, 1896-03-20
BIG TOM, CONVICT.

There were those who said that con-
vist 1880 was innocent of the crime
which sent him to prison for such Il long
term of years. but that there was scarce
u hope Of his ever being a free man
again. They meant that he Was tech
ni"ally guilty. He had sought to ave a
woman from a beating at the hands Of
her husband, and i'll the struggle and
excitement he had struck "a blow which
caused the death of the man. 1t was
accident, i'll a sense, but it was also
manslaughter. No man who is u man
will stand by and see a 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, u child in his
g%entleness 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 a
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 rs childlike and good III
tured, and yet they said to each other as
they talked of him:
Look out for Big Tom! He will
break loose some day and do some des
perate thing!"
They thought it would come during
the first six months of his term-then
during the sccOnd-then they almost
became afraid Of him. Men who are
slow to anger-who go on grieving,
brooding and bearing n 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. w 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:
cit will come. 1t is only delayed.
When he breaks loose, he will kill some
one and have to be killed in urn"
Nearly half of the second year had
passed, and the giant convict had never
even su'ked. when one day there came
into the shop as sightseers q husband,
wife and little girl 4 or 8 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 orc i'll that prison knew that
convict 1880 had u daughter fair
haired, handsome child, who could only
walk alone when the jury pronounced
his verdict Of "guilty"-he had for
gotten the fact. Els wife had visited
him as often as visitors wero allowed,
but the child had never been seer with
in the grim walls. Knowing that her
husband had killed a man by accident,
the wife could bear to see him wearing
the horrible stripes of a convict, but to
let tho child look upon him, to gaze in
wonder at the iron bars, to ask why all
those men were there, a Thousand times
mol And 50 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 a feeling of mad
ness, Of desperation. Of frenzy. To say
a woman from a brutal beating ut the
hands Of a drunken, worthless thing not
TT to he classed with men he had struck
a blow.
A Jury had called it murder in the
second degree. and he was here in pris.
OH Oh q sentence almost ending.
he had been wronged, and the knowl-
edge of it fred his heart and brought
the long expected outbreak. With u sud
den cry which startled every one in the
noisy shop Big Tom made a spring for
ward, seized the child in his arms, and
there was a shout Of defiance on his lips
a. he held her at arms length and
slared about him. The mother of the
child gasped for breath and staggered
back to the wall and sank down. The
father stood staring, as il struck dumb,
but presently held out his hands in 81
lent application. Big Tom glowered
and muttered in reply. he was q con-
vict, a childless father. He was dead
to his child--she was dead to him. he
could not make another fathers heart
ache and throb and grieve - his did.
but be would secure revenge.
After muttering he was silent. No
ono cried out. Guards and convicts wers
seemingly stupeied. There was the hum
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 III
lhsir chains and looked and looked. but
they did NOT move q cry out
what will h do with the childf"
The two men working At the trip
hammer with Big Tom had fallen back.
He had control Of tho machinery which
worked IL The answer to the question
ooaA BE- read In his eyes Men had
wronged him under cover Of the law.
| He had bssn deprived II liberty, de-
gzadsd end diagrsced- Death were more
msEctfal than such . sentence - his.
"a h dying ~ would secuss revenge.
a p6eoo a Iron I'D besn le3t under thu
Aaanse. 1sEsyA hsaEd H su1sd d