Connecticut western news., 1878-08-15
TEN EYCK'S LAST SABBATH.
The Prisoner Resigned to His Fate, and Will Probably Make some Confess
 SiOnS.
AN INTERPRETING INTER VIEW.

AN INTERESTING INTER VIEW.
 The sun shone out beautifully bright last Sunday afternoon after the rain, and threw few rays, ere it got beyond the main
 building, in at the heavily barred windows and across the corridor to John Ten Eyck's cell when the NEWS reporter called. IL was just the Sunday school hour, o'clock as
 we entered the yard, aud there came out to us chorus of voices from the open win dow, in that wonderfully sweet hymn-''I love to tell the story,' and somehow it nev- CT sounded grander. And it is a good work the Christian people of Ptts6eld do every Sunday at that hour, to meet those men confined there, and for the while talk with them about the Bible and better way to live and those fellows, many of them with tears do honestly intend whe n they get out to lead new careers and never come back again, but they slip often. and resolutions after all don't go great ways. The ser vices are held in the large guard room, and in the same room where went up Sunday the hymn of praise. on Friday will witness the first legal taking of human life in this town, and the second execution which our friend sheriff Root has off1ciated at during his 23 or 24 years of official life. Down a pr,vate stairway, through the kitchen, the nee to narrow ball, through several doorways we pass so as not to disturb the Sunday school, and we are in the presence of the condemned.
 John Ten Eyck Is in cell No. 4, and that is on the lower tier, north side, and there he will remain during the remainder of his natural life. All winter, and in fact all the time during his imprisonment until a few
 weeks ago, he occupied cell on the south side, and it got to be quite like home there :;
 and we are led to think that could the walls speak they would tell of many restless hours and strange stories which he framed pre- ceding his trial, ID his fight for life which
 he knew he owed to the law, and by hls brutal act, had no longer the right to pos
 sess. His removal was for the sake of less
 annoyance from the anxious crowd which
 has asked to go through the prison since hls
 sentence. visitors always wanting to know
 when they got to his door and they almost
 always found him either writing or looking
 out at the passers-by. Now the three mur-
 derers are the only ones on the lower tier,
 north side, and visitors are not taken around
 there any more. Ten Eyck never refused
 visit nor failed to return a look thrown al
 him but the others are more shy and less
 talkatlve.. In No. 6 is young Monahan, the
 murderer of Officer Quinn, and further on
 is John Daily who in drunken frenzy slew Spellman, the harmless old scissors
 grinder. All three are guilty of murder,
 but for brutality the act of John Ten Eyck eclipses them all, and hls worthless life car
 hardly be.caled an offset to those of the worthy old couple he so cruelty took in No
 vember last, and many there are who think
 that if he does confess, it will be to othel
 crimes of like nature, and as unproVoked
 One who saw Ten Eyck last November, anC
 hardly recognize the fellow. His closs confinement has done it's work and is clear
 ly marked in the gray hair which has growI
 thin, and his moustache ie long and quit'
 white. But the restless eyes are there, anC
 although tear sometimes comes when h. gives recital of the Wi ongs he has endur ed, or pretends to have had heaped upol him, many there are whodon't just like tn, way they flash and roll at them, and vii
 feel safer when Friday closes, and he il out of this life, and powerless to wreak thu vengeance he would no doubt inflict.
 He sat on bench close 10 the door con ve-sing with an officer when we called. Bl his side lay testament, and tract wbicl he had been reading. The floor of his eel
 he has carpeted with papers because h' says it is damp on that side as the sun onl. , gets chance to shine in but a little whil, each day, and he is wonderfully afraid O taking cold. The walls are bare however
 and quite in contrast to many of the other
 which have been tastefuly fitted up by th' , aid of pictorial papers and pictures.
 "Well, you are yet alive" the reporte said as he shook hands through the grated door with the prisoner. Yes; intend tt live as long as the law allows" he replied with smile. Il believe am getting n, work pretty well finished up. I've beer writing letter to my children, last lette to them. They are living in Blandfort with their grandparents, ,and so want then to have something to remember me b. when l am gone" And then he handed | us the letter and we read it. It is vel F composed, full of good advice and counsel
 the boy to always look out for his grand
 parents, and to shun the bac life his fathe has led. But he don't mention the crim
 or tine death he dies as the penalty. Fl expects to meet them all in better land :, and concludes with record of his age when born. and requests it to be read often 7 s'I have just finished and given to my cour gel a statement 1 was to make on the scaf fold, which will probably be in print in a few days;" but he wouldn't say whether
 would be in the form of confession, c
 much about it; neither would he deny ths :, it was not recital of the crime, and som others. s'Do you know though, numbe . of officers have been here and asked m = about crimes that have happened some tim :. ago. In Barkhamsted there was murde some years since, as many as 13, and ma It came here the other day to see me about fl q but never WAS there till seven years ago. Q He only feared that all his statement won = be published, and hInted that there wer E some men who had come in for their flu share of censure for the part they had talk r. .n against him. "It will be read with in K ter, st, YOU may be sure," he said. sbu
 there is nothing in it that any far minde
 man will object to or blame me for. giv