Meigs County telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy [Ohio]) 1848-1859, 1858-11-16


! The foul, coarse pallet on which NJ inter
walls i threw myself in my bewildered
weariness, did not chafe me by it's coffin
narrowness. / was beyond hurt from such
things; for in the Eve minutes between
my lodging and my cell had become
aware that i was brought to a position
whose sublime awfulness could not be
equa.led by anything else on earth
Quicker by far than can write, yetin this
channel, had my thoughts rum 19h's' sdj .
Ny brother, three days ago, gave me IN
privates n heavy draft TO be collected at
another banking house, drawn in his favor
by one of his correspondents and Endorsed
by another. 1remember ! that he locked
restless when he gave II to me; that he
hurried from the room Immediately after
ward. presented the drpft; received
the hioney; the books which kept bear
no account of it. He forged the paper. 1
am the suspected one. / have no means
of proving my innocence, unless, perhaps.
by proving his guilt. That, most like. is
imp ossible. At any rate, what a terrible
step for a man to take against his dead
mother's only other childl And he Las
lovely wife whom it would slay. Yet my
self havoc God! shut out her image
from me! mHst not see it, shall 60
mad ,s, 4ra .--ar .5,rH uJ
n this groove my thoughts rolled back
and forward through the night. Facing
this alternative stood till the day of trial,
just one month. My brother came often
to see Inc; he lavished tears and embraces
upon me; he retained for me the best coun-
sel-yet he always seemed like one in de-
lirium of fever, and ever just as the turn
key swung back the heavy door to let him
out, he would stop for n moment, tremb
ling, and with his lips halfopened, rs il
about to say something more to me-then,
witho meeting my eye he wonld rush
from the cell. Suffering as was, suffer-
ing still more, as / was about TO do, from
the consequence of his sih--I could pity
him deeply. / could forbear with the cow
ardness which he could not confess, for /
knew how priceless liberty must be to a
man, who, losing it, leaves his other soul
in that most heart broken of all widow
hood-the widowhood of convict's wife.
She whom loved visited me many times,
always bringing me sweet messages in her
presence from the birds and the flowers
| and the free sky outside-always talking
in voice intensely sustained into cheer
fulness, of my acquittal; and restoration to
our old hopes. told her was innocent,
and she believed me. / could not tell her
who was guilty. r-
My trial came on, need not pain my
self with long recital of the thronged
court, the weary questionings and cross
questionings, the audible silence of the
crowd when the pleas were made. the mo-
ment whose shadow fell upon me, when
the foreman solemnIy said 'guilty"-that
other moment when 1 was condemned to
the awful alienage of prison for the fifteen
years to come. i,s, ,...a
Then l parted from home and friends.
Ny brother did not bid me goodbye; he
lay sick of raging fever. on whose chances
hung life. But she, the holy, the heoric
who had borne all things came to see me
go. She clasped my manacled hands1n
her own; she pressed one long, last kiss
upon the convict's lips, ond she said, with
solemn cheerfuIness, al will wait for
you'll" Then, with superstition which,
frivolous though it seem, still erept iuto
!he awfulness of that hour, stepped my
watch, and vowed inwardly that its hands
should never more move till we metagain.
After that, the gates of my prison
opened to let in but one message from the
life outside. The chaplainSbrought me a
lock of well-known soft brown hair, and
told me with tear in his eye, that an old
man had given it to him for me, saying,
"My daughter is with God She died
whispering that she would wait for John
Markham" .sfi-' ~
endured the knowledge of her death
with benuInbed patience, uncomplain-
ingly; rarely weeping a single drop. ]
went through the unvarying round ofday
, labor in the prison yard with steady,
mechanical industry which surprised my
taskmaster, for, heretofore, / had been
} taunted as "the weak gentleman" "white
: fingers" and whatever other epithet or in
r suit the hardened bullies of discipline are
accustomed, at discretion and without feal
Of chastisement, to confer upon those who
; are placed in their grasp. AT evening
, held up the tress into. the faint twilig hi
? which Just fiuttereds through the CRATES
{ and, kissing it, seemed to see her by me-
' for, ] could never think of her as dead
? That realization was kindly spared me By
s the fact that no new void can be felt, nC
, new unnaturalness, In the eternal void anC
t unnaturalness of prison. es
/, But one night coming from work
found the tress gone. Asking the turnkey
/, for it, was told "Prisoners are allowed
: no useless articles From that momen
: knew she whom loved was desd. Lik'
Q wild food the agony of the knowledg'
: rushed upon me. With it came the mem
: ory of my burning wrongs-the scorn o
y man spent upon my innocent head--thi
: perfdy Of my only broIher--the irredeem
g able helplessness of all things And
: shut myself up in, silent, sullen madness
A. most dangerous madness it was. From
n the time lost the tresses Eve years wer
= to elapse before went out; and II, in tha
time. a revolt had sprung up in my pris
9 on, had died lighting in its front, for
d was ripe for any crime, As II was. ! onl,
Il bode NV time Once ont would vyreai