Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1892-06-22
Trry SAW sILAs HARDING DEAD.

Naturally Silas Harding was not inclined
to be Jealous. His mind was too busy and
his faith too strong for that. But as in
the summer lands of the south destructive
storms suddenly form and sweep down on
a smiling landscape from sky which one
hour before was cloudless, so the young
mechanics peace was broken into by a
storm that in one day wrecked his whole
life.
That the woman loved him or was capa-
BILE of loving any one but her own shallow
and selfish self, was very doubtful. On
the streets it was said that she courted
attention, but Silas Harding, busy through
all the working hours in his shop, did net
know it. But he was not destined to re-
main in ignorance.
Long before the young man discovered
for himself her perfdy all his friends were
aware of it, and pitied him or laughed at
him for his blindness. They knew that
the woman was and had been receiving
the attentions Of one Of the most noted
gamblers and politicians in the city.
At length this came to Silas Harding's
ears He was told that on a night when it
was expected that he would be in Balti-
more-it was the night before the day fixed
for their wedding-the woman to whom he
was betrothed would be found supping
with the other men and women of the
gamblers stamp in that persons bach
elor apartments.
Silas Harding did not go to Baltimore.
He called at the girls house that night
and found her out-where her parents did
not know. Suspicion now became GER
tainty. The young man was insane. He
went back to his own room, for the first
time in his life put pistol in his pocket
and hurried from the place.
The friends who had informed him of his
betrothed's infidelity guided him to the
quarters of the gambler. There were
lights burning in the splendid apartments,
for the gambler was rich, and as Silas
Harding stood on the pavement looking
up he heard the sound Of music and laugh
ter, and he thought he recognized her
voice.
Maddened by jealousy and righteous
indignation, he bounded up the stairs. A
dance was in progress. He saw the WON
an who was to have been his wife on the
morrow whirling about the room in the
arms of the bediamonded ruffian.
Accounts varied as to what followed,
but all are agreed that the woman was
dead, killed by her betrothed, the cor
oner's jury said; and Silas Harding and
the man who had blasted his life were Sc.
riously wounded.
When Harding fired, the gambler fired
also, and the lawyer who defended the me-
chanic sought to prove, and many claimed
did prove, that it was the gamblers pistol
that killed the woman, who had thrown
herself on Harding's arm that the other
might escape.
Silas Harding was tried, found guilty Of
murder and sentenced to be hanged. Sub
sequently the sentence was committed to
Imprisonment for life And so while the
man who had ruined him and got well was
prospecting on the turf and in politics, the
young mechanic was taken to the Halls of
Bileace in the Cherry Hill penitentiary,
and the law and justice were satisfied.
The gallows would have been a mercy
compared with the life that Silas Harding
now led in his solitary cell. Except the
preachers and the keepers he never heard
the sound of human voice. Now and
then he caught a glimpse of fellow mute,
but beyond that each day was living
death.
The light came and went, and it told
him of the flight Of unnamed and unnum-
bered days It grew cold, and they threw
him in heavier clothing and blankets; it
grew hot, and he got lighter clothing, and
so he marked the flight of the seasons by
his change of clothes.
AT times he caught q glimpse Of the blue
sky overhead, and one day a butterfly flew
into his cell, but beyond that he saw
neither bird nor flower nor living thing
outside the persons named.
His mother came to see him regularly on
the days when visitors were admitted, and
he noted that her hair grew whittier and
her form more bowed, till the visits ceased
and he knew she was dead, and he prayed
to be beside her
His brother came to see him, and as the
years rolled on, unmarked by incident or
event, save the awful routine in the Halls
of Silence, Silas Harding saw his brother
changing from sturdy middle age to tot
tering senility, till his visits ceased and
then the prisoner knew that he was
and that his name had passed from
memory of the busy outside world
Fifty yearsl Merciful heaven, what years
they were! And the man whose deeds
had blasted Silas Harding's life and whose
perjury had sent him to the penitentiary
died, and the lawyer who had charge of his
papers found confession in which he &C
knowledged that it was his shot, intended
for Harding, that killed the woman.
Then some good men looked into the
case and presented it to the board of par
dons-an institution peculiar to Pennsyl-
vania-and after due deliberation the gov
ernor signed their report, and the gates of
the Halls of Silence swung open, and Silas
Harding aged seventy-six, passed out and
again stood "a free man" under Gods sun.
A free man? No. mol he was not free
nor mani The shadow of the prison kept
with him. 1t had become his home and
he could not live outside it, not even in
palace But they did not offer him d pal
ace. Weak, bowed, gray haired, dim eyed,
almost imbecile, what usehad he for the
world or the world for him2 That pardon
was powerless to roll back the fifty years
Of wrong and restore him to his manhood.
He was arrested as homeless, friend
less yagrant and consigned to the machine
charity of the Blocksly almshouse. And
the keepers-think of it, good Christians
all-punished him for sullenness, because
ghA refused TO sneakl