The Word is said; the Time is nigh.-
Stand fast, O rebel clan!-
For, what are gallows or jails to us
Upbuilders of the Plan?
You cannot stay the Debtor’s Day,-
The Heritage of Man!
-Charles Ashleigh
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Hellraisers Journal, Saturday July 20, 1918
The Cook County Jail: “Ordeal of Iron and Stone and Monotony”
COOK COUNTY JAIL
in “The World.”
By Charles Asheigl [Ashleigh]In the consideration of principles, theories and movements, we should never lose sight of the personal. Many people who are too bookfed, or whose cerebral diet has been too severely confined to the “practical,” or academic become inclined to live mentally among generalizations only. It is good to observe a great array of men-an army or a marching pilgrimage.
It is impressive, the sight of this moving mass in its slow and fluid immensity. But one should not forget that each unit of this host is a breathing bundle of emotions, a compact battle-ground, perhaps, of conflicting passions, warring instincts and twisted purpose. And some among them may even have souls which are as half-wild garden, purpled with the mist of dreams amidst which play the fountains of fantasy.
And so it is with us in jail. O friend of mine. You look upon us as a body, a band of men who are passing through this ordeal of iron and stone and monotony, so that one day, a larger and more colorful life shall be won for this world’s folk. A legion of crusaders, adventuring to win the Holy City of social and industrial freedom; a strong-souled company of knights, seeking the Holy Grail; which is liberty and myth and the space to laugh and love and live.
We are all this. It is indeed, true, that we represent the most significant and dynamic factor in America’s evolution towards a complete democracy political. In the mass we are all that, but considering us individually, each one of us adds to these common qualities the tang the color of his own personality.