The Somerset press. [volume] (Somerset, Ohio) 1873-1977, 1874-03-13
The Story of Daniel Baker.

The Story OF Daniel Baker.
! He was young man evidently not of
innate wickednesS, this Daniel Baker
whose story we have briefly to tell, but
1 he had fallen among vicious companions
and into evil ways. Three years and
more ago he had drifted out to Nevada
to seek his fortune, and seeking failed
| to find, as so many others have done.
One day his companions in evil proposed
a daring adventure that should make
the fortunes of them all. 1t would only
require little courage, and there was
no real danger Nobody was to be hurt,
and none made the poorer except those
who could well afford the loss. So one
day in November, 1879, a little COM
pany of whom Daniel Baker formed one,
stopped the stage between Elko and
White Pine, broke open the Express
Company's treasure chest, and carried
off a considerable sum. There was not
much danger about it. and the booty
was large, but
Unfortunately Daniel Baker secured
none of the booty, and the officers Sc
cured him He was tried, convicted,
and sentenced to thirty years imprison-
ment. The PenitentiH1y doors closed
on him like the gates Of Dante's Inferno
on the condemned:
'.All hope abandon, ye who enter here"
Thirty years confinement meant i'm
prisonment for life.
Once in the prison and removed from
the temptations that had surrounded
him, the good elements in Daniel Ba-
ker's character resumed their ascendency.
For eight months he worked patiently
and faithfully, obeying all the regula-
tions of the prison and winning the es-
TEEN of the officers and the respect of
his associates. In September of that
year there was plot among the prison
! ers to break Jail and escape. Whether
Baker was a party to the plot is not
known, but when the doors were broken
down and the prisoners rushed out he
went with them. Probably he did not
stop to consider whether that was right
or good policy. All he saw was freedom
without; lifetime of seclusion and
punishment within.
From Nevada, Baker went to Califor-
MIA, shifting from place to place to avoid
| the pursuers he supposed to be on his
track, but everywhere winning the con-
| fidence of those with whom he came in
contact by his honesty, industry, and
modest bearing. Finally he went to
Oregon where he considered himself
safe from pursuit, and under the name
where he has lived for two years, high
| ly esteemed as a sober, industrious citi-
zen and good neighbor. Three months
ago he married young woman of good
character, and his brief married life was
full of happipess. The past became
but as an ugly dream.
But the shadow of his past misdeed
was upon his track. A week or two ago
an officer from Nevada quietly laid his
hand on the shoulder of the assumed
John Bent, and all was over. Justice
claimed its victim, and Daniel Baker
utterly crushed and heart broken, was
marched off 10 felon's cell. When the
officers touch fell on his shoulder, "the
man never uttered word for some sec
onds, but stared vacantly forward, his
teeth being clenched in vice-like rigidi-
ty. He finally groaned, and said, 'Oh
my God, this is trouble Twice on
his journey he attempted suicide, once
by tearing open an artery with rusty
nail, and once by flinging himself before
passing train, but each time was
snatched from death by his guards. Be
fore now, he is probably in his old place
in the Carson Penitentiary, an utterly
ruined man. No drama on the stage
no tale of fiction is sadder than thi
story of real life.
In this story of Daniel Baker we arr
brought face to face with the problem
involved in punishment for crime. Wha
is the object of such punishment T.
reform the prisoner, as is contended b,
some? The remanding Daniel Baker II
life long imprisonment will not do that
He was already reformed and "brough
forth fruits meet for repentance" Fo
two years he had been good citizen
| honest, industrious, and law-abiding
His re-arrest will probably accomplish
one of two results-either to send hin
| dispairing out of the world or to max
2 him hardened and reckless in it. Is tn
object to protect society? Society ha
t nothing to hear from him more thai
: from any other peaceable member of i
s His one error, from which he had reap
? ed no benefit, had been followed by
e blameless life. The sole object of pur
1 ishment in this case is to deter Other
e from committing crime by showing ho'
0 no misstep but is liable, sooner or late
c to lead to punishment; how evil assoc
v ates lead the naturally well-posed int
d error, and from error into crime; an
: that from the first false step there is to
: often no possible return.
+ There are many young men in tn
# city treading In the earlier steps
d Daniel Baker, CeueLand Herald.
di The Ruins of jamestown.
II Iamastnwn was seftlad hv the infr