Years of Experience (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1887 edition. Excerpt: ... X. PRISON REFORM. At the suggestion of Margaret Fuller, who was about to take up her residence in the family of Horace Greeley, I called on our old friend, Mrs. Greeley, for the purpose of meeting a lady by the name of Farnham (Eliza W.), who had lately been appointed to take charge of the Female State Prison at Sing Sing. Mrs. F. was said to be a woman of remarkable intellectual powers, with great firmness and courage, qualities which were necessary in dealing with criminals. She was now looking for suitable assistants, who would enter into her plans and be able to carry them out. It appeared that of late there had been a sort of rebellion among the convicts, or among some of the most daring, who had deliberately refused to conform to the rules of the prison, or to perform the duties assigned them. They tyrannized over and maltreated the weaker and more docile of their fellows, and made night hideous by singing blasphemous and obscene songs. The matron, a respectable, but incompetent person, had finally been attacked and the clothes torn from her body. A well-meaning, tight-skulled little chaplain had prayed frantically for the rebels, --prayed to them also. They made a feint of yielding, then turned the prison into a pandemonium again. Gov. Young, the last great man to sit in New York's gubernatorial chair, had his attention called to the institution, and he forthwith appointed one or two able directors, dismissing the most incompetent of the five in office. Judge Edmunds, the wellknown Democrat, was the most capable and earnest of the new members of the Board. The Board, on making a visit to the prison, had been met by shouts of derision and insolent defiance, and they had to make a hasty exit to escape the kids flung at them by the...