Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-09-07


did not take Isaac lorg to find out that
this complexion did not indicate consump
ton, but was only prison pallor. The other
prisoner YES less pathetic as to color, but
he was listiess and discouraged. The only
| amusement of these men consisted in
chewing tobacco in enormous quantities,
playing SURF eptitious games of high, low,
jack, in reading the daily paper, single
magazine, and waiting for the sun to enter
the barred window, and watching it in the
afternoon as it slipped away. These two
men tried to cheer the new conner in
rude, hearty way; but v hen the country
lad learned that they had been in deten-
ton for six months already, held by the
government as main witnesses against the
| first mate of their brig. their words were
as dust. They only ohoked him.
What did you do?" Isaac asked, Ito get
you in such a Scrape?'
I'VE saw the mate shoot the cook; that's
all"
"If I'd known" said the pale boy. with a
look out of the window, how Uncle Sam
keeps us so long-I wished / hadn't said
nothing. But we get a dollar day; that's
something." And with a sigh that he
meant to engulf with his philosophy. the
boy turned his face away, SC that Isaac
should not suspect the tears that sailed
the flavor of the coarse tobacco.
The dark outlook, the hopeless future.
the hopeless cell, the disordered table, the
lazy life that deadened all activity but
that of imagination, the fCuEging compan-
iOnship but above all things the thought
of his mother and Abbie. and the brooding
over what he dared to call ar outrage per-
petrated in the name of the law upon HIM
self-these things made turmoil of
IsaacS brain. There was a daily conflict
between the Christian and the criminal
way of looking at his irIeparable misfor-
tune which he was surprised to find that
even the possession of lis fathers Bible
could not control.
There We're times When it needed all his
intelligence to keep him from springing
on the keeper and running amuck in the
I'd CHI H.
ing a violent, brutal protest. Then there
We're hours wien he was too exhausted TO
leave his cot At such a time he wrote a
letter, his first letter to his mother. and he
made the keeper promise to have it mailed
so that no one could possibly suspect that
1t started from prison.
Dear mother it ran. II have not writ
ten to you for three weeks since l have
heen here, because 1 have been sick. 1 am
now in very safe place. and am doing
pretty wei, clear my food and board and
% cents day. l have rot been paid yet.
l think you had better not write to me
until can give you a permanent address.
l read my Bible every day and love you
more dearly than ever. I have tried to do
my duty you would have me. Give my
love to Ahhie. l will write soon again.
Ever your affectionate son. Isaac"
The s1rlpleton. Could he not suspect that
country papers copy from city columns all
mat is OF special local interest and more?
Ana did he not know that it is one of the
diseraces of modern journalism that no
department is so copiousIy edited, anao-
tatcd and Illustrated as that of criminal
intelligence?
Couli he rot surr2ise that on the Saturday
Following his Incarceration the very noun
tains rang with the news? That it should
be mangled and turned topsy-rurvey, and
that in the eyes of his supplemented
neighbors he should be thought Of as the
murderer by reason of his great strength?
For how could it come into the intelligence
of lawabiding citizens and law-respectins
people that a man should be shut up in
prison, no matter what the newspapers
said unless he had done something 10 de-
serve il" What did the mountaineerS know
about the laws of hail, and habeas corpus?
And could such news, gossiped by one
neighbor and repeated by another, confirm
ed by Il third fail to reach the desolate
farm house in which a woman, feeble. old
and faint of heart lay trembling between
life and death?
The grand jury meets on the first Monday
of each month to indict those for trial
against whom reasonable proofs of guilt
are obtained. The saloon loafer had been
shot in the groin, and pending mis- injuries,
Indictment was waived. In proportion as
the wound proved serious and the recovery
prolonged trial vas postponed.
Isaac Masters had now been locked up six
weeks. He had not yet heard from home.
and had only written once About noon,
one day the keepers came to tell him that
a woman wished to see him. Isaac thought
it was his mother and the shame of meet
ing her in The guard room, surrounded by
tiers upon tiers of murderers, and thieves
and petty criminals, overcane him. The
man of strength sat down on his cot, and
putting his hards over his white face,
trembled violently. The guard, who knew
that Isaac an innocent man, spoke to
him kindly.
60! Col" said the prisoner in voice of
agony, "and tell my mother that l will be
right there"
Mother calculated the guard. She's
the youngest mother fur man of your
size l ever see" He winked at the sailor
and went.
Then Isaac knew that it Abbie who
had come alone, and he frightened his teeth
and lips together and went down.
Isaac slowly came down the perforated
iron stairs that were attached to the outside
of his prison wing like a fire escape. On
the bench in the middle of the guard room
sa Abbie-a little. helpless thing she seem
ed to him-facing the entrance, as if she
feared to remove her eyes from the door
that led to freedom.
Abbie was greatly charged. She was
dressed in black. If Isaac had been a free
man, this fact would have startled him. AS
it was he was SO spent with suffering that
his duled mind could not understand it,
At first Abbe did not recognize her hearty
lover His huge frame was gaunt and
wasted. His ruddy face was white and his
cheeks hung in folds like nodded putty. His