Fort Worth gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1891-1898, 1895-09-07

lue nThV Jay was over, out 10 seemed
to me that something more must come
that what l had gone through could
moan the life Of day must surely DO
impossible. Was there nothing before
mo but isolation SO complete that no
whisper from the outside world could
reach mo-that world which, compared
with the death into which was being
absorbed. seemed the only world of the
living2
Had l actually nothing to look for
but the most repulsivo work under the
most repulsive conditional | said there
must be surely some change; that wheel
ing mud forever was not the doom OF
any man and could certainly not be
mine.
l looked about my little coll, the still.
ness OF the grave without, tho utter soil.
tudo within. Tho untouched ration
which formed my supper was ON the
toble-eight ounces Of black broad Try
as ! might TO cheat myself with hope /
knew that hope for many long year
there was mono that. so fur Us the most
vindict:ve sentence could compass 1t, for
many long year .he earth with her
bars was about me.
No "Do profundis" cry could ever as
eend FROM the abyss to tho bottom OF
which Ind fallen. What was outside
OF mo had nothing but the hideous
But although tho visible seemed cor.
ruption and tho things which my soni
nnd body, too had refused to touch were
become my sorrowful meat, yet could
not but feel that the invisible, that part
of me which no bars could hold and no
man deprive mo of, was still my own.
and that IN It l might and would find
sufficient tosupport what began to feel
was, after all, tho only man.
To face tho actualitius Of the position
was the first thing not TO chont myself,
tho second Ind seen the sort Of men
WAS to bo with. set to work to study
and to understand the kind OF life we
were to live together
Az carly dawn We rose, receiving inn
modiately after the nino ounces OF bread
and pint of oatmeal Cruel which COM
posed breakfast; at $3.50 to chapel to
hear ono Of tho eehoolmasters drono
through the morning prayers of tho Eng
lsh church service and listen 60 some
hymn shouted ont from Threats mover
accustomed to such accents. Then tho
morning hours would drag slowly on in
tho summers sun and wintcr's blast I'M
til tho noon hour; then there wns tho
long march back FROM tho soouc Of my
toll to tho prison for dinner. Arriving
there, each man went to his coll. closing
his door, which snapped to, having a
spring lock. Soon aftor dinner Ia given,
consisting Of 10 ounces Of boiled potatoes
and lvo ounces OF bread, varied on three
days Of the week with five ounces OF
meat additional. AT | O'Clock tho doora
were unlocked, and wo marched out TO
our work again. At night, returning TO
tho prison, eight ounces OF black broad
would be dolcd out for supper Then
came the hours between supper and bod
time, when. shut in between those mar
row walls, one realized what it was 70
DO u prisoner
In tho corner Of tho coll thoro was
board let into tho stonowork that served
as bed, table and chair There was a
thin pallet and two blankets rolled up
together during tho day in n corner OF
tho cell that served for bedding, but SC
thin and hard was tho pallot that one
might almost as well have slept on the
board. For the first few weeks this bed
mado my bones ache Most men hayo
little patience and small fortitude, and
this bod kills many q Do, pgisoners--I
mean breaks their hearts simply because
they have not tho wit TO accept tho mat
TOR philoScphically and rcalize that
they can soon become used to any hard
ship 1t took six months for my bones
TO becoms used TO the hard bed, but for
tho next ~ years used to sleep as
sweetly on that oak beard as over did
q >ssx 10 II o bed Of down.. uly. Ike