The true northerner., 1873-02-14
A State Prison Picture Solitary Con.
ilnement 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
ished, that he is under restraint, and
that, on the whole, such an episode is
decidedly unpleasant and 10 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
etition before their eyes they do not
scruple TO Mt once commit acts whose
detection means another sentence. But
the ones who are sentenced for 20 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 III the strictness
OF Its Imperative orders.
One day during the last month the
writer of this had occasion to visit the
Massachusetts, prison, and ia 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 Will
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 short sketch may
find readers who have never seen pre-
viOas accounts.
Wilson was born i'll England, and
there passed his childhood and youth.
He underwent thorough tuition III
crime, and was an inmate of several jails
for minor offenses, finally becoming con-
cened in n crime which secured his
transportation to Botany Bay. Soon
afterward, however, he escaped with n
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, 1853, was caught i'll the
act of robbing the city treasury, and re-
ceived sentence of four years III the
State prison. His conduct during his
term of Imprisonment was quite eXcep-
tional and exemplary, and, as is Gus
tomary, deduction of 30 days was made
on that account. On the morning of the
day when he was to be released, one
1. l. : i
have passed out of the prison door a
free man, he was walking i'll file Of con-
victs to do his last piece of work, when
he suddenly leaned forward by his inn
mediate predecessor and stabbed the
next man, William Adams, III the neck
with n shoeknife which he had concealed
about his person, killing him almost in
stantly. He was at once seized and con-
fined, and Mt his trial was found guilty
of murder III the first degree and sell
fenced to be hung. Every preparati, n
for his execution was made, the gallows
having been erected, when a commuta-
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 rs 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 We're 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 Mt 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
several visits 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
" 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
56, he appears much older, and shows
the signs of his confinement both i'll APP
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, mt 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 pany years ago, Wilson wrote quite
n pathetic letter to the British Consul at
this port, the Marquis Lousada, since
deceased, in which he claimed his inter-
ference as British subject nothing,
however, came of it, and he is gradually
settling into conviction that his life
henceforward must he spent behind bars
that separte him from his kind. Boston
Traveller.