Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1894-07-05
In the Prison Cell.

Works of humanity engross the
attention Of few and the world calls
them cranks. Man is a strange animal;
he has tender thoughts and noble
impulses; still his inhumanity to his
own species spreads mourning, like
contagion through all the walks of life.
Danger ventiliZes man. Look when
the pestilence comes, see how those so
kind yesterday will fly from those they
love, let neighbors suffer, threatening
even to kill the plague stricken ones.
The cold dark night with no loving
mourners is good enough for the burial
service. The death cart rattles over the
pavement and men do not SO much as
look out Of the windows. At such times
so hurried are burials that the grave is
often the death bed.
The fear of death makes towards of
us all. Here and there may be found
some noble soul that will imulate itself,
but they are not numerous. Fright
makes man a brute, and worse than
british because he knows more than
the brute, but what shall we say of that
humanity that gazes unmoved into the
prison pen. The element Of fear is not
there. The preservation Of self is not
an impulse, carelessness, uncOncern,
lack Of feeling. It is sad comment on
human love and human charity.
light, no sunshine, no song of birds, no
loves, no gentle voice, no sympathy.
The dark walls are around you. They
are very cold. The spider builds his
net in the corner, lizard creeps out Of
a crevice. The water that cleanses the
cell does not dry up and the mould
gathers. The air is not pure, the breath
is short; you clasp your heart to still its
loud beating. The veins in the temples
swell, you pray, God does not hear,
man is silent and far away. Fantastic
forms fit before your eyes, you reel
and fall, no one hears, no one cares.
AND THIS IS FOR LIFE.
Poor Rose Zoldoske, guilty of no
crime; she has harmed no one; a
farmers daughter; no stain Of crime on
all her race She went out to earn an
honest living; with her own hands, toll
she paid for all she had. 4 victim Of
cruel circumstances, and hellish plotting,
she suffers for another's crime, or for
no crime at all. For if Ella Malv did
not poison herself, there is far more
convincing testimony against DR..
Mitchell and his house-keeper, than
against poor Rose Ioldoske. Argument
at this time is unneeded. Everybody
not implicated in the crime or the
persecution belives poor Rose to be
innocent. Then let popular indignation
tear down those walls; let that prison
cell be opened. The bonds Of sympathy
that bind hearts to hearts, and lifts man
above the brute, call for action in this
case
1t is not enough to say, "the court has
| decided" Courts are human. They
make mistakes. Oh, could you know
the hundreds who write to us and tell
how deeply they feel for that poor girl,
and how they say "don't let me be
known in this matter" you would see
low the element of fear in mans nature
has worked to secure q conviction.
Richland Center had it all it's own way.
They frowned, they cajoled, they brow
| beat the iury into verdict
Had the facts, since developed, been
known at that time, think you Rose
would have been convicted? No! A
thousand times no. She would not
even have been on trial. DR.. Mitchell
posing as a saint. His victim soon to fly
far north to hide her shame" All his
short comings known, suspicion may
have pointed to suicide or to murder
but it would never have pointed at poor
Rose Zoldoske.-Torch of Liberty.