Walls and Bars PDF
Preview Walls and Bars
i9 A. By VICTOR DEBS %> THE iMvEftSITY Vs OF ILLINOIS ' LIBRARY cop. 2. IIUIIOIS mSIQilKAL SDRVEV #^r.> J WALLS AND BARS OF THE JNlVEfiSiT/ Of luiNoif /^ yC^"B>^J^ (Z^.e^.c£, WALLS AND BARS By EUGENE VICTOR DEBS 5 SOCIALIST PARTY 2653 Washington Blvd. Chicago, Illinois Price SI.50 Copyright, 1927, by SOCIALIST PARTY Press of John F. Higgins 376 W, Monroe St. Chicago, lU. A WOED. The pen of the author of this book has been forever silenced by death. To the suffering soula who vision life only within gray stone walls, through cold steel bars, whose days are sunless, whose nights are starless, from whose melancholy — hearts hope has fled to these, all of them victims of a cruel and inhuman social system, this volume is re-dedicated in tender and loving commemo- ration of the writer by his brother and fellow- worker, Theodore Debs. ^ j>i X ^ ''O ^ 'A * 945470 — SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS. I. The Relation of Society to the Convict. My prison experience includes three county jails, o—ne state penitentiary, and one federal prison. I have no personal grievance to air. Special favors were never accorded me, nor would — I acc—ept any. Introduced to jail life in Chicago, my 1894. Eecognized kinship with prisoners — everywhere. Prison problem is—co-related with poverty which is a social disease. Any of us may go to prison—at any time for breaking the law or upholding it. My spirit was never imprisoned, n. The Prison as an Incubator of Crime. — The boy's first off—ense. Convicted, manacled and taken to prison. —How he is received and How what happens to him. he feels about it. He is thrown into contact with hardene—d crim- A inals; the degenerating process —begins. few days later the cha—nge is apparent. He acquires a new vocabulary. His self-respect begins to — wane. He has taken the^ first lesson in the school of vice and crime from which he is to graduate as a finished product at the expiration of his term. m. I Become U. S. Convict, No. 9653. Transferred from Moundsville penitentiary in charge of an United States Marshal and three — — deputies. How I—was received in Atlanta and my first i—mpressions. The Bertillon system is ap- —plied. Stripped, bathed and put in p—rison garb. In the office of the d—eputy warden. My intro- duction to the—warden. Assigned to duty in the my clothing room. I begin to serve sentence. IV. Sharing the Lot of Les Miserables. — My cell and cell mates. The pri—son routine. Prison food and how it is served. My first in- fraction —of prison rules; how it resulted—and the outcome. Caged fourteen hours daily. Getting my in touch with fellow prisoners in the stock- ade. V. Transferred From My Cell to the Hospital. Mingling with the diseased, the maimed and — the in—firm. The drug addicts and their —treat- ment. Hospital guard clubs a convict. The blood-covered victim and the dismissal of the — — guard. The dying and the dead. Eeading and — writing their letters. —My voluntary ministra- tions to the suffering. The moral atmosphere changes. VI. Visitors and Visiting. — Privileges and the lack of them. Restrictions — A upon visits. guard sits —between the convict A and his visitor—to overhear. state delegation pays me a call. The—curiosity of casual visitors to see me is denied. My visitors included Mel- ville E. Stone, Samuel Gompers, Lincoln Steffens,
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