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V-"My Life With The Klan" - Jerry Thompson - Nashville Tennessean
There were many times when I was an undercover member of the Ku Klux Klan, garbed in my white, sheet-like robe and pointed hood, when I felt plain silly. But never in my life have I felt any more stupid than the night I went through my "naturalization" ceremony and was, in effect, "baptized" into the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.
The Nashville Tennessean My Life With The Klan (Series Reprint from the Nashville Tennesseean) 1980-12-11
IV-"My Life With The Klan" - Jerry Thompson - Nashville Tennessean
Jim Hulslander and I, a couple of Klan "recruits," waited in the long corridor outside the Malaga Room of the Howard Johnson's Motel in Birmingham's Hoover suburb to take the KKK oath. Behind the closed door of the room, Don Black, Alabama Dram of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, his wife and three Klan members were preparing for the "naturalization" ceremony at which we could take the oath.
The Nashville Tennessean 1980-12-10
MD: No Klan Meet; Police Role Denied - Robert Sherborne - Nashville Tennessean
Birmingham physician Frank Abernathy says a meeting at his home where Klan leader Don Black delivered a fiery speech, witnessed by Tennessean reporter Jerry Thompson, was not a Klan meeting "per se."
The Nashville Tennessean 1980-12-09
Klan Planning 'Banishment' of Reporter
TUSCUMBIA, Ala. - The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan will institute banishment proceedings against Tennessean reporter Jerry Thompson, who infiltrated the racist group, Imperial Wizard Don Black announced here yesterday. Black termed the idea that Thompson could be in danger from the Klan "melodrama," but said the reporter will be asked to appear before a "jury" charged with determining whether he should be banished from the Klan.
The Nashville Tennessean 1980-12-09
Reporter Faces No Retribution, Says Klan Faction Head
Bill Wilkinson, head of the invisible Empire of the Ku Klux Klan, said yesterday that a Tennessean reporter who infiltrated his group faces no physical punishment from the Klan for his actions. And Don Black, leader of the Knights of the KKK, said Thompson wasted his time when he spent more than a year infiltrating the Knights faction.
The Nashville Tennessean 1980-12-08
III-"My Life With The Klan" - Jerry Thompson - Nashville Tennessean
...on an unseasonably warm night last Feb. 23, Dr. Frank Abernathy welcomed approximately 60 of us - some were Klan members but most were not Klansmen - to his rambling ranch-style residence about 25 miles from Birmingham. There Don Black, then Alabama Grand Dragon, appealed to all who were there to join his Klan Knights.
The Nashville Tennessean My Life With The Klan (Series Reprint from the Nashville Tennesseean) 1980-12-09
II-"My Life With The Klan" - Jerry Thompson - Nashville Tennessean
I was about to become an undercover member of the Ku Klux Klan - but only if I first could withstand Klan leader Don Black's rapid-fire cross-examination about my background. And it was clear that he was suspicious, as he must be about every Klan recruit. He eyes, staring intently into my own, did not waved. He was looking for that flicker of hesitation, that momentary stumble, that one slip of mine that would tip him off that I was not what I pretended to be.
The Nashville Tennessean My Life With The Klan (Series Reprint from the Nashville Tennesseean) 1980-12-08
Fellow Workers Wondered Where Thompson Went
Callers for Thompson were told merely that he was "on leave of absence." No, we did not know when he would return. No, we did not know where he could be reached. And no, we had not heard from him lately.
The Nashville Tennessean 1980-12-07
I-"My Life With The Klan" - Jerry Thompson - Nashville Tennessean
I have fired Klan crosses, collected contributions at Klan roadblocks, marched in Klan street demonstrations and helped disrupt order at a public meeting with shouts in a Klan chorus. I have attended KKK den meetings where men armed with pistols and automatic rifles mouthed their routine racist rhetoric: "The niggers and the Jews are running the country."
The Nashville Tennessean My Life With The Klan (Series Reprint from the Nashville Tennesseean) 1980-12-01
XVII-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Something crept forward as the bundle slid to the floor, and busied itself with the string that bound it." Here you, Jinny," said the woman, " don't you be foolin'. What do you want anyhow ?" The something shook back a mat of thick hair and rose to its feet, — a tiny child who in size seemed no more than three, but whose countenance indicated the experience of three hundred. "It's the string I want," the small voice said. " Me an' Mame was goin' to play with it." "There's small time for play," said the mother; " there 'll be two pair more in a minute or two, an' you're to see how Maine does one an' do it good too, or I 'll find out why not." Mame had come forward and stood holding to the one thin garment which but partly covered Jinny's little bones. She too looked out from a wild thatch of black hair, and with the same expression of deep experience, the pallid, hungry little faces lighting suddenly as some cheap cakes were produced. Both of them sat down on the floor and ate their portion silently.
The New York Tribune 1887-02-13
XVI-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
"Competition makes honesty impossible. A man would admit it to me without hesitation, but would end: ' There's no other way. Don't be a fool. You can't stand out against a system.'"'I will stand out if it starves me,' I said. ' I will not sell my soul for any man's hire. The time is coming when this rottenness must end. Make one more to fight it now.'
The New York Tribune 1887-02-06
XV-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
"We don't want men," he said. "We would n't have them even if they came at the same price. Of course cheapness has something to do with it, and will have, but for my part give me a woman to deal with every time. Now there's an illustration over at that hat-counter. We were short of hands to-day, and I had to send for three girls that had applied for places, but were green — did n't know the business. It did n't take them ten minutes to get the hang of doing things, and there they are, and you 'd never know which was old and which was new hand. Of course they don't know all about qualities and so on, but the head of the department looks out for that. No, give me women every time. I 've been a manager thirteen years, and we never had but four dishonest girls, and we 've had to discharge over forty boys in the same time. Boys smoke and lose at cards, and do a hundred things that women don't, and they get worse instead of better. I go in for women.""How good is their chance of promotion ?" "We never lose sight of a woman that shows any business capacity, but of course that's only as a rule in heads of departments. A saleswoman gets about the same right along. Two thirds of the girls here are public-school girls and live at home. You see that makes things pretty easy, for the family pool their earnings and they dress well and live well. We don't take from the poorer class at all. These girls earn from four and a half to eight dollars a week. A few get ten dollars, and they 're not likely to do better than that. Forty dollars a month is a fortune to a woman. A man must have his little fling, you know. Women manage better."
The New York Tribune 1887-01-30
XIV-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
And if the reader, like various recent correspondents, is disposed to believe that I am merely "making up a case," using a little experience and a great deal of imagination, I refer him or her to the forty-third annual report of the New York Association for the Improvement of the Condition of the Poor. There, in detail to a degree impossible here, will be found the official report of the inspector appointed to examine the conditions of life in the building known as "The Big Flat," in Mulberry Street. There are smaller houses that are worse in construction and condition, but there is none controlled by one management where so many are gathered under one roof. The first floor has rooms for fourteen families, the remaining five for sixteen each; and the census of 1880 gave the number of inhabitants as 478, a sufficient number to make up the population of the average village. The formal inspection and the report upon it were made in September, 1886, and the report is now accessible to all who desire information on these phases of city life. It is Mrs. Maloney herself whose methods best give us the heart of the matter, and who, having several callings, is the owner of an experience which appears to hold as much surprise for herself as for the hearer."Shure I foind things that interestin' that I 'm in no haste to be through wid 'em, an' on for me taste o' purgatory, not hintin' that there might n't be more 'n a taste," Mrs. Maloney said, on a day in which she unfolded to me her views of life in general, her small gray eyes twinkling, her arms akimbo on her mighty hips, and her cap-border flapping about a face weather-beaten and highcolored to a degree not warranted even by her present profession as apple-woman. Whether whiskey or stale beer is more responsible is unknown.
The New York Tribune 1887-01-23
XIII-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
A small manufacturer, fighting his way against monopoly, he is determinately honest in every thread put into his goods, in every method of his trade; his face shrewd yet gentle and wise, — a face that child or woman would trust, and the business man be certain he could impose upon until some sudden turn brought out the shrewdness and the calm assurance of absolute knowledge in his own lines. For thirty years and more his work has held its own, and he has made for himself a place in the trade that no crisis can affect. His own view of the situation is distinctly serious, but even for him there was a flickering smile as he recalled some passages of the experience given here in part. His English limps slightly at moments of excitement, but his mastery of its shades of meaning never, and this is his version of the present relation between employer and employed.
The New York Tribune 1887-01-16
XII-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
"My heart sunk then, for I 'd always had a place that was comfortable all my life, but it sunk deeper when I went up there. A hall bedroom, with a single bed an' a small table, with a washbowl an' small pitcher, one chair an' some nails in the door for hanging' things; that was all except a torn shade at the window. I looked at the bed. The two ragged comfortables were foul with long use. I thought of my nice bed down at Spring Street, my own good sheets an' blankets an' all, an' I began to cry." You don't look as if you was used to the likes of it,' Bridget said. 'There's another room the same as this but betther. Why not ax for it?' "I started down the stairs an' came right upon Mrs. Melrose, who smiled as if she thought I had been enjoying myself. "'I 'm perfectly willing to try an' do your work as well as I know how,' I said, ' but I must have a place to myself an' clean things in it.' "'Highty-tighty!' says she. 'What impudence is this? You 'll take what I give you and be thankful to get it. Plenty as good as you have slept in that room and never complained.' "'Then it's time some one did,' I said. 'I don't ask anything but decency, an' if you can't give it I must try elsewhere.' "'Then you 'd better set about it at once,' she says, an' with that I bid her good-afternoon an' walked out.
The New York Tribune 1887-01-09
XI-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Under the great Bridge, whose piers have taken the place of much that was foulest in the Fourth Ward, stands a tenement-house so shadowed by the structure that, save at midday, natural light barely penetrates it. The inhabitants are of all grades and all nationalities. The men are chiefly 'longshoremen, working intermittently on the wharves, varying this occupation by long seasons of drinking, during which every pawnable article vanishes, to be gradually redeemed or altogether lost, according to the energy with which work is resumed. The women scrub offices, peddle fruit or small office necessities, take in washing, share, many of them, in the drinking bouts, and are, as a whole, content with brutishness, only vaguely conscious of a wretchedness that, so long as it is intermittent, is no spur to reform of methods. The same roof covers many who yield to none of these temptations, but are working patiently; some of them widows with children that must be fed; a few solitary, but banding with neighbors in cloak or pantaloon making, or the many forms of slop-work in the hands of sweaters. Sunshine has no place in these rooms which no enforced laws have made decent, and where occasional individual effort has small power against the unspeakable filth ruling in tangible and intangible forms, sink and sewer and closet uniting in a common and all-pervading stench.
The New York Tribune 1887-01-02
X-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
The professional political economist of the old school, the school to which all but a handful belong, takes refuge in the census returns as the one reply to any arraignment of the present. Blind as a bat to any figures save his own, he answers all complaint with the formula: "In 1860 the property of this country, equally divided, would have given every man, woman, and child $514 each. In 1870 the share would have been $624; in 1880, $814. In 1886 returns are not in, but $900 and more would be the division per capita. What madness to talk of suffering when this flood of wealth pours through the land. Admitting that the lowest class suffer, it is chiefly crime, drunkenness, etc., that bring suffering. The majority are perfectly comfortable."Having read this statement in many letters and heard it in interviews as well, it seems plain that the conviction embodied in both has fastened itself upon that portion of the public whose thinking is done for them, and who range themselves by choice with that order who would not be convinced "even though one rose from the dead." "The majority are perfectly comfortable." Let us see how comfortable.
The New York Tribune 1886-12-26
IX-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
The manufacturers of cloaks and jackets reported "piecework" as the rule. The great dry-goods establishments had the same word. Here and there was one where work was done on the premises, and where skilled hands held the same places year after year, the wages ranging from six to ten dollars, hardly varying. But for most of them the same causes stated in the third chapter, "The Methods of a Prosperous Firm," have operated, and it has been found expedient to settle upon "piece-work" and let rent be paid and space be furnished by the workers themselves."They like it better," said the business manager of the great firm against whom there have never been charges of dishonesty or unkindness in their treatment of employees. "It would be impossible to do all our work on the premises. We should want the entire block if we even half did it. But we know some of the women, and we pay as high as anybody; perhaps higher. It saves them car fares and going out in all weathers, and a great many other inconveniences, when they work at home, and I don't see why there should be any objections made.
The New York Tribune 1886-12-19
VIII-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Lotte went home dumb, and sat down at her machine. There was no money in the house, nor would be till she had taken home this work; but as she bent over it the blood poured in a stream from her mouth. She tried to rise, but fell back; and when the screaming children had brought in neighbors, Lotte's struggle was quite over. When they had buried her in the Potter's Field by Lisa, they took the bundle of work stained with her lifeblood and carried it back to its owners."She 'll need no more," said the old neighbor from the floor above as she laid it on the counter. "You 've cut her down and cut her down, till there was n't life left to stand it longer. There's not one of you to blame, you say, but I that know, know you 've fastened her coffin-lid with nails o' your own makin', an' that sooner or later you 'll come face to face, an' find that red-hot is cowld to the hate that's makin' ready for you. An' as for him that stands there smilin', if it were n't for the laws that spare the guilty and send the innocent to their deaths, God knows it would be the best thing these hands ever did to tear him to bits. But there 's no one to blame. Ye 're sure o' that. Wait a while. The day 's comin' when you 'll maybe think different; an' may God speed it!"
The New York Tribune 1886-12-12
VII-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Since the Church first began to misinterpret the words of its Founder, since men who built hospitals first made the poor to fill them, the " thou shalt not" of the priest has stood in the way of a human development that, if allowed free play, had long ago made its own code, and found in natural spiritual law the key to the overcoming of that formulated by men to whom the divine in man was forever unrecognized and unrecognizable.This is no place for the discussion of what, to many good men and women, seems the only safety for human kind ; but to one who studies the question somewhat at least with the eyes of the physician, it becomes certain that no " thou shalt not" will ever give birth to either conscience or love of goodness and purity and decent living, or any other good that man must know; and that till the Church learns this, her hold on men and women will lessen, year by year. Every fresh institution in the miles of asylums and hospitals that cover the islands of the East Biver, and stretch on farther and farther with every year, is an added disgrace, an added count in the indictment against modern civilization. There are moments when the student of social conditions abhors Philanthropy ; when a disaster that would wipe out at one stroke every institution the city treasures would seem a gift straight from God, if only thereby the scales might fall from men's eyes, and they might learn that hiding foulness in an asylum is not extirpation; that something deeper and stronger than Philanthropy must work, before men can be saved.
The New York Tribune 1886-12-05
VI-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
To this end, then, toils the employer of every grade, bringing every faculty to bear on the lessening of waste, whether in material or time; the conservation of every force working in line with his purpose. Naturally, the same effect is produced as that mentioned in a previous paper. The employees come to represent "so much producing power," and are driven at full speed or shut off suddenly like the machines of which they are the necessary but still more or less accidental associates. Certain formulas are used, evolved apparently from experience, and carrying with them an assurance of so much grieved but inevitable conviction that it is difficult to penetrate below the surface and realize that, while in degree true, they are in greater degree false. In various establishments, large and small, beginning with one the pay-roll of which carries 1,462 employees, and ending with one having hardly a third this number, the business manager made invariably the same statement : "We make our money from incidentals rather than from any given department. You are asking particularly about suits. I suppose you'll think it incredible, but in suits we work at a dead loss. It is only an accommodation to our customers that makes us keep that department open. The work should be put out to mean any profit, but we can't do that with the choicest materials, and so we make it up in other directions. You would have to go into business yourself to understand just how we are driven."
The New York Tribune 1886-11-28
V-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
"Have you come to answer Madame M 's advertisement ?" the little woman said, as she rose from the steps and laid her hand detainingly on the hurrying figure."Yes," the girl answered hesitatingly, pulling away from the hand that held. "Then, unless you 've got anything else to do and like to give your time and strength for naught, keep away. You'll get no wages, no matter what's promised. I've been there six months, kept on by fair promises, and I know. I 'll let no girl go in there without warning." "It's a good-looking place," the girl said doubtfully. "It's a den of thieves all the same. If you don't believe me, come down to the Woman's Protective Union on Clinton Place, and you 'll see my case on the book there, and judgment against this woman, that's no more mercy than a Hottentot and lies that smoothly that she 'd humbug an angel of light. Ah! That's good!" she added, for the girl had shaken off her hand and sped away as swiftly as she had come. " That's seven since yesterday, and I wish it were seven hundred. It's time somebody turned watchdog.
The New York Tribune 1886-11-21
IV-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
There is at present on Third Avenue a Mrs. F, who for eleven years has conducted a successful business built upon continuous fraud. She is a manufacturer of underwear, and the singular fact is that she has certain regular employees who have been with her from the beginning, and who, while apparently unconscious of her methods, are practically partners in the fraud. She is a woman of good presence and address, and one to whom girls submit unquestioningly, contending, even in court, that she never meant to cheat them; and it is still an open question with those who know her best how far she herself recognizes the fraud in her system. The old hands deny that it is her custom to cheat, and though innumerable complaints stand against her, she has usually paid on compulsion, and insisted that she always meant to. Her machines never lack operators, and the grade of work turned out is of the best quality. Her advertisement appears at irregular intervals, is answered by swarms of applicants, and there are always numbers waiting their turn.
The New York Tribune 1886-11-14
III-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Believing very ardently that the right of every woman born includes not only " life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," but beauty also, it being one chief end of woman to include in her own personality all beauty attainable by reasonable means, I am in heartiest agreement with one side of the views quoted. But in this quest we have undertaken, and from which, once begun, there is no retreat, strange questions arise; and in this new dawn of larger liberty and wider outlook is seen the little cloud which, if no larger than a man's hand, holds the seed of as wild a storm as has ever swept over humanity.For emancipation on the one side has meant no corresponding emancipation for the other; and as one woman selects, well pleased, garment after garment, daintily tucked and trimmed and finished beyond any capacity of ordinary home sewing, marvelling a little that a few dollars can give such lavish return, there arises, from narrow attic and dark, foul basement, and crowded factory, the cry of the women whose lifeblood is on these garments. Through burning, scorching days of summer; through marrow-piercing cold of winter, in hunger and rags, with white-faced children at their knees, crying for more bread, or, silent from long weakness, looking with blank eyes at the flying needle, these women toil on, twelve, fourteen, sixteen hours even, before the fixed task is done.
II-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
Rose earned the first month ten dollars, or two and a half a week, but being exceptionally quick, was promoted in the second to four dollars weekly. The rent was six dollars a month; and during the first one the old shoemaker came to the rescue, had an occasional eye to the children, and himself paid the rent, telling Rose to return it when she could. When the ten hours' labor ended, the child, barely fourteen, rushed home to cook something warm for supper, and when the children were comforted and tucked away in the wretched old bed, that still was clean and decent, washed and mended their rags of clothes, and brought such order as she could into the forlorn room.
The New York Tribune 1886-10-31
I-"Prisoners of Poverty: Women wage-workers, their trades and their lives" - Helen Campbell - New York Tribune
The difficulties to be faced by the woman whose only way of self-support is limited to the needle, whether in machine or hand work, are fourfold. (1) Her own incompetency must very often head the list and prevent her from securing first-class work; (2) middle-men or sweaters lower the price to starvation point; (3) contract work done in prisons or reformatories brings about the same result; and (4) she is underbid from still another quarter, that of the country woman who takes the work at any price offered.
The New York Tribune 1886-10-24
"L.A.'s Giant Jail Is a Giant Headache" - William Hart - Corrections
"It is size - sheer immensity - that is the first and the last principle of the Los Angeles County Central Jail. It is this simple, stunning fact that sparks both the pride of the men and women who run it and the problems that today besiege what is said to be the largest jail in the world. The operation of the Central Jail's morning "court line," in which up to 1,000 inmates are awakened, fed, given civilian clothes, chained and shepherded into 30 buses during a two-hour period, has been called "the daily miracle" by Art Stoyanoff, chief of the Custody Division of the L.A. Sheriff's Department. . ."
Corrections 1980-01-02
X-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
". . .'Johnny Ford, there's a visitor to see you.' Attendant 'Denny' Dennison's voice awakened me from my melancholy reveries. I hurried to the visitor's room and found Willis O'Rourke, Daily Times reporter, my quondam brother 'Edward C. Ford,' awaiting me in the doorway. 'Hello, Johnny,' he greeted me. Then after we were alone he looked at my sagging waistline and whistled. 'What the hell are you doing, dieting?' (I lost eight pounds during my week in the madhouse.) 'Yes,' I answered. 'I'm saving up for the juiciest steak I can order, chargeable to the expense account. How about getting me out of this joint?' . . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-26
IX-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
"The water used for cooking and drinking at the madhouse is obtained from two deep wells. It is good water, at the start, when it is discharged from the wells. But after that it is subject to contamination from a number of sources. The well water is collected in an open concrete reservoir of two million gallons capacity at the well site. This reservoir, looking like an ideal swimming pool, is close to the Kankakee river. A wire fence surrounds the pool to exclude inquisitive inmates. It fails in its purpose. It offers no protection against animals dust or dirt."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-25
VIII-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
"Somebody shoved Mr. M---- into the room and he at once captured my interest. His temples were scarred and his neck all across the back was scored with slashes, freshly painted with mercurochrome. Louie L-----, the "tub" room trust, greeted me from the door, and explained about Mr. M----. "He's nuts," said Louie. "He's got bad blood, and he tried to kill himself with a piece of window pane. Don't pay no attention to him. Say I've got some swell socks, brand new. I'll sell 'em cheap to you, cause you're my pal." I wasn't interested in socks at the time. Not with Mr. M---- willing to tell me about his suicide attempt."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-24
VII-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
"Johnny N----, the clothesroom man, was fast becoming a friendly source of institutional information. Possessed of a ground parole, he was my one contact with the outside world. He bought my cigarettes, took my clothes to a quick-service laundry, slipped in a savory hamburger sandwich when the "house" meals became unbearable. Johnny should be able to tell me how to get a view of the dance. I asked him. "Ford," he replied, "don't miss the dances while you're here if you possibly can make them. They're a riot. And there are some honeys amongst the nurses. Ask Denny, he might fix it up for you. . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-23
VI-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
". . .'What,' I asked Max Savoy, one of A-1's attendants, 'what in heaven's name would you do in case of a fire?' 'We'd do our damndest, Ford,' he replied. "We'd have to depend on some of you half-sane guys to help us out with these other nuts. One of the first duties impressed on new attendants, he told me, is the necessity for speed in opening doors and herding out their charges in an emergency. . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-22
V-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times Seven Days in the Madhouse!
"According to Oscar's story, he was illegally committed through the machinations of his wife. Family difficulties, constant bickering, had paved the way he related. By subterfuge, he said, he was induced to visit a psychiatrist at the University of Chicago. He was subjected to observation with the result that a month later he was ordered into court for a sanitary hearing. He said: 'I didn't think anything of it. I had to go. BUT what could the judge do except find me sane? I had never had any trouble in my life. For years I had been a clerk in the registry division of the main post office in Chicago. They ought to know if I was crazy. My wife swore I was trying to kill her and the children. All I wanted was to be left alone to study and read in the library I had fitted up in my home on the south side. The social service workers aided my wife in getting me put away' . . ."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-19
IV-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
"Common drinking cups - repugnant source of infections and disease - outlawed for a quarter of a century by the Illinois criminal code - shared with four drooling-mouth cancer patients and a "four plus" syphilitic. This was one of the nauseous conditions I had to endure during my seven days in the madhouse. It was distasteful, but it was a necessary evil. I had a job to do. Sane, I had to share the fate of the insane. I realized all that, and was prepared to go through with my investigation of reported unsanitary conditions. "
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-18
III-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
"Finally we stopped near the end of the corridor. I was motioned to an empty bed in a four-bed room. Alcove would be a more descriptive name, for it was walled only on three sides, open to the corridor. I toppled over. The sheets were soiled but I was past caring ..."
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-17
II-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
Fifteen hours in a tub of dirty flowing river water. Fifteen hours soaking in the turbid, unfiltered, unsterilized mud wash of the Kankakee river, while pleas for antiseptic to protect open wounds on my hands and arms, sustained in my struggle with attendants, went unheeded. Fifteen hours watching violent patients wander about the hydrotherapy ward, until, captured, they were wrapped mummy-fashion in wet sheets and blankets, or tied in tubs like myself. Worst of all, a stomach-retching spectacle of sadistic brutality.
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-16
I-"Seven Days in the Madhouse!" - Frank Smith - Chicago Daily Times
He shook my hand, told me to behave myself and suddenly the door was closed. Eddie was gone. I was shut off from the world. My coat and vest were removed. My pockets and bag were emptied. I was led into a combination bath room and barber shop. Orders were given to take off my clothes. I was to have a bath and be put to bed. Feigns Violence with Success Mentally I reviewed what I had heard of the "hydro" department. That's where they take care of violent patients. That was what I had to see to make my investigation thorough. It seemed I'd have to be more violent than just obstinate to get into the "hydro." I became more violent.
Chicago Daily Times 1935-07-15
IX-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
Official promises of ward-by-ward investigation of Kings County Hospital psychiatric division and other city mental institutions bring hope not only to former patients and their loved ones but to families now torn by mental illness. Because many of these people face the possibility of having to rely on city institutions to help their families, they look to the committee headed by Dr. Lawrence C. Kolb, director of the New York Psychiatric Institute, to find ways of bettering some of the shocking conditions which now exist. The worst of these at Kings County Hospital is the failure to segregate patients by age or illness.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-24
VIII-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
My stay in the locked wards was the direct result of scores of letters this newspaper received from former patients of Kings County. One of those detailed the experiences of a sane woman, who was admitted to "G" Building, suffering from depression brought on by menopause. For 12 days she lived in the center of the vortex: She saw senile women, tied in wheelchairs, who helplessly fouled their gowns all day long. She saw little girls - the youngest 9 - living among sex exhibitionists, drunks, dope addicts and desperately disturbed women of all sorts.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-23
VII-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
Then I was summoned to see my psychiatrist. Our session came about at my request because I wanted to know what the hospital was planning to do with me. This interview just lasted a few moments, in contrast to the first meeting, which was 20 minutes long. The doctor said that three courses of action were open: I might be retained at the hospital for further observation; I might be committed to a state mental hospital; or I might be released. He added that his decision would have to be backed up by the judgement of his immediate superior, whom I might see very soon.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-22
VI-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
I had worked my way from Ward 31 to Ward 33 but I hadn't known what to expect: Ward 33 smelled like the hold of a troop ship. This is the odor of too many unwashed men sleeping too close together. Five beds had been set up in the day room, where men slept under the unrelenting glare of overhead lights all night long. Near the nurses' station lay a man who was tied to his bed by the sleeves of his straitjacket. He was straining against his bonds and staring straight ahead with unseeing eyes.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-21
V-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
Two men used to tell me at length about the people they thought they had killed. When you listen to this sort of talk all day long, it is like listening to a gall bladder patient tell you about his operation. Boredom became almost insufferable. The temptation, to over-eat was great, because the food, although simple, was excellent. Several men helped out in the ward's little kitchen for whatever extra food they could get.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-20
IV-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
Not all days have 24 hours. To the patients at Kings County a "day" is sometimes only 50 minutes long. A visiting day at the psychiatric division of Kings County Hospital is officially 90 minutes long. But in practice, it is often shorter than that. The periods that come at 2 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-18
Psychiatrist Named to Lead Hospital Quiz
One of the foremost authorities in the field of psychiatry has been chosen to head a committee of experts who will investigate psychiatric services in all New York City municipal hospitals. He is Dr. Lawrence C. Kolb, director of the New York State Psychiatric Institute and chairman of the department of psychiatry of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-17
Mayor Voices Concern Over Kings County
Mayor Robert F. Wagner today voiced "great concern" over conditions discovered by World-Telegram staff writer Michael Mok in the psychiatric division of Brooklyn's Kings County Hospital. The Mayor made the remark after discussing the overcrowded, unsanitary, understaffed division with Dr. Ray E. Trussell, city hospitals commissioner, in a City Hall conference.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-17
II-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
When patients are brought into Kings County in a violent state because of liquor, drugs or madness, they are laced into straitjackets, put under heavy sedation and packed off to Ward 51 on the fifth floor for close confinement and supervision. If they calm down, they are unbound and given the run of 51, under the watchful eyes of its muscular and highly trained attendants.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-17
Reporter Mok Reminds Friends of Era When Job Was the Goal
Michael Mok came to the World-Telegram two years ago and has spent much of his time chafing impatiently for just the type of assignment which sent him into the psychiatric wards of Kings County Hospital. As a young reporter in love with his work, he reminds other staff members of a past and colorful era when the job was never regarded as a steppingstone, but as a goal. Mr. Mok is a newspaper man by inclination and choice, and the one way to make him furious is to ask: "I know you're a reporter - but do you also do serious writing?"
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-16
II-"I Was A Mental Patient" - Michael Mok - New York Telegram and Sun
Before I could find out what happened, I was called into the psychiatrist's office. The doctor questioned me gently and with great patience and skill.I allowed him to drag from me a story I had prepared very carefully. I told him in considerable detail that emotional difficulties had been aggravated by heavy drinking and had created severe problems. After the session, the doctor said he was going to admit me to the hospital "for a couple of days," and I was taken into a small dressing room while the doctor talked to my wife.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-16
Hospital Is a City Within a City
Kings County Hospital Center at Clarkson and New York Aves., Bklyn., has modern equipment, modern techniques. But it is handicapped by lack of funds and lack of sufficient personnel. When the times comes for the city to allocate funds for its operation, it is looked upon as a third cousin.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-15
I-"I Was A Mental Patient At Kings County" - Michael Mok - New York World Telegram and Sun
Despite the best efforts of its dedicated doctors and nurses, Kings County Hospital disgorges many of its mental patients with their minds scraped raw because its staff and facilities are inadequate for the processing of the mentally ill. Personal inspection of the psychiatric division reveals: Dreadful overcrowding - so bad that patients are forced to sleep in dining areas and hallways. Lack of segregation - frightened children locked in with depraved adults. Improper housing arrangements - slightly depressed patients thrown in with raving lunatics. Inadequate staffing - evidenced by overworked doctors, nurses, attendants and social workers. Unsanitary conditions in the bathrooms of the wards Questionable psychiatric decisions - patients often sent off to state institutions or returned to society after only a few minutes of psychiatric examination. Inadequate physical examination - patients not checked for venereal or other communicable diseases upon entering the hospital.
New York World-Telegram and Sun 1961-03-15
IV-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Like any other man in almost any other place, what an inmate needs to know most at Soledad is what is expected of him. The same goes for a prison staff, themselves part-time prisoners in the sketchy science of penology. 'When I first started on this job,' said a 10-year veteran correctional officer, 'we had a lot more contact with the inmate. Sure, our job was primarily custody, but it was also getting to know these men and their problems. Now, that's the counselor's job. I hate to even use the word, but I'm becoming more of a 'guard' than I was ten years ago' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-02-25
III-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Cal McEndree, the blunt-talking "Program Administrator" of the two wings was sent to Soledad last year by State Corrections Director Raymond Procunier in what was understood by most to be an effort to clean up the violent reputation of Soledad's adjustment center. Since he has been there, McEndree, widely respected by inmates for his firm, but straightforward and honest manner, has let more men out of Soledad's "hole" than had been thought possible a year before. There is some belief among observers that McEndree may even succeed in closing down at least half of the adjustment center within the next year. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-02-24
II-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .To save money, Soledad Central was built along the contours of the gently sloping green fields of the Salinas Valley.The main corridor thus drops in a long graduated stairsteps and from the east end literally looks like an endless tunnel with only a pinpoint of light showing from the low end where the corridor opens into the big yard.Superintendent Cletus J. Fitzharris calls the corridor "a quarter mile of madness."About 1500 men live on their side of it. It is their only thoroughfare to everything that comprises their world for as long as a lifetime. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-02-23
I-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
"A free man in free man's clothing, because the authorities feared for my safety as an inmate, I lived in Soledad for a week - not a true prisoner, but as much a captive of the mind-smothering machine as the 3000 people who live and work there. Prison is never as simple as the tin cup tantrums and zoo cage loathing people insist on visualizing. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-02-22
XIV-"Behind Prison Bars: How Experts Want to Change Prisons" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
"Throughout California a number of dedicated men and women in and out of the Department of Corrections are quietly working to reduce the state's prison population by at least half. Here are some of their conclusions: The amount of time a man serves behind bars has no relation to whether or not he will fail in the streets and be returned to prison. Men convicted of property crimes - as opposed to violent crimes - never should be sent to prison. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-15
XIIIA-"Behind Prison Bars: Loneliness, Unemployment" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Richter had been out of prison for seven months and he hadn't been able to find a steady job. He sat in his small, neat Mission District room and he twisted his fingers. 'I've got to get to work, you see. I've got to make friends. There's this girl upstairs I'd like to take to the movies.' He reached in his pocked and extracted a coin. 'I can't take her anywhere on a dime.' He looked at his feet. 'You don't know what it's like to be lonely and without work. If it keeps us like this, I know I'm going back in the joint' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-12
XIII-"Behind Prison Bars: Prison Turmoil" - Jim Brewer - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .The violence remained centered in the mammoth east block of the prison, scene of five other knifing incidents within a 24-hour period Monday and Tuesday. Despite the attacks, about 1600 men from two cell blocks were allowed out of their cells yesterday in the 3200-inmate prison, and authorities said those men would remain on an 'unlock' status unless trouble developed among them. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-12
XIIA-"Behind Prison Bars: Quentin Stabbings - 5 Inmates Hurt" - Unsigned - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .A 'lockdown' of all but essential activities at San Quentin Prison was ordered at 2 p.m. yesterday by Warden Louis Nelson after five inmates had been stabbed in a 24-hour period. Inmates were returned to their cells and remained there except to march to meals under unusually heavy guard. Associate Warden James Park said there appears to be a 'pattern of retaliation' on the part of blacks, whites and chicanos despite the effort of inmate leaders to 'cool the situation' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-10
XII-"Behind Prison Bars" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .During the day I spent on the Special Security Squad at San Quentin Prison - inmates call it "the goon squad" - we ripped off Papa John's cell. We carried out seven pillowcases pull of everything from porn to extra clothing to unauthorized books and a surplus of cigarettes. We crawled through the prison's sewers like fugitives from "Les Miserables" searching for cut bars, heroin, or anything that could construed as part of a prison break - or for the thousands of items which are contraband for prisoners. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-10
XIIA-"Behind Prison Bars" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Sergeant Ivanov had taken a shank - a home-made knife - from a Chicano inmate and the word was that a fight was brewing inside San Quentin Prison. 'The word is that the Los Angeles Chicanos are feuding with the El Paso Chicanos,' Ivanov told the five of us. 'Maybe it's gambling, maybe something else. We're try to find out what the beef is so that we can cool it. While we find out, you guys go out in the upper yard and start shaking down' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-09
XII-"Behind Prison Bars: Why Prisoners Keep Coming Back" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Robert Thompson, the head of Vacaville's reception center, sees the problem this way: 'These men,' he said of Fred and his comrades, 'have failed at everything they've ever done. They failed in school; at their marriages; at raising their children; in the Armed Forces. And the fact they are here indicates they failed at crime' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-09
XIA-"Behind Prison Bars: Vacaville, The First Stop" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Fred Crocker, wearing a suit of whites with a belly chain secured to his waist, stepped out of a sheriff's van last week and walked into the recesses of Vacaville Medical Facility. A fat youngster, who admitted he had been impersonating an ambassador of another country. Fred was arrested in a northern county on charges of forgery after he tried to hand a bogus $200 person check on a jaded bartender. Croker's case was relative fare at Vacaville, where felons from 47 of California's 58 counties are first sent (the rest go to Chino, outside Los Angeles), in that he has never been to the penitentiary before. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-08
Behind Prison Bars
There is a sign hanging in the Receiving and Release room just inside San Quentin State Prison and this is what it says: "Blessed are those who demand nothing for they shall not be disappointed." It was one of the first things I saw during the week I worked as a correctional officer. Civilians call them prison guards. The assignment came at the end of an intensive three-month study of the California Department of Corrections by myself and Tim Findley, another reporter.
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-08
XA-"Behind Prison Bars: The Meanest Con's Death Row Assault" - Unsigned - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .The meanest man in San Quentin kept up his reputation yesterday when he and a fellow Death Row inmate tried unsuccessfully to stab a correctional officer with homemade knives, prison officials revealed. Lawrence had gone to Lara's cell with medicine, but Lara was waiting with a spikelike device concealed under a blanket. He thrust it at the officer, but missed, officials said. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-05
X-"Behind Prison Bars: Guard Killed By Inmate at Soledad" -Our Correspondent - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Officer Robert J. McCarthy, 43, was the eighth man, including three officers to be killed at Soledad in the past 13 months. Hugo Pinell, 26, an inmate convicted of rape in San Francisco in 1965, and currently serving a life sentence for attacking a San Quentin correctional officer in 1968, was being questioned yesterday by Monterey country district attorney investigators. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-05
IX-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Suppose you became a felon - a convict - and they processed you through the incoming prisoner facility at Vacaville, stamped your name and number in an indelible file and sent you off to prison. What kind of place would you want it to be? How about a neat little retreat in the Tehachapi Mountains 4000 feet high at the end of a soft idyllic valley where you wear your own clothes, spend three days alone with your family every 90 days, live with other men in a dormitory like the one you had in college, vote on important issues like how late you can beat your drum at night, make your choice of learning one or more of 19 trades, complete your education, and rarely see a uniformed "guard?" It would still be prison. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-04
VIII-"Behind Prison Bars" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .California prison officials have an annoying habit of putting together two-syllable words to describe a one-syllable mess. Prisons are "correctional facilities." Guards are "correctional officers." And what inmates and staff alike most often refer to as "the hole" is officially known as "the adjustment center." Prison in California is like the descending levels of Dante's hell, with the adjustment center almost, but not quite, at the bottom. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-03
VIA-"Behind Prison Bars: Folsom --- Where the 'Elite' Meet" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Folsom Prison is a place so notorious it's almost a part of American folklore. The second oldest prison in California, and the epitome of the old "rock pile" concept. Folsom is the most outdated of the State's 12 prisons for men. It has fewer rehabilitation "programs," more armed guards and less planned recreation than any other prison in California. And, The Chronicle found, a lot of convicts think it's the best "joint" in the State. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-02
VI-"Behind Prison Bars" - Charles Howe - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Mulligan sat alone in his cell in San Quentin's B-Wing, a place of isolation for violent and recalcitrant prisoners. Inmates call it "the hole." Mulligan is only 23 years old, a convicted burglar with a long history of petty crimes behind him. Relatively passive on the streets, we could have been out long ago - if he had not violently resisted The System while inside prison. Mulligan has a swastika tattooed on his forearm - the one covered with self-inflicted wounds from a razor blade. Mulligan says he is a 'Nazi' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-02
VA-"Behind Prison Bars: The Prison Clientele is Tougher"
". . .'You know,' a correctional officer told me as we sat around the squad-room of a California prison, 'the trouble with these joints is that we're getting too many bad guys coming to them these days.' During The Chronicle's study of California's penal system, dozens of custodial officials said the same thing: more violent men are coming to prison lately. 'They aren't tougher than they were 30 years ago,' Warden Walter Craven of Folsom said. 'It's just that there are more tough guys around' . . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-01
V-Behind Prison Bars: Sex Fear Among the Cons" - Tim Findley - San Francisco Chronicle
". . .Nobody knows how many overt homosexuals there are inside California's prisons - but authorities do admit that homosexuality is a dangerous problem in the society behind walls. Some prisoners choose homosexuality. But some are forced into it - victims caught between terror of other inmates and the iron code against informers. Today, Chronicle reporters Tim Findley and Charles Howe explore that dark side of life behind prisons walls, part of their candid report on their three months inside prisons. . ."
San Francisco Chronicle 1971-03-01
V-"Doing Time" - Richard Stewart - Boston Globe
The large room where the alcohol session was held served a multitude of activities. Most of them took place at the same time. Lawyers met there to discuss cases with inmates. Social workers talked with new arrivals and counseled inmates with problems. Inmates came and went with books because the room also serves as the library. Guards occasionally walked in and shouted names of prisoners who were wanted elsewhere. In the midst of this frenzy, 13 men sat on benches and chairs against a far wall and discussed their personal bouts with alcohol and drugs while they smoked cigarettes and drank coffee from Styrofoam cups.
The Boston Globe 1983-12-31
IV-"Doing Time" - Richard Stewart - Boston Globe
In the semidarkness of the cell block, I was startled by the occasional eruption of sparks from the granite floor outside my cell. After a moment, I realized the inmates on the two tiers above me were flipping cigarettes out their cell doors. They were landing on the floor in the Flats. The Flats, as the first level is known, was everybody's wastebasket and ashtray. And my cell, No. 6, was in the middle of the row.
The Boston Globe 1983-12-30
III-"Doing Time" - Richard Stewart - Boston Globe
I learned that was the rule in jail. If you borrowed something you paid it back twofold. Borrow a cigarette and pay back two. There was also a three-for-two rule. You paid back three cigarettes for two. That was a better deal since the profit margin was only 50 percent rather than 100 percent. Inmates were not allowed to have money. Each inmate's money was kept in his account at the jail canteen, which was only open Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Cigarettes were the principal mode of currency.
The Boston Globe 1983-12-29
II-"Doing Time" - Richard Stewart - Boston Globe
Through the barred door that separated me from the cell block, I could see inmates casually wandering the walkways of the three-cell tiers. Many were dressed as I was - in a mixture of olive drab and khaki. Others were wearing shorts. Some were shirtless, displaying a profusion of tattoos on chests and limbs. Most appeared young and lean, and, I mused anxiously, tough and mean. Would they resent an obvious middle-class, middle-aged man? Would they steal my cigarettes and underwear as the guard had warned? Would they threaten me or worse? How would they react if they found out I was a newspaper reporter in jail on a phony drunken driving charge? Would they assume I was put in jail to spy on them?
The Boston Globe 1983-12-28
I-"The Convicted: Doing Time" - R.H. Stewart - Boston Globe
Salem - The expression on the face of the secretary in the District Attorney's office was the first signal that I no longer was an accepted member of society. "We have a prisoner who is surrendering himself, Deputy Sheriff Frances Grace told her. "Is it OK if we let him sit here until they pick him up from the jail? The secretary had been smiling. Now the look of fear was unmistakable. I felt a wrenching in my stomach. Then I felt anger.
The Boston Globe 1983-12-27
The Convicted
"In April, this newspaper assigned two full-time reporters, as well as four photographers and six other reporters on a part-time basis, to explore Arizona's corrections systems and related justice issues. The project, which took nearly four months to complete, was initiated in part because of the prison system's unprecedented crisis of overcrowding. During the project, veteran reporters R.H. Ring and John S. Long worked "undercover" - as an inmate and a guard - so the Star could report more accurately and vividly about the conditions inside Arizona's prisons. . ."
Arizona Daily Star 1982-08-08
II-"The Convicted: Holding Down The Fort" - John S. Long - Arizona Daily Star
Peggy and I headed down a palm-lined Tahitian road to the tiny Moorea airport. It was Saturday, June 20, and we were ending our honeymoon in paradise. On the flight from Papeete to Los Angeles, we drank French beer, ate smoked salmon and watched a Francois Truffaut Movie. I awoke abruptly from my reverie the next day. Nervous. I moved about strangely in a starched khaki uniform I had never worn before. I was leaving Tucson for a two-week newspaper assignment as a guard at the state prison at Fort Grant.
The Convicted (supplement to the Arizona Daily Star) 1982-08-08
I-"The Convicted: 'This Ain't That Kind of Prison'" - R.H. Ring - Arizona Daily Star
It's no surprise I wound up in prison. Like many of us, in this nation founded by outlaws, I have committed crimes. I have felt alienation. I have needed money. I have hated the system, its sometimes oppressive laws and the men who make them. In a wilder period, about 10 years ago, I even did a little time - a few days in a county jail, and almost a week in a Canadian penitentiary. Vietnam-era stuff. What kept me out on the streets for the rest of my 32 years was mainly luck, and a leg up from having white skin and middle-class parentage. Simply, I got away with what others did not. But what did I care if I was caught? In a strange way, I wanted to go to prison.
The Convicted (supplement to the Arizona Daily Star) 1982-08-08
"Is it a Cargo of Slaves?" - New York Tribune
San Francisco, Sept. 7 (Special). - Much interest is taken here in the brig Tahiti, which is now lying in Drake's Bay, near here, with 300 Gilbert Islanders in the hold. The vessel is American, yet she is engaged in carrying these islanders to San Benito, Mexico, to work on coffee plantations. Captain Fergusen explains that his human cargo was secured by legitimate contract, and that when their period of service is completed the Mexican Government agrees to return them to their homes.
The New York Tribune 1891-09-08
"The Brig was Bottom Up" - The New York Tribune
San Francisco, Nov. 20 - In a brig dispatch from Manzanillo comes news of the wreck of the brig Tahiti, with every soul on her, 270 South Sea slaves, missing. This wreck is a noteworthy one, as it marks the failure of the first extensive attempt at "black-birding" on the Pacific Coast.
The New York Tribune 1891-11-30
"The Tahiti Carried No Slaves" - New York Tribune
In the account published in The Tribune yesterday of the wreck of th brig Tahiti, the dispatch, which of passengers, 270 in number, all of whom are believed to be lost, as "South Sea slaves." Humphrey H, Leavitt, of this city, who was a three-fourths owner of the brig, and Captain C. Erickson, who was in command, are also supposed to have perished.
The New York Tribune 1891-12-01
Editorial: "The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - The Argus
In Queensland one step has been taken towards increasing the products of the colony. The employment of Polynesian labourers on the sugar plantations has again been sanctioned at the instance of Sir Samuel Griffith, who was formerly the prime minister in preventing the engagement of Kanakas, and who has freely admitted that he was in error. The articles which we have published regarding the Kanaka traffic will serve to show how ridiculous and unfounded are the complaints that have been made against it.
The Argus 1892-12-31
Letter to the Editor: "The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - The Argus
She considers that the present mode of recruiting is above any shadow of reproach, and states that she never say any average manual labourer as well cared for as the kanakas working on the plantations.
The Argus 1892-12-29
Editorial: "The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - The Argus
"Many British subjects would envy the lot of the kanaka labourer in Queensland." Such are the words in which our representative who has made a cruise incognito in a labour vessel through the Solomon Islands, who has seen with his own eyes the recruiting of the plantation labourers, who has visited the beach in the boats of the schooner Helena and seen the relatives and friends of those who volunteered for the Queensland service, and who has talked with the recruits on their voyage to Bundaberg, and had every opportunity of discovering whether they had any complaint to make or whether any advantage was taken of their supposed ignorance by an unscrupulous captain – such are the words in which our representative sums up his experience of the labour traffic. Sentiment is cheap, and it is an easy thing for people who have never seen an islander from the Solomon group, and who know nothing of the intelligence of that race, which is mentally and physically one of the strongest among all the races that inhabit the lands of the Pacific, to assume that the labourers are cajoled or kidnapped by the guile or force of the white man. It is easy also, and it may give pleasure to such men as the Rev. Dr. Paton, to say that the labour traffic is injurious to the mission settlements. A complete answer to this sentimental quackery is given by our special correspondent.”
The Argus 1892-12-22
Letter to the Editor: "The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - The Argus
I make this suggestion feeling confident that The Argus, after going to the expense of sending a special commissioner to inquire into all the particulars as to how the labour traffic is conducted, will make use of it if considered of sufficient importance. And a recommendation from The Argus would doubtless have the desired effect in providing this additional security for the safe conduct home of the returned Kanakas labourer.
The Argus 1892-12-10
Editorial: "The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - The Argus
It will be noticed that our correspondent gives a very different description of the recruiting of Polynesian labourers from that which has formed the basis of innumerable speeches at Exeter-hall and at church meetings both in Australia and the United Kingdom. Our correspondent recounts the facts that he has seen; the philanthropists who begin by assuming that English planters and traders must be cruel and unscrupulous and oppressive, have to rely on their own imagination or on the wearisome reiteration of old grievances which can never be heard of under the present system.
The Argus 1892-12-07
XIV-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
The cruise of the Helena made it very clear that malpractice in the recruiting of islanders is, practically, impossible under the existing system. The traffic is hedged in by legislation in every direction. A ship-owner who intends to bring islanders to Queensland must give a preliminary notice, stating where the vessel is lying, what condition she is in, how many islanders it is desired to carry, what islands she is to visit, and what limit he will place on the duration of the voyage. He has then to apply for a license.
The Argus 1892-12-22
XIII-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
Brought by my duties into close and daily contact with the boys, I had soon to acknowledge that though many of them were savages in reality, there was much of ordinary human nature in them all.
The Argus 1892-12-20
XII-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
An unusual thing happened on the Sunday night. At 10 o’clock a large canoe came alongside, and its occupants – six youth from Coolacombor, where we got our last two recruits – offered themselves as labourers for Queensland. Could the natives be in league against me? One of the chief objects of my mission was to see and expose the misrepresentations, the cajolery, and the kidnapping, by force or fraud, which certain controversialists alleged to be inseparable from the Polynesian labour traffic. So far I had seen nothing which could be twisted to mean any of those things. On the contrary, I had witnessed natives face danger and overcome difficulties that would have been insurmountable without great determination to join the ship.
The Argus 1892-12-19
XI-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
We explained that a large number of boys, on learning that the labour traffic was to cease, and that they would probably have no chance of recruiting again for Queensland, re-engaged for another term without leaving the plantations, and it was more than probable that the friends asked for were amongst that number.
The Argus 1892-12-17
X-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
On Monday a recruiter made a fair start. At a beach village named Corpew, where the boats were sheltered from the full force of the ocean rollers by outlying reefs, he found himself thronged with natives. It was a lively crowd, chiefly intent on selling produce, birds, and the discarded European clothing of former recruits - all for tobacco and pipes. Two boys offered as recruits. One was refused on the score of youth; the other was accepted at the apprentice wage of six pounds a year.
The Argus 1892-12-16
IX-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
On Friday (September 22) the Helena shifted to Urassie, 11-miles northward. A comfortable anchorage was found inside long lines of reef and close to a creek, whence a supply of excellent water was obtained. Next morning a native market was held near by. From half-a-dozen islets which studded the reefs a small army of people, chiefly women, came in canoes to barter fish for yams and taro from the bush natives.
The Argus 1892-12-15
VIII-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
We had now 16 recruits, and I found for the first time that they had a certain amount of English to learn by rote before they reached Queensland. Perhaps this was not absolutely necessary, but it was evidently regarded as highly desirable. In this matter, too, it was thought that the sooner they commenced their lessons all the better would it be in the end. So when the time came on Sunday for distributing their weekly supply of tobacco and pipes they were put through their facings.
The Argus 1892-12-12
VII-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
Poor Oleseemar, the consumptive return, was now within a dozen miles of his home. He had wasted steadily from day to day in spite of nourishing food and medicine. At Maron Sound he crawled to the poop for an airing and asked for some tea. He was always supplied with whatever he fancied in the way of food, and tea with biscuit was what he liked best.
The Argus 1892-12-10
VI-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
One young man, with large and wondering eyes and open mouth, listened to all that was said about the good masters and abundant ki-ki (food) in Queensland, and as to recruits being brought back by-and-by with ‘big fellow’ boxes of their own. He had also the eager look of a youth who desired to see something of the outside world, and he lingered much, first by one boat and then by the other. But he could not apparently make up his mind. Now he would, and then he wouldn’t or couldn’t; and he had to be left in his indecision.
The Argus 1892-12-09
V-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D.Melvin - The Argus
So here was an islander who had learned by experience what the so-called slavery in Queensland was, and who was seeking another term of bondage. Where had he worked before? ‘Bundaberg!’ – the very place we were recruiting for, and he was so well posted as to have the Christian name of our recruiter at the tip of his tongue. He was in short thoroughly au fait with the whole business, and wide awake.
The Argus 1892-12-08
IV-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
Meanwhile Mr. Mulhern had returned with his trade-box, and was calling for fresh recruits. No doubt different recruiters have different styles. I should imagine that Tom Gash used to be genial and demonstrative. I have been told of one who depended on grotesque antics and Cheap Jack oratory for his success. Mr. Mulhern is not demonstrative, and there is nothing of the buffoon in his manner.
The Argus 1892-12-07
III-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
When they heard that land was in sight, the ‘boys’ deserted their quarters and crowded the bows and rigging. After a prolonged absence, they looked once more on the higher outlines of the first of their native isles. They seemed deeply interested, and were remarkably serious. If they were glad, it was not in a demonstrative way. There was no shouting, no ringing cheer. What was the meaning of their seemingly apathetic demeanour? Did they realize that they were about to pass from civilization back into savagedom – from the care of a parental Government back to the lawless tyranny of island life; from bread, meat, and etceteras in abundance to a scramble for native food; from peace to war; from a country where toil is rewarded and protected to one where might only is right?
The Argus 1892-12-06
II-"The Kanaka Labour Traffic" - J.D. Melvin - The Argus
Pending developments, I classed myself with the men in the town who were looking for employment, registered myself to the labour bureau, visited some of the plantations as a swagman, got a job or two branding and filling sugar bags and cutting firewood, and eventually secured an appointment as supercargo on the Helena, which proved the first of the two vessels to sail.
The Argus 1892-12-05