Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-02-13
A State Prison Picture-SOlitary Con-
flnement for Life.

nnement for Life.
1t is not every one who fully compre-
hends the meaning of the expression
sent to the State prison." There is a
feeling that the criminal is thereby pun
lshed, that he is under restraint, and
that, on the whole, such an episode is
decidedly unpleasant and to be avoided;
but the report of entertainments given
by friends of the institution read too
much like the narration of an evenings
comfortable entertainment in some lee
ture course, and the variations of the
celebrations of Thanksgiving and Christ
mas serve to dull the estimation of the
hardships of prison life in many minds.
Many, doubtless, who are sentenced for
short terms are so little affected by their
punishment that with the fear of its rep
etltion before their eyes they do not
scruple to at once commit acts whose
detection means another sentence. But
the ones who are sentenced for 90 years
or longer, and who, perhaps, have been
brought up with the comforts and pleas
ures of home about them, are the per-
sons on whom the discipline of prison
life CRATES the hardest, and the ones who
find the most severity in the strictness
Of its imperative orders.
One day during the last month the
writer of this had occasion to visit the
Massachusetts prison, and in course of
conversation with the Warden, various
interesting facts relative to several of
the more celebrated prisoners were de-
veloped. One, the most peculiar and
perhaps interesting prisoner in the insti-
tuition, and one of whom perhaps more
is known than any other, is James VIII
son, the man who is now imprisoned for
life for numbering fellow convict. His
life has been frequently written up, as
the saying is, but a short sketch may
lind readers who have never seen pre-
ylOas accounts.
Wilson was born in England, and
there passed his childhood and youth.
He underwent thorough tuition in
crime, and was an inmate of several iails
for minor offenses, finally becoming con-
cerned in a crime which secured his
transportation to Botany Bay. Soon
afterward, however, he escaped with
companion, and, not daring to return to
England, came to America and unde-
tered by his previous experiences at
once set about earning dishonest living,
and on July 10, 1858, was caught in the
act of robbing the city treasury, and re-
ceived sentence of four years in the
term of Imprisonment was quite excep-
tional and exemplary, and, as is Gus
tomary, deduction of 80 days was made
on that account. On the morning Of the
day when he was to be released, one
half hour before the time when he could
have passed out of the prison door
free man, he was walking in a file of con-
victs to do his last piece of work, when
he suddenly leaned forward by his i'm
mediate predecessor and stabbed the
next man, William Adams, III the neck
with shoeknife which he had concealed
about his person, killing him almost in
stantly. He was at once seized and con-
fined, and at his trial WAS found guilty
of murder in the first degree and ser
fenced to be hung. Every preparatiC n
for his execution was made, the gallows
having been erected, when a commute
ton of his sentence to Imprisonment for
life, with solitary confinement, was re-
ceived. This had been obtained through
the individual exertion of one of the
bench Of judges before whom he had
been tried, his honor claiming that as
no possible motive for the deed had been
proved, and as every circumstance argued
non-responsibility the man must have
been insane, and ought not to be hung.
Wilson, after his recommital, certainly
showed signs of mental and physical
weakness to such an extent that the
rules of solitary confinement were con-
siderably relaxed, to allow of proper ex-
ercise and treatment Formerly he was
a great philosopher in his reading, de-
voting himself to metaphysical and logi-
cal treatises, but at present and for some
time his mental condition has been so
weakened as to compel him to satisfy
himself with lighter works. Prof.
Bowen, of Harvard College, paid him
severalvisits some ten years ago, to ascer-
tain the depth of his logical researches,
and on many occasions persons have in
quired for, and been anxious to see the
g metaphysician, as he is called. In
appearance Wilson is a demure-looking
person, of kindly features, and not at all
the conventional red-handed murderer
of sensational literature. Although but
IS, he appears much older, and shows
oA1O VI OOtL III u
pearance and conversation. He has not
yet given up hopes of pardon, and any
official of the State or National Govern
ment whom he may chance to see visit
ing the prison, is at once imagined to
have come on business connected with
his release For the reason that his
mind is rendered constantly uneasy and
unhealthy by his nervous anxiety, but
few visitors are allowed to see him, those
being few particular friends. He is at
present in the hospital quarters, and
spends. considerable of his leisure time
in carving, at which he is quite an adept.
What he thinks of his solitude, how he
recalls old scenes in the absence of any
change in the future, and what pros
pect opens before him, are sad specula-
tions, and, in his case at least is the
punishment to be considered heavy.
Not many years ago, Wilson wrote quite
pathetic letter to the British Consul at
this port, the Marquis Lousada, since
deceased, in which he claimed his inter-
ference as a British subject nothing.