CONVICTS AS STUDENTS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume LXI, Issue 3161, 4 May 1931, Page 7

CONVICTS AS STUDENTS.

An innovation that may have far* reaching effects has been seen recently in some of the big English prisons. Some years ago Miss Alga Nethersole. honorary organiser of the People's League of Health, obtained the permission of the prison commissioners for lectures on health to be given to convicts.

Some of the most eminent medical men have volunteered their services, and the scheme is proving a great success. Lectures have been given j by the King's dentist, and by such wellknown doctors as Sir John Colly, Dr. McAdam Eccles, and Sir Bruce BrucePorter.

The lectures are popular in both male and female prisons, and at the end of each course a. large number of convicts sit for examinations at which prizes are offered. At present the prison governors recommend that these should be in money, and in this way convicts who study hard are enabled to earn sums that are valuable to them on their release.

The convicts are encouraged to ask questions, and many of them put most interesting ones. Meantime the good effects of the scheme upon the health and happiness of prisoners have been very noticeable.

HEAVE-OH!

Oh! who will o'er the downs with me?" Sang a sentimental tar; A-pulling with his mates one day, in a whale-heat 'cross the bar. The crew with perspiration dripped. And did not demand encores; "Be blowed to 'O'er the downs'!" said they, "We'd much rather down our oars."

The young member of a London club was observed by two older mem* bers to have drunk sufficient for one evening. "I'm afraid," said one of the old members, "that young So-and-so will go wrong just like his old guv'nor." "Yes," agreed the other, "he's swallowing In fathers footsteps."