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Show ARTHUR PRATT TAKES " CHARGE OF STATE PRISON Hew Warden Will Hake Ko Changes in the Working: . Force for the Present, at Least. Arthur Pratt, who wu elected . warden war-den of the BUte prison by the Board of Corrections, took charge of the penitentiary pen-itentiary ; today. He wM make ; no changes at present. - s The position pays J900 per year and such . profits i as can be derived from boarding the "prisoners. ' i Dr. A. C. Toung of this city, who was prison physician, was also a candidate for the position. , Other applicants were Andrew Burt. T. C. Wright, . Orange Seeley.. Charles.. Wllcken and Charles Andrews. Warden Pratt was at one time Chief of Police for Salt Lake, superintendent superintend-ent of census for the State of Utah in 1890, and In 1888 and 1889 was warden of the United States prison. The only men left at the penitentiary who were there with Warden Pratt re Deputy Warden T. C Wright, and Guard Ed Janney. both of whom were guards under Warden Pratt. The new , warden went out to the prison yesterday to talk over old times with his old associates; He noted the many changes that had taken place since he left the prison. In his time,-Instead of the magnificent structures of brick and stone, .and .the stone walls that would stand a siege, there were old wooden, blockhouses and adobe zlls. One of .the most useful guards, one, that was most feared by the prisoners, was a full blooded bulldog, who would as soon kill a convict as to look at him. The Old Penitentiary. . There was but the north oeHhouse and the kitchen and dining-room.. The. bouses were built by nailing six-inch boards flat side down, one on top of the other. The walls were of adobe. "The year I left." said Warden Pratt. "We had 255 prisoners. Never before or since have there been as many inmates. Today there are only 174. Then we had but three buildings in which to confine the prisoners at night. - Their bunks were built around the sides of the rooms, some being over the doors. We had so many prisoners that It was impossible im-possible for them all to find standing room In the bunkhouses at the sam? time. When it came time to go to bed the first to enter the bunkhouses were compelled to crawl into their bunks at once, which were three deep, to permit per-mit thoee to follow to. find room to come Into the building. "And it was the same in the morning, when It came time to get up. The first to awaken and get out of the bunks were the first to come outside. They had to give the other fellows a chance to get out of bed and stand up to put I on their clothes. ' The Mormon Prisoners. - "I had some mighty prominent men 1 out here then," continued the new war-! war-! den. "That was in Territorial days, i when the Government was getting after the Mormons for having more than one wife. When I was here then I had such men as Brigham H. Robertst F. M. Lyman Ly-man and George Q. Cannon, and others who were sentenced for polygamy and unlawful cohabitation. "Those men made mighty good prlsv oners. Their presence caused us to divide di-vide the prisoners into two ' classes 'cohabs.V as .we called them, and the 'toughs,' the regular type -of convicts. The 'cohabs' were trusties. We never had to watch them. In the morning we would send a crowd of them out. with only their foreman to watch them. We knew that they would not attempt to get away. We knew that when it came time to return home every one of them would answer the rollcalL With the 'toughs' It was different. We had to watch them then Ju?t the same as you have to watch the average tough char- acter today. "One of the toughest prisoners we ever had was John Smith, railroad robber, rob-ber, who single handed held up a railroad rail-road train, and for it got a heavy sentence. sen-tence. He had been in -solitary confinement con-finement for three years when I released re-leased him from his cell. After his release re-lease from prison he returned to the penitentiary to kill Warden Dow for putting htm In that cell. He later sent Infernal machines to Judge O. W. Powers Pow-ers and Warden Dow. He afterward committed suicide." When Warden Pratt went to the prison yeeterday he carried for the first time in years a heavy gold mounted cane, given to him by the guards while he was warden. . Mr. Pratt was the Governor's choice for warden and the latter owes his appointment ap-pointment to the Chief Executive's efforts. |