Helen Schloss was a New York City Socialist, veteran of the Little Falls strike and jail, who became a nurse and went to Colorado during the 1913-14 Mine War to set up a field hospital for strikers and their families. There she was arrested multiple times, and placed in the Las Animas bull-pen, what was by all accounts one of the worst jails in the country, and that’s some tough competition.

‘…My Bastile…’ by Helen Schloss from Appeal to Reason. No. 981. September 19, 1914.

MEN come and men go from the bastile of Las Animas county, but no one troubles to clean the pens. The rough, hairy blankets do service for God knows how many prisoners a year.

Common decency would seem to require fresh bedding on any bed that is to hold a newcomer. But the bastile authorities do not seem to see it that way. No matter who has occupied the bed and cell, whether or not it is a sick man suffering with some incurable disease, those in authority are not concerned about the matter.

In the case I speak of the newcomer happened to be a boy of 17 and he was told to go into a cell just occupied by an old man that had been very sick and had inhabited this same cell for many months.

Is there a board of health in Trinidad that allows such dirt and filth to exist in a public place? Does it really exist, this board of health, that so utterly fails to do its duty?

No, the fact is that this bastile is the most unsanitary spot in all Colorado. Nearly 70 men are at this writing huddled in this “bull-pen” alone, not to say anything of the other cells. In this foul place they ignore all the rules of sanitation. A public investigation should be immediately undertaken. The women’s pen is in the old part of the building that was condemned years ago. The floors and walls are decaying and the terrible odors that come from them are overpowering. As there were no lights in my cell I had to grope my way in the dark to the iron cot. You can imagine with what loathing I forced my weary body to touch the bed which swarmed with vermin.

It is the first duty of a newcomer to clean out the dirt left by the last occupants–she must bring her own soap, and cleaning tools–the jail provides none. Food is served twice a day. I got dry bread, fried potatoes and black coffee for breakfast. Dinner consisted of beans and dishwater soup.

The matron of the jail who is supposed to look after the women never came to see me. I had to call for her.

When the men’s part of the prison became overcrowded they sent prisoners into the women’s pen. This deprived all privacy. The reeking fumes of tobacco almost suffocated me.

They speak of Russia–is it worse than this?

The Appeal to Reason was among the most important and widely read left papers in the United States. With a weekly run of over 550,000 copies by 1910, it remains the largest socialist paper in US history. Founded by utopian socialist and Ruskin Colony leader Julius Wayland it was published privately in Girard, Kansas from 1895 until 1922. The paper came from the Midwestern populist tradition to become the leading national voice in support of the Socialist Party of America in 1901. A ‘popular’ paper, the Appeal was Eugene Debs main literary outlet and saw writings by Upton Sinclair, Jack London, Mary “Mother” Jones, Helen Keller and many others.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/140919-appealtoreason-w981.pdf