Puget Sound Herald

PUGET SOUND HERALD.
STEILACOOM, W. T., FRIDAY, MAY 27, 1859.

THE COUNTY JAIL.
Information is wanted respecting the position of the County Jail. We have been asked, who has charge of it? and, to afford the desired information, instituted inquiries among those who should know something of the matter. Aware that the Sheriff is usually the custodian of county jails, we first applied to him, and were informed that the building committee still retained possession or control of it. On further inquiry we learned that the committee had passed it over to the custody of the County Commissioners, in whose hands it now rests. The object of these inquiries is to learn who is responsible for the use to which it is at present put—that of a bawdy house. People who were taxed for the erection of a jail very justly complain of its being converted into a house of prostitution, now that it is completed. We are told that several weeks since, on Sunday, while the solemn service of the Sacrament was being administered in church, sounds of music and dancing were distinctly heard in church issuing from the jail. Night is made hideous by the drunken revels that take place there, to the grievous annoyance of people living in the vicinity. Is the jailer lost to all sense of shame? He plays the fiddle while squaws and their shameless white companions dance, on the Sabbath, during church service! For the credit and good name of our town, let this evil no longer be tolerated.