Page 14 - 1914 February - To Dragma

TO DRAGMA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 127

She asked i f I was married or single and I said that I was single.
She asked me i f I wrote to my mother and I said yes.

"After that she was as considerate of me as any human being
could be. Her attitude was one of respect. This spirit of good
fellowship and decency I found on all sides of me.

"At 5 o'clock we marched back to our cells, where we found bread
and pickles, or bread and cheese and tea. After our supper things
were taken from us we were left for the night.

" I f you had reading to do you could do this until bedtime i f
you didn't mind ruining your eyes. The electric light was wholly
inadequate, being too high and too feeble to give sufficient light.

"Several girls I noticed were having trouble with their eyes. I
found my room so cold that almost immediately after supper I
went to bed to keep warm.

"The women convicts are cut off from every form of self-
expression. One's humanity is literally bottled up until it seems
as i f one would burst.

" A big jolly negress who was in the punishment cell from Satur-
day until Wednesday on bread and water was there because she
had 'sassed' one of the matrons. I am sure that the reason she
did it was simply because she could no longer stand this complete
and absolute suppression.

"The negress said: ' I was all right until I was bad. I don't
know why I did it. I just couldn't help it.'

B L A M E is L A I D TO SYSTEM.

" I wish to make it plain that the treatment the matrons give the
prisoners is due to the system. While some matrons have become com-
pletely hard and impossible, there are others who are kind and
friendly and under a different system would do everything they could
to help the convicts.

"The two matrons who helped us to dress and saw us off when
we left (they thought we left because we had a reversal of sentence)
were kindness itself and rejoiced to have us go. They kept saying
how glad they were and told us to take a fool's advice and never
get in again.

"The head matron is absolutely conscientious in carrying out the
present system. Whether she believes the system is right or not
I do not know, but she is abiding strictly by the letter of the law
as she sees it.

"Also of these things I am sure: That there is no g r a f t ; that
the cells are as clean as soap and water can make them, and that