Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1895-11-14

hand from giving aid TO the suffering
wives and children OF men | had lived
among all my life. l took no thought
for consequences. One day | received
my discharge. l was dazed by the
cruel blow. / went about like Il man
walking in a sleep.
One night as I walked the streets
some n told me that my friend-the
man l am writing of-was i'll. | went
at once to his room, which was in the
building over the printing Office, where
he had now gotten to be foreman. |
found him restless and feverish, and
at his request / stayed with him until
the small hours of the night. Then l
went home. No one saw me going in
or out OF his room, but | met two or
three stragglers on my way home. |
had been half IN hour in bed when an
alarm Of fire was sounded. and | rose
and Joined the crowd in the streets.
The mills were burning, and in a short
time We're burned to the ground. The
same day | was arrested on n charge
of having set the fire. | laughed at
the charge. Ny friend, W. was now
deliriouS with fever, would soon put
me right. My trial was deferred until
he was able To appear. When the day
came at last, he stood up, white and
haggard in that crowded court room
and swore he had not seen me at all
on the night l had spent with him
the night of the fire. There were 9th
er things against me; my known
friendship for the leaders of rhe strike,
my discharge, my absence from home
at the time the fire must have been
started, and other small but damning
evidence. / was convicted and sen
fenced to transportation. | saw my
old mother fall as If dead; | saw Bar
bara'S white face bending over her;
palmer than all, l saw that man who
had been my friend and the look he
gave to the woman who was to have
been my wife. Something leaped into
life within me then-sOmething which
has never died. If / could have reach
ed him then and there.
! do not suppose twenty people In
the town believed me guilty. | do not
believe the jury which convicted me,
nor the judge who sentenced ME, be-
lieved me guilty: but everything was
against me, except my past life, and
that had no weight with the law. Ny
sentence was committed to a term of
years in the ~penitentiary. ! will not
write Of my prison life. Three months
after 1t began l received a letter from
Barbara's telling me OF my mothers
death, bidding Inc keep up courage
and pray, but saying nothing Of her.
self or of him.
At the end of five years came free
dom. The real criminals had been dis
covered and l was discharged. The
man who went out of that prison door
IA not the man who had entered it.
The law, conscious of the fact that no
human power can make amends to an
innocent man for a punishment I'M
justly inflicted, takes no notice of 1t.
1t is dumb before a wrong SO mon
strous. l went back to my native
town. Every hand was stretched out
to me. My old employers at the mill
would have put me in my old place,
but | refused. / inquired for Barbara
and for him. They had married after
my mothers death and gone, 1t was
said, to America. I took measures to
prove this; then / went to work at my
old trade. l worked day and night and
lived on next TO nothing. At the end
OF a year l had what / wanted. A
fortnight later i was in New York.
My plan was to work my way yer
the co~untry-to work and watch. l
felt sure that the man i was looking
for would work at his trade, too, and
l believed in time / should get OF his
track. | stayed several months in
New York and found plenty to do.
The only fault found with me was my
love of change. You know what is
said of rolling stones. Jordan" sy en-
plOyers would say as | was about 10
leave. 1T isn't moss gathering ] am
after" | would answer.
/ took no man into my confdc
but | lost no chance of getting -.
Uuainted with men of our craft. | fire
quented places where they congre-
gated, set them to talking, asking
them az to Englishmen they had
known, etc.
You are looking for some me-, Jor-
dan" was said more than me
Maybe | am" / would answer.
One man who had been looking on
and listening said with a laugh, I'm
devilish glad it amt me you're look
ing for, Jordan" And / knew well
enough what he meant.
| have wandered South and West, l
have thought many a time i was On
the right trail, but is has come to
naught 70 far. About a year 9 l
fell i'll and was a long time in a hos
pital. When / was discharged / was
a mere wreck. Something was the
matter with my heart, they said. /
have not been able to work long at a
time since. Such work as / get is
given me out of compassion.
At thirty-five l nave the face and
gait OF a feeble man Of seventy. When
/ catch a glimpse of my reflection, |
am like a stranger in my w eyes,
yet, feeble as is my body, the motive
for which | live is strong within me.
BY every glimpse into a warm, coy
fireside where the happy husband and
wife and children gather, ] enc my
VOW to finish the man who wrecked
my life. to meet him face to face, TO
unmask his villainy. to let him see
Barbara, his wife, turn from him in
horror and loathing, to have his era
ven life at last. This desire confirm
ally thwarted, never extinguished, up
holds me. 1t is meat and drink and
clothing to my famished, shivering
body. / must be the chosen instru-
ment of Gods vengeance. or / should
have died of sheer despair before now
Die? No, not yet; | must press IN.
Who knows but l may be even now