savers were busier than ever and more underhanded
work went on than ever before. A blow from the assassin's dagger
had removed one of the obstacles from their path, but another
one still remained, and he too ought to go that they again could
hold high carnival at the prison.
I recall how Chaplain Johnson came to me one evening and made
inquiry about the amount of money to the credit of the prisoners.
I told him, that like in any other bank we did not reveal the
balances of our depositors. "Well," he said, "it
matters not so much to me what the individual has on deposit,
what I want to know is general statistics. The story goes down
on the streets of Lincoln that some men have so much on deposit
while others have much more. We will classify these men and call
those men who have one thousand dollars or over, Class A. And
those with between five hundred and one thousand dollars Class
B, etc. What I want to know is how many are in
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Class B and so on." I
refused to get him this information and suggested that he get it from the warden.
He walked away. When the warden came into the office I told him
about having refused the chaplain this information, and he said, "You
were right. He is here to preach and not to meddle with the accounts." A
few days later the chaplain called on Governor Aldrich and complained
against the warden. The visit terminated in the chaplain "resigning" his
position at the invitation of the governor to do so. The warden
was notified, and soon the chaplain came to the prison, went
to his room, gathered up his belongings and departed. No tears
were shed over his departure - all felt relieved. We looked forward
to days of peace and happiness.
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