The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1890-02-15

| Inc coroner was 0OGlHeU, anu WIFI ullH
entered the father, to whom the by
ISLANDERS attempted to explain the aw-
full occurrence. The boy stood leaning
against the wall trembling with fright
and apparently guilty. He attempted
no explanation, but looked from one to
the other in helpless, beseeching way.
The noise of the scuffle, the position OF
the parties when seen. his excited APP
pearance, the contour of the wound, and
the shape of the cudgel, the ill-will sup
posed to have existed between the step
mother and Joe, coupled with his loud
and angry threats, were all circum-
stances against any theory but the worst.
The shocked father, frenzied to distrac-
ton, caused the arrest of his frst-born,
as the willful doer of murder.
The village constable was called in,
and before night the unfortunate lad,
more dead than alive, lay in the lock-
up on charge of murder! Stunned
and shocked by the awful accident and
dreadful predicament in which he was
placed, he could say nothing in his own
behalf. His friends gradually fell away
from him. He was in a dazed, helpless
condition, in which he could do nothing
for himself. Although there was no
direct proof that he had intended to kill
the woman, or of what the law calls
generalization, and although those who
knew him best willingly came forward
and vouch ed for his character, yet Cir
cumstances were strongly against him.
He attempted, in feeble way, to num-
BILE out his story of the occurrence. 1t
was not credited, if understood. His
manner tended to show gull t, and even
those who were inclined to disbeliGve
in it, supposed that he had allowed his
angry passions to arise and lead him to
extreme violence. The coroner's jury
found a verdict against him of willful
murder The trial jury subsequently de-
cl AIRED him guilty, with a recommended
ton to mercy on account of his youth
and previous good character and he was
sentenced to twenty years at hard labor
in the bloomsbury prison, where it was
supposed he would grow up, and become
a useful servant of the State as stone
breaker. There was no interference on
his behalf by any one; his f riends turned
from him for the reason that his natural
protector-his father-believed him
guilty; who, while he did not aid, Ger
tainly did not iLterpose any obstacle to
the due course of law. Within few
days after the trial, the sheriff of the
county. with commitment under the
seal of the court, appeared and by him
the poor boy was placed in the Glooms-
bury Jail amongst some of the most in
corrigible and criminal classes, with
whom he would have to associate and
grow up among, in the false hope that
he would be reformed.
1t so happened that one Of the fore
men in the stone-breaking gang in which
the lad was placed in the reformatory
was distantly related to the deceased
woman, and this mans feelings were
decidedly hostile to the boy. This is
hardly to be wondered at; he believed
the boy, as the jury did, to be red
handed murderer, who had escaped the
gallows by technicality. No sooner
was the youthful prisoner within his
power, than he began a course of treat
mcnt towards him, both in regard to the
days task and attractions of the prison
! rules, that made Joe's life in the inSti-
tuition seem like a hideous nightmare.
The prisoner at this time seemed to have
recovered his senses, so to speak. He
could look back now at the horrid scene
| in which he had been participant, and
for which he had suffered so grievouSly,
with reasonable composure. He began
to think that if the trial were to take
place again he could have convinced the
/ i'm hot ho tira1y-
remembered now that the peddler had
seen the occurrence, and while he did
not know where the man could be found,
he felt that if the paddler could be pro-
duced his evidence would be sufficient
for an acquittal. Joe pondcred over this,
day and night; declared his innocence
to the prison officials, and was laughed
at for his pains.
"Of COURSE" said his keeper, "all the
prisoners here are innocent"
He vainly attempted to communicate
| with those who were, or should have
i been, his friends No communications
were allowed to be sent from prisoners
unless with the sanction and concur
renee of the prison authorities. The
keeper watched the lad closely, and
seemed to take peculiar delight in max
ing the boys life miserable. Joe failed,
on one occasion, to turn out a sufficient
quantity of stones to meet the require
ments of the foreman-all the prisoners
being "tasked,' as it is called. As
result, he was put on dict of bread and
water, and received but one meal day
at that. On subsequent day he spoke
to one of his fellow-prisoners; on being
chided by the keeper for this infraction
he answered disrespectfully. Again the
bread and water diet was resorted to,
with the addition of a dark cell. The
poor food and severe treatment rendered
him unfit for the severe work, and he
failed continually. Punishment always
followed. Smarting under a sense of
| injustice, weak from lack of proper
food, worrying about the condition of
his brother and sister from whom he
was entirely isolated, coupled with
thoughts of his own forlorn and friend
less lot, made his condition any thing
but enviable. He became callous and
Indifferent. His repeated protests of
innocence and complaints about the
severity of his labor, lack of food and