The Lambertville record. [volume] (Lambertville, N.J.) 1872-1968, 1896-03-11
BIG TOM, CONVICT.

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There were those who said that con-
yict 1880 was innocent of the crime
which sent him to prison for such long
term of years, but that there was scarce
a hope Of his ever being free man
again. They meant that he was tech
nically guilty. He had sought to save
! woman from beating at the hands OF
her husband, and in the struggle and
excitement he had struck a blow which
caused the death of the man. 1t was
accident, in sense, but it was also
manslaughter. No man who is man
will stand by and see woman beaten,
| and yet if he interferes he must take
his chances with the law. Big Tom, as
| the convict was sometimes referred to,
was, like most big men, child in his
gentleness and good nature He did not
complain, but he grieved. He thought
of the years and years which must drag
away before the prison doors would open
to him, and he moved about like
weak, old man. The prison officials felt
pity for the man, but a convict is a con-
vict, and all must be treated alike--all
who show obedience to the rules. They
sized him up as ehildlike and good ma
tured, and yet they said to each other as
they talked of him:
"Look ont for Big Toni He will
break loose some day and do some des-
perate thingP'
They thought it would come during
the first six months of his term-then
during the second-then they almost
became afraid of him. Men who are
slow to anger-who 60 on grieving,
brooding and bearing mental burden
for weeks and months are devils when
the climax comes.
Big Tom had the management Of the
trip hammer in the machine shop. Had
they put him in the shoe shop or tailor
shop he would have rebelled at once.
His place was beside the biggest piece
of machinery in the shops, two pieces
of machinery, as it were-Tom and
Trip. Day by day and week by week
and month by month, as the ponderous
hammer rose and fell and its blows
shook the very earth for yards around,
making the convict smile and look
proud, the guards had an eye on him
and kept saying to each other:
tIt will come. 1t is only delayed.
When he breaks loose, he will kill some
one and have to be killed in turn"
Nearly half Of the second year had
passed, and the giant convict had never
even sulked. when one day there came
into the shop as sightseers a husband,
wife and little girl or years old.
Children are seldom seen in prisons,
and it is a rare thing that they are
taken into the shops in the yards II
any one in that prison knew that
convict 1880 had daughter-a fair
haired, handsome child, who could only
walk alone when the jury pronounced
his verdict of guilty had for
gotten the fact. His wife had visited
him as often as visitors were allowed,
but the child had never been seen with
in the grim walls. Knowing that her
husband had killed man by accident,
| the wife could bear to see him wearing
the horrible stripes of convict, but to
let the child look upon him, to gaze in
wonder at the iron bars, to ask why all
those men were there, Thousand times
mol And SO this was the first child Big
Tom had seen since the heavy doors shut
him in. Father, mother and child came
close to him and gazed at the ponderous
hammer with wondering eyes. You
would have argued that the sight of the
child would have softened the convict's
heart and brought tears to his eyes, but
it did not. 1t brought feeling Of mad
ness, Of desperation. Of frenzy. To save
q woman from brutal beating at the
hands Of drunken, worthless thing not
fit to be classed with men he had struck
| blow.
A jury had called it murder in the
second degree, and he was here in pris-
ON ON sentence almost never ending.
He had been wronged, and the knowl-
edge Of 1t fred his heart and brought
the long expected outbreak. With sud-
den cry which startled every one in the
noisy shop Big Tom made spring for
ward, seized the child in his arms, and
there was O shout Of defiance on his lips
as he held her at arms length and
glared about him. The mother Of the
child gasped for breath and staggered
back to the wall and sank down. The
father stood staring, as if struck dumb.
but presently held out his hands in ST.
lent supplication. Big Tom glowered
and muttered in reply. He was con-
vict, q childless father. He was dead
to his chi1d-she was dead to him. He
could not make another fathers heart
ache and throb and. grieve as his did,
but he would secure revenge.
After muttering he was silent. Nc
one cried ont Guards and convicts were
seemingly stupefied. There was the hun
Of machinery, but not Of voices. Con
victs turned from forge and anvil and
bench and lathe and held their breath,
The two shop guards leaned forward IL
their chairs and looked and looked, but
they did not move or cry out.
What will he do with the child?"
The two men working at the triI
hammer with Big Tom had fallen back
He had control Of the machinery which
1 worked 1t. The answer to the question
could be read in his eyes. Men hat
wronged him under cover Of the law
He had been deprived Of liberty, de
graded and disgraced. Death were NOR
merciful than such q sentence as his
and in dying he would secure revenge
A piece Of iron had been left under tn
hammer. There was heard the sound o
| crash crashl crash as the mass Of irol
| xosa and fell at regular interyRiS---tha