The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1858-11-03

realization was kindly spared me by the
fact, that no new void can be felt, no new
unnaturalness, in the eternal void and
unnaturalness of a prison.
But one night, coming from work,
found the tress gone. Asking the tdrn-
key for it.. ! was told, .. Prisoners are
allowed no useless articles" From that
moment | knew she whom loved was
dead. Like wild freshet the agony of
the knowledge gushed upon me. With
it came the memory of my burning
wrongs-the scorn Of man spent upon
my innocent head-the perfidy of my
only brother the irredeemable helpless
ness of all things. And | shut myself up
in sullen, silent madness. A most dan
gerous madness it was. From the time
l lost the tress, five years were to elapse
before | went out; and if in that time
revolt had sprung up in prison, had
died fighting in its front, for | was ripe
for any crime. AS it was, | only bodc
my time. Once out, would wreak con-
dien vengeance on society-on law-on
my brother. @
The five years passed-fve years Of
dust and blinking in the yard-of dark
ness, muttering, low, smothered heart
burning in the cell. At last, one morn
ing, the warden threw open my door, and
| passed out with slow lock-step which
[ had been practicing nearly the the quar-
ter of a lifetime. l was going to the
chapel with the rest-to hear the Prodi-
gal Son and the Magdalen they are
guilty but the welcomed-I the innocent,
but the thrust out But the officer stop
ped me with these words 'sY on are free!
did not cheer, nor wiring the mans
hand, nor even smile. One grows used
to forget the ways of the world after fif-
teen years in prison. s8vH Is IN
But the revenge which little by little
had stretched its fibrous roots through
the soil of my heart, till every drop Of
life juice went to nourish the plant, now
began to put forth its blossoms. and |
felt them bud into an ecstatic poisonous
fragrance. My sweet, long hoped-for
hour had come. In few moments more
tie despised convict should burst open
his motley chrvsalis, and be rushing like a
winged Nemesis to settle accounts with
world which had the start of him by ff-
teen years.
| went to the wardrobe and got back
hat dress, which, in the days long gone,
had put off with the rest of my human
ity. They were clean, fastidiously, gen.
tleman-lke as when I left them. | seem
ed for a moment, at their sight, to be
waking from the terrible eternity Of bad
dream, to be finding them folded by my
bedside, where they had lain only since
the last night. 1.v
l had come in with the majesty OF the
lava guard on either side. | went
out alone-no danger was apprehended
of my escaping from that other prison
the, world. Leaving those high gray
walls behind, struck into the road for
Hartford. Had 1 come out five years
before, l might have been expressly soft
ened by the long unwonted music of the
birds, that, from trees and orchard w Ills
made the air full of their joy. Now l
had lived past the time when such things
could touch me, aud walked still in the
lock-step, looking neither about nor for
ward, but ever moodily on the ground.
And thus, late in the afternoon, l came
whittier the commencement OF my recital
finds me, and stood in the market place of
the town which | had last seen fade out
behind me as went away in scorn.
No wonder that by all the passers
was started at as an oddly something
to be suspected and shrunk from, for my
grizzled hair was of the prison cut, my
clothing 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 carlossness as to
how loud. But | only nursed a deeper
and more quiet wrath. &; 7 asst
/ There came along that way throng
of children just from school. Stepping
ND to one of them, / asked-''Does
George Mai khan still live in this places
The little girl turned up sunny Spring
morning face, and answered. am his
daughter, sir, do you wish to see him {"
A hellish thought suggested itself to
me- said, sYes, you may show me
the way to bis house." knew we should
take cross-path over tho fields and pass
long reach of lonely woods. In the
most solitary part of that might wreak