precaution to prevent such evil practices, yet, as a matter of fact,
so long as prisoners are permitted to work in the mines it will be
impossible to break up these terribly degrading and debasing practices.
Oh, Kansan! you that boast of the freedom and liberty, the strength of
your laws, and the institutions in your grand young State, what do you
think of this disclosure of wickedness, equalling if not excelling
the most horrible things ever pictured by the divine teachers of
humanity,--the apostles and their followers? A hint is only here given,
but to the wise it will be sufficient, and but a slight exercise of the
imaginative powers will be necessary to unfold to you the full meaning
of this terrible state of affairs.

It is believed by the writer that if the people of the State of Kansas
knew under what circumstances men in the prison were compelled to work,
there would be a general indignation, which would soon be expressed
through the proper channels, and which might lead to a proper solution
of the difficulty.

In many of the rooms of the mines there are large pools of water which
accumulate there from dripping down from the crevices above; this, taken
in connection with the natural damps of the mines, which increases
the water, makes very large pools, and in these mud-holes convicts are
compelled to work and wallow about all day long while getting out their
coal, more like swine than anything else. How can this be in the line
of reformation, which, we are taught to believe outside of the prison
walls, is the principal effort of all discipline within the prison. The
result of work under such unfavorable circumstances is that many of
the convicts contract rheumatism, neuralgia, pneumonia and other lung
troubles, and, of course, malaria. Many persons that enter these mines
in good health come out physical wrecks, often to find homes in the
poor-houses of the land when their prison days are over, or die before
their terms expire. In the judgment of the writer the coal mines should
be sold; until that is done, prisoners who contract diseases there that
will carry them to untimely graves should be pensioned by the State, and
thus kept from spending the rest of their natural lives in some of the
country poor-houses.

Each person in the mines is assigned a task; he is required to get out a
certain amount of coal each week. In case the convict fails to mine the
task that has been assigned him he must endure punishment