would rove toward a well turned ankle clad in heliotrope
hose. No matter how much she read about the prodigal, his eyes would
drift toward the ankle. And was he to blame? Man after all is but
a weak animal, and those poor penned-up boys are perhaps a little
weaker than their brothers on the outside. This boy had just arrived
from a county jail, where he had lain for weeks and had never seen
or talked with a woman, and while she was old enough to be his mother,
he, like the sailor in mid-ocean to whom any port looks good in a
storm, became much interested in her, not because she was reading
the Bible to him, not because she was trying to save his soul, but
because she was a woman or as I should rather say--a female. And
as he laid upon his prison bed that afternoon, rolling to and fro,
did he think of the prodigal and the fatted calf? No, another calf
was on his mind, a pretty one clad in heliotrope. Lord, lead us not
into temptation! And you women from Lincoln, I mean you
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curosity (sic) seekers, you who have forty churches
down town, but nevertheless have to come to the prison church,
don't put on your slit gowns. Make as little display of hose and
ankles as possible. Have a little mercy on those poor penned-up
creatures out there. I hope you see the point. The thoughts that
these female "reformers" and these female curosity (sic)
(sic) seekers have caused to come to the minds of the men out there
have caused much misery and suffering, especially to those with
insufficient will power to control their feelings, and made them
into physical and mental wrecks. So, if you, my reader, when standing
upon the corner of Tenth and 0 streets should notice a thin and
haggard looking man, a discharged prisoner, alight from the "penitentiary" car,
do not blame his appearance to being underfed or abused by the
officials, for there is another reason.
Gradually as the power of this gang increased the prison discipline
decreased and the penitentiary became the laughing stock
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