Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
know many high-class public schools where pupils do not enjoy half the comforts prisoners
do in that particular penitentiary, and I have an idea that it would take me quite a long time
before I would become penitent if I were made an inmate of the place.
Duringmeals,whichareservedinahallthatlookslikeahugeauditorium,theprisonband,
consisting of forty-five men, supplies music that is as excellent as the food, and in the court-
yard there is a commissary where 'soft' drinks, cigarettes, etc., are sold at cheap prices. The
men have to work in the prison factories, but their hours are reasonable, and even bonuses are
given for extra work done, some convicts earning enough to keep their families supplied with
the necessary money to live.
The prisoners are locked up in their cells only during the regulation sleeping hours, and
I was amazed at the excellent and spotlessly clean beds they had, luxuries which I am sure
the majority never knew before entering the place. No keys are used for locking and opening
doors, all this being done by electricity from a central place. I was shown the room where the
'juice shooting' is done, as they humorously call electrocuting, and I found that the place, and
the death-cells alongside, had something about them that makes one feel 'goosey'.
Undoubtedly Americans are the greatest advertisers and boosters in the world, even the
badges so many wear in their buttonholes and the insignia on their cars are all there to 'hit
the eye'. Many people in other countries are apt to feel annoyed when they see photographs
of this and that in America, advertised as the 'biggest' or 'smallest' in the world, but the edu-
cated American merely smiles when he comes across most of such pictures and propaganda. I
must have passed half a dozen swimming pools along my route which are advertised as 'The
World's Largest', to mention only one variety of pseudo world-beaters, and some forty miles
before we arrived in Washington DC we passed near a farm on which was written in large let-
ters: 'H
OME OF
W
ORLD
R
ECORD
B
ULL
“R
OLLO
P
ONTIAC
F
AYNE
”'-andIbelieve that farmer
was right!
I had read so much tourist propaganda about the Indians of Oklahoma that I almost ex-
pected to find them living in wigwams, and hunting buffaloes, and in my dreams I could see
myself madly galloping over endless prairies with hordes of yelling and blood-thirsty Indians,
withpaintedfacesandflowingheadgear,hoopeeingbehindme,whilstIcursedmyselffornot
having made the detour via California and Alaska to New York.
Well, I met many of these Indians, but if I had not been told they were such, I would have
taken them for Mexican labourers, and instead of being able to cast glances at the Hiawatha
beauties of my dreams, I found the Indian women dressed like whites, and the majority of
them were fat and ugly.
I visited a school for Indian girls, where they enjoy every comfort and good education.
Today many of the Oklahoma Indians are very wealthy, rich oil deposits having been dis-
covered on the barren land the government had by mistake so generously given them as a re-
servation. They dress as whites do, excepting a few who still cling to the poncho or blanket
that takes the place of an overcoat. The pure Indian here looks much like his South American
