The Camden chronicle. (Camden, Tenn.) 1890-current, 1896-04-03
BIG TOM THE CONVICT.

There we're those who said that
convict 1880 was innocent Of the
crime which sent him 10 prison for
such long term Of years that there
was scarce hope of his ever being
free man again. They meant that
he was technically guilty. He had
sought to save woman from a beating
ut 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 a
sense, but IL was also manslaughtor
No man who is a man will stand by
and see a woman beaten, and yet if he
interieres he must take his chances
with the law. "Big Tom, as the con.
Wet was sometimes referred to, was
like most big men-a child in his gen.
ueness and good nature. He went to
prison weeping. He did not complain,
but he grieved. Ho thought of the
years and years which he must drag
away before the prison doors would
open to him. and he moved about like
q weak, old man. The prison officials
felt to pity the man, but convict is
a convict and all must be treated alike
all who show obedience TO the rules.
They sized him up as child-like and
good-natured. 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
desperate thing"
They thought it would come 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 80 on growing, brooding
and bearing a mental burden for
weeks and months are devils when the
climax comes. Big Tom had the man
agement Of the trip hammer in the ma
chine 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 shop. Two pieces of machln-
cry, 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
and making the convict smile and look
proud, the guards had an eye on him
and kept saying to each other:
''It will come 1t is only delayed /!
When he breaks loose he will kill
some one and have to be killed in
turnl"
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 four or five years
old. Children are seldom seen in
prisons, and is q rare thing that they
are taken into the shops in the yards.
II any one in that prison knew that
convict No. 1880 had a daughter
fair-haired, handsome child who could
only walk alone when the jury pro-
nounced his verdict of equity" they
had forgotten the fact. His wife had
visited him as often as visitors were
allowed, but the child had never been
seen within 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 {
convict, but to let the child look upoI
him-to gaze in wonder at the iror
bars-to ask why all those men were
there-a thousand times no. And SC
this was the first child Big Tom hac
seen since the heavy doors shut hin
in. Father, mother and child came
close to him and gazed a
the ponderous hammer with wonder
ing 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 die
not 1t brought a feeling of mad
ness-of desperation-of frenzy. II
save a woman from brutal beating a