The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-01-10
For 7He AykGnJa1U TyGveier.
 THE NIGHT GUARDS STORY.
BY THOMAS eoLoUITT.

WOfkCd OG SHS iSs SSSt tui PCAilAC I5t HI and naval store manufactory in the world were situated twelve miles from the rail- way in the midst of vast pine barren. The camp was connected by tram-road with the nearest railway station at Live Oak, and there were two trains daily each way carrying the resin to the stills at Live Oak and bringing in supplies to the camp.
 I was one of the night-guards at the camp-went on duty at seven o'clock in the evening and was relieved at five in the morning. generally went straight to bed on being relieved of my gun and slept soundly until near noon, and spent the afternoons loafing about the camp, reading or writing until the six o'clock train brought in the mail. The life was rather dull, monotonous one, but to a quiet, steady fellow the night guards position was not bad one; it might be rather dangerous, under certain circum- stances, but liked it. My stand was be- tween the two cell doors and the hospital door, and commanded view of the in- terior of the three apartments which were all we'll lighted-every prisoner on the chain in the cells and every patient in the hospital being easily seen at glance at any moment. The other guard stood at the back of the cell-or was supposed to stand there, though he was generally around with me, drinking coffee, of which we were furnished kettleful every night.
 There was one part of the night guards duty that was extremely disagreeable- and that was searching the prisoners when they came in from the woods at night all dirty, grimy and messed up with the sticky turpentine. There were nearly three hundred of them, and of course the work was hurriedly and care lessly done; but the lazy, careless, good natured fellows in that warm climate were so ready to assist the guards that forbidden articles were seldom smugeled into the cells, though they might easily have been carried in nightly. In fact, so lenient was the camp discipline, and so careless the day guards while in the woods, that it must have been the innate respect for the law lying latent in the breasts of many of the Aeet-footed daIkeys that kept them there. Of the three hundred and twenty odd convicts on the rolls when was guard, there were but six white men. soon came to know these white men, of course, and after while became quite intimate with one of them. will tell you how # was:
 His name was Wilson. He was tall, slender man with the complexion of a Spaniard, dark hair and eyes, and an ex- tremely pleasant expression. He was oonsumptive, and the heavy work of a chipper "-even in those healthfll pine woods-was rapidly killing him. He was very well educated man, and the cap- tain, as we called the superintendent of the prison, favored him as much as possible, but Wilson was game and asked few favors. Every week or two he was compelled to go into the hospital for few days. His bunk in the hospital was next to the door, being only few feet from my stand at night. We ire quently in the still hours carried on long conversations in the Spanish language, which had learned at Key West, and which none of the other prisoners under stood. He gave me pretty complete history of his past life, which had cer- tainly been anything but saintly one but that was his business. He certainly told me the truth in many instances, as was proved by after events. He was ten-year man forgery and conspiring to defraud, believe-and was almost the only self-acknowledged guilty man in the camp. He did it, he said, for the benefit of Nixie;" that was his daughters name. He showed me her picture, one day-a sweet, smiling, dark little beauty, with her fathers pleasant face and deep, scintillating eyes. It was probably wrong, but grew to like Wilson very much. had an enlarged copy of his little girls picture made and neatly framed, and one night while he slept hung it at the foot of his bunk where his eyes would rest upon it the first thlng when he awoke. Tears were in his eyes when went in to see him the next after noon, and his.voice choked him until he could find no words to thank me. be- heve his love for his daughter was the only tender human feeling the man had left in his heart
 As have said, saw he could not last long as chipper," so at my request the captain transferred him to the "dip- ping" gang-nastier work, but lighter