Sioux City Academy of Science and Letters. 69 
necessary to employ men to control the rougher and more 
turbulent class of criminal women. The success of the 
women officials of this institution has been remarkable 
in establishing and maintaining its discipline. Mr. 
Wines the distinguished prison reformer, said of it that 
he had applied to it every known test and had never 
detected a flaw in it. 
A reformatory for women possesses many peculiari- 
ties in its administration. The law of 1877 provides that 
all females convicted of being “vagrants, common drunk- 
ards, lewd women, wanton and lascivious, common night 
walkers and other idle and disorderly females should be 
sentenced to the reformatory.” The greater considera- 
tion shown to women results in the sending of women of 
confirmed criminal habits to the reformatory, whereas 
they should be sent to an institution for habitual offend- 
ers. In this way the work of reformation is made harder 
than in an institution for men. On the other hand women 
are more sensitive to the loss of the good opinion of 
others and are thus more easily influenced by the reform- 
atory agencies. 
The cloud of intemperance has always hung heavy 
over the reformatory. Of 231 women committed in the 
year ending September 30, 1902, 93 were for drunken- 
ness. Of the remainder 91 were for crimes of a sexual 
nature. 
Highty per cent. of the prisoners received were 
addicted to drink or were fallen women. The reforma- 
tory is, therefore, an inebriate asylum and rescue home 
combined on a large scale. The nature of the work to be 
done, consequently makes the methods to be used 
entirely different than in an institution for men. 
Naturally the main occupation or trade taught is 
that of housekeeping or home-making, a work in which 
most of the women are so sadly lacking. The women 
who have no homes to go to are usually released on pro- 
bation to take places to do housework. The success of 
this training is shown by the long lists of applicants for 
such help. 
One of the industries that has been educational is 
the raising of silk-worms. One hundred and twenty-five 
mulberry trees, set out by Mrs. Johnson furnish the food. 
