Litchfield enquirer., 1860-03-29
jail wherein officiated, which, coming un- [ der my notice at precisely the same period, exhibited singular diversities.

uSi IIJ uOtISV oO PtVSioSiJ ouO oesuo PSAiSS exhibited singular diversities.
 Mary B. was condemned to death fol the murder, by poison, of her own sister for whose husband she had conceived { guilty passion. There was no doubt of hel having committed the crime, or of her hay ing deserved the punishment. She had
 when l first saw her, nearly week to live
 it being about that time to the ensuing
 Monday. She told me, in our first interview
 of how many minutes that space consisted for she had been allowed pencil, with which (closely watched lest she should swal low it) she had made the calculation--and there are one hundred and twcnty gone ? she whispered with shudder, when I took my first leave of her. The female jaiIel told me that, during this poor creatures last two or three days, whenever the great jail-clock struck the hour overhead, she would scream like one in pain aud upon waking in the mornings, would ask with ea- gerness what time it was, and then bemoan herself that she had slept so late Those hours--passed in miserable cell, shut out from any sight of the green earth (for it was midJuly,) and almost every sound, ex- cept that the hum of the town beneath came up thither to remind her of the world with which she was never more to mix-must surely have been wretched indeed and yet her cry was, "Oh, that they might be again p Notwithstanding her evident ago. ny at the thoughts of her approaching end, she actually attempted to anticipate it Ey some twenty-four hours by suicide or rath- CT, l think, she pretended to attempt it, with some faint notion that such an evidence of her utter misery might procure her par don for these miserable persons always i'm agine, in their (renzied terror that the gov ernor, the chaplain, nay, the very jailer him self, has power in the matter, and could get them off, or at least respited, if he pleased. How often, when I have been leaving some poor wretch's cell with the comfortable hope that what had been so greedly listened to by the ear, may have taken root in the heart also, have I been suddenly made conscious of the real motire that had actuated my unhappy convert, by his plucking my sleeve, and whispering in q tone of heartfelt carnestness which there was no mistaking: And you will tell them that am pentent, chaplain and that it will co no harm to let me live ;" or by some assurance reiterated for the thouSanth time that he is an innocent man. All those who have had any experience in this matter, per ccive the folly of the assertion that penal servitude, or any other punishment that can be possibly devised, is, or can be equally dreaded with that of death itself. Men fear it every whit as much as women, who commonly fall after their sentence into kind of stupor; and the case of Mary B. was by no means worse than that of male convicts l have known. When not ill state of agonizcd despair, "The king P " The good king P "The mcrciful king P was perpctually in her mouth and if he conld only know of her condition, she ex- pressed her confidence that he would have saved her. Her cell-door was never opened unexpectedly without her looking up ut it with an air of hopeful eagerncss Again, with curious inconsistency, she would some- times ask the minutest questions regarding the place of execution whether it was in the prison yard, or on the hill behind the jail and on being told the latter, inquired how many persons it was likely would be there to see it." She always spoke of her execution as Git" Her last night she spent at the bars of her cell window, drink ing in the quiet of the stars, and taking farewell, as it seemed, of their ineffable beau ty. But this phase of her conduct was ex- ceptional /; and l believe that from the hour of her conviction to that of her death the thought of repricve was never out of her waking mind for many consecutive minutes. When she slept, however, poor girl--for she was scarcely grown womalI--she dreamed of the days of her innocence generally, as she told me, of her childhood and her last look upon the scaffold was directed behind her, towards the jail, whence, as she knew, a reprieve, if reprievc there was, must ne cessarily come.
 The case of Robert S., under sen- tence of death at the same time, exhibited marked contrast to that of this unfortunate woman. He had been convicted of burgla- ry with violence, and there having been a previous conviction recorded against him, the law as it then stood, would most certainly take its course. He seemed fully to under stand and even acquiesce in this The law and he, as it seemed to him, had been open enemies all his life, and at last the law had got the better of him. When the judge had told him to dismiss from his mind all hope of earthly pardon, he did dismiss it. l always found him, if not resigned and peni- tent, at least respectful and accomplishing He was grossly ignorant of religion, as of almost everything else. but he was not one of those stupid phlegmatic boors who form sop r,P h;c nloco H., cI, Evo1x ouI laudable desire to leave something behind him for those who had been mainly depend cut for subsistence upon him. The course he took to accomplish this would have been impossible in these days, but it was very common then was cognizant Of the mat ter without either assisting or opposing 1t. The prisoner asked leave of the jailor to send for a surgeon in order that he might dispose of his body to him before, execution; and his request was acceded to. Mir. M of cur sssize town accordingly had an inter- view with the convict he had reputation more than provincial, and was exceedingly assiduous in the pursuit of his darling pro fcssion. He was indeed pretty well known as buyer of bodies, and guessed what he had come about when saw him leave Rob- ert S-'s cell on tue eve of the fatal day. He had, it seemed, given the poor fellow q sovereign, but declined to have any dealings with him regarding the proposed purchase. ] was rather surprised to hear this, but ask ed nc questions about it at that time. The