The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1890-02-27
FIDDLING FOR LIFE.
A Good Letter from a Life Prisoner in
the Massachusetts, State Prison.

the Massachusetts State Prison.
EDITOR MIRROR: l feel great desire to
comply with your request to supply little
copy for the typos of THE PRISON MIRROR:
and l shall make the effort all the more
cheerfully as l am typo myself. and SO
have fellow feeling toward you all in the
embarrassing disadvantages and perplex-
can understand how anxious you all are to
preserve the life and success of THE MIR
ROR; and that it may grow and expand to
wider usefulness. Who can but wish it the
and preserving efforts to do good in behalf
of the prisoners?
l am interested in THE MIRROR further
more. because am prisoner myself; and
know have been benefited by reading
the original articles it has contained from
week to week. written by the inmates of
far away Minnesota prison. | know moth
ing of the writers; but men who can father
such splendid sentiments and impart such
wholesome suggestions for the betterment
of the condition OF their fellow unfOrtunates
cannot be wholly bad men: and so l would
urge you ALL, editor, typo. and cOntribu-
tor, to persevere and faint not. There are
men in every prison who are incapable of
appreciating anything that is truly good;
and there are those about you who do not
extend to you due encouragement; but the
better class of prisoners do wherever your
paper goes; and all good people outside will
bid you GOdspeed. and it should encourage
you and strengthen your heart and hands.
You see. am not writing the kind of an
article that you suggested. but may come
again sometime. l want to say little about
myself this time-only a little. for, of
course. an entire MIRROR could not eX-
haust such an interesting subject-and
may touch upon one or two other matters:
and to the thoughtful, among our fellow
unfOrtunates, | hope there may appear a
few cOmmendable suggestions.
am in prison for life. which l believe
means '99 years." but as l have already
served over 9 years fondly fatter myself
that l have disposed of one of the 9's, but
am uncertain which one. | entered this
prison under what | believe to be peculiarly
unfortunate circumstances, and for the first
two years thought of little else than my
miSfOrtuneS. and it was fast leading me to
a very unhappy condition both mentally and
physically. But there came moment when
happy ray of light revealed to my mind
the folly of yielding to sad reflections: and
[ determined to look about for something
better to interest my mind upon in my hours
of solitude. At first tried fancy box max
ing. but owing to bad light and weak eyes
couldn't make success of it. | next en-
gagged in the study of music. and soon be
came deeply interested. Now, | wonder if
there is more unfavOrable place under
heaven to engage in that study than in a
prison. But the regulations of this prison
were. and still are very liberal in allowing
musical instruments among the inmates;
and began to enquire what would be the
best instrument for me to get that would
aid me in my studies, and l finally decided
upon the viOlOncellO. or as some of my
comrades call it, the big Fiddle" IA
strange instrument for prison CELL" you
will say. Yes; but with heavy mute on
1t. 1t is not very noisy, and not nigh so an
nOying to near neighbOrs as violin. banjo
or guitar in the hands of a novice. l pro-
cured the cello. had imagined it an easy
instrument to learn to play; but l soon
found it easier to produce squeak. scratch
whrr or twang than good musical
tone, although the instrument was good
one. | had uphill work with it and many
discOuragements, but soon my interest i'm it
rapidly increased. | have now played it in
the prison choir for over three years. con-
stanty improving slowly. and from many
good natured remarks which have reached
my ears from time to time, from my fellows,
l conclude it has furnished them with no
small amount of amusement to watch my
efforts.
What good will it ever be to me? That
question. looking beyond my present cir
cumstances has not troubled me. At the
start knew practically nothing about music,