The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1895-11-23

Austin BlQWelI, GeOrge
and Edward Noyes, on whom were
passed so horrible a sentence in London
for an injury to the Bank of England in
1873, are still in town. A Tribune re-
porter called on them early in the week
and had several interesting conversa-
lions. While listening to their absorb
ing and dramatic stories it was impos-
sible not to feel regret that men of
such alents and such opportunities as
they possessed in early life should have
had SO fearful a fate.
Gun reporter asked Mr.. Bidwell what
were his sensations on emerging from
his Imprisonment of twenty years. Mr..
Bidwell is a man of magnetic personal
ity, a brilliant conversationalist. who
speaks with a flow of witty n pic
turesque language that sustains the at
tention of his nearer. The interesting
article we publish today is the result
of several interviews. The reports
which have reached us of the astonish-
ing conduct of the judge in the recent
trial of the Marquis de Nayve entirely
corrOborates Mr.. Bidwell's account of
what he saw. Different nations have
different customs, of course, but it is re-
voting to our sense of decency to see a
high minister of justice %profaning his
office by such degrading conduct.
Mr.. Bidwell has published an exceed
iEgly interesting book of his exper-
fence written in a nervous and dramatic
style in the highest degree entertaining
and attra ctive.
You wish. he caid to know what
my feelings were on release. 1t would
he easier to say what they were not.
j had gone into prison a vigorous young
man.. / came out worn down. Youth
was gone, middle age fading, old age
already settling down upon me. Ply
Sically / wa almost a wreck, intellect
ually perhaps not much better. The
spirit in the Arabian Nights story
who had passed two thousand years
fastened up in a kettle at the bottom of
the sea was not more unable to mingle
with the world than I was. Something
had to be done TO pull me up again
and 1t was thought that travelling would
help me. l went to France and Italy to
make myself a little less like a man who
had just fallen from another planet and
to find out what had been taking place
in the world between my burial and my
resurrection-a period of t~wenty-one
years.
After q short stay In Paris and q few
weeks on the Riviera. wandering on
foot from Nice to Genoa. drinking in
the happiness of mere life, gazing at
and absorbing scenes of beauty I'M
equalled in the world, except perhaps in
most lovely spots of Southern Cali
fornia, the sense of existence gradually
came back, and the feeling of humanity
began once more to settle on me.
The Return to Health.
No one who has not actually been
through so frightful IN experience can
understand what the resurrection
means from such a death as l had been
for many years swallowed up in to light
and to freedom and expansion of life,
to joy and to the unutterable beauty of
free air and free existence. Joy. how
ever, seldom kills. Happiness all men
easily grow accustomed to, and in it's
sunshine the pressure of past misery
soon grows faint and Is gradually for
gotten. The, whitened hair and the fall
tering gait assert themselves, unaccus-
toned objects everywhere show them
selves. faces we had known and loved
are lost awhile" others have come into
h world and grown to manhood dur
ing the years when the blackness of
darkness had encircled us, everywhere
the world Is new and we feel for a time
that we are not Of 1t; but gradually
these changes. like the Others, grow ia
miliar, and we accept and fit into. the
situation.
Prison life and every thing connected
with 1t had burned itself too deeply into
my nature for me easily to throw off
h remembrance of 1t. I had so long
resented the vindictive ferocity with
which / vas treated hat interest of a
certain kind still chung to all matters in
any way belonging to such subjects.
/ was curious to know something of
the attitude which France adopts to-
wards those of her children whom Mar.
tin Upper calls the unlovely ones. I
had read a good deal of It., but to see 1t
with my wv eyes was not easy unless,
indeed, by qualifying myself in the way
which gave me my English experience.
This way, however, was too objection
able to think of. and permission to ex-
anime Is one of the most difficult of all
things to obtain. At last, though. with
a good deal of help, with a little ex-
panslon and a little judicious suppress
sion. ] succeeded. and with a general
order from the minister of the interior
to the administration Of all prisons to
permit me to visit them I started out on
q tou in quest of information. Not
many steps were necessary TO show me
that French ideas on prison subjects
are altogether different from those of
England and America.
Ideas seem to change with boundary
lines. Names which within one set of
mountains are household words
but few kniles away across
a river or over q mountain,
across a river Or owe a mountain,
are not only utterly unknown, but wen
unpronounceable. The French are
e~ternaily Boosting Of their freedom,
and would be delighted to force all
other nations to accept 1t, but he would
be a brave as well as a strong man
who would attempt to persuade Amer
leans CT E~nglishmen to ADOPT 1t. Legal
ideas and maxims which for centuries
have been at the very foundation Of
law with us are unknown to French
men. Expressions in the highest de-
gree idiomatic and full of meaning to
ourselves are not only without mea
ing on the continent Of Europe. but
seem to be unintelligible jargon. Speak
to a Frenchman about habeas corpus
and 1t is like speaking to an English
man about Nebraska or Oklahoma; he
will think you mea a patent medicine
or a new religion.
Guilty Until Proved Innocent.
With us every man Is innocent until
proved guilty. In France every accused
man is guilty until he proves himself to
be Innocent. With US no man can be
compelled to incriminate himself, but
in La Republicque" no effort is spared
TO compel admissions. In all English
speaking countries 1t is held better that
a hundred guilty persons escape rather
than tnat one Innocent man should suf-
Ter putin France and In all Europe the
maxim seems to be better that a hum
dred should suffer, than that
one guilty person escape"
Tne momen a man Is accused of any
offence an agent de la surete."-in
English. a d~etective-is sent to arrest
him. The warrant Is signed by the
"P~rocureur," who in all his other func-
tions correspond to our district attor-
ney. He Is assisted by a number Of
subordinates called JUICES d'instruc-
ton" whose Office. like their name, is
unknown to us. Once arrested the pro-
cureur may order the prisoner to be
confinement, deprived Of communica-
tion with any one except the ofYicers of