The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-04-23
SOME RHYMES OF JOLIET
One of the Rock Pile Artists at
the Police Station
is an Author and a Poet, and
Has Published
"A Selections From 1t Mostly
Devoted to Portraying the Hor-
rors of Prison Life.

A8A1 IA a --7-t-- $3.50
Serving time in the city prison for
having been intoxicated and disorderly
is William Egan Cannon.
Cannon was picked UP by the police
at the Fifth Avenue hotel Monday
where he had made a most desperate
attempt to mash out one of the walls
with his right fist.
If the liniment and bandages do not
run out Cannon may be able to get his
hand in his coat pocket and bend his
fingers again in a very few weeks.
In addition to being experienced in
the matter Of intoxicants the man
has a history.
"A little more than a year ago he was
released from the Illinois penitentiary
at Joliet where he served eight years
for the killing of Policeman Jack Nc
Graw in Chicago, who had attempted
to arrest him for theft.
When he got out he came to Kan
sas and then did the next best thing
by writing a book about his prison eX-
periences-
Cannon got an education somehow in
the Catholic schools of Chicago and in
the prison and his story is at least
readible-
Besides learning to steal and shoot
policemen when he was young Cannon
also learned to write poetry and much
of his book is the offspring of his pO-
etIc muse.
Cannon is possibly forty years of age,
small and slender.
He is not very good looking now, but
he must have been fairly So at one time
if the pictures of himself in his book
much like a congressman. which is per
haps not surprising.
Gannon's description of his prison
life is classic. He did not take kindly
to it and finds occasion to say some
very pertinent things about prisons and
prison officials.
He evidently did not get along well
with the chaplain for in one place he
speaks Of him in this way:
'EIe was a sanctimonious cuss,
The hypocritical sinner;
AS a prison preacher he played his part
Quite well for a beginner
Though I've been a prisoner bound,
Shut up in a convict's cell,
III take the chances with my pious
friend
BE our destiny heaven Oh hell"
He also speaks Of the chapel as fol-
lows.
Here youu find no cushioned pew
Yet hypocrites sit. perhaps a few.
Who hear the text. Come freely give
How long. 4 ask. viii religion live
While in the radius Of her temples
spire
Humanity's want is food and hre?'
Mr.. Cannon further contemplatea the
situation in the following.
s.r1-+,-.7=,--- So
MY thoughts ran deep as the pits of he'll
And I've. bordering, wondered if Christ
was there
If the lash Of a keeper His back would
spare.
I've seen the youth and old sinful men
Confined together in a prison pen
And I've heard the shrieks of the ma
Mae roll
Till the echoing sounds oppressed my
soul
Through the long dark night till the
I've restless tossed meath shadows gray
While my head would ache and my soul
in pain
Would shrink at the sound Of each
clanking chain
That he was sometimes wont to drop
into blank verse is evidenced by the fol
lowing
Good heavens, God Almighty,
Look down upon those here confined
Languishing within this he'll Of heus.
This foul inferno of earth
Where brutality vitiates the dungeon
air
And water is boon men crave in vain
For mercy enters not the fendish mind
Of those brute human keepers who
would dare
Add torture to confinement here
Which OF itself means death"
There were evidently times when he
envied the savage who didn't have to
wear stripes for he says:
1.-THE savage who dwelt in the forest.
And drew his LIES breath on the
plain
Is free from the bonds of his keeper
The law and its dungeon and chain -
Cannon viii serve five days and
when his hand gets we'll viii probably
write some poetry about it.
When he was arrested he said to the
officers.
Don't be afraid boys: haven't
killed policeman for ten years"
Cannon now claims Valley Fails as
his home His real name is Grimths.