Life — August 19, 1915 — page 34: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SILIRR IES NONE FOR THE WOMEN Mrs. Noah: AND WHAT ARE THOSE DARLING LITTLE ANIMALS? “THE VOTES. BUT WE'VE ONLY ROOM FOR ONE, HAUL IN THE PLANK. Prisons and the Steel-Cell Interest ERY odd considerations may offset the management of prisons and the lot of prisoners. Mr. Osborne, the warden of Sing Sing, considers that the contemporary type of prison, with tiers of steel cells, is thoroughly bad and dehumanizes the convicts. He wants such prisons as Sing Sing and Auburn to be replaced by a new type of prison, more like a farm colony, and better adapted to the work of making convicts over into safe citizens. It seems that there is a steel concern which has a kind of vested interest in prisons as they are. It makes the steel cages, makes them well, no doubt, and finds, no doubt, a profit in them. It has built the steel cells for fifty or sixty jails in the United States. and is firmly of opinion that steel cells in tiers are the proper thing for prisons and that no other kind of prison except the fash- ionable steel-cell variety ought ever to be built. Of course, a warden that does not believe in tiers of steel cells must look to this stecl-cell company like a very objectionable man, bad for prisoners and the prison builders, and a good man to get out of office and keep out of office. And, of course, a concern that has built fifty or sixty jails and fitted them with steel cells knows politicians and understands politics. These curious circumstances are here mentioned to illus- trate what kind of influences may be enlisted to turn out of office a man like Warden Osborne. But Mr. Osborne ought not to be turned out or crowded out until his management of Sing Sing has been thoroughly tried. He is a man of a rare and very valuable spirit and devoted to his reformatory work. He ought to be helped when possible, set right if he goes wrong in details, and borne with if necessary. He is worth all that help and pa- tience. His interest in prisons is absolutely an interest in the prisoners. The only interest paramount to that is the interest of the public, and the two ought to be identical. Certainly, concern for the prisoners should never be made subservient to an interest in prisons as places profitable to Duild or politically advantageous to control. The Intruders magnificent elm trees on the Eastern Parkway have been cut down to make room for the operation of steam-shovels in constructing the new subway, ew York World. HY should there be any room for magnificent trees in a large city? The business of the city is to throttle Nature, Natural impulses have a hard time in getting along with it. They are more or less de trop. An elm tree is one of the most naturally beautiful objects in the world. It is out of place among riveted steel structures, cast-iron statues, painted women, poverty-stricken hordes, clanging railways and red head-lines, Patient: po YOU GIVE GAS OR ETHER, DOCTOR? Dentist: NEITHER, 1 USE THE “ TWILIGHT SLEE! comicbooks.com