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Show GENIUS IN CONVICT GARB. Many Useful Inventions Are Due to the Inventiveness of Criminals. It not Infrequently happens that men Immured behind iron bars In our prlions glvo to tho world Inventions wnose value It would bo difficult to estimate. Ono of tho most Important Impor-tant of recent minor Inventions Is credited to tho Ingenuity of n convict In tho New Jersey state prison Charles Filer. It Is a blind lockstitch sewing machine which will enable one operator to do tho work of many. Tho device was invented by Mler whllo ho was at work in tho clothing shop of the prison. Outside capital was Interested In-terested In tho machluo and Filer received re-ceived as his reward a cash payment of 5,000, a block of stock, his parole and tho promise of n position with the company at a good salary. Other convicts havo figured In patent pat-ent offlco reports as Inventors. Ono whoso name Is recalled was Molchlor Karkar, who, whllo conflnod In a Hungarian Hun-garian penitentiary In 1892, dovlsed n mechanism for giving a man a clean shavo In twcnty-flvo seconds. The cable ca-ble report assured us that tho governor gov-ernor of tho penitentiary had tested the machlno and declared it a success, suc-cess, but what camo of It Is unknown. A convict of a mechanical turn of mind is apt to And his confinement and his Isolation from deterring Influences Influ-ences most helpful In enabling him to acquire greater facility. Tho exhibition exhi-bition by tho prison association of articles ar-ticles mado by convicts contained snecimens of hlch-ciass work done be hind the prison bars. Among them were an elaborate Iron door grill, a richly carved oak stalrcaso, chairs, desks, banjoes, cabtnots, Iron bedsteads, bed-steads, plaster casts, etc. A piece of cloth woven at Auburn camo In for the highest praise. Illchard Darker, a lifo convict at Auburn, mado a box out of 11.79G separate pieces of wood which was a marvol of skilful cabinet work. It require'1 a glass to see whero tho dlfferont fragments of wood wore Joined togethor. In the year 1885 tho goods manufactured by tho convicts of tho stnto of Now York were valuod at u,23G,320. |