Several years ago there was an inmate in the Stillwater penitentiary who
unconsciously perpetrated one of the best jokes that had been heard at the
institution for some time. He was a German and a hard‐working carpenter by
trade. He was honest to a fault and led a model life while on the outside.
The crime for which he was sentenced was assault on a fellow workman, and
for this offense he received a two‐year sentence at the Stillwater
penitentiary. He was immediately put to work for the Minnesota Thresher
Co., being assigned work in one of the carpenter shops. One day he forgot
to take his plug of chewing tobacco with him to the shop, having left it
laying on the small table in his cell. That evening when he came in from
work he found the plug of tobacco missing. He at once began calling for
one of the night guards, and on that gentleman’s arrival the prisoner
remarked:
“Say, Mr. Guard, dere must pe thieves in dis here blace. Mine tobacco’s
she was gone, und I harms noboddies. I dink ve petter send for dere
bolicemans und catch sum uf dem rascals.”
The foregoing story is absolutely authentic, and was told again and again
by the prisoners who appreciate a good joke as keenly as their free
brothers. It also brings out rather forcibly the fact that,
notwithstanding the man was in prison, he was still honest.