prison +population, to be eaten on the Fourth of July, 1913. The contract was +for the best melons obtainable; and Georgia is famous for good melons. A +day or two before the Fourth, the benefactor called at the prison, and +asked to see the melons, which had been delivered some time before. +Examination showed them to be of an inferior grade, such as farmers used +for cattle and poultry. It was too late, however, to get a fresh supply, +and the benefactor had the mortification of seeing the kindly meant gift +dishonored. It is pertinent, here, that there is said to be an +individual in Atlanta not officially connected with the penitentiary who +is commissioned to make all purchases for the prison--food, tobacco, and +other supplies. He buys the stuff, and hands in his bills; but the bills +he pays are not submitted. It is conceivable that there may be a +discrepancy between the two amounts, and it might be interesting to +learn whether he alone benefits by it. + +Guards walk up and down the aisles between the tables, during meals, to +keep order and also to attend to complaints or requests from prisoners. +There is also the man in the window with the loaded magazine rifle, +ready to settle any complaints that become too insistent. The common +protest is against the badness of a specific piece of food, or against +some example of dirt. The former seldom get relief; in the latter case, +the dish or cup is sometimes changed. + +A prisoner at my table called the guard's attention to a quid of tobacco +which had got into his soup. The guard, who was of a humorous turn, +replied, smiling, "Well, you use tobacco, don't you?" and passed on. +This was the same guard who assaulted and clubbed a prisoner whom he was +taking downstairs, as described in a previous chapter. On another +occasion, a prisoner complained that there was a beetle in his hash. An +examination was made; but whether the beetle was alive and got away, or +whether the prisoner himself had "bugs," as the slang is, at any rate +the examiners reported no beetle. The matter was then brought before the +authorities, who ordered the complainant to the dark hole. + +Another day, following some months of constant deterioration in the +food, and diminution in the quantity of it, a dinner of hash and bread +was served, and both bread and hash were sour. The air of the room was +full of the sour smell; the captain came down the aisle near mine, and a +prisoner had the boldness to stop him and hold up his plate. "It's sour, +Captain!" said he. The captain looked the man in the eye and replied +sternly, "It is not sour!" "But, Captain--" "I say it is not sour!" the +other repeated with a threatening look. It was either submit, or the +hole; the man sat down. + +But a few minutes later, some one hissed; before he could be identified, +hisses came from every part of the room. It was a critical juncture. The +captain ordered the band to play, and play it did at the top of its +compass; but the hissing was audible and continued through the playing. +Presently the men got up and began to march out; it was then that a +group of guards from the smoking room below came running up the stairs +armed with clubs and revolvers and tried to get through the barred door +at the stair head, but were checked by the captain, who was a wise +tactician. The men went to their cells, and there began to howl and +screech like a crazy menagerie, and kept it up for hours. Twenty or +thirty of the supposed ringleaders were sent to the dark holes; but the +revolt was not checked until the warden personally promised reforms, and +gave his word that no further punishments should be inflicted--fair +promises, made to be broken. + +The dining room windows were protected by wire netting; but there were +many holes in it, as large as a man's head, through which the flies, in +summer, entered in swarms; and there was no provision for keeping them +out of the kitchen, which opened into the dining room. Complaints were +constantly made, but the holes were never mended, and no means were +taken to kill the flies. Food sometimes was placed on the tables hours +before the men sat down to their meals, and the flies, not having the +same delicacy of appetite as the men, feasted freely in the meanwhile. +There was also frequent protest against the bits of loose enamel in the +bowls; many of these were made direct to the doctor; but he did nothing. +If a man whose digestion had given way called on him for help, a dose of +salts was the only reply, and several deaths, while I was there, +unquestionably had their beginning in this neglect. Upon the whole, +contentment with starvation was the most prudent policy in Atlanta +Penitentiary. + +I am not a sybarite or an epicure. For fifteen years before I was sent +to prison I lived on the hardest and most Spartan diet, eating as little +food as possible and that of the simplest kind. Wheat, milk, a few green +vegetables, and fruit made my menus. I was therefore better fortified +against hardships than the majority of prisoners; I could hold out +against starvation longer; but against the poison of rotten or bad food +I had no protection. + +The wardens and the chief clerks of prisons often wish, for motives of +their own, to make an economical showing, and perhaps do not much care +if it is made at the expense of the health or lives of prisoners. Some +friends of mine in Atlanta prison and myself made an attempt to +determine just what was paid out per man in the prison for subsistence; +we quietly obtained statements from men in the kitchen and commissary +departments, and made our calculations. After careful revision, the +figures showed that we were being fed at the rate of from eight to +eleven cents per head, a day. + +About that time, a great scientific discovery was announced by the chief +steward. Food, he had been informed, contained a certain amount of heat +and power; and these heat units, called calories, could be estimated for +any given article of diet. (As I write this, an editorial on the subject +in a recent issue of a New York newspaper states the matter in terms +which I am happy to reproduce.) "Physiologists have determined by +repeated experiments that a definite quantity of certain foods furnishes +a definite number of calories or heat units, which produce a certain +quantity of energy in the animal or human body.... In twenty-four hours +a normal man of about one hundred and thirty pounds at rest, needs 1680 +calories or heat units, while a man doing severe physical labor would +require sufficient food to produce 3000 calories.... Since the +efficiency of labor depends upon the energy of the body and this energy +or power is produced by the food, it is not difficult to calculate the +actual outlay required for this purpose.... The household requirements +of a family where two servants are kept would at this rate be from $1.00 +to $1.40 a day, a sum sufficient to furnish all the energy for all +purposes of normal maintenance." + +Such being the case, our steward figured that the convicts could be well +enough supported by about 2500 calories apiece; and upon making a +scientific estimate of the calories in our average bill-of-fare, he +found that we were being overfed rather than the contrary. Meat, so many +calories; soup, so many; sweet potatoes, so many; bread, so many; and so +on. It was found possible, on this basis, to retrench here and there; +the bills were reduced--it was hoped that we might ultimately beat even +eight cents. The sole difficulty appeared to be that the men, the +subjects of the experiment, began incomprehensibly and perhaps +maliciously to starve. + +I was fortunate enough to have access to a physician (a fellow +prisoner), of forty years' eminence in his profession, who solved the +enigma for me. The sum of his comment was this: "Put a Delmonico dinner +in one bucket, and an equal bulk of swill or garbage in another; the +number of calories may be the same in both. The steward, in his +calculation, has forgotten to consider the condition in which the food +is served--its eatableness, in short. If men could devour swill, it +would be all right; but if they cannot, they will starve in spite of +calories." + +So the steward's calories became a byword and a mockery in the prison +for many weeks afterward. + +Similar conditions, perhaps due to the same cause, seem to have obtained +at Sing Sing and elsewhere. It is not enough that prison food should be +sufficient in amount; it must also be of a quality such that the men are +able to get it down their throats. Nor are the doctor's salts a remedy; +their violent and abnormal action finally paralyze the excretory and +digestive powers of the organism, and the man dies from poisons +generated by indigestible food in his own system. Even keeping him in +the dark hole fails to recuperate him, though it has been constantly +tried at Atlanta, and very likely in other reformatory institutions. + +Plenty of vigorous and hearty outdoor exercise would help much; not the +exercise of prison toil, which but deepens the darkness of the heart; +but exercise for its own sake, for the cheer and excitement of it. Much +has been said of the baseball at Atlanta Penitentiary; and doubtless it +has been of benefit. But only a handful of the prisoners, and +nine-tenths of them negroes, play the game; the others can only stand +and look on. The games occur, weather permitting, once a week, on +Saturdays. From Saturday at half past three until Monday morning at half +past seven, the men are locked in their cells, absolutely inactive in +body, and abandoned to such mental activities as, for the most part, +breed no good either for themselves or others. The only outlet is the +Sunday church service hour--a crowded session in a blank hall, with +rifles ready to subdue any disorder. A very apostle might fail in his +efforts under such circumstances; and very apostles are few. + +A man who is sick and sad day after day and year after year, and +conscious of his impotence to amend his state, is in no mood for moral +reform. Much of the sickness might be averted if the medical treatment +at the outset of disease were such as to encourage the patients to avail +themselves of advice. But each man, as he comes up in the sick line +every morning, is met with indifference or insults; he is presumed to be +a malingerer unless he can prove himself genuine on the instant; the +only other recourse is to become so sick as to be beyond help of +medicine, and then, taken belated to the hospital, to die outright. The +consequence is that the men will suffer silently in their cells rather +than appeal to the doctor; and many diseases become ineradicable from +this cause. + +Even a convict, when he is miserable and weak from illness, shrinks from +facing rough and unsympathetic handling and words in the doctor's room, +with a good chance of being sent to the hole if he remonstrates. The +doctor of a prison could be its good angel, if he would. + + + + +XIV + + +THE POLICY OF FALSEHOOD + +The subterranean brotherhood waxes curiously indignant over being lied +to by prison officials. For why should criminals, whose success in their +trade must depend largely on lies either spoken or acted, be resentful +when they are paid back in their own base coin? I am inclined to think +that the anomaly may be due to some survival in prisoners of the old +belief, that honor and fair play do, or should, exist in officers of +justice; although their own experience should admonish them that +officers of prisons, at least, cultivate the art and practise of +fighting the devil with fire (as we say), and so far from ever thinking +of keeping faith with a convict, study the art of deceiving and +hoodwinking him, and appear to derive no small amusement from their +results. Indeed, any tendency on the part of a guard or other official +in a prison to deal honestly and above board with their charges would at +once awaken suspicion of his loyalty to the "system," and his superiors +would be apt to improve the first opportunity of getting rid of him. + +The lies told to prisoners are sometimes told for art's sake merely--for +the delight of the artist in his fabrication. There is fun in overcoming +the suspicions and skepticism of some old timer, and beguiling him into +the belief that for once, and at last, he really is getting trustworthy +information--that he has finally succeeded in touching the elusive hem +of the robe of Truth. But commonly the official liar has some practical +object in view. This object is usually the tightening of the prison's +grip upon the convict; not only to strengthen the bonds which confine +his body, but to bring his spirit or soul under more complete subjection +and to make him feel that so far from moral reform being the end sought +in his incarceration, he will best consult his private interests by +abandoning all thoughts of decency and honor, and acting, with the +officials, against the welfare and hopes of his own fellows. + +The consequence of the falsehood policy in prisons is, for one thing, +that the men most worthless morally are uniformly those who get most +favors. Men of unbroken spirit are handled in a hostile manner, and are +subjected to a régimen calculated either to kill or cure their obstinacy +and themselves. "You have no right to do this--there is no law for it!" +the convict may protest. The reply is a sneer: "What are you going to do +about it?" What do you think you would do in such circumstances?--write +to the President, or to some Senator or Congressman? awaken the country +to these iniquities? The warden and the clerk will smile over your +letter, and drop it in the waste-basket, or will make it the basis of an +adverse report against you to the Department,--insubordination, +incorrigibility, insanity perhaps. + +Or, if you reserve your protest till after you get out, and can then +find any medium for ventilating it, the prison authorities will promptly +and smilingly "welcome an investigation"; and the Department will +eagerly send down some old friend and boon companion of the officials, +to make a "strict investigation," "without fear or favor." Now, at last, +the truth shall be known, let it hurt whom it may! So the severe and +incorruptible inspector comes down; and after snubbing and insulting a +few prisoners, and taking notes of the information of a few snitches, +and dining and wining with the officials, and inspecting the country in +the government automobile, he goes back to Washington with the +reassuring news that the reports of abuses, where they were not absolute +fabrications, were gross exaggerations. + +Is this an imaginative sketch--or colored a little--or a good deal? How +shall it be determined?--for I am only an ex-convict, and we all know +what an ex-convict's word is worth. I can only suggest that, for your +own individual satisfaction at any rate, you commit a bona fide crime +and get sentenced to prison for it. If you survive, we can converse +further on the subject. Or--to offer a bolder suggestion yet--perhaps +the head of the Department himself might take a hand; perhaps he would +oblige us by breaking a law. Let him be handcuffed and brought to +Atlanta or elsewhere--we are not particular--and there be numbered and +U.S.P.'d and set to work. After a ten years' experience, or, if his time +be valuable, a year and a day might do, let him write his report, and I +for one will abide by it. + +The prison policy of falsehood may be illustrated by the uses to which +the parole law is put. This unfortunate measure was no doubt conceived +by its parents in love and charity, to supply prisoners with a stimulus +to reform by rewarding them for it with early release from imprisonment. +If a man's conduct while serving his sentence had been orderly and +obedient to rules, he was to be freed after serving about one-third of +his appointed time; but he was required, for a reasonable period +thereafter, to make monthly reports to the prison, and to show that he +was usefully employed and was not frequenting drinking saloons or +otherwise going astray. A parole board was appointed to carry out the +law and to look after the paroled prisoner, helping him if necessary to +get employment. Meetings of the board were to be held at stated times, +to pass upon applications for parole; it was to consist of the warden +and the doctor of the prison, together with the president of the parole +board, who officiated at all Federal prisons, and who would, naturally, +be the superior official of the three. But two members of the board +would form a quorum; and meetings of the board at times other than those +regularly required could be held if thought desirable. + +This looked humane and innocent, and raised great hopes in prisoners; +and an improvement in their general demeanor was soon observable. +Question soon arising as to whether life prisoners could be brought +under the new law, it was decided that lifers who had served fifteen +years were eligible, if of good record,--not an extravagant act of +mercy,--and in obtaining this concession it was made known that the +warden of Atlanta Penitentiary was instrumental. Of course the +reputation of Atlanta as a model and humane prison was greatly enhanced +thereby. + +But the prisoners, and perhaps the framers of the law also, had +overlooked one little word in the language of the law, which grew to +have a large significance afterward. The language is, that if the +prisoner's conduct has been correct, etc., he may be granted parole. If, +for that harmless looking "may," had been substituted "shall," or +"must," the secret annals of federal prisons since then would have been +spared much rascality, corruption, cruelty, torture and death; and +prisoners would not have hated and distrusted their keepers as they do +now, and subordination on one side and humanity on the other would have +received an impetus. + +That "may" rendered it optional with the board to grant or to refuse +parole in any given case; they might not only determine whether or not +the conduct of the applicant had been, while serving his sentence, good +enough to justify clemency; but also whether, even then, it were +expedient to exercise it. No matter how unexceptionable the behavior of +a prisoner were shown to be, it was open to the board to say to him, "We +hold that your liberation would be inimical to the welfare of society, +and we cannot therefore recommend it to the Department." + +The prisoner, going before the board unsupported by the advice of +counsel, had no further recourse; he must go back to his cell feeling +that all his efforts to be obedient (persisted in through what +discouragements only prisoners know) had been futile; that he was not a +whit better off than was a man who had defied every regulation, and was +worse off in so far as he had taken all his pains and indulged all his +hopes for nothing. He must serve out his time; for if he renewed his +application at the next meeting of the board, he was told that nothing +could be done in his case except upon the presentation of "new +evidence." + +New evidence of what? The obstacle he had to meet was the arbitrary +opinion, or fiat, of the board that it would not be a good thing to set +him free; with what argument, except his good conduct, which had already +proved unavailing, could he hope to reverse it? The decision left him +helpless and hopeless, and with a sense of despotic injustice on the +part of the authorities which was anything but conducive to good +discipline in him or in his comrades who were conversant with his fate. + +Obviously, however, there was a weak point in this kind of arbitrary +rulings of the board; it was conceivable that some enterprising +Attorney-General might want to know why the board had not held the good +conduct specified in the law to be sufficient ground for freeing the +man. To guard against this, the services of a subordinate called the +parole officer were called in. This person's normal functions as +indicated in the law were to help paroled men to procure employment, to +aid them in general in their efforts toward a better life, and to stand +by them as an authoritative and kindly friend. But he was now required +to play a very different part. + +As soon as a man applied for parole, the parole officer betook himself +to the place where the applicant had formerly lived or been known, and +there busied himself in unearthing whatever gossip and scandal of a +hostile nature any enemy might be willing to supply. There was no time +limit on these revelations, nor were any apparent precautions taken to +determine whether the evil reports were founded in fact; the tale bearer +was not compelled to testify under oath, and his story might refer to +incidents which had happened years before, and which had nothing to do +with the crime for which the prisoner was now undergoing sentence. With +this budget of information the parole officer returned to his superiors, +who were now prepared for any contingency. + +When the prisoner comes up for examination, and has handed in his report +of good conduct while incarcerated, the president of the board fixes a +distrustful eye upon him, and says in effect, "Your behavior here seems +to have been unobjectionable; but the board cannot take the +responsibility of granting parole on that ground alone. It desires to be +informed what you were doing in such and such a place, in such and such +a year? Is it not true that you were arrested in this or that year for +this or that offense? Has your career, in short, been absolutely +blameless during the whole course of your life? Because, unless you can +prove such to be the case, it will indicate a predisposition to +law-breaking on your part which will render it imprudent for the board +to recommend you for parole to the Department." + +The president has a sheaf of papers in his hand, which he glances over +significantly while the mind of the prisoner goes groping back over the +past, asking himself what he has done amiss in forgotten years, and who +can be his accusers. He has no counsel beside him to tell him that he is +being tried before an unauthorized tribunal, on unsupported testimony, +on charges irrelevant to that for which he is now undergoing punishment; +or to remind him that the judge who passed sentence on him had specified +that if his behavior were good while serving that sentence, he would be +eligible for parole--that he had, perhaps, given him a longer sentence +than he would otherwise have done, upon this very understanding; and +that, consequently, the parole board was now arrogating the power to +override the purpose of the federal court, and to inflict additional and +unwarranted punishment upon him for something which he may or may not +have done in the past, or for which, if he had done it and been +convicted, he may already have served sentence. He has no one to argue +thus for him; he feels that he is alone and among enemies; and he can +make no effective defense. And the parole officer stands by with a sad +countenance, as of one who had done the best he could for a protégé, but +was powerless to stem the tide of justice. + +It can't be done, legally or justly; but it is done; that is the gist of +the matter. There is no one to know the wrong and to insist upon the +right; and the wrong is perpetrated. Unnumbered victims of it, in every +federal prison of the country, substantiate this fact. The parole +board--which means, in practise, its president--exercises more power +than the federal court, and there is no appeal from his decision. At his +will, a man may be tried twice for the same offense, behind closed +doors, without aid of counsel. He may be condemned, though the offense +was never committed except in the imagination of an enemy. We tell our +convicts that they have no civic rights; but it is not generally +understood, I think, that the Spanish Inquisition of the Middle Ages can +properly be reproduced in Twentieth Century America even with men behind +the bars. + +But let that pass. Things are done under the parole law worse than this. +If it were used merely as a means to induce unruly men to be docile, no +one could complain; if men thus induced should after all be deprived of +the reward they had earned, we might condone it. But what if we find the +parole board turned into an accessory of the secret service or spy +system, and learn that an applicant for parole, whether or not he have +maintained good conduct during his term, may yet hope for a favorable +report on his case if he will consent to betray some man on whom the +police have not yet been able to lay their hand? + +Here comes a postoffice thief, for example. He was known to have had +confederates, but they escaped. He is up for parole, with only an +indifferent prison record to plead for him. "We do not find your case +meritorious," says the president to him (in substance), "but there were +two or three others concerned in your crime. If you are able to furnish +their names to the board, with such other information as may lead to +their arrest and conviction, we might see our way to recommend leniency +in your matter." I will not guarantee that the president expresses +himself in terms quite so explicit, but he makes himself perfectly +understood, and the prisoner perfectly understands that his liberty is +purchasable at the price of treachery. + +I don't know what percentage of the miserable creatures accept the +ignoble offer; but I know personally of many who refused it. And I do +not need to ask what are the prospects of an honest and worthy career +for those who chose to be traitors. If they go to ruin, is not the +parole board responsible? On the other hand, who shall blame the convict +if he accedes to the bargain? The alternative presented to him is one +which might cause even virtue to waver, and convicts are not supposed to +be virtuous, especially when such an example as this action of the board +is set them. The alternative is liberty, or continued incarceration with +the strong probability of increased severity of treatment, and always +the off chance of death. + +Meanwhile, is there not something humiliating in the reflection that a +tribunal authorized and appointed by the Government of the United States +should descend to such practises? Or are we content to accept the spy +system in toto, cost what it may? Perhaps, however, the president of the +parole board is prepared to deny that he ever entered into any such +compact with a prisoner; and perhaps the Department of Justice will be +astonished to hear that he ever did. Is the thing true, or not true? I +think men exist who have excellent reasons to believe, and who may be +willing to testify, that it is. + +But take the case of a prisoner who had no confederates--how does the +board deal with him? According to my information, which includes my +personal experience, question is put to the applicant whether or not he +admits himself guilty of the crime for which he is undergoing sentence? +My own reply was, "Not guilty"; and though the president was very +courteous to me, and gave me every assurance that I might expect +favorable action on my application, as a matter of fact and of record +the recommendation made to the Attorney-General was that my application +be denied, and denied it accordingly was. But in other cases nearly +contemporary with mine, which came to my knowledge, the reply of "not +guilty" called forth the rejoinder that in that case the matter was not +one for the board to pass on, but should be referred to executive +action--that is, that the President of the United States should be +petitioned for a pardon. Some men are so persistent or so infatuated as +to take the suggestion seriously; but their petition does not bear +fruit; probably its path to the President is by way of the Department of +Justice, where it is either pigeonholed, or reaches him with an +endorsement to the effect that it is not a case for clemency. But in +such cases as came to my knowledge, the President never saw the petition +at all. + +And what happens if our man pleads guilty? Why, in that event he is told +that such a person as he should not have made application for +parole--that he has not been sufficiently punished--that the best he +should hope for is to serve out his sentence, less the regular allowance +for good time. It is a case, in short, of heads the board wins, tails +the convict loses; and he withdraws, wondering, perhaps, what the board +is for. But let him beware of becoming restive under his disappointment, +or he may forfeit his good time too. + +That the parole law is interpreted, under all conditions, as being a +favor or privilege and not a right earned by good conduct, is perhaps no +more than one might expect; but no prisoner who lacks powerful friends, +or whose parole does not in some way inure to the advantage of the +prison quite as much as to his own, can make his application with +assured hope of success. Upon the whole, prisoners feel that parole will +not be granted if any means can be found or devised to prevent it; the +good report of an entire county where a man formerly lived will not +prevail against the adverse report of some inspector--one enemy of a +prisoner outweighs, in the board's estimation, the favorable words of +many friends. + +Moreover, men released on parole live in constant dread of the secret +service, for they know that unjust and trivial pretexts are often made +the occasion of their re-arrest; and a paroled man re-arrested must +serve out his whole time without rebate, and not including the period +during which he was at liberty. Some supervision by the Government is of +course proper; but the men feel it to be hostile, not friendly or +helpful; that any error they fall into or mishap they meet with will be +construed against them, not in their favor. In short, under the outward +forms of liberty, they are still in prison, and are often discouraged +from doing their best by this sleepless fear of the prowling spy. + +Atlanta prison records show that out of one thousand prisoners who +applied for parole up to June 30th, 1913, two hundred and seventy were +successful. These applicants were serving terms of from one year and a +day to twenty-one years. The two hundred and seventy who were paroled +had served an aggregate of eighty-three years beyond the period when +they were eligible for parole (that is, after one-third of their +original sentence), or an average of about 112 days each, and with an +average of from twenty-five to forty per cent, of the time contemplated +for them to reestablish and rehabilitate themselves. + +The one-year-one-day men lost about thirty-three per cent. of their time +during which they might have labored to reform themselves; and there +were about one hundred of the two hundred and seventy whose sentences +ran for a year and a day. Some sixty-five of the two hundred and seventy +had sentences of more than a year and a day and less than two years; +about thirty-five had over two years and under three years; from which +it would appear that short term men, convicted of minor offenses, were +given preference for parole over long term men. Yet it would seem to the +ordinary intelligence that it should be the long term men who most +needed parole and, if their conduct had been good, best deserved it. It +often happened that men would be paroled when they had but a few weeks +or even days yet to serve of their full sentence. In such cases, the +prison got whatever credit may belong to granting parole, but the men +got rather less than nothing, for they stood the risk of re-arrest and +further confinement. + +When an applicant goes before the board for examination, he is sometimes +turned down summarily; but more often he goes out ignorant whether or +not he will succeed, and, as I have already shown, he is not seldom kept +in this torturing uncertainty until the day when he is either turned +loose or told that he has been rejected. This seems unnecessary, and +often appears to be due to sheer carelessness; the papers are not +promptly submitted to the Attorney-General, or they are pigeonholed and +forgotten. It may be true that the law does not categorically demand +that a prisoner shall be released immediately upon a favorable report; +but there is no obvious reason why he should not be, and it is cruel to +keep him in suspense. + +There was a young fellow while I was there, a well educated and +agreeable man, whose conduct had always been unexceptionable; he applied +when eligible for parole, and was informed that he would be released. +Every morning thereafter for three weeks he arose with the hope that the +release would come that day; every night he went to bed with a heart +heavy with disappointment. He could not eat or sleep, he could not talk +connectedly, he trembled and turned pale, and was on the way to becoming +a nervous wreck; but no explanation was vouchsafed him. At last he was +suddenly told that he might go. The sole reason that I ever heard for +the delay was that the papers had been overlooked. There are a great +many government employees at Washington; it might be worth while to +appoint one more, charged with the duty of seeing that the overlooking +of parole papers be henceforth avoided. This was a very mild instance; I +have related how poor Dennis lingered for six months and finally died +from the same inattention or indifference. + +There was a friend of mine, M., a highly intelligent, good natured +fellow, active and efficient in his prison duties, always courteous and +obliging; he was serving a sentence of five years, I think, for some +theft or confidence game. He had "done time" some six or seven years +previously, but during the interval had lived straight. At the time of +his last arrest he had been kept in the local jail, somewhere in New +England, after conviction, for four months before being transferred to +Atlanta. Time spent in a local jail before conviction is not counted in +the prisoner's favor; for example, I was arrested several months before +my conviction, and the trial itself lasted four months, and after the +trial I spent ten days in the Tombs. + +With the exception of the last ten days, however, I was lucky enough to +be out on bail; but none of this time was applied to the lessening of my +sojourn in Atlanta, although the judge specified in his sentence that my +imprisonment there was to count from the time when the trial began; an +injunction which, had it been observed, would have caused my release on +parole a few days after my arrival at the penitentiary. But it appears +that such rulings by a trial judge have no weight with the Department of +Justice; and I am willing to admit that the judge's ruling in my case +seemed rather like whipping the devil round the stump--an evasion of the +manifest intent of the law, which, if I were guilty, I had no right to +expect. At all events, the Attorney-General made a decision, based upon +my case, that hereafter no such evasions were to be allowed; and I +presume his authority must be superior to that of any federal judge. + +But my friend's case did not come under this category. His four months +in jail came after, not before, his conviction; and yet, when he arrived +at Atlanta, he was told that this four months would not be deducted from +his penitentiary time. Turn this which way you will, you cannot escape +the conclusion that this man is getting four months more than the +sentence of the judge required. Well, M. applied for parole on the plea +of perfect conduct during his imprisonment; no denial of that was +offered; but he was informed that his conviction seven years before, for +which he had been duly punished at that time, prevented the board from +giving favorable attention to his application. + +This looks to me like trying a man twice for the same offense, and twice +condemning him; and I can find nothing to warrant it in the wording of +the parole law. If every actual or alleged mis-step of a man's whole +life can be quoted against him as ground for refusing parole, it would +seem tantamount to stultifying the law for parole. + +This is not done in every case; but the point is that it may be done in +any case, and thus the fate of the applicant is at the arbitrary and +absolute disposal of the board, whether or not he have complied with the +stated provisions of the law. + +The president of the parole board, in my time, was a Mr. Robert LaDow. A +former deputy warden of the Leavenworth Penitentiary, one W.H. Mackay, +wrote a letter to the Attorney-General on the 6th of November, 1913, +parts of which were published in newspapers about that time. In this +letter he said that Mr. LaDow was egotistical, arrogant, negligent, +extravagant, visionary and impractical, showed favoritism to prisoners, +and was totally unfit for the position he held. He goes on as follows: + +"Personally, he knows nothing of Leavenworth Federal Prison; he is too +cowardly to go among the prisoners in the yards to make a personal +investigation of conditions; he has dealt unfairly and hastily with so +many at the parole meetings that he is afraid to meet prisoners face to +face.... Prisoners will stand punishment without a murmur if there is a +just reason for it, and they will permit you to be the judge; but when +men under the law are entitled to parole, and the flimsy excuse to hold +them in confinement is made that they will be a menace to society, they +cannot see it in that way. The parole board at this time is arrogantly +dominated by LaDow; it is practically a one-man board.... + +"When the board meets here, the men do not know sometimes for weeks and +months afterwards what their fate is.... Instances occur here where the +board acts unanimously upon a parole. Mr. LaDow takes these cases to +Washington and holds them thirty, sixty, and even ninety days on some +flimsy pretext or other. He often claims press of business, until +finally some senator or congressman or influential politician calls on +him, and then he gets busy very suddenly.... + +"When he comes to a parole meeting he begins work generally with a rush +and a flurry.... Usually has about 180 cases; he rushes them at the rate +of 60 to 80 a day, without getting at the merits or giving them serious +deliberation. He brings a stenographer, his private secretary, from +Washington at a heavy expense.... Then, when they return to Washington, +the stenographer writes up the result of the meeting, while LaDow will +take a junketing trip at Government expense ... as a sort of recreation +from his arduous duties." + +I had not been long in Atlanta before a guard informed me that LaDow was +the best hated man in the prison, by officials and convicts alike. Nor +did I find any prisoner there, afterward, who did not speak to the same +tune. If he be really an efficient and trustworthy official, this is +singular and unfortunate. Mr. Mackay's charges against him at +Leavenworth are almost identically the same as what may be heard against +him any day in Atlanta. If there be any basis for them, perhaps it would +be expedient for the Government to supersede him. The parole law, at its +best, seems to be rather a weak-kneed and perverse institution, and it +would be a pity to deprive it of what value it may have by committing +its dispensation to the hands of a man not peculiarly fitted by nature +and temperament to carry out its provisions. It was Napoleon's opinion +that a blunder is worse than a crime. + + + + +XV + + +THE FRUIT OF PRISONS + +After weathering Cape Parole, I laid my course for the Port of Good +Time. Men whose prison records are clear are liberated after serving +two-thirds of their original sentences. This new posture of my mind +invited a review of the experience through which I had been passing, and +of the conditions with which I had become conversant, and their +significance in connection with the policy of penal imprisonment in +general. I will introduce some of these reflections in this place. + +As I have just said, men whose prison records are clear are liberated +after serving two-thirds of their original sentences. But part or all of +this abridgment may be lost by imperfect conduct. One man, at least, +within my knowledge, was punished by the dark hole several months before +the expiration of his original sentence, and was kept there until that +sentence had expired. Then, out of that filthy dungeon he was thrust +abruptly forth into broad daylight and the crowded world. It was a +miracle if he survived. What have most convicts to live for? Perhaps +those who have most to live for are unlikeliest to survive--their +anxiety is greater. + +On the other hand, severity itself may stimulate a convict. His human +mind cannot comprehend despair. Instinct forces him to hope. So weeks, +months, years go by, and hope seems to him more instead of less +justifiable, till at last, perhaps, he dies with the illusion still +strong in him. Real despair is un-human and possibly rare. Otherwise +prison mutinies and killings would be more frequent. The argument of +despair is, "Since I must die here anyway, I'll take two or three of +those devils with me!" But few men believe they will die in jail, +therefore the guard or other official escapes. + +Not ten percent of men in jail would regard such a killing as +unjustifiable. We were taught in school that resistance to tyrants is +obedience to God, and many who had disobeyed God in other ways would +gladly obey Him in this. I speak not merely of "ignorant and brutal" +convicts, but of educated and intelligent men like you and me. Even a +sensitive conscience may condone the killing of a tyrant who is slowly +and surely destroying you, body and soul, under sanction of law. But we +punish convicts who fight for revenge or liberty, and protect the +officials who taunt and torture them into doing it. + +What a hideous and almost unbelievable situation! Historians wonder that +the Aztecs of Cortez' time, with their comparatively high civilization, +tolerated human sacrifices. But their human sacrifices were merciful +compared with ours. What is cutting out a man's heart on an altar to +propitiate a god, to hounding him to death through miserable years in a +prison to placate the spite of an accuser, the justice of a court, or +the grudge of a warden or guard? + +And what is the fruit of it? For pure, carefree, smiling, remorseless +wickedness nothing in human annals surpasses the young criminals--black- +mailers, bomb-throwers, gunmen--now infesting our cities. "I think no +more of killing a houseful of human beings, men, women and children," +one of them was quoted as saying the other day, "than of crushing so +many beetles." How came such a monster to exist? Why, we bred him, +supplied him with the poisonous conditions that generate such beings and +can generate nothing else. He had intelligence enough to understand that +the established order made earning an honest living hard work; saw +thousands living well without labor apparently, other thousands robbing +under cover of legal technicalities; a legal profession living by +devising statutes to punish crimes and prosecuting the criminals thus +manufactured; often living better yet by teaching criminals to escape +the penalties which their law imposed. He saw reform schools which +instructed such children as he had been to become such men as he was; +prisons and penitentiaries which graduated such as he in the latest +devices of crime--and he made up his mind that goodness was at bottom +humbug, that only a fool would be honest or merciful when money could be +got by theft and murder. + +We breed poisonous snakes and scorpions, give them no chance to be +anything but that, and then wonder they are not doves and butterflies. +Things like this gangster are infernal spirits, irreclaimable; but we +gain nothing by extirpating the individuals; the black stream which +carries them must be dammed at its source. Of the conditions which +generate them, a part is the prisons and their keepers. But we are not +yet at the root of the matter--the keepers are not primarily to blame. +It is the principle which prisons illustrate which attracts and molds +keepers till they become often as bad as the men they have charge of, +and often much worse. + +Prisons mean social selfishness, the disowning of our own flesh and +blood. They segregate visible consequences of social disease; but the +disease is invisibly present in all parts of the body corporate, and +can no more be healed by cutting off the visible part than we can +heal small pox by cutting out the pustules. Prisons are not the right +remedy; they inflame and disseminate the poison we would be rid of +and prevent any chance of cure. The soul of all crime is self-seeking +in place of neighborly good will; we send men to prison to get them +out of our way, and that is criminal self seeking and ill will to the +neighbor--delegating to hirelings our own proper business. + +In attempting thus selfishly to extirpate crime, we commit the crime +least of all forgivable--the denial of human brotherhood and +responsibility. For that crime, no law sends us to prison; yet it is no +sentimental notion, but the truth, that it is a crime worse than those +for which we imprison men. Prisons are brimful of men less guilty before +God than is the society that condemned them. You and I are not excused +because we are not society--we are society. Society is not numbers but +an idea--a mutual relation; we cannot shift our blame to people in the +next street. "Am I my brother's keeper?" was an argument used long ago, +and its reception was not encouraging. + +Thoughts like these pass through a convict's mind when he discovers that +he is on the last leg of his disastrous voyage. He then begins to see +the whole matter in its general relations; what use was served? who is +the better for it? "Prisons make a good man bad and a bad man worse," is +the way I often heard the men at Atlanta put it. The situation, entire +and in detail, is preposterous and futile. Grown men, from all ranks of +life, or all degrees of intelligence and education, are herded +promiscuously, and treated now like wild beasts, now like children. +Discipline, in any condition of life, is a good thing, and no people +need discipline more than we do; but in prison, discipline means +punishment, and there is no discipline in the right sense of the word. A +man is "disciplined" when he is starved, or clubbed, or put in the hole, +or deprived of his good time. + +Military discipline might be beneficial; it implies respect for rightful +authority, and orderly conduct of one's own life. Officials in a +penitentiary wear uniforms; prisoners wear prison clothes; but, in warm +weather, officials go about, indoors and out, in their shirts and with +the bearing of loafers; they have no official salutes, and the men are +not allowed to salute them--to do so would expose them to "discipline." +There is no drill in the prison, no soldierly bearing, no physical +control of movement. The men are "lined up" to go to work, but it is a +line of slouchers and derelicts; no spirit in it, no respect for +themselves or one another, no decent example set by the guards. And yet +armies in all ages and in all parts of the world have proved the value +of discipline--its necessity, indeed--in all proper and intelligent +handling and control of bodies of men; and it is as important for +convicts as for soldiers. It would promote cheerfulness, smartness, +efficiency; half an hour's lively drill of all the men in prison every +morning and evening would do them good, improve relations between guards +and prisoners, and lessen the danger of revolts. Why refuse it then? Is +it because it would imply something human still lingering in convicts? +or because it is feared that convicts taught to act in unison by +military drill would combine more readily for mutiny? But order does not +naturally lead to disorder but away from it, and mutinies are mostly +impromptu affairs, contemplating revenge rather than escape. As for the +other argument, a lie is not a sound basis to build on, and it is a lie +that convicts are not human. To admit this would facilitate their +management. + +Physical exercise twice a day in the open air would diminish the sick +line, produce better work, and help to put a soul in any prison. +Desultory exercise--say two or three hours of baseball on +Saturdays--does not meet the need--it emphasizes it rather. But at +present the well-nigh universal aim seems to be to render the gray +monotony of prison slavery as monotonous and as gray as possible. Any +relief from it is opposed or made difficult. It is true that at Atlanta +and elsewhere we have music (that is what it is called, and I have no +wish to criticize the hardworking and zealous young fellows who produce +it in and out of season; and some of the men may like it for aught I +know); and that a vaudeville company performs for us occasionally. But I +must look these gift horses in the mouth, and say that often we have +them less for our own advantage than as an advertisement to the public +of the liberality of prison authorities. And there to be sure at my +prison, is Uncle Billy, who makes fiddles out of shingles, with nails, +and plays on them, all with one hand. But he is--I hope I may now say, +he was; for he was to have been paroled the other day; he was a lifer, +and a picturesque and wholly innocuous figure--he was, then, permitted +to pursue this industry, and visitors used to come and watch him do it; +but he, too, was most useful to the prison press agent, and owed the +indulgence to that functionary. On the other hand, there is a convict, +also a lifer, who cultivated a most remarkable skill in inlaid woodwork, +producing really beautiful and artistic boxes and other articles, and +found some consolation for his awful fate in making them. But one day +while I was there his cell was entered by the guard, his boxes and plant +taken away and broken, and he was forbidden to do that work any more. +Visitors did not know about him. + +This was malicious. But some of the things done by prison authorities +are apparently due to sheer stupidity and ignorance. For example, there +were some cows belonging to Atlanta prison, and some of them calved. So +there were half a dozen calves more or less, with prospects of more to +come. The authorities decided that the expense of rearing these +innocents was not justifiable; there was nothing in the rule book about +it; besides, the jail was not designed to harbor innocent creatures. The +minutes of the conference were not given out, and we can judge of what +passed only by the results. The order went forth that the calves be +killed; and the killing was actually perpetrated, and the bodies were +buried somewhere in the prison grounds. The story seems incredible, but +it was corroborated by several men cognizant of the facts. Why not, at +least, have turned them into veal? + +I was speaking just now of the promiscuous herding together of prisoners +in prisons generally. No effort is made to separate the old from the +young, the educated from the ignorant; the hardened sinners from the +impressionable youths or newcomers; or (at Atlanta, except in the +cells), the negroes from the whites. Association of negroes with whites, +on a footing of enforced outward equality, is bad for both; not because +a bad white man is worse than a bad negro, but because the physical, +mental and moral qualities of either react unfavorably upon the other. +The negro, being the more ignorant as a rule, falls more readily into +degraded vices; the white man, being as a rule the dominant element in +the situation, masters the will of the negro, but cannot or at least +does not erect barriers against the latter's subtle corruption. + +We must always bear in mind the abnormal conditions in a prison--the +misery of it, the dearth of variety and relaxation, the terrible +yearning for some form, any form, of distraction and amusement. The male +is parted from the female, and from the resource of children; his nerves +are on edge, his natural propensities starved, his thoughts wandering +and embittered; he finds no good anywhere, nor any hope of it. He will +seize upon any means of abating or dulling his cravings. The negro is +pliant, unmoral, free from the restraints of white civilization. In the +South especially, his subordination to the white is almost a second +nature; but he involuntarily avenges himself (as all lower races do upon +the stronger) by that readiness to comply which flatters the sense of +power and superiority in the other, and leads to evil. + +I wish to say, in passing, that my allusion to negroes in this +connection is by no means to be taken as reflecting upon them all; some +of the men in Atlanta for whom I had the highest respect were negroes; +and I am inclined to think that the negro in his right place and +function is a desirable element in civilization, and, if we would treat +him aright, would do us as much good as we can do him. But the negro in +jail is at his worst, just as white men are, and he is made worse by +white companionship. There are more than two hundred of them in Atlanta +jail, and some of them are the worst of their kind. + +What is true of the association of negroes with whites is not less true +of the association of what are called professional criminals with the +young and unhardened. Various prison authorities claim that they have +made some effort to prevent this contamination; but the only sign of it +that I could ever discover at Atlanta was that the old and the young are +not commonly assigned to the same cells. Obviously, however, a man young +in years may be old in crime; there can be no security in the age test +taken by itself; and no pretense of adopting any other test in a jail is +made. + +A young fellow, without inherited or acquired criminal tendencies, is +sent to jail for some inadvertent and insignificant infraction of law. +He had always meant to live straight; he had no enmity against society; +he had always thought of himself as well intentioned and law abiding. +But here he is; and he is shocked, shamed and appalled at the sudden +grip and horror of the jail. Upon a mind thus astounded and distraught +the professional criminal seizes and works. + +The man of the world--of the criminal world--befriends him, chats with +him, heartens him, and soon begins to fascinate him with ideas which had +never till now occurred to him. He preaches the injustice and hostility +of all mankind, and the hopelessness of the convict once in jail ever +again reestablishing himself in the world. He tells his pupil that he is +damned forever by his fellow men outside, and that unless he be prepared +to lie down and starve, he must fight for life in the only way open to +him--the way of crime. Then he proceeds to show him, progressively, the +profits and advantages of criminal practises. It is only too easy for +the trained crook to overcome the resistance of the unhardened youth; +his arguments seem unanswerable; and the wholly justifiable feeling that +prison is wrong and an outrage aids the corruptor at every turn. A few +months is often enough to turn an innocent boy into a malefactor; a year +or more of such instruction leaves him no chance of escape; and many an +innocent boy finds himself in a cell for what seems to him a lifetime. + +Last July, a justice of a State Supreme Court sentenced Thomas Baker, +little more than a child, to fifteen years in jail for--what? If your +mother was blind and helpless, and your stepfather came in and abused +her and beat her, in your presence,--a big brute with whom you could not +hope to contend physically,--what would be your feelings, and what would +you be prompted to do? Thomas Baker, trembling and sobbing with rage and +anguish, ran out of the house to a neighbor's, borrowed a shotgun, and +ran back and emptied it into the brute's body, killing him on the spot. +Fifteen years in prison for that! Shall we rejoice and say that justice, +at last, is satisfied?--But that is a digression. + +No doubt, meanwhile, Thomas Baker's one consolation in life is the +reflection that he did succeed in killing his stepfather; and he will be +very ready to give ear to an older and more experienced man who tells +him that the only difference between good and bad in the world is that +those are called good who have power over those who are called bad; and +that the only way for him to get even for his wrongs is to become a +crook--and not be a fool! + +The wardens and guards do not prevent these companionships; whether or +not they try to prevent them cannot be affirmed; but to my mind it is +plain that they could not prevent it, try as they might. It is an evil +inherent in prisons and ineradicable. As long as we have prisons, we +shall see judges like Thomas Baker's sending boys to jail for such +"crimes" as his, there to stay for fifteen years, more or less, and +there to be changed from innocence into diabolism. But Thomas was not +innocent, you say, but guilty. What is guilt? I find him innocent of the +guilt of standing inactive by and seeing that cruel fist strike his +blind mother's beloved face. + +Anything unnatural seems unreal. I remarked some time ago that when I +was sitting in the court room being tried on charges sworn to by certain +postoffice officials, the dull and sordid scenes would sometimes vanish +before me, and I would say to myself, "It is an illusion--what is really +taking place is very different from this appearance." + +This thought often recurred while I was in prison. + +At meal times, the men would file in and take their places at the +tables; anon, the meal over, they would rise and file out--men whom I +knew, creatures like myself, slaves of an arbitrary power acting in +accordance with principles long since known to be false and mischievous. +And I would see men whom I knew, men like myself, jeered, insulted, +clubbed, dragged to the hole. I would see the dead bodies of men whom I +knew, men like myself, rattled out of the gate to the dumping ground and +dropped there and forgotten--men with wives and children still living or +dead in poverty and shame, their pleas unheard and their wrongs +unrighted. I would contemplate the long rows of steel cells, cages for +me and men like myself, locking us in for months and years and +lifetimes, for an example to others and for the protection of society +against our menace. I would glance, as I passed, at the aimless toilers +in the workshops, standing or squatting in the foul atmosphere under the +eye and rifle of the guard. + +I would consider that this dismal and inhuman pageant was going on age +after age as a cure for crime--while crime, all the while, was +increasing by percentages so astounding that we seek through immigration +statistics and records of increase of population to account for it--and +in vain. And I would tell myself, once more, that the thing must be an +illusion; it was inconceivable that an intelligent nation should +tolerate it. + +If you found that you were taking bichlorid of mercury by mistake for a +sleeping draught, would you go on taking it? or would you clamor for an +antidote, waylay doctors for help, and disturb the discreet serenity of +hospitals for succor? But the nation, made up of such as you, continues +its prison nostrum, which slays a million for bichlorid of mercury's +one. + +A tragic farce--that is what prisons are. Enclosures of stone and steel +are built, and a handful of armed men are given absolute control over +several hundred beings like themselves. We, as a community, have erected +a system of laws which places us, as a community, in the attitude of +penalizing practises which we, as individuals, do not severely condemn. +Our morality, as publicly professed, is in advance of our morals as +privately exercised. When our neighbor steals or murders, we give him +the jail or the chair; but when you and I are charged with such deeds +and see the prison or the chair in our near foreground, we discover +ourselves to be less convinced than we had imagined of the rectitude of +our penal system. Of course, then, the faster we make laws to punish +crime, and the more we punish criminals, the more criminals are there to +punish. Our hypocrisy gradually is revenged upon us, one after another; +one by one we fall into the pit so virtuously digged for others. + +And criminal law, meanwhile, becomes constantly more searching and +severe in its provisions, seeking to prevent crime by the singular +device of employing the best methods for multiplying it. The victims of +its activities are miserable enough in jail, and languish and die there, +and, if they were not very wicked before, are furnished with every +facility to become so; but they have not the consolation of feeling that +their being thus immolated on the altar of an outraged but non-existent +morality is doing them or anybody else any good. A prominent business +man was put in a cell yesterday; a political boss arrives to-day; a +college graduate, a judge, and a religious fanatic are expected next +week. But business, politics, the Four Hundred, the Law and religion are +no better than they were before. + +The procession becomes ever more crowded; when is it to stop? Shall we +build more prisons, enact more laws? A leading counsel said the other +day, "Commercial crime is an effect and not a cause. The existing system +is responsible. We should prevent conditions that lead to crime and +resort to criminal courts as little as possible." And an +ex-Attorney-General observed, about the same time, "I sometimes think +that if we could repeal all the laws on our statute books and then write +two laws--'Fear God' and 'Love your neighbor'--we would get along +better"--but he added, "If we could get the people to live up to them!" +Yes, that is a prudent stipulation; and it applies just as well to the +myriad "laws on our statute books" as to these two. + +I call prisons a tragic farce, and am sensible of an unreality in them; +but they are fortunately unreal only in the sense that they stand for +nothing rational or in line with the proper and natural processes of +human life. They are false, and the mind spontaneously reacts against +falsity and denies it. But here are half a million (or some say, a +million) men every year who suffer actual and real misery from this +falsity, and many of whom die of it; that is the tragedy of the farce. +And the fact that this falsity, prison, exists among us and has legal +standing and warrant, tends to demoralize every one connected with it, +and, more or less, the entire community. If its misery and evil were +confined within the circuit of its walls we might endure it; but it +spreads outward like a pestilence. It creates little jails in our minds +and hearts, though we never beheld the substantial walls nor heard the +steel gates clang together. We become jailers to one another, and to +ourselves. + +There was a woman, the wife of a jailer, with a son four years old. At +first, her husband had lived in a house outside the jail, but latterly +he had been obliged to dwell within the jail walls. + +His wife had seen and known too much of jails to be happy in such a +residence. She thought of her son, growing up inside prison walls, and +seeing the squalor and daily misery of convicts, and witnessing the +cruelties of the guards--mere matters of routine, but horrible +nevertheless. Her husband had come up from the ranks in prison life, and +was an efficient officer. He had no thought of ever changing his +occupation. + +One day he left the jail on business, and did not return till one +o'clock the next morning. Two keepers who had been left in charge heard +four sounds like pistol shots about ten o'clock that night, but supposed +them to be torpedoes exploding on the railroad that passed the rear of +the jail. There was an interval of an hour or so, and then came two more +shots. This time they made a search of the jail, but it did not occur to +them to examine the quarters of the warden, where his wife and his +little son were. + +When the husband and father reached home, he went to his rooms; and +there he learned the extent of the misery and loathing which his +profession and his dwelling had created in the heart of the woman who +had loved him. She lay dead, with a bullet hole in her temple. The +little boy was also dead, shot through the heart by his mother's hand. +On the floor was the pistol, and four empty shells were scattered about. +Those first bullets she must have aimed at her son, but the horror of +the situation had shaken her hand, and she had missed him. Then had come +that interval, which the two keepers had noticed. What had been in her +mind and heart during those endless, brief minutes--her terrors, her +memories, her desperate resolve, now failing, now again renewed? If you +who read this are a mother, you may perhaps imagine the unspeakable +drama of that hour. At last, murder and suicide were better than the +jail, and she fired twice again, and this time did not miss. + +"Insane" was the verdict. But it is perhaps reasonable to ascribe the +insanity to the conditions which found their black fruition in the +woman's act, rather than to the despairing creature herself. She had all +that most women would ask for happiness--a good husband, a darling +little son, an assured support. But there was ever before her eyes the +ghastly, inhuman spectacle and burden of the jail; she knew it through +and through, and she could endure it no longer. She pictured her +innocent boy growing up and following his father's trade. The idea +tortured her beyond the limits of her strength, and she accepted the +only alternative--death. She was not a prisoner--she was only a looker +on; but that is what prison did for her. And our press, echoing our own +will, and our courts, voicing our own laws, keeps on shouting, "Put the +crooks in stripes; show them no mercy!" + +Shall we not pause a moment over the bodies of this mother and her son, +over this frenzied murder and suicide? They constitute an arraignment of +the prison principle not to be lightly passed over, or commented on with +rasping irony by witty editorial writers. That tragedy means something. +We cannot lease the community's real estate to hell, for building hell +houses and carrying on hell business, supported by our taxes and +advocated by our courts and praised (or "reformed") by our +penologists--we cannot do that without meeting the consequences. We see +how the consequences affected Mrs. Schleth in the Queens County, New +York, jail, last summer. It will affect other persons in other ways. But +it will affect us all before we are done with it. Hell on earth is a +tenant which no community can suffer with impunity. + +If prisons are a good thing, it is full time they made good. If they are +a bad thing, it is full time they were abolished. The middle courses now +being tried in some places cannot succeed; no compromise with hell ever +succeeds, however kindly intentioned. But the devil rejoices in them, +recognizing his subtlest work done to his hand. + +What shall happen if prisons are done away with? That question will +doubtless puzzle us for a long time to come. I have no infallible +remedy; but I shall touch upon the subject in my next and last chapter. + + + + +XVI + + +IF NOT PRISONS--WHAT? + +What would you advise to check law breaking? A good practical answer to +that question would save civilized humanity a great many millions of +dollars every year. + +The old answer was "jail" for minor cases and death for the others. +There was much to be urged in favor of the latter. Dead men not only +tell no tales, but they commit no crimes. Kill all criminals and crime +would cease. The device has been tried--it was tried in England for a +while--but the result was disappointing. It threatened to decimate the +population; and in spite of logic, it failed to discourage law breakers. +Criminals seemed to get used to being hanged, and drawn and +quartered--they no longer minded it. There is a psychological reason for +that, no doubt; though it is not so sure that psychology as understood +and practised to-day can find out what it is. + +Moreover, the spy system, which always accompanies and thrives upon +severe legislation, became so productive of informations that it was +soon clear that the end would be the indictment not so much of a tenth +part of the population as of all but a tenth--or even more. So a +compromise was made; only murderers should be killed. That did not +lessen the number of murders, and seems rather to have increased them; +for the impulse to murder is commonly a very strong impulse, producing a +brain condition in which consequences are not weighed. Also, when the +community takes life for life, it appears to weaken the general respect +for life, and men can be hired to do a killing job for small sums. +Sentimental persons, too, insist on making heroes of convicted +murderers, which in a degree, perhaps, counteracts the depressing +conditions surrounding them. So we made another compromise. + +This is not on the statute books, but it operates actively, +nevertheless. It is the development of the appeal industry among lawyers +for the defense. + +"I will teach you to respect human life," says the judge, "by depriving +you of your own." + +"Don't worry, my boy," says the culprit's counsel, patting him on the +back; "you'll die sometime, I suppose; but nothing is more certain than +that it won't be on the day set for your execution by his honor. And +I'll risk my reputation on your death being no less in the ordinary +course of nature than his honor's, and very likely--for he looks like a +diabetes patient--not so soon." + +These anticipations often prove well grounded. + +No one in the court room, therefore, is often more cheerful and +confident than is the prisoner doomed to the noose or the chair. +Besides, if all else fails, he may petition for pardon or for life +imprisonment. + +In short, the death penalty stays on the statute books, but the +community does not want it, though it has not the courage to demand its +abolition outright. It forfeits its self-respect, and the murderer draws +the inference that it is safer to murder than to steal. A thoroughbred +man does not compromise; he does one thing or he does the other, retains +his self-respect, and commands that of his fellows, whether or not he be +"successful." This nation is not thoroughbred as regards its laws, and +is neither self-respecting nor respected. + +However, there is agitation for the abolition of the death penalty; and +possibly the futility and absurdity of such a punishment may finally +strike the persons whom we have picked out as the wisest and ablest +among us, and have put in our legislatures to tell us what to do and not +to do. Absurd though legal killings may be, they are not so absurd as +the persuasion that death is the worst thing that can happen to a man. +It involves little or no suffering, and is over in a moment. +Imprisonment involves much suffering, and lasts long, not to speak of +the disgrace of it, to those who can feel disgrace. The serious feature +about killing is, that it is final for this state of being, and when we +do it we do we know not what. But that is for the community to consider, +not the victim. + +We cannot know what death means, but we can and do know what +imprisonment means, and so far as our mortal senses can tell us, it is +worse than death. But while we may abolish the death penalty easily, the +suggestion to abolish imprisonment staggers us like an earthquake. Every +moral instinct in our little souls leaps up and shrieks in protest; and +if that be not enough, we fall back with full conviction upon the +consideration of security of property. It is impossible to consider a +measure which would leave crimes against property unpunished. And what +other punishment for them than imprisonment is there or can there be? + +Argument upon this matter evidently bids fair to drag in pretty nearly +everything else--sociology, political economy, religion, politics, law, +medicine, psychology,--the whole conduct of our life and history of our +opinions. But I must content myself here with a few words, and leave +volumes to others. That personal property has value is undeniable; +whether it be worth what it costs us, in the long run, and from all +points of view, may be left to the judgment of generations to come. Law +in its origins is Divine; whether our human derivations from it partake +of its high nature is debatable. Medicine and psychology, professing +much, have not explained to us what or why we are, or what is our degree +of responsibility for what we are and do. Politics sits on the bench and +argues through the mouth of the public prosecutor; is justice safe in +their keeping? + +This age did not invent prisons, but inherited them from an unmeasured +past. It is a primitive device. The mother locks up her naughty child in +the closet or ties its leg to the bed-post. Society does the same with +its naughty children, though with one difference--the mother still loves +her child. She, following the example of God, chastens in love; but what +do we chasten in? If not in love, then in hate or indifference, or to +get troublesome persons out of our way without regard to harm or benefit +to them. And that is not Godlike but diabolical, being based upon +selfishness. The community being stronger than the individual, its +selfishness is tyranny or despotism. Many of us indeed may be willing to +admit that prisons are perhaps objectionable or altogether wrong in +theory; but surely something must be done with malefactors, and if not +prison, what? + +The only answer hitherto is compromise--the old answer, fresh once more +from the devil's inexhaustible repertoire. We are willing to abolish the +death penalty, which is more merciful than imprisonment; but we are +unwilling to abolish the latter, because in spite of its inhumanity, it +seems to protect our property. In other words, we consider our own +interests exclusively, and the culprit's not at all--though we still +protest that our object in imprisoning is as much the individual's +reformation, as our own security. The fact, however, that imprisonment +brutifies and destroys instead of reforming is beginning to glare at us +in a manner so disconcerting and undeniable, that we feel something has +to be done; and in accordance with our ancient habit and constitutional +predisposition, that something turns out to be compromise. We sentenced +for murder, but put obstacles in the way of carrying the sentence out. +On the same principle, we will now retain prisons, but make them so +agreeable that convicts will not mind being committed to them. + +That is the compromise; and it is already in operation here and there. +In the first place, numbers of good men and women, with motives either +religious or humanitarian or both, obtained leave to visit prisons, talk +with the inmates, give them religious exhortations, supply them with +some forms of entertainment, and in other ways try to lighten the burden +of their penal slavery. These persons deserve great credit. It was not +so much the exhortations or entertainments that did good, as the idea +thereby aroused in convicts that somebody cared for them. Between, them +and the community there was still war to the knife; but certain +individuals, separate from the community, were not hostile but well +disposed toward them. + +A man fallen into evil may sometimes be redeemed by coming to feel this; +he will try to be good for the sake of the person who was kind to him in +his misery. I once asked a comrade in Atlanta whether if the warden were +to give him twenty dollars and tell him to go to the town, make a +purchase for him, and return, he would do so? He said, "No," and when I +asked him why, replied that he would know the warden had something up +his sleeve, and was not on the square in his proposition. I then named a +certain benefactor of the prisoners outside the prison, and asked if he +would do it for that person? After some consideration, he said that he +would, because he "would hate to disappoint" that person, and would +believe in the bona fides of that person's request. This man was held to +be rather a bad case; but he was still capable of acting honorably, if +the right motives were supplied. + +But this is not enough. The great mass of convicts could not be reformed +by "hating to disappoint" any particular person who had been kind to +them or trusted them. Their personal gratitude to the individual would +not stem the tide of their well grounded conviction that people in +general were neither trustful nor kind; and the numberless and constant +temptations of their life after liberation would prove too strong for +them. There have been instances to the contrary; touching and beautiful +instances, some of them; but they are far from establishing the +principle that Christian Endeavorers, or Salvation Armies, or prison +angels, or angelic wardens can effect the reform of men in prison. Some +stimulus much more powerful is required. + +The next step in compromise was to improve the physical conditions in +the prison; to give more light and air and exercise, better food; to +mitigate or do away with dark holes, assaults and tortures. There were +many zealous critics of these leniencies; they said we were making +prisons so attractive that criminals, so far from being deterred from +crime by fear of punishment, would commit crimes in order to be sent to +prison. And they could quote in confirmation cases of men who had +accepted liberation at the end of their terms reluctantly, or had +actually refused it, or of men who had voluntarily returned to prison +after having been discharged. + +There have been such cases; but they prove, not the attractiveness of +prisons, but their power to kill the manhood in a man. What does it not +suggest of outrage and degradation perpetrated upon a human soul, that +he should come to prefer a cell and a master to freedom! There may be +slaveries so soft as to invite the base and pusillanimous, but they are +more rather than less depraving than cruelties to all that makes +honorable and useful manhood. The deepest and essential evil of prisons +is not hardship and torture, but imprisonment. If choice could be made +between the two, every manly man would choose the former. No disgrace is +inherent in hardship and torture; but imprisonment brands a man as unfit +to associate with his kind. No mortal creature has or can have the right +to inflict it, nor any aggregation of mortals. + +This is a hard saying, but I will stand by it. There were criminals of +all kinds in Atlanta with whom I was brought into contact. One had grown +rich by organizing a system of "white slavery" on a large scale. He +dealt in woman's dishonor and turned it into cash, and he saw nothing +wrong in it. This man was advanced in years, he was incapable of +regarding women in any other light than as merchandise, he was +insensible to their misery, and laughed at their degradation. He was +physically repulsive; his face and swollen body suggested a huge toad. +It would be foolish to associate the idea of reform with such a +creature. I felt a nauseous disgust of him; he seemed on the lowest +level of human nature. + +But, contemplating him during some months, I saw little touches of +kindliness and good humor in him; he did not hate his fellows, nor wish +them to hate him. If the other prisoners ostracized him or cursed him, +he was painfully sensible of it, and even perplexed, and would try to +win their favor. I perceived that he had always lived in a world of +filth and sin, and knew no other. In that world, he had doubtless not +done the best he might, but which of us can say he himself has done +that? Had I been born and bred as he was, what would I be? What right +had I to call him unfit for my companionship? I had no right to do it, +nor had any other man. At last I shook him by the hand and wished him +well. + +There were men there who had committed merciless robberies, cruel +murders, heartless swindles, abominable depravities. I have felt greater +temperamental aversion from many highly respectable persons than I did +from them. Their crimes were one thing, they were another. Not that +crime does not corrupt a man--stain him of its color. But there is +always another side to him, a place in him which it has not dominated. +Given his conditions, we cannot affirm that he is not as good as we +are--that he is unfit to associate with us. And it behooves us always to +bear it in mind that to affirm the contrary is an unpardonable sin +against him of whom we affirm it; it works more evil in him than +anything else we can do, and places us who repudiate him in a truly +hideous posture. Shall we be more fastidious than God? + +All crime is hateful; but I came to the conclusion that there is only +one crime which prompts us to hate the criminal as well as his crime +itself. For this crime is one which originates in our heart; it is not +forced upon us by need or passion or heredity. Therefore, it permeates +every fiber of our being, every thought of our mind, every impulse of +our soul; and we cannot say of it, this is one thing and we are another. +It is an unhuman crime; and yet there is no punishment for it among +human laws; rather, it is regarded as a mark of superiority. The most +respectable persons in the community are most apt to commit it. And it +was upon the suggestion and initiative of this crime that penal +imprisonment was invented, and is perpetrated to this day. + +Christ condemned it; Christianity is based upon its repudiation; we call +ourselves Christians; and yet it is the characteristic crime of our +civilization. The Law and the Prophets are against it; it defies every +injunction of the Decalogue, for it takes the name of God in vain, it +steals, murders, commits adultery, covets and bears false witness; but +we clasp it to our bosoms, and actually persuade ourselves that it is +the master key to the gates of Heaven. What is it? It is the thought in +a man's heart that he is better, more meritorious, than his fellow. + +It is engendered, most often, by a successful outward +morality--conformity to the letter of the Commandments--the whitening of +the outside of the sepulcher. But the stench of the interior +loathsomeness oozes through. The only person unaware of that stench is +the man himself. There is but one cure for it--what we call +Regeneration; which makes us sensible of that deadly odor, and drives us +freely and sincerely to detest ourselves in dust and ashes and bitter +humiliation, to pity, succor and love our brethren, and to wrestle with +the angel of the Lord for mercy. But we prefer to seek salvation from +evil in the building of prisons. + +Now, this crime may survive even in prisons; but it is rarer there than +in any other aggregation of human beings. Therefore, there is a +wonderful sweetness in the prison atmosphere. It is a sweetness which is +perceived amid all the dreariness, stagnation and outrage, and it rises +above the vapors of physical crime, for it is a spiritual sweetness. +There men are locked in their cells, but the whited sepulcher is +shattered, and its sorry contents are purified by the pure light of +humiliation, confession and helplessness; there are no hypocrites there, +no masks, no holier-than-thou paraders. Their crimes have been +proclaimed, and branded upon their backs; pretenses are at an end for +them. It was wonderful to look into a man's face and see no disguise +there. "I am guilty--here I am!" This experience took the savor out of +ordinary worldly society for me. I go here and there, and everywhere +there is masquerading--the weaving of a thin deception which does not +deceive. We were sincere and humble in prison; but that is a result +which the builders of prisons hardly foresaw. + +There was one more step toward compromise--to take the prisoner out of +his cell and send him outdoors without guards or precautions, nothing +but his promise that he would return when the work to which he was +assigned was done. + +I read the other day an agreeable account of this "honor system." The +men were employed on road making chiefly, enjoyed the benefit of free +air and the outdoor scene, and kept order and faith among themselves. +But the prison walls were still around them, though unseen. They were +told that any attempt to escape would be punished by deprivation +thenceforth of all liberties--any attempt! and if the escape were +successful, the fugitive would know that the chances of recapture were a +thousand against one. Moreover, it was laid down that the escape or +attempt of any member of the gang would react upon the liberties of all. + +This made the men guards over one another; it was not honor but +self-preservation that was relied on. And in any event, there was the +prison at last; the chain might be lengthened to hundreds of miles, but +it held them still. They were convicts; when their terms were up, they +would be jail birds. Society had set them apart from itself; they were a +contamination. "You are not fit to mingle with us on an equal footing." +Society might condescend to them, be friendly and helpful to them, +but--admit them of its own flesh and blood?--well, not quite that! "We +forgive you, but on sufferance; it is really a great concession; you +must show your gratitude by good works." + +Oh, the Pharisees! the taint of it will not come out so easily; and +until it does come out, to the last filthy trace of it, prisons will +continue to be prisons, and compromises will be vain. + +I repeat--the evil of prisons is the imprisonment. You must not deprive +a man of his liberty. His liberty is his life. He may, and probably he +will, use his liberty to the endangering of your property or comfort; +but has your own career been wholly free from infringement upon the +rights of your neighbor? If you send him to prison, you ought to link +arms with him and go there, too. You have not been convicted by a court, +but your own secret self-knowledge convicts you. When the prison doors +close upon you, you will discover that you have suffered an +injustice--that you are the victim of a blind stupidity. Not in this way +can you be reformed. All genuine reformation must proceed from within +you--it cannot be compelled by locks and bars; freedom is essential to +it. Locks and bars arouse only the impulse to break through them, and +this primal and righteous impulse leaves you no leisure to think of +relieving your soul from stains of guilt. + +The only imprisonment to which a man can properly be subjected is that +imprisonment of good in him which evil-doing operates automatically and +spontaneously; any outside meddling with that operation hinders, +confuses, or defeats it. Crime weakens and shackles you; to put shackles +on the body is no way to remove shackles from the spirit. It is the +gross blunder of a brutal and immature era, but we have continued it +down to the present day. Jail is still the remedy. + +The newspapers the other day told of a man who had been sentenced to +forty years in jail for an assault. A woman, hearing the verdict, said, +"Well, that's better than nothing; but he ought to have got life!" We +are told in the Bible that we must not let the sun go down upon our +wrath. The wrath of this lady could not be appeased with forty years. +Think of what that culprit will be after forty years in jail. Assuming +for the sake of argument the extreme absurdity that he is alive by that +time, picture to yourself a fellow creature of his--and a woman--saying, +"I won't forgive you yet." I pity her more than I do him, whose troubles +in this world will probably soon be over. But when her time comes, with +what face, on what plea, shall she ask forgiveness? + +But if there are to be no prisons, what shall we do to be saved from +crime? + +I cannot for my part imagine any hard and fast plan being laid down in +advance. But it would seem reasonable, to begin with, to free ourselves +from the social crime of claiming superiority to our brethren. Having +removed that beam from our eyes, we may see more clearly how to abate +the motes in the criminal's. If we can bring ourselves to regard +prisoners and jail birds as inferior to ourselves only in good fortune, +which has kept us out of jail and put them in, we may find ourselves on +the road to remedying their lapses from moral virtues. + +The majority of prison crimes are against property, and are motived by +want and poverty. If the man had opportunity to work for his living, he +would as a rule abstain from stealing. Other crimes are committed in +passion; but such criminals need education and training in self-control, +and (often) removal of the provocations which set their passions afire. +Many other crimes, and almost all vices, are due to physical or mental +disease, or to actual insanity. It is the doctor and not the jailer who +should seek the cure of these. + +But there are also some persons, chiefly brought up or brought down in +our cities, who practise crimes, apparently, for sheer love of evil. +These gunmen gangs are the most depraved and malignant members of the +community; they will not work, and they rob and murder not from want or +passion, but because the suffering of their victims gives them pleasure +and ministers to their pride and self-esteem. Most of these gangs, as we +have too much reason to believe, stand in with the police, giving them a +percentage of their plunder, and getting protection from them for their +misdeeds. + +These creatures, as I have already suggested, are the distillation of +the various evils in our cities which society has failed frankly to +face, or genuinely to attempt to lessen. They are not responsible for +their existence, and, as they indicate a general condition, it can do no +good to kill them or otherwise put them out of the way; others would +take their place. They are not insane in the common sense, but they are +the product of insane social circumstances, responsibility for which +rests on us. They must be taken in hand individually, by workers +self-consecrated to that duty, and deterred from doing evil, and showed +the value of doing good. One might work a lifetime with some of them, +and have little to show for it in the end; but it took a long time to +build the pyramids and the Panama Canal, and to advance from the dugout +of the savage to the _Mauretania_. It is work better worth doing than +any of these. + +Taking the situation by long and large, society must cease to be a sham +and become truly social. The thing seems inconceivable, and still less +practicable; but it is not. Nor has history failed to admonish us that +it has sometimes been the most difficult and improbable things which +have been nevertheless accomplished; as if their very difficulty, and +the labor and self-sacrifice involved in doing them, were themselves a +stimulus. + +Europe, a handful of centuries ago, at the behest of a fanatical priest +or two, forsook all else and spent a generation in journeying to +Palestine and trying to get a certain city from the Turks. + +The city was worth nothing to Europe; it was an idea that set them +crusading. Nothing else seemed so unpractical and feeble as the gospel +of Christ; but it crumbled the Roman Empire into dust, and has kept the +world guessing and maneuvering ever since--never more than to-day. On +the other hand, if you propose an easy job, something that can be done +with one hand tied behind you, and your attention is diverted, it is apt +to remain undone. Nobody can get up an interest in it. But talk of an +expedition to the South Pole, or a flight round the earth in a biplane, +with certainty of appalling hardships and all the odds in favor of +death, and you are mobbed with volunteers. Human nature likes to test +its thews and sinews. + +Perhaps, however, nothing else was ever so difficult as to turn from our +flesh pots, our dinners and tangos, our summer resorts and winter +resorts, our business and idleness, and undertake to substitute for +prisons our personal care and help for criminals--to remove the causes +which led them to crime, to convince them of our good faith and good +will, and to disabuse them of their suspicion that we distrust them, +condescend to them, and despise them. For this prodigal brother of ours +has become a very unsightly and unattractive object during these +thousands of years of his sojourn among the pigsties and corn husks. He +does not speak in our language or observe our manners or contemplate our +ideals, or care for our refinements. We shall have to read again the +fairy stories where the prince has been changed by evil enchantment into +some uncouth and repulsive monster, but was redeemed to human form by +sympathy. The evil spell was of our working, and it behooves us to +overcome it. No one else can. + +We must abolish the title of criminal as applied to any class or +individuals of our race in distinction from others, and use those of +unfortunates or scapegoats instead. They are our victims, and our +salvation depends upon our making good to them the evil we have done +them. It will not suffice to delegate the job to money, or to persons +chosen for that purpose; we must do it ourselves--make it one of the +main occupations of our lives. Riches and culture are fine things, but +making good out of evil is better. Its rewards may not be so immediate +or so visible, but they are real and permanent. + +But I do not think morality will be enough to energize the effort; +morality should always be the incident and consequence of religious +feeling, not an aim in itself. As soon as it becomes an aim in itself, +it leads to self-righteousness, and paralyzes human love in its marrow. +And it is love, far more than wisdom, that is needed here. Love God and +keep His commandments; unless you first love Him, His commandments will +be left undone, or done only in the letter, which is the worst form of +not doing. But the way to love God is to love the neighbor, and the +neighbor is the criminal. + +Who shall have the immortal credit of abolishing prisons--ourselves, or +our posterity? It will surely be done by our posterity if not by +ourselves. + + + + +APPENDIX + +Bubonic plague cannot be reformed; it is bad intrinsically and must be +extirpated. Born in Asiatic filth, ignorance and barbarism, it now +menaces modern civilization. While it killed millions in India or China +only, we endured it, but when we hear it at our own door we turn and +listen. The instinct of self-preservation, older and often more urgent +than Christianity, says, "Destroy it or it will destroy you!" + +We send our scientific martyrs to the front, who perish in the effort to +solve the deadly riddle. We would pour out billions of money in the +fight if need come. Rich men will spend all they possess rather than +die, and see those they love die of it. Nations will do the same. +Compromises are not considered; no one talks of reforming the Black +Death. Unless it be jettisoned from the Ship of Civilization, progress +and enlightenment go by the board. + +And yet the disease is but physical--attacks the body only. It does not +touch the immortal spirit. It has not rooted itself in the entrails of +our social economy and order. It does not undermine our common humanity, +or bankrupt human charity and infect it with indifference, suspicion or +mutual hostility. It does not prompt law and justice to play the roles +of persecution and oppression. It does not arrogate to itself the right +to judge between man and his brother man, protecting the one and damning +the other. It does not authorize us to say of the victim of sickness or +circumstance, "Throw him to the lions!" and to affirm of his torture and +death, "Serves him right!" Compared with such a plague as that, the +Black Death would appear benign. + +Penal imprisonment is an institution of old date, born of barbarism and +ignorance, nurtured in filth and darkness, and cruelly administered. It +began with the dominion of the strong over the weak, and when the former +was recognized as the community, it was called the authority of good +over evil. Man took the reins of government from the hands of the +Almighty, and amended the Ten Commandments with statute law. + +Evil is--to prefer the good of self before good of the neighbor; crime +is to act in accordance with that preference. Every son of Adam is born +to evil, and society is but his multiplication; but society could exist +only by the compromise that the hostility of man against neighbor should +mask itself as mutual forbearance. Impossible that every one should +possess every thing; therefore dissimulate your greed and divide. But +certain persons, missing their share either through non-conformity with +the doctrine, or by force of circumstances, stuck to the old principle +of each man for himself, and became "criminals." Their hand was against +society, and society's against them. + +In eras before society became integrated, some of these non-conformists +prevailed over such strength as could be mustered against them, and by +hearty and forthright robberies and murders came to be leaders and +rulers of men--earls, barons, kings. The aristocracy of modern Europe is +descended from such stout rebels. They became reconciled with, and +organized, society, and aided it in war against the weaker of their own +sort; and it was they who devised prisons for such captives as it might +be inexpedient to kill outright. + +All this did not alter the truth that all men are alike evil, and that +such as are not also criminals, forbear--at the outset at least--from +motives of enlightened selfishness. But in course of time, even enforced +good behavior breeds good intent, and "good" people. For God rules us +through our very sins, and will lead us, (with our passive cooperation) +to religion and regeneration in the end. + +But the segregation of a criminal class is manifestly human, not Divine; +economic, not moral; illusory, not real. Consequently, pains and +penalties inflicted by men upon other men, by society upon individuals, +by the community upon "criminals," have no warrant of Divine authority, +but only of superior numbers or physical strength. The only proper +punishment for crime is the criminal's conscience, and if he have none +available, he is liable to the natural contingency that violence breeds +violence, and may get him in the long run--though it often happens that, +measured by mortal standards, the run is not long enough for us to see +the finish. We may console ourselves with the reflection that a finish, +somewhere, there will be. + +Meanwhile, it is for persons of intelligence and good will to consider +whether, aside from physical penalties or jailing, we possess means for +inducing criminals to abstain from crime. Let us leave abstract +arguments and come to facts. + +My license to speak in the premises is due to my being an ex-convict, +sentenced to Atlanta Penitentiary for a year and a day, but recently +released on "good time." I shall first give you a notion of what jail +is, and of what is done and suffered there; then consider what has +hitherto been done to alleviate prison conditions and abuses; and end +with inquiring whether these measures, actively prosecuted, will prove +adequate to the need, or whether something else and more is demanded. If +so--_what_? + +Purgatory is usually understood to be--as its etymology indicates--a +place where persons encumbered with evil accretions may have them purged +out of them, or stripped off from them, and so be fitted for the purity +and innocence of Heaven. It is therefore a beneficent institution. Hell, +on the other hand, was the inheritance of those whose evil is ingrowing +and cannot be removed--a place where they may live out their diabolical +or satanic natures and be punished and tortured by those of like nature +with themselves. + +Our prisons were, in the beginning, frankly hellish in their object; men +who had incurred personal or society hostility were put in them to be +tormented from motives of hate and revenge. But during the last few +generations the humanitarian idea has come into being and has not only +ameliorated prison conditions in some prisons and to some extent, but +has caused prisons in general to cease being frank and to become +hypocritical--to pretend that they are purgatories, aiming not at +revenge but at reform. This pretense has been so industriously and +sagaciously put forward that ninety-nine outsiders out of a hundred are +misled by it, and believe that prisons are not, still, administered for +the destruction of their inmates, physical, mental and moral, with such +circumstances of cruelty and brutality as happen to suit the humor of +the arbitrary and irresponsible guards and wardens; but that they are +uniformly conducted with an eye to wooing away prisoners from sin and +crime, and persuading them of the beauty and policy of honesty, +gentleness and goodness. In fact it is probable that almost everybody +believes this, except the wardens and guards, and the prisoners +themselves--and a few Thomas Mott Osbornes and other prison workers who +have had an amateur peep inside the walls and caught a fleeting glimpse +of a horror or two before the discreet managers could get the door shut. + +Not only so, but we read indignant articles in our morning paper about +the coddling of criminals; and witty writers will have it that prisons +are gentlemen's clubs where all the comforts of refined life are +combined with a voluptuous idleness, or with only work enough to avert +ennui. Criminals are depicted as waiting in cues at the gates of prisons +for admission, like the public at the doors of a popular theater; though +at the same time in another column, you may find the statement that, in +view of modern legal technicalities, it has become almost impossible to +get a man into jail. According to the logic of the witty writers, this +near-impossibility should be more deplored by the technicality-inhibited +criminals than by anybody else. + +Prisons are not purgatories, nor gentlemen's clubs; they are just as +much hell as they ever were, and as their managers can make them. Apart +from any special leniency of local conditions, prisons are hell because +they are prisons--because you are confined there and cannot get out; +because you are a slave and have no redress; because your manhood is +degraded; because despotic power is entrusted to the men who handle you, +though they are never any better than you are, and are usually much +worse, and regard you as an asset to make profit from, a thing to be +driven and insulted to the last extremity and beyond it, and not as a +human being. Prisons are hell because convicts are punished for trivial +and whimsical reasons as much as for serious ones; and whether or not +the punishment involve actual physical torture, the insolence, disgrace +and injustice of it remain. Prisons are hell intrinsically, and always +will be; and whoever doubts it has only to commit a crime and be sent to +prison; that is the end of doubts. + +Let every judge, attorney general, district attorney, and juryman at a +trial spend a bona fide term in jail, and there would be no more +convictions--prisons would end. Every convict and ex-convict knows that, +and eternity will be too short to obliterate the knowledge in him. + +The unctuous plausibility of the pretense that prisons are beneficent +purgatories and not hells renders it the more sickening. Life is a +God-given discipline for men, and at best a severe one; but if we +believe in God, we know it is given in love, for loving ends. All mortal +life is an imprisonment; the laws of it are essential and natural, and +breaking them involves essential and natural penalties. God deputed this +régimen of love to parents, and to those who deal with their fellow +creatures from impulses of parental or brotherly love; but He never +licensed any man to punish another from revenge or hate, or in mere +indifference. He licensed no man to do it, nor any community or nation. +And whoever does it, serves not God but the devil; and if any crime be +unpardonable, it is that, because it is not essential or natural, but an +usurpation against nature, and breeds not reform but more evil. + +Prison officials, in their treatment of prisoners, are not actuated by +love, but by indifference to suffering, or by animosity and brutality, +or by desire of profit, and therefore their work is impious and wicked. +And the longer they hold their office, the more hardened do they become +to the spectacle of suffering and outrage; the more heedless of justice +and mercy do they grow. They grow to disbelieve in any human truth and +goodness; all men are to them criminals actual or potential; breathing +and dwelling amidst crime, it enters into their own blood and temper. +They will have their debt to pay; but neither may those escape who +ignorantly or carelessly appointed them to office and hold them +there--the Government, and the nation which creates Government as its +representative. Ignorance does not excuse; knowledge on these subjects +is a sacred duty. Man cannot break the bonds of his brotherhood with +man; the blood shed will be required of him, and the usury of misery and +tears. + +"Throw him to the lions!--serve him right!" Most of us have joined in +that barbarous cry upon occasion. But some of us have sickened at the +slaughter, and are for paring the lions' claws, or at least exhorting +them to roar less savagely, and to devour their prey in secret. But the +lions, with their attendant hyenas and jackals, have so long been +accepted as indispensable to the order and majesty of the State, that no +one likes to stand up to his God-given intuitions, and demand the +abolition of the whole prison circus. We hardly realize that the harm +criminals do society cannot equal the harm that society does to itself +by its handling of them and attitude toward them. The circus must go on, +of course; but--let us ameliorate its coarser features! + +Let us make our prisons hygienic--larger cells, drainage, air, exercise; +let us select nice, kindly persons for guards and wardens; let us give +the convicts useful industrial occupation, which will not only keep them +happy and sane, but pay the cost of their keep to a tender-hearted but +economic state; let us even be very venturesome, and--with reasonable +precautions--put the men on their honor, suffer them to run out a little +way and labor in the free sunshine, upon their promising to remember +that they are not really free, and to return at night to their cages. +And after they have served their terms, and the souls within them are +moribund or dead, let us get or solicit jobs for them, and at all events +keep a sentimental eye on them for a while. All this--only let us keep +our prisons! For think what would happen if those terrible creatures +were let loose upon us, to keep on murdering and robbing us with +impunity! Remember that they are a class apart, unlike ourselves, whose +perverted nature, though it may be lulled by gentleness and tact, can +never become truly human. + +No: the Laodicean spirit will not serve! I do not ridicule or belittle +the efforts of generous and genial men and women who give their spare +time, or their whole time, to bettering the plight of convicts. But the +diabolical spirit of the prisons sneers at them, and sits undisturbed. +Let air and sunshine come to outer courts and clean-swept cells; the +star-chambers and the secret dungeons remain. Let the outraged creatures +out, to stray to the extent of their honor-tether; they are slaves and +prisoners still. There were compassionate reformers in Ancient Egypt, +who tried to make the lot of the captive Israelites easier; but the +heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and God Himself must intervene before he +would let the people go. Nor does it help that the slaves themselves are +grateful for hard-won privileges, and that we read urbane descriptions +of smiling and rosy felons working on state roads in "Don't Worry" +camps. Is it ground for congratulation that the very victims of the +specious pretense of the eternal right and necessity of prisons should +have succumbed to that delusion? Does it not prove a need yet more +urgent to be up and at them? Is it not humiliating to know that men, our +brothers, partakers of our common nature, can be so abased as to kiss +the rod, and joke about their fetters, and accept as favor what none is +entitled to deny them? + +Prisons are hell--we come back to that; and they are not and cannot be +made purgatories. Men competent to make them purgatories are not to be +had at Government prices; no duties more onerous than those of a fit +conscientious warden exist under the state; and how can we look for such +a man at a four or five thousand dollar salary? Twenty-five or even +fifty thousand would be moderate, and the men who are worth that are in +some other business. The foremost citizens of the nation would not be +too good for the job, and we content ourselves with ward heelers and +rough-necks, who undertake it not for the salary, but for the graft that +goes with it and exceeds it. Politics and graft sit in the warden's +office, and walk the ranges in guards' uniform, and crush the manhood +out of our brothers for money, and out of sheer wanton inhumanity. Of +all the inmates of the jail, these men are the veritable and +incorrigible and unpardonable criminals; for they were not driven to +crime by passion, hunger, drink or ignorance, they have not been reduced +to the state of desperate pariahs, outcasts and scapegoats of the race, +but they willingly embrace the function entrusted to them--the +Government license to steal, bully, torture and murder--with a grotesque +sanctimonious leer for the public, and for the convicts--what! The +régimen of hell! + +This writer's statements seem a trifle emphatic, do they not? May we not +surmise that they are motived by some personal grudge? have we not heard +an old adage--"No thief e'er felt the halter draw with good opinion of +the law?" Would it not be prudent to take all this with a grain of salt? +Shall we be driven to rash measures by the objurgations of an +ex-convict? + +Of the right or wrong of my conviction and sentence I am not to speak +here, nor do they specially interest me now, except as illustrations of +the working of the machine. But personal grudge against officials of my +prison I have none. I was treated with consideration and lenity. I came +out in better condition upon the whole than I went in, both of body and +spirit, though nothing would have been easier than to murder me under +the forms of routine prison discipline. What was the reason of this? I +was never informed; I might guess at it, but I don't know. Nevertheless, +the sweetness and light of the prison dispensation as regarded myself +did not blind my eyes or stop my ears to what was being done to others, +not elected to dreams thus beautiful. I saw men beside whom I sat at +meat or labored in the vineyard, fading and failing day by day; I saw +some of them die of broken hearts or broken bodies; I heard their +stories and was certified of their truth; I saw the cart rattle out of +the gate with the pine box containing the body of the man who could only +thus find freedom; I visited the graves of those who had been needlessly +and sometimes wantonly slain. I could not ignore these things because I +myself escaped them. After a few months of durance, I went forth free, +leaving behind me men as good as I or better, sentenced to serve years, +lifetimes, under treatment which I cannot imagine myself as surviving at +all. My grudge is deep, but no personal one. + +I shall not at present discuss Government measures of so-called +mitigation--suspended sentence, parole, indeterminate sentence. In the +intention of their originators they may have appeared beneficent; in +practise, they proved sinister and abominable means to cruelty and +despotism. There can be no compromises with hell. + +But can I pretend to solve the age-long problem of the right handling of +crime in the community? I am not wiser than my fellows, but I have felt +and known at first hand more of certain grievous wrongs than most of +them have, and even those who have known and felt may not possess the +opportunity or facility to speak that I have. I must say what is in me, +and leave to the collective judgment of the nation, and to the further +teaching of time, what shall be changed, abolished, and done. + +One thing seems plain--there must be an act of faith. Worldly wisdom and +enlightened selfishness have been tried out thoroughly and are +thoroughly discredited. Their proposal was first to cure crime, and only +after that was done, to abolish prisons. But it turns out that prisons +generate, teach, perpetuate and inflame crime; never extirpate it, +though they often deter specific persons from continuing a criminal +career by either killing them outright, or destroying in them their +effective spiritual manhood. Therefore the selfishly enlightened and +worldly-wise shake their heads and declare that crime in criminals is +ineradicable. If medicine for crime be futile, save as a temporary +physical preventive, all that is left to us is to continue it as a +preventive, while admitting its impotence as a cure. Protection of +society is the paramount consideration. + +Yes: but is society protected by prisons? John Jones has been jailed for +burglary, it is true; but straightway Tom Brown, Jem Smith and Reginald +Montmorency start in as train-robber, murderer and confidence man. We +have sown the dragon's tooth, and reap three for one. Lynch your negro, +and before the smell of roast flesh is out of the air, several fresh +cases of rape are reported.--But there is no visible connection between +alleged cause and effect--it just happens so.--Yes, but if it does +happen almost invariably, we cannot avoid the suspicion that a +connection, even though invisible to the outward eye, there must be. + +Moreover, on what grounds does society claim protection against evils +for which its own constitution and administration are responsible? The +greatest happiness of the greatest number?--Are we so happy, then? The +happy man has been sought for long, but the seekers still delay to +return. To what end shall we cut the cancer out of the body politic, if +it sprout again in a more vital spot? If we could only reach the cancer +germ!--But the germ is not found by the knife. There are more criminals +than there ever have been heretofore. The jails are over-crowded; we +must either build new ones, or transform those we have into castles of +refuge to which good people may fly to escape the criminal nations +outside; there will be no over-crowding then! + +Let worldly wisdom and enlightened selfishness retire, and listen for a +while to believers--fanatics even. An act of faith: that is to say, +first abolish jails, and then see what can be done with criminals! It is +vain to beat about the bush; we must face the alternative. The syllogism +runs thus: criminality is incompatible with true civilization--with a +normal and secure society. Jails are a crime; society makes and warrants +jails; therefore society is criminal. And the abolition of +jails--repudiation both of the principle and of the concrete fact--is +the only way to social redemption. + +The one escape from this conclusion is, of course, denial that jails are +a crime. I will not further contest that point, but only repeat: Let the +deniers and doubters try a year behind the bars, themselves, and then +register their revised opinion. + +But, obviously, though jails are a crime, they are not the only crime; +there are also the specific crimes of individual malefactors; and it +seems inevitable that by relieving these of prison restraints, we must +increase the prevalence of crime in the community, however much we might +be absolving the community itself from its characteristic crime of +jails. Is there any answer to that? + +I am not logically constrained to make any, because if jails are a crime +they should be abolished, let the consequences be what they may. But I +will suggest two considerations. Individual crimes are the outcome +either of a pathological condition in the agent, or of conditions in his +nurture and environment which are due to social negligence or hardness +of heart. These conditions tempted him beyond his power of resistance, +or reduced him to desperation; in other words, no sane and normal man +commits crimes for the fun of it, and as not he but society created the +conditions, the latter must shoulder its part, at least, of the blame. +And this implies that it should devote itself to so improving these evil +conditions as to give the criminal a fair chance. + +That is easily written, but it involves nothing less than a radical +readjustment of our whole attitude toward life. It also brings me to my +second suggestion--that this should be accomplished. We must embark upon +a great adventure--the greatest, so far as I know, ever undertaken in +this world. We must overcome the anti-human prejudice that there is a +distinct criminal class; we must recognize the latent criminality in us +all, and regard those in whom from latent it has become active as such +men as we, but for fortunate circumstances, would have been. There is no +other distinction between them and us. + +Can brotherly companionship and trust reform them? If all of us +sincerely and practically united in trusting and companioning them,--so +sincerely as to convince them of the fact--I would have small +misgivings. But we can expect no universal revolution to kindness. Many +of us, probably the vast majority, would fail to rise to the height of +the occasion. Yet I can believe that many would achieve that faith and +stanchness; enough to make a beginning of success. And I have no doubt +whatever that, so far as the kindness was credited by its objects, they +would do their part. Few men that I or any one have known in jail have +been incorrigibly wicked at heart. There are indeed incorrigibly wicked +men, but they are at least as frequent outside as inside jails, because +the crime of wanton hatred and cruelty to others which is theirs, comes +only accidentally if at all under the cognizance of our law. + +When jails are razed and their inmates let forth, they are not to be +left to shift for themselves. They are to be taken heartily and +unreservedly into the community, made a part of us, protected against +want and against their sinister propensities, given work to do, taught +how to work, compensated for it, and shown by constant example the +wholesomeness and beauty of good and decent living. Will they rob and +murder their hosts? Such calamities will no doubt occur here and there; +there have been martyrs in all great causes, and will be in this. But +blood so shed will not be wasted. And if the nation, or a considerable +part of it, turns resolutely and persistently to its mighty task, it +will not fail in the end. + +There is nothing original or startling about the Golden Rule as a +proposition; but it will seem to tear us to pieces when it is put in +practise. But that will do us no harm; we have been long enough +compacted together in error and selfishness. The revolution will come; +it is still for us to say whether it shall be outward and terrible, or +spiritual and benign. Penal imprisonment and all that it implies is not +sane nor safe; and the cry, To the lions--serves him right!--belongs to +the dark ages, and not to the future.--_Reprinted by kind permission +from Hearst's Magazine for February, 1914_. + + +THE WALL + +The long, high wall that shuts out life-- +That death-in-life holds in its coil-- +Its height and reach cannot prevent +The sky, nor check the immortal strife +We wage with hungry Fate, nor spoil +Our desperate hope, nor circumvent +Dreams, that redeem our aimless toil! + +What Fear and Ignorance have built +Shall pass, with Ignorance and Fear, +Before the breath of Love; and men, +Casting aside the mask of guilt +That baffled, mocked and cursed them here, +Shall know each other once again! +--And must we die, release so near! + +_Written in Atlanta Penitentiary, +October, 1913_.) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Subterranean Brotherhood, by Julian Hawthorne + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SUBTERRANEAN BROTHERHOOD *** + +This file should be named 8sbbr10.txt or 8sbbr10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8sbbr11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8sbbr10a.txt + +Produced by Eric Eldred, Beth Trapaga, Charles Franks +and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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