Host, Guest, Snook

Albert E. Sartain, onetime warden of the Federal Penitentiary at Atlanta, was registered at the institution last week for a sojourn of 18 months as a guest of the Government. He had been found guilty of violating a house rule when he had been there as manager in 1924, accepting tips from the guests--$10,500 worth--in exchange for soft berths. His present manager-host, Warden John W. Snook, saw to it that he was outfitted with a costume which will be inconspicuous so long as he remains within, and despatched him to the entresol where he was given a pick and shovel and told to pursue the tasks which he had so often assigned to others. Warden Snook, however, does not believe in asking unusual tasks of his guests, for, as he says himself in the official prison magazine, Good Words: "This is an ideal place for men to refit morally and physically for the battle of life," and "no man is asked or expected to work beyond his capacity or to injure himself by overdoing things. . . . Hot supper is served to every newcomer, and then a shower bath and bed for a good night's rest in warmth and comfort. . . . With the morning comes a revelation in breakfasts and everyone goes to work with pick and shovel making roads" (TIME, Jan. 17). Guest Albert E. Sartain discovers himself paradoxically thankful that it is Mr. Snook, not he, who is manager-warden, even though the tipping rule is now stringently enforced.