I took the ladies inside the prison. From the
chapel they went to the library. The librarian, a young man,
told them how many volumes were in the library; from there we
went to this greenhouse where the florist gave each a carnation,
and from there through the yard into the cell building. There
were no prisoners in the cells, for they were working in the
factories.
"Well, when do we get to see the prisoners?" asked
the ladies. "Madam," I said, the librarian and the
man who gave you the flowers and all the men here in the yard,
are prisoners." The ladies looked surprised, and said, "Why
none of them wear chains, they don't even wear stripes. This
is so different from what we expected to see."
Throughout the great state are hundreds of people,
who like these two ladies, have entirely wrong ideas of this
much advertised prison, of its managers and of its inmates.
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They think that the former are brutes and slave
drivers, and the latter desperate criminals, always kept penned
up in cages like the tigers in a menagerie. To fully explain, to
set the public right, and to correct the many wrong conceptions
about the Nebraska State Penitentiary, its managers and its inmates
is, far more than financial gain, the object of this little book;
and if you, dear reader, will now follow me through the big prison,
I will show you, no ferocious animals, but men, mere men, who have
made a little mistake in life, and who are taking their medicine
like men. I will show you some prison officials, who are men also,
men with red blood in their veins, men with hearts full of sympathy
for their fallen brothers; and I will show you the cleanest, most
sanitary and best managed prison in the country. Just follow me,
there will be neither lions nor tigers to injure you.
Yours truly, THE AUTHOR
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