To you the guide says: "He's a
forger. You can see he's sensitive about being here. Some of
them never seem to get used to it." ----
The stout woman in purple is delighted with the enormous copper
vats for making the convicts' coffee. She is charmed with the
great iron pots for boiling soup.
But you will be more interested in these facts:
There is a great chapel--BUT NO CONVICT IS COMPELLED TO ATTEND.
There is a huge wash room--fitted with showers for the hardy,
with porcelain tubs for the old and crippled--AND EVERY MAN IS
COMPELLED TO TAKE HIS BATH.
How much of progress, how much that is hopeful for humanity, is
told in those words!
Religious services are optional--no more compulsion of man's soul
or of his belief.
Bathing IS COMPULSORY. Truly, we progress, and the prison rules
prove it.
There were showers in every prison and in every insane asylum one
hundred years ago--but those showers were used only to torture
the criminal or the lunatic. He was doused with cold water until
senseless.
There were chapels in the old-time prisons, and all were forced
to accept and profess such views as the majority or the ruler
chose to profess.
That prison at Auburn is a monument to humanity's sorrows and
weaknesses. But it tells in every department of human decency
and of a constant striving by those who are fortunate to help
others.
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