The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1876-04-06
From Lippincott's Magazine for April.
Dinner in a State Prison.


Another takes place instead.
From Lippincott's Magazine for April
Dinner in State Prison.
An invitation to take dinner with a
friend in the States prison was some
thing new and exciting to Il quiet little
body like me, and | re-read Ruth Den
hams kindly -worded note to that effect,
and thought how odd it was that we
should meet again in this way after ten
years separation and all the changes that
had interviewed in both our lives. We
had parted last on the night of our grand
closing school party, after having been
friends and tellow-pupils tCr five years.
She was then fifteen, and the prettiest.
brightest and cleverest girl an Lynnhope.
was younger, and felt distinguished by
her friendship, and heart broken at the
idea of losing her. for she was going
abroad with her family, while | remained
to complete my studies at the institute.
had plenty of letters the first year,
but then her father died, and with him
went his reputed fortune. A painful
change occurred in the position OF the
Weltor1s in consequence, and Ruth be-
came teacher, as heard, until she met
and married young man from the West,
whittier she returned with him immedi-
ately after the ceremony. She had writ
ten to me once after becoming Ruth Den
ham, and her letter was kind and cordial
as her old self, but the correspondence
thus renewed soon ceased. / was also an
orphan, but a close attendant at the
couch of my invalid aunt; and Ruth's
new strange life was too crowded with
pressing duties to permit her to write
regularly to her girlhood's companion,
whom she had not seen for years. My
aunt had now recovered SO tar as to in
dulge taste for travel. We were on our
way by the great railroad to the Pacific
coast, and we stopped at the small capi
tai of one of the newest States to discover
that Ruth Denham was a resident there,
the wife of the lieutenant governor, who
was consequently the warden Of the State
prison The note | held in my hand was
in answer to one had despatched to her
an hour before by the hands of Il China
man from the hotel, and it was as glad
and atfectionate as | could wish:
My husband is quite i'll with sciatica, which
intense pain. | am his only attendant, or
would fly to you at once, my dearest Jenny. l
am so sorry YOU leave by the midnight train
for San Francisco tomorrow, but must be con-
tent to see you as much of the day as YOU can
spare us, and hope for longer visit on your
return. We dine at four; may | not send the
carriage for you as early as two O'Clock:
Your loving friend,
ruth DENHAM."
| had my aunt's permission to leave
her, and was ready at the appointed hour
to find the carriage there to the minute !;
and a very comfortable, easy conveyance
it proved over one OF the worst roads |
ever travelled on.
The prison was about mile from the
outskirts Of the struggling town, which
boasted two or three fine State buildings,
in strong contrast with its scattering and
mostly mean and shambling dwellings.
Some hot springs had been discovered
near the site, and over them had been
erected wooden hotel and baths of the
order of architecture and on the
barest possible plan of ornament or com
fort. Just beyond this edifice was the
prison, situated at the rise of one hill and
under the shadow of another and more
one. 1t was built of soft
ish. light-colored stone dug from a neigh
boring quarry, as the driver told me, and
looking even at cursory glance too de-
structible and crumbling to secure such
desperate and determined inmates.
They used to keep 'cm in a sort O
wooden she'd" said my driver, alluding
to the prisoners, "until they got this She
bang fixed up. Pretty smart lot of chaps
tn,
mostly, and made good time on it, too"
1t was surrounded by a high wooden
fence, within which Il stone wall of the
same material as the building was in
course Of construction.
''If it wasn't Sunday" said my COM
panion as we drove through the guarded
gate "you could see 'em at work, for
they're putting up their detenccs. and
doing it first-rate, too.'
| had only time for glance at the in
side of the enclosure We were already
at the principal entrance, which was a
wide door opening into a hall, with a
staircase leading up to the second floor.
On the right hand was strongly grated
iron door opening into the main corridor
between the cells; the other side seemed
the guards. | saw knots Of men about.
but only the two at the entrance appear
ed to be armed, and they had that loung-
ing, easy air, that belongs 10 security and
the absence of thought. 1t was in every
respect opposite to my preconcelved idea
of a penitentiary, and all recollection of
its first design fled when | saw Ruth's
CHEEKY face. bright and handsome as
ever, beaming on me from the first land
ing, and felt her warm, firm arms clasp
ing me in an embrace of affectionate well
come. 1t was my friends home, and
nothing else, from that moment, and a
very pretty, daintily ordered home it
was. She had five rooms on the second
floor, with a kitchen below; this was her
parlor in front, a bright, well-turnished
room. tastetully ornamented with pic
lures, some of which recognized as her
own paintings in our school-days; and
here was her dining-room to the left,
with a small guest chamber that she
hoped | would occupy when l returned.
The other rooms on the west of the par
lor were hers and Nellie's- Oh, l had
not seen Nellie, her tive-year-old, nor her
dear husband. who was so much better
to-day, though he could not rise without
difficulty; and would | therefore come
and see him?
AS Ruth gave me thus passing glance
at her household arrangements, l saw
through the open door of an apartment
back Of the dining-room a light shower of
plaster fall to the ground, marking the oil
cloth that covered the floor, and for one
instant sending cut into the hall a puff OF
whitish dust.
"Oh, that is one of the effects of our ter
ribly dry climate" said Ruth, following
my glance and noticing the dust "every
little while portions of our walls crumble
and fall in like that There is no doubt a
sad litter in Mr. Foster, the clerks room,
where that shower occurred: he has gone
to the city tor the day, however, and it
can be cleared before his return. Here is
my husband, Jenny"
In recess by the parlor window, on a
lounge, Mr.. Denham was trying to disguise