Mexico weekly ledger., 1876-12-14
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Back at His Old Tricks, After Nine
Terms i'm the P~enftentiary
from the P%hiladeldhia Times.l

kACA HI HIN ~ XtCA0 AT AAkS
Terms i'm the Pe~nttentiary.
from the Philadeldhia Times.1
"Dickens's Dutchman'' is in the
clutches of the law again. Nine terms
in the Eastern Penitentiary, under the
system that the novelist denounced as
cruel and wrong, have had no eff
feet upon him, and yesterday he put in
a winning bid for the tenth. This time,
he his soiled his magnificent reputation
as a criminal by dropping to the theft
of an overcoat, the property of Mr..
Benjamin F. Taylor of 1880 North
Eighth Street, for which little indis-
cretion Squire Carpenter held him in
default of $500 bail. Landheimer, alias
Dickens's Dutchman, alias a score of
other names, has beensthrough the Po-
lice Court mill SO often that its solemn
ty has little effect upon him, and he sat
in the Central dock, yesterday, with
the nonchalance of a spectator, and not
even the grave march to the "below
strairs', in Sergeant Buchanan clutches
could move him from his imperturable
gravity.
More than 80 years ago, when Charles
Dickens, in seeing the sights of the
Quaker City, visited the Eastern Peni-
Tertiary, Langheimer was there, hav-
ing just finished two years of a FIVE
years sentence for larceny. Over this
poor criminal, and several others who
were produced, Mr.. Dickens went into
a paroxysm of grief, describing the 81
lent system, ga system peculiar to the
State of Pennsylvania-rigid, strict and
hopeless solitary confinement, cruel
and wrong" The first man that he
saw, he says, had been there for six
years, and was to remain three more.
"He gazed about him, Heaven only
knows how YEARLY, and in the act of
doing so fell into q strange stare, as if
he had forgotten something. A mo-
ment afterward, he sighed heavily, put
on his sp~ectacles, and went about his
work again" The prisonerin the Cen
trail, yesterday, gazed about him, too,
Heaven only knows how carelessly, but
sin the act of doing so" he didn't fall
into any strange ~stares; and, if he
looked as if he had forgotten any thing,
it was only that he had forgotten to
take the rest of the suit.
"In another CELL" Mr.. Dickens con-
tinues, in his american Notes, - s'was
a German, sentenced to five years. inn
prisonment for larceny, two of which
had just expired" He bad laid out
the few feet of ground behind his cell
with exquisite. neatness, and had made
a little fower-bed. in the center, that
looked, by the by, like q grave" The
little fower-bed is there yet, religious
~ preserved by the prison authorities
as q N, " :, unto of tho nnyrl1Sctfc visit q.
and, to tell the truth, it does look a lit
tie gravey. "And yet amore detected,
heart broken, wretched creature it
would be difficult to imagine. I never
saw such a picture of forlorn affiiction
and distress of mind" Then a won
derful change has come DER the spirit
of his dream. He is no longer a picture
of forlorn affliction and distress of mind,
but as perfect q specimen as need be of
the average habitual criminal, knowing
that he has deserved what he has suf-
fered, and that, deserving more, he
must suffer more. "My heart bled for
him, and when the tears ran down his
cheeks, and he took one of the visitors
aside to ask, with his trembling hands
%nervously clutching at his coat to de-
tain him, whether there was no hope of
his dismal sentence being commuted,
the spectacle was really too painful to
witness" The well-spring of the aged
Germans tears, then, has dried won
derfully since 80 years ago. Ne'er a
tear dampened the muddy floor of the
central dock; no trembling hands ner-
vously clutched at any body's coat, and
nobody was visibly affected by the pain
fulness of the scene.
If any body has had a chance of
making a practical investigation of the
Pennsylvania silent system, Charles
Langheimer has. The terrible five
years, whose monotony was relieved, at
the end of the second year, by the nov
elist's notice and sympathy, dragged
themselves through, and the "dejected,
heart-brOken, wretched creature - was
again ready to negotiate with any port
able articles that might be lying around
loose. The occasion offered, and
again he had a chance to cultivate the
little grave of flowers in the back yard
of his cell. Then he had a chance
again tremblingly to ask, and t~earfully,
Whether there was no hope of his dis
NAL sentence being commuted." Seven
times more the Wretched, heart-brOken
man went through this little perform
nee, until, if he were like other mortals,
no spot on earth should be dearer to
him than the little cell that was called
his home.
In his last little stay within the stone
walls, on a sentence of IL months for
petty larceny, Langheimer occupied his
old-time quarters, cultivated his old
time flowers, retouched the old-time
pictures On his cell walls, and spun
yarn with his old-time wheel. That
time he was known as number
S04S. When he goes back again, as he
probably will before the rigors of win
ter have a chance to fall upon him, to
serve his tenth term, he will be a good
subject for some rising novelist who
wants to learn something about "the
cruel. wrong, Pennsylvania silent sys-
tenn"