News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1885-01-15
AN HONORABLE ACT.
HOW AN INNOCENT YOUNG MAN WAS
SAVED.
The story Told by the Warden of State
Pr son.
TFrom the Youths Companion.1


From the Youths Companion
Early one evening in the winter of
1864, a gentleman driving in sleigh.
in the suburbs CT Boston, saw two men
standing in the road. AS he approached
they expressed q wish to speak to him,
He checked his horse, and at once one
of the men seized the animal by the
head, the other rushed to the sleigh,
and presenting a revolver, demanded the
mans money. He gave the robber his
pocketbook, containing three one hun
dred dollar bills and some small change.
The two men-then compelled him to get
out of his sleigh. They sprang into it,
and drove rapidly away. Alarm was
given. The criminals were pursued.
The team was found by the side of the
road at Cambridge, but the robbers had
fed.
The following evening an expressman
was stopped on the Salem turnpike Just
before reaching Lynn, by the same men,
and was robbed OF four hundred dollars.
Wishing their victim goodnight, they
leaped the fence and disappeared over
the marshes.
The next day young man was ar
rested in Boston on suspicion of being
one of the robbers. He was confined in
the Tombs. The first gentleman robbed
was sent for, and requested to pass by
the cells where some twenty or thirty
prisoners were confined, and see if he
could pick out from among them the
man who had robbed him. He selected
without hesitation the young man re-
ferred to. The expressman was also
sent for. He picked out the same man.
Neither the gentleman nor the express
man had any doubt as to the prisoners
identity.
There was snow upon the ground, and
the footprints of the robbers was plainly
seen on the snow. The boots of the
suspected man were found to fit one set
OF the footprints exactly. This circum-
stance, with the testimony of the ex-
pressman, who swore positively to his
being the man, convicted the poor fellow,
although he attempted to prove an abb,
He was sentenced to the State Prison for
life. Thirty years before he would have
been hanged, for death was the penalty
for highway robbery at that time.
When l brought him to the prison he
declared III the most solemn manner
he persistently adhered to, although no
one believed him. Three years after
ward a man was committed to the prison
for the fourth time, on sentence of six
years. He was most expert and des-
perate rogue, and had been guilty of
more crimes than any convict ever within
the walls of the prison. A few weeks
after his imprisonment he asked for an
interview with me. "Well, what is it
| YOU wish ?" asked. when he appeared.
"OnIy this, Mr.. Warden. You have
an innocent man in the prison..
''Indeed," said, "who is it ?" sup
| posing, of course, that he would name
| himself.
1T is. NJ" he said giving me the
name Of the young man convicted OF
highway robbery.
"How do you know that?" asked.
81 do know it.
"Bat how can you know anything
about it?"
He hesitated moment, as if weighing
| the matter, and then said in q frank,
positive tone:
81 know he is innocent, for I COM
mitted the crime for which he is in
prison.
Both Of them p l asked.
| eyes"
j" I said, calling him by name,
"do you realize what you are saying
No one has been tried for the WATERFOWL
robbery, and if you acknowledge the
crime, you will be liable to receive life
sentence"
81 understand that, Mr.. Warden. I
am bad man. There is probably hardly
q crime upon the statute book, except
murder, that I have not committed. l
! have been thief all my life, even from
child My earliest education was
| to steal, and expect to be thief and
4 robber to the last. As you know l have
aid am Welt RRFaffag teFRs in lib tbs RarisiooFn
ment is; but bad as am, have no de-
sire that another man should suffer for
my crimes. l therefore repeat what I
| have said, M is innocent, [ am the
guilty party"
"Do you know Mp" inquired.
"No. I never saw him. [ have no
more interest i'll him personally than in
a man in another country"
You were not alone in these rob-
/ berries. Who was the other man with
your
Again he hesitated. ''Mr. Warden, 1
have never yet betrayed an associate,
but in confidence l will tell you his
name, trusting that you will not use it
against him unless he is arrested upon
evidence obtained from some other
source"
He gave me the name of a man who
had served one term in the State
Prison, and was then in the House of
Correction at East Cambridge.
AT my request, he wrote out full
statement of the Watertown robbery,
which took to the gentleman robbed,
who, after reading it, returned with me
to the prison, and had an interview with
! j. The gentleman left the prison
satisfied beyond a doubt that j was
the real criminal.
There was a striking resemblance be-
tween the two men. They were of the
same height, and wore the same sized
boots.
1t is unnecessary to tell here all that
had 10 he done to satisfy the Governor
of the innocence of the poor fellow who
was unjustly imprisoned, but it was
| finally accomplished. but not until he
had served four years in all. j
! worked as hard to prove his own guilt as
| he could have done to show his inno-
cence. One more word in regard to
lim. He was not prosecuted for either
of the robberies; neither did he serve his
six years. Shortly after left the prison,
he succeeded in escaping from it, for the
second time. With another convict, he
excavated q tunnel, twenty-seven feet in
length, from the engine room, where the
| two had worked. to the outer wall, cut
ting off pile foot in diameter, and
escaped.
He was soon after arrested in Balti-
more and sentenced to the Maryland
! penitentiary for sixteen years, where, if
alive and if he has not escaped, he can
| be found to-day.
The mans career was a marvellous
one. He possessed good address, and
was an excellent mechanic. Bold ~
daring, he hesitated at nothing, and
| by his indomitable perseverance sur
mounted obstacles which would have
been thought impossible by ordinary
men. AS this incident shows, he was
not all bad, but of him it could be truly
| said, that he was a man possessed of
one virtue linked with a thousand