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money, and is in every way a model citizen. I also recall the case of Billy Williams, an expert boilermaker who was serving a long sentence. At the time the new boilers and stokers were installed, he was put in charge of the installation. Besides the value of his labor, he saved the state hundreds of dollars by his valuable suggestions. He was also sent to the hospital at Kearney and went unattended. He gave good satisfaction there. For his efficient and faithful service, Mrs. Barker, the superintendent of the hospital, wrote several letters to the board of pardons, asking them to act favorably in his case. While at Kearney he made friends with several of the leading men of that town, who added the weight of their word to the application for a pardon. Warden Melick also appeared before the board in his behalf, and finally a pardon was granted. He located in Colorado, opened a shop of his own and prospered.

When Williams was pardoned the hospital

 
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at Kearney needed another man and Frank Martindale was sent over there. Martindale was assistant to the master mechanic of the prison and one of the handiest men with tools that I ever saw. Once a small private safe of my own refused to open, and after working on it for a long time I sent for Martindale. He looked at the lock for a few minutes, went out for a wire and quickly opened the safe. We disliked to let him go, but he deserved it. He, too went without a guard, and worked hard and faithfully. About a month alter going to Kearney, he asked permission to go to the bedside of his dying mother who lived in an adjoining state. He was granted permission; again he made a long journey without a guard. "That is the last you will ever see of Martindale," said one of the guards. But on the day set for his return, in walked Martindale. He told the warden that his mother was getting better. I told him what the guard had said, and said that I was glad to see


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him live up to his promise. He answered that he would rather lose his right arm than break his word to Warden Melick. He was later paroled, became a contractor and builder, and now has several men working for him.

That a prisoner working out on a farm should ask to come back to the prison seems strange, but it has happened. On an August day a paroled prisoner asked Warden Melick if he could come back "home." The prison fare, he told Warden Melick, is many times better than the food served on the farm. Especially he longed for one of those Sunday dinners. He was given permission to come "home," was put to work in the prison garden for a few days, then a better place was found for him on a dairy farm where he worked until his sentence expired. He came to the prison to bid us good-bye, dressed in a tailor made suit, had a ticket for his old home in Michigan and about sixty dollars in money. "I am going home to my old mother in Michigan, and I am going to stay there."

 
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He afterwards wrote me a letter stating that he was getting along nicely, was owner of a fine big team and a transfer business. He also wrote that as long as he lived, he will never forget Warden Melick and the kind treatment received at his hands. He tells me how it caused him to undergo a change for the better and made him again a man.

I could state many similar cases but space does not permit. Taken as a whole, Warden Melick's honor system was a success from the start and well worth adopting in every prison throughout the land. Several wardens have come forward and given it a trial. As this book goes to press, we learn of Warden Allen of the Joliet penitentiary starting out a gang of men on honor to do road work. From all over the country and from many metropolitan papers came requests for information as to the methods he used to bring about his success. The answer was: "Give the boys plenty of good food, clean, and well prepared; give them work,