Prison officials have detected many schemes of prisoners to beat the State’s philanthropy. The law requires that 90 per cent. of their earnings shall go to their dependents. The remaining 10 per cent. is held in a fund against the prisoner’s release to tide him over the period he is looking for work until settled. A scheme of the older prisoners to obtain all their money was to represent that some relative in the country was in urgent need of support. The money would be sent to the “friend,” but soon returned to the prisoner. _Parole Law Recommended For Rhode Island._--The Board of Control and Supply of Rhode Island, which has charge of the State penal institutions, recommended in its annual report to the Legislature that a parole law be put into effect in this State. Under the proposed plan, prisoners who have served a portion of their sentence may regain their freedom and retain it as long as they live up to the terms of their parole. _Convicts Build Arizona Bridge._--“Cross-continental automobile tourists who will take the southwestern route to the Panama-Pacific Exposition at San Francisco in 1915, will cross the Salt river in going from Phoenix to Tempe over a substantial concrete bridge 1,508 feet long instead of having to ford either a wide raging torrent or a deep long, sandy, dried-up riverbed, according to season of the year,” says Dr. Charles G. Percival, in his new book, “The Trail of the Bull Dog,” which deals with the writer’s two years’ automobile trip of 50,000 miles. “The interesting part of this bridge lies in the fact that it was built of concrete in twenty-seven months entirely by convicts’ labor. The bridge is eighteen feet wide between curbs and 240 tons of steel rod and wire are contained in its construction. The bridge is floored with reinforced concrete and a two-inch bitulithic dressing. Eleven piers, each 125 feet in length, support the bridge, which is excellently lighted by electricity at both approaches, and throughout its entire length from power generated at the Roosevelt dam seventy miles away.” _In Iowa._--Prisoners at the Fort Madison penitentiary get increased pay and shorter hours through an agreement made by the State board of control for the cancellation of one prison contract and the transference of the contract of the Fort Madison Chair company to the Fort Madison Tool company. This takes 175 men out of the contract labor system. By the terms of the arrangement, the board may terminate the remaining contract on or after March 1, 1916, by giving ninety days’ notice. The old contract could not be cancelled before October 15, 1917. The State gains more than a year by the new deal. The State will receive 60 cents a day for each man employed by the tool company under the new agreement. In addition the company will pay each man 10 cents a day for himself. The working day will be cut from ten to nine hours.