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

hear Of he Prodigni Son I'D Aiagcalen
Z tbey. the GUILTY. but weIeorned1-I, tho
innocent. vet the thrust OF But the Of
6cer stepped me with thett fhree words,
"Yot, are f,eep' eof'sS T''i
& i did not cheer. nor rin0Il 81 MANS hand,
nor even smile One orcIt1 used 10 for
goet these wsys Of the void Alter fifteen
Years in Prison % soll2sia ls.,ssH etNa7e
But the revenge which, I1ittle by little,
had stretched its fibrous rdofs through the
iuice went TO nourish theIrlant, now be-
gan to put forth its blossgns. and I felt
them bud info an ecstatie p6isoncus fra
GRANGE. NY sweet, and long hoped for
hour had come n = - = 51iI<aIs more.
the deSpised convict should burst open his
motley chrysalis, and be rushing. like a
winged Nemesis, to settle accounts with
a world which had the start Of him by fif-
teen wears. gisT 1u. 5ss
/ went to the prison wardIpbe and got
back that dress which, in tie days long
gone, I had put off with the TEST Of my hui
n,anity. They were clean, fastidiously
gentleman like as when had left them.
I seemed for moment, at their sight, to
be waking from the terrible eternity OF
bad dream--to be finding them folded by
nv bedside, where they had only lain
since the last night.
had come in with the majesty of the
lava guard on either side. i went out
alone--no danger was apprebended Of my
escaping from the other prison, the world
Leaving those high gray walls behind;
struck into the road for Hartford. Had
/ come cut FIVE years before, might have
been expressly softened by the long, un-
wonted music of the birds, that, from
trees and orchard walls, made the air full
of their ioy. Now had lived past the
time when such ,h:ngs could touch me,
neither about nor forward, but ever mood
ilv on the ground. And thus, late in the
asternoon, 1 came whilher the commence
ment of NV recital finds me, and stood in
the market-place of the town which had
seen fade out behind me as went away in
scorn.
No wonder that by all the passers was
stared at as an oddity--something to be
suspected and shruni from, for nv griz-
zled hair was of the prison cut, nv clothes
had gone out of fashion when the fathers
IN the streets were children. and not by
fear but long use. l looked no man in the
face. And here and there, in knots. the
people whispered about me, sometimes
with evident carelessness rs to how loud.
But only nursed a deeper and more ouie,
wrath.
There came along that way a throng ol
children lust from school. Stepping u to
one of Them. / asked. aDoes George
Markham stilI live in this nIaceo The
little girl turned up a sunny spring morn.
ING face. and answered, II am his daugh-
ter. sir: do YOU wish to see him?''
A hellish thought suggested itself 70
me. / said. Eyes. YOU may show me the
way to his house" 1 knew we should
take cross-path over the fields and pass
a lono reach of lonely woods. In the most
solitarv mart of that / might wreak upop
the onilty head of Georoe Markham the
most terrible yeroeance Wbich could wine
out his most hitter wrenp to me. wouId
kill his child and bring her home to him,
confessiny that did it. and plorifyinp IN
the end Of that horrid rame ef auo;ns on u
whose f;rst throw he hsa staked NV beav.
en- and lost q.
The little maiden took INV hand con.
6dingly. That might unnerye me: SO ]
loosed f. and I told her. To go before wb;le
followed. She tossed back her curls
and went bounding ahead at rate my
strides were hardly equal to. Still KEEP
nv. eve upon her, After a while we came
to low brook course between two hills
ever the foremost one of which l coult
just see the chimney Of my brothers. house
| I looked about memo one was in sight
rescue was impossible. The devil wbis
pered, "Now!'' Then / called To her t,
stop, saying must look for something
had dropped. She obeyed and stood
amusing herself with making wreaths Q
the violets that grew by the water course
while / stopped to find heavy ston
which might do INV bidding of ye1geapc
surely and silently. All around me in tn
IL r 81 I.1- 1870. 4. : Il