A PRISON STORY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 235, 22 February 1913, Page 2 (Supplement)

A PRISON STORY

ABODE OF SIN AND SUFFERING. A strangely moving story of prison life is told by Mr. Donald Lowric in a recently published book, which describes bis experiences during a period of ten years spent in a Californian gaol. Mr. Lowric, who was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment for a petty burglary, his first offence, found St. Quentin penitentiary to be a ghastly abode of sin and suffering, where criminals were manufactured as well as confined. Bitterness and hatred were in'the hearts of the prisoners, while mercy and kindliness were virtures the gaolers did not even affect. It had long been the custom of prisoners to herald the arrival of a New Year with a concerted and furious uproar, the expression of their protest against life and all that it meant to them. The men used to shout and scream in their cells in a frenzy of hate, and the efforts of the authorities to restore order were utterly without avail. But a new warden, a man full of compassion and humanity, went to St. Quen- ] tin one December, and shortly after taking charge of the prison he walked through the corridor on Christmas Eve. He found socks hanging from nearly cv.ery wicket, and was told that the. convicts were in the habit of mocking at Christmas in this way. The warders smiled at the irony of the dangling socks, but the warden was not amused, and without a moment's hesitation he sent an officer into the Neighboring town to buy all the. fruit and confectionery that could be secured. At midnight the socks were filled with simple, little gifts. There was silence in the cells in the morning when the prisoners found what had occurred, but Mr. Lowric, says that the warden's kindness made a deep impression on every man in the prison. When New Year's Eve came the warders, hardened by familiarity with suffering, waited for the usual uproar, but for the first time for many years they waited in vain. No bitter protest rose to heaven from St. Quentin on that evening.