That uncivilized portions of humanity still seem to exist when jails are under consideration is evidenced by a Kansas newspaper editorial on the Illinois report, part of which we print. “From the state charities commission of Illinois comes the latest wail about jails which are not up to Waldorf-Astoria standards. In fact, it is claimed that the jails are as bad as they were thirty years ago, when they were not suitable to the whims of any high-class jail bird, who was accustomed to all the comforts of home and modern conveniences. “In view of the fact that a number of more or less prominent citizens of the state seem to be threatened with a sojourn in the prisons of that state, the plea for better plumbing and lace curtains is in order. But, as a general proposition, these wails for the downtrodden prisoners are overworked a good deal. While it is nice to talk about Reform, and not punishment, being the object of prison sentences, the facts are that it is hard to obtain the one result without the other. “If all the suggestions of the prison reformers would be followed out explicitly, and to their logical conclusion, the jails would soon become such gilded palaces of sin that most of us would put up there from choice, and it would be difficult for the hotel keepers to make a living, or the waiters to get rich. And, when the jails finally were accepted as the highest standard of luxury, the kicking against them by the downtrodden prisoners who broke into a feed store in order to get a comfortable home for the winter, would continue.” We beg to dissent from the Kansas authority, and still maintain that reform _as well as_ punishment is the purpose of imprisonment, and that torture and filth and vice are not conducive to the progress of society. The St. Louis (Missouri) _Star_, commenting on the Illinois report, says: “If such a board made so little impress upon the actualities of prison management in Illinois in forty years, it is discouraging indeed. “It is no wonder that such papers as _The Star_ fail to impress upon the people of Missouri the need for a different penal system in this state and an entirely different character of prisons. “For years we have been preaching the doctrine of the reformatory principle in prison management, of proper industry, of sanitary prisons, of segregation of prisoners into classes, of plenty of outdoor work for prisoners, of instruction in trades, of reformatory influences tending to keep men out of the penitentiary after they have been released, and of proper local jails and places of detention. “Yet the same dark ages this commission asserts to rule in Illinois hold sway in Missouri, with little promise of abdication. Governor Hadley has recommended one reform, the establishment of an intermediate prison for first offenders, which should by all means be done, though this is but one of the many reforms necessary to take us even within sight of the outer confines of the dark ages.