58

HELL IN NEBRASKA

assaults of various kinds. "Well, where do all these men come from?" is another question we answer every day. About one third came from Omaha. During the past two years thirty-six came from Lincoln;

Richardson County comes third with twenty; and Hall and Cass Counties furnish nineteen each; Cheyenne, and Box Butte sent a dozen each. The other counties average from four to six, except the virtuous counties of Blaine and Logan, who pride themselves on never sending a man to the pen. Loup County recently brought their first prisoner. The kindhearted sheriff found a good place for this boy to work when he was discharged. At this writing there are no prisoners from Loup, and there are also eighteen other counties who are not represented. These are mostly the sparcely (sic) populated counties in the sand hill regions. Of these men, seventy-seven were born in Nebraska, sixty-two were foreigners from all parts of the globe, even from far away Arabia; from Japan

 

HELL IN NEBRASKA

59

and the Philippine Islands, from Hayti (sic), Roumania (sic), Greece and Australia. Germany furnished nine, Ireland five, Italy four, Denmark four, and Canada ten. Of American born, but not born in Nebraska, there were forty-six from Missouri, forty-five from Iowa, thirty-six from Illinois, nineteen from New York, and the balance evenly from every state in the Union, with three from the little District of Columbia. Of these two hundred and thirty-one pleaded guilty, one hundred and nineteen pleaded not guilty. The fact that they pleaded not guilty does not necessarily mean that they were innocent; nevertheless, there is many an innocent boy serving at Lancaster. They came here, in all ages and sizes; four were seventeen - nothing but children. (I would like to examine the heart of the judge that sent these children to the pen. I think that he must have a heart of rock or ice.) Seventy-one were from eighteen to twenty. Just think of it, gentle reader! I know every

60

HELL IN NEBRASKA

one of these young men and I dare say that if the judge would have taken sixty-five of them and not sentenced them, but paroled them from the bench after having a heart to heart talk with them, none of them would ever have gone to prison. But the courts must grind out a certain number of men. There were one hundred and thirty from between twenty-one and twenty-five, just the age when a young man knows it all, or thinks that he does. There were about one hundred and fifty between twenty-five and thirty-five years old. About eighty-five were between thirty-six and sixty, three were sixty-three, and one was sixty-nine years old. Four hundred and eighteen had a common school education, eight were high school graduates, seven could read but not write, and seventeen were illiterate altogether. One hundred and twelve were married, nine divorced and three hundred and twenty-nine single. Two hundred and thirty-eight of the boys had lost their father, one hundred and

HELL IN NEBRASKA

61

eighty-nine had no mother; and is it strange that these boys should go astray? Twenty had no relatives of any kind. One hundred and forty-four were total abstainers, two hundred and ninety-nine were users of liquors, mostly moderate drinkers; and while I am not defending the saloons, I have learned from experience that circumstances and not whiskey, are what sends most men behind the bars. Six were constant users of "dope." All religions are represented at Lancaster, there being more Methodists than any other religion. There were about one hundred Methodists. There were less belonging to the Christian Science Church than any other, only one poor little boy, one of the seventeen-year old ones. There were only two Jews. One hundred and seventeen of the boys were not members of any church, but believed in God. One only was a non-believer; but as a bullet from the sheriff's gun has since blown him into other regions, he perhaps has changed his mind by this