Arizona republican., 1897-09-16
SOLACED BY SHAKESPEARE.

Wasting away within the dull brown walls of Wethersfield prison in Connecticut. there is man, Ca prisoner for life," who knows the i'm mortal lines of Shakespeare better than any professor who eXpounds the wisdom of the greatest bard of all times. He was accessory before the fact" in the murder of a keeper by a 3nvict, having agreed to assist in A g cO1victis escape and having pro Rlred him an express package which contained the weapon with which the murderous deed was done. Today John Henry Davis, life man. once Ia young officer at Wethersfeld, now "a gray haired prisoner himself, has better conception of the characters Shakespeare's plays than most crit cs, has every sentence, every line at lis tongues end, and finds in these rule for every act in life, a solace pr every misery, a hope even for hose who have been abandoned by Ill the world
 Daviss history is so full of romance that I went to Wethersfeld confident ly expecting to see the story of this scholarly convict crumble away like a myth of some haunted castle. For five hours-they seemed very short I sat with this man, listened to his story, heard it corroborated word for word by the deputy who sat beside me and questioned his knowledge of Shakespeare. I came away with a more wonderful story than amy had ever heard told of this wonderful man.
 The warden a,zd I stopped in front of cell that might have been taken flor the den of some man of letters. There were books scattered about in literary profuslam and pictures on the walls that caused one to look at them a second time. It was the cell lbe scholar of Wethersfeld.
 man who roso to greet me
 strangely out of place in the
 Orb of a prisouer. His face
 fis the traces of sorrow. The
 of the convict were miss
 lie was broken physically, his
 guivered and his hand was un-
 !; but there was something about |that told one he never should
 filled a ccnvict's cell.
 Ire is his story in his own words:
 
 been here four years, the Rev.
 eorge M. Stone of Hartford
 own one Sunday afternoon to
 9 talk on Shakespeare He
 returned from Stratford -on-
 h he announced his subject.
 it seemed to me that 1t was
 sious to the day and the place.
 hH left rabo
 lave done so. At first I did not
 Dr. Stone, but as he got in
 ubject more and more, I be-
 terested
 'concluded his address wish
 Tords: As I went th-ough the
 S and along the Avon at Strat
 knew was nearing the home
 kespeare, for there were the
 Hiust as when he wrcte:
 Ses red and violets blue.
 all silver white. Ana cuchoo@U-o yellow hue. DO paint the meadows with deIigbt The same flowers are there to- day In this talk Dr. Stone quoted only few lines from Shakespeare. He spoke Of Lady Macbeth, however. and that scene in the second act of the play, where she says;
 "-all the perfumes
 Of Arabia will not sweeten
 This little hand.
 This line impressed me, for it made me think of my own life. Finally pr Stone closed his address. and shall never forget his words He said :: l saw the death mask that was taken from Shakespeare, and am afraid, frcm all accounts, that he was Iosf fior, only a few days before his death. he went away on spree With Ben Johnson. But we can only hope that the man who saw every thing in life as it was-tfe birds. the fields and the flowers, even when the film of death was upon his eyes-saw a ma-i, a Savior, as He was.'
 went to my cell with these words ringing in my ears, determined to knoW something more of Shakespeare The next day I asked the librarian lor a copy of Shakespeare, and got if. kept it as long as could, and only gave 1t up when some other fellow asked for it. Then I waited anxiouslv until could get it again, and so on until l had read it through.
 l asked Davis for the purpose of IesIngs him, where dozen of obscure -~ Lines came frlom, and he tnrned to them before I finished quoting them. Frequently he corrected me and went on with passages of line after line from every play and sonnet of Shakes peare. He seemed to have every line, every sentence on his tongues end, and he told me that he had never failed to find quotatlon that had been given him to find
 Then I tried his critical knowledge and his conception of the various characters I asked him if he had read Ignatius Donmelly's book.
 "Yes, I guess that was the fellows name" Davis replied. "He did not