Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1889-05-03

liberation with myself and several
consultations with friends, de-
termined on a plan. The men had
been sent to prison for three years
apiece. When arrested they made
a fight, and burglars tools we're
also found in their possession.
l visited the prison and learned
that one ban been assigned to the
boot and shoe department, while
the other had gone the the chair
works. l walked through this de
partment and saw HIM engaged in
chair painting. The two we're so
widely separated that there was no
possibility of a meeting except in
the chapel on Sunday. The one
in the chair department was the
younger by several years.
One day, when l had my plans
all laid, l entered a jewelry store
ir the city from which the men had
been sentenced and asked to look
at some watches. A tray of them
was set out, and l grabbed one
valued at $40 and ran out. could
have got clear of as well as not,
but my object was to be arrested.
On my examination l pleaded gull
ty and was bound over. When
the case came to higher court
lawyer was assigned me, and had
| worked with him the jury would
have cleared me. refused to an-
swer any uestions, admitted my
guilt, and was regarded by some as
light in the head. The jeweler did
not desire my conviction, and but
for my impudence should have
failed in my purpose. A verdict of
guilty was reached, and his honor
gave me a year in prison, though l
believe he was ready to suspend
sentence IN case broke down and
promised reform.
When | arrived at the prison |
gave my occupation as a chair
finisher, and, to my great satisfac-
tion, l was assigned to that work,
and soon found myself alongside
the man l was after. He was re-
corded on the prison books as Jor-
don Hatch, No. 2, $50. | was
down as Charles Merritt, No. 2,
1856. We were at least thirty feet
apart for the first three weeks, and
| bad been there full month be-
fore we passed a word. Then, as
we were carrying some work to the
stock room, l got chance to growl
to him
81 thought the horse thieves
we're put into the slop depart
ment.r
He gave me a fierce look and
gritted his teeth, and next time we
passed he whispered
"And 1 thought the cheap watch
grabbers we're used as kitchen
mops :"
He knew then, as l suspected,
what had been sent for. No con-
vict is in prison a week before his
oftense is pretty generally known.
AS We passed again / whispered ;
ats "a good thing sometimes to
be laid by" His reply to this was
"Then don't size me mp for
horse thief"
During the next two weeks, ow-
ing to the illness Of one of the
1nishers, and the tact that another
was pardoned, l got nearer to
Hatch, but while l seemed to be
utterly Indifferent to him, l several
times caught him looking me over
as If interested. He was very
handy, and very tasty with brush
and stencils, and as was equally
so it finally came about, after |
had been in prison about three
months, that we worked side by
side at the same platform. There
was one overseer for fifteen of us,
aud we had only to exercise pru-
dence and discretion to be able to
communicate in whispers. l car
ried the idea that 1 grabbed the
watch on purp ose to be laid by M
til the hue and cry over big job
had died out, and by abstaining
from asking him any questions
about his past gave him no reason
10 distruRt me.
had been in prison for seven
months when was called to the
Office one day TO see friend, one
of the few who we're in the plot
He called to ask me what progress
had made. Upon my return to
the shop Hatch was curious to
know what had passed, and 1 in
formed him that l had got word
that a psrd OF mine who had been
in the big job with me, but who
had escaped arrest had converted
our hidden wsg to his own use
and gone to Europe.
"T'd kill him !" he replied. "My
pard hadn't better try that on me p
"But he may"
"Not this pull. Isn't he here
With me ~
1t was a month before | made
another move. / then feigned
sickness and got four days in the
hospital, and when returned l
had some news for Hatch. 1t was
to the effect that another horse
thief, whose name / could not re-
member, had been receiving visits
of q lawyer, who was doubtless
seeking to get him a pardon or a