Oh, come ye lords and ladies of the realm,
Come from your couches soft, your perfumed halls,
Come watch with me throughout the weary hours.
Here are there sounds to fill your jaded nerves,
Such as the cave men, you forefathers, heard
Crouching in forests of primeval night.
Here tier on tier in steel-barred cages pent,
The breasts ye breed and hunt throughout the world.
Hark to that snore, some beast that slumbers deep,
Hark to that roar, some beast that dreams of blood,
Hark to that moan, some beast that wakes and weeps,
And there in sudden stillness mark the sound
Some beast that rasps his vermin hide.
Oh, come, ye lords and ladies of the realm,
Come keep the watch with me, the show is yours.
Behold the source of all our joy and pride,
These beasts ye harness fast and set to draw
The chariots of your pageantry and pomp.
It is this blood ye shed to make your feasts,
It is their treadmill that moves all your world.
Come sit and think how it will be with you
When God shall send his flaming angel down
And break these bars, so hath he done of yore.
So doeth he to lords and ladies grand,
Who feed upon the blood of other men
And loose these beasts to raven in your streets.
* * * * *
_American Prison Association._--The American prison association will
hold its annual meeting at Omaha, Nebraska, from October 14-19, 1911.
Among the subjects to be discussed are: the resolutions of the 1910
international prison congress in their application to the United
States; prison construction; mental deficiency and moral delinquents;
prison recreation; the prison physician; the prevention of crime and
insanity; psychology of the criminal; physical defects as a factor
in the making of criminals; the jails of Florida; farm work for
misdemeanants; statistics of crime; tuberculosis in prisons; governing
boards; payment to prisoners and their families; some facts concerning
prisoners’ dependents.
The following standing committees will report: prison discipline;
prevention and probation; jails, lock-ups and police stations;
reformatory work and parole; discharged prisoners.
Among the speakers will be Professor Charles R. Henderson, Judge C.
A. DeCourcey, James A. Leonard, Joseph F. Scott, A. H. Leslie, Frank
Moore, J. K. Cutting, Henry W. K. Scott, Charles M. Miller, Franklin H.
Briggs, Dr. Theodore Cook, Jr., Dr. Daniel Phelan, Dr. William Healy,
Dr. William Martin Richards, George W. Wickersham, W. H. Eichorn, A.
W. Gilchrist, L. A. Halbert, Frank L. Randall, Mrs. Imogen B. Oakley,
Eugene Smith, Rev. Thomas W. Houston, Guy H. Humphreys, William H.
DeLacy, William H. Venn, Miss Eva Booth, Joseph P. Byers.
Surely a splendid program. Every one interested in prison reform should
attend the Omaha meeting.
* * * * *
Baltimore, Md., July 31, 1911.
Editor, _The Review_,
Sir--Referring to the article in _The Review_ for July, regarding
“Parole in Maryland,” the reporter of the Baltimore _American_, from
which paper this was taken, drew a great deal upon his imagination and
as a result did not make correct statements.
Probation has been in service in Maryland for several years, but its
use has grown very rapidly during the past two years under the new
system instituted by the supreme bench. The mention made of $600 having
been collected year before last by the Association and the probability
of $5,000 being collected this year referred entirely to non-support
cases. The practice of the courts has formerly been to order the
husbands to pay their wives direct, but as the system worked very
badly this is being gradually changed to a great extent by the courts
ordering that the alimony be paid through this Association; a great
improvement has been noted under the new arrangement.
The earnings of our probationers last year amounted to about $40,000.
This was ascertained by carefully kept records from reports made
monthly by the probationers. One can easily see the importance of this
work to the city and state if viewed only from an economic point of
view.
CHARLES D. REID,
_Executive Secretary_.
Transcriber’s Note:
Words and phrases in italics are surrounded by underscores, _like
this_. Those in bold are surrounded by equal signs, =like this=. Final
stops missing at the end of sentences and abbreviations were added.
Four misspelled words were corrected. Words may have inconsistent
hyphenation in the text. These have been left unchanged. Obsolete and
alternative spellings were left unchanged.