Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-12-27

or moral death, in both cases the same
result and the same cruelty.
"Surely you will not say that the law
should let criminals go free? How will you
protect the innocent if you do not remove
the guilty, aud now will you prevent crime
il you do not punish it when detected?'
s'The question was on the cruelty and not
on the necessity, which is quite different
point. I think the question has to remain
an open one, because It depends on individ-
ual feeling. There are men who had
rather Gle at once than give up
their liberty for ever so short
time, and there are some who could live
in chains and yet cling to life"
"I, for one," said young lawyer, not yet
25 years of age, prefer life to death in any
circumstances. If should be compelled to
choose between the two punishments, 1
however dreary, is better than death"
'You speak as youth and mex
perience generally do, and will, no
doubt, speak differently soon," said the
banker; 81 would willingly lay wager of
two millions that, after only five years of
solitary imprisonment, you would come to
look on death as kind liberator and be
sorry for not having chosen him in time
sand am quite certain 1 would not, I"
said tbe young man; "where there is life
there is hope also, and if your proposition
was meant in earnest, 1 shall take your
wager, that 1 shall stand not only five, but
fifteen years of single Imprisonment, and
come out and enjoy life and your millions
afterward."
st accept. I'll stake two millions, you
your life, or, what believe the same, your
liberty for fifteen years. But / tell you
MI tvvIa
you venturel You know it is easy
for me to lose two millions.
1 hazard as much or more every day in busi-
ness. But it is different thing with you.
You hazard the best years of your life with
the certainty of loss. You cannot stand it.
You will suffer, perhaps, for year or two,
perhaps little longer. and then will be glad
to escape and forfeit the wager. You must
consider, also, that voluntary imprisonment
is harder than that which is compulsory,
and the knowledge that you are free to go at
will must be an eternal torment"
"Well, think differently, and stick to
the bet, if you are not afraid to hold to ii. +"
Ali interfered, or tried to do SO, but in
vain, and this wild wager was concluded and
made into a contract, witnessed by all pres
ent.
On the following day, according to this
COubTdClJ gOuuS lawyer SOOh ntS
abode in a side wing of the bankers palace.
In this side wing he was to remain for 15
years without ever crossing its threshold.
He would receive no visitors no letters.
He would see no human being, hear no hu-
man voice, speak to no one, never read a
newspaper. He should be allowed to play
on one instrument, should get books 20 read,
write letters, and receive wine, cigars-in
fact, everything that was necessary to his
personal comfort. He should not see his
attendants, bu: he could, when necessary,
communicate his wishes to them by writing
and putting the paper out through little
window in the door, through which he
would also get his meals. The stipulations
were minutely clear, and as this was noon
of November IA, 1870, he must stay in his
prison until November IA, 1885, at
noon. If he should leave two minutes be-
fore his time expired, he should forfeit the
wager and have no claim whatever. The
door was locked, seals put on the outside,
and the imprisonment began.
During the first year, the prisoner was in
cessantly writing letters, and the sound of
the piano was heard night and day. He
seemed to suffer very much from loneliness
and tedium, and gave up wine and cigars,
because, as he wrote, the former created de-
sires; and desires are the prisoners heaviest
torment, while the latter spoiled the air in
the room. He wanted only lively books,
such as comedies, fantastical love stories
and such works.
During the second year the piano was
mute, and the prisoner asked for Shakes
pesre and Byron. In the third, he gave
himself to the study of Roman law and ma
tional economy. In the fourth year, he
asked for Shakespeare and Byron again,
and also for Homer, Voltaire and Goethe.
In the fifth, the piano sounded again, and
the prisoner asked for wine. Those who
watched him through the little window no
ticed that, in this year, he resigned himself
almost entirely to idleness. He ate, drank,
yawned, and was often heard angrily talk
ing to himself, and even weeping. Books
he did not want, and sometimes he got up