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Show t NITENTIARY AT FORT LEAVENWORTH GIVES HALF HOLIDAYS TO MEN AND THEY HAVE A HOOD TIME eral Penitentiary at Leavenworth. You didn't know they had half holidays holi-days in prisons? Well, they didn't a few years ago. but ideas about those matters have changed latterly. Prisoners are treated more like human hu-man beings than they used to be. It was not so many years ago that con-1 con-1 li tS w ere treated like dangerous wild animals and in consequence behaved that way. But this didn't Start out to be a dissertation on prison reform It is merely the story of how three members of the Joseph Santley Company, which played at the Shubert Theater last veek, got the heaviest applause of the week by playing the prison theater There was Tommy Aikin, curly-haired, curly-haired, with a humorous glint In his bluo eyes, and Fred Helnly. and Saranoff. tb.e little Russian who plays the violin. Fred and Tommy I 1 ' -,- - yoi i"u Liiey uo it very well, too. if you need any further references on the subject there are a thousand prisoners at Leavenworth who would be glad to testify They were assembled In the big, well-ventilated audience room when the theatrical people appeared, chaperoned by Earl Steward, the manager of tho theater, and an innocent in-nocent bystander or two. There was a moving picture show in progress and it was startlingly pleasant to hear the wave of laughter that swept over the big roomful of men now and again. To anyone who has never felt tho restraint which was in the atmosphere of most penitentiaries peni-tentiaries ten or fifteen years ago and persists still in too many places well. It sounded mighty good. And then the theatrical folks went on You couldn't help thinking what a decent, friendly spirit It showed, their being there at ail. They had devoted-the day to a long and rather tiresome Journev, just to contribute to the enjo.vment of the thousand In prison. There was nothing in It for the theatrical man except appreciation but there was certainly a world of that It started with an Irish song by Aikin. His voice rang out, sweet and strong through the big room; there was a hush, and eagerness of attention. Their faces in the light w ere curious studies. It was a light inconsequential thing, the song a song of roses and moonlit lanes and a girl things that are locked away from the thousand by a great brlca wall and many chilled steei bars and patent locks. But how they clapped their hands when he was through and showed as much enthusiasm for Helnly. Time and again the two men were re-ca re-ca led until they had sung everything every-thing they knew. It was curious to see how differently differ-ently the music affected different men among the audience. There were some who lost themselves in it .so completely they forgot to applaud, ap-plaud, staring away in front of them who knows where? Back down tho years, perhaps, to lamp-lit lamp-lit parlors, battered pianos of an ancient sort, boys and girls who laughed. And then came Saranoff. A dapper dap-per liitle Russian, eager, friendly, with all a child's quick interest and enthusiasm. Saranoff and his violin vio-lin that flashed through all the moods, sunshine and shadow. Now pensive, sorrowful, breathing so softly that you held your breath; now, swift as light, in wholly different dif-ferent mood, rollicking with magnificent mag-nificent abandon upon some wholly trivial bit of rag." There was one stolid looking, bristly man who had sat quite un- moved through the singing who brushed his hand across his eves when the violin began Its song. And there were gray-haired men who smiled a little sadly as the violin crooned "Beliove Ale, If All Those Undearing Young Charms. ' But when Saranoff slipped into lighter vein you should have seen the negroes. Their shoulders swayed, their eyes rolled joyfully, and there was sound of shuffling feet upon thi floor. Once when he gave the strings a sudden twang, a little 3hout, quite irrepressible and wholly African, went uj from them. No Pled Piper ever had a crowd more hypnotized than did the "flddlin' gen'lcman" those negro men. And he played "Old Black Joe" and "Dixie," till the whole audience stirred with delight. de-light. They called him back and back and back again, and Saranoif came with a cheerfulness that doubled dou-bled their delight. And when the concert was over and the three appeared ap-peared down frontr the prisoners clapped their hands some more as a last thank you. Afterward Warden Morgan, a keen kindly-faced man, told a little of the success of recreation in tho prison. In the summer the prisoners play baseball one afternoon a week in the prison yard; later there is a weekly show. "We get just as much work out of them," he said, ''and discipline is better. The whole atmosphere of the place is more cheerful, a bit more willing, and a bit more hopeful." hope-ful." The rulo of silence Is no longer enforced at Leavenworth Men may talk to ono another and laugh, and in the recreation tlmo Sunday afternoon aft-ernoon Sunday and Thursday afternoon aft-ernoon are both holidays they walk about the prison yard at will. There is no longer any of tho attl- tude of keeper of wild beasts on the part of the prison officials and guards. Curiously enough, too, the prison doesn't contain nearly as many "wild beasts" as it used to. Authoritatively Informed. "So you come from New York, said an English lady to a traveling American. "I supposed, of course, you came from Boston " "Why did you think that?" inquired in-quired the New York lady. , "Because I supposed all cultivat- , ed, intelligent Americans came from Boston." , "But what in the world made you . think that?" was the natural ques- j tion. j "Oh, I don't know, exactly. I c think it was a Boston lady who j told me " Christian Register (Bos- t ton). I. |
