WOMEN Huck's Experiments

WOMEN

Huck's Experiments

The desire to experiment is perhaps more generally found among men than among women. But an ex-Representative in Congress may be an exception.

Take the case of Mrs. Winifred Mason Huck. Some two months ago, she visited with her friends Governor and Mrs. Victor A. Donahey of Ohio. The Governor, noted for his interest in prison reform, wished to find out about prison conditions for women. A friend charged Mrs. Huck with stealing his overcoat. She pleaded guilty, was sentenced to six months in jail. She spent three days in the Cleveland jail amid bummers, dope users and bad food (according to her account); then was sent with a Negress bootlegger to the prison at Marysville. There she lived with female murderers and thieves, found them kindly and conditions, on the whole, satisfactory. At the end of a month, the Governor pardoned her. She had dinner at the Executive Mansion and set out again--with $5 in her pocket.

She got a job as a maid at Columbus--telling her employers that she had a prison record. With $15 saved, she went on to Wheeling, W. Va., got a job in a factory at $9 a week and lived on her wages. From there she went to Pittsburgh, where she was a chambermaid in a hotel. The house detective found that she had a prison record, insisted that she be not allowed in the guests' rooms. She was offered a job in the kitchen. "They were pleasant about it," she said. From Pittsburgh she went to Manhattan, arrived with only 43c. The Salvation Army gave her food and a night's lodging for 30c, and the United Charities found her a job in the Contagious Hospital. "New York treated me better than any other city," she declared.

Then she returned to her home and children in Chicago, and told her story, last week, to reporters.

Her conclusions: "Every prisoner feared the law, and hated it for the punishment it imposed. There is a dread that the fear of prison causes which I am now convinced is beneficial. I formerly thought prisons out of date, but now have changed my viewpoint. They serve a very useful purpose. Only there is not sufficient attention paid to fitting girls to lead a straight life when once they leave confinement. . . .

"A girl can get along in the world even after she has served a term in prison."