The evolution of a new guard is one of the interesting, but soul-trying experiences of every prison warden. Perhaps the warden, before assigning the new man to duty, talks to him, admonishing him as to his procedure, and aiming to tell him of the pitfalls that experience has pointed out. But he talks “to ears that hear not.” He closes his first interview by handing the new man a book of rules for his perusal. But they are given “to eyes that see not.” That book of rules is the result of the experience, the mistakes, the observations, the failures and the successes of generations of prison officials, and can no more be fathomed by a new guard at once, than can the Constitution of the United States, upon first reading, be comprehended by one of Upton Sinclair’s Lithuanians on his journey to the Chicago stockyards. Under the present system, that guard must learn largely by mortifying experiences, the commission of serious mistakes, alike costly to the institution and its wards. While there are no general schools for the preparation of officers for institutional work (the School of Philanthropy of New York possibly excepted), yet there may be organized in every prison a school for the education and development of officers, and this should be done. Let there be a definite course of reading and study arranged for officers by the superintendent, and have frequent examinations and discussions bearing on prison problems. Fortunately our literature is rich in books worthy the most careful study and research. There is Prof. Henderson’s admirable text book on “Dependents, Defectives and Delinquents;” Dr. E. C. Wines on “The State of Prisons and Child Saving Institutions,” the many valuable contributions of Rev. S. J. Barrows, Superintendent Brockway, Joseph F. Scott, Frank L. Randall, Revs. August Drahms, F. H. Wines, A. McDonald, Beccaria and Howard, Lombroso and Dugdale, Eugene Smith and Charlton T. Lewis and scores of others. Charles Reade’s great muck-rake book “It Is Never Too Late to Mend,” which drove the separate and silent system out of England, deserves the most careful study and thought. Victor Hugo’s valued “Les Miserables” cannot be read too carefully or critically. Dickens’ “American Notes” gives a most graphic account of the separate system, and his “Pickwick Papers” portray most powerfully the debtor’s jail. Every report of the National Prison Association and the Conference of Charities and Correction, replete as they are with invaluable discussions of vital topics, should be read by every prison official, as well also as the different annual or biennial reports issued by the different institutions throughout the country, which contain points of inestimable value on conducting prisons.