The San Francisco call., 1897-10-24

NO. she said. "My son had nothing
10 say and / have nothing"
1t was like benediction. l accepted it
as such and passed out. But she called to
me as l paused on the walk, with the
dry leaves f1uttering idly about my feet
and the first bitterness came into her
voice and the first strangeness into ner
face.
LET them have their own way" she
said. 81 shouldn't want her to die-she
might 90 and meet him-on the other
side-somewhere."
And that was quite true; one couldn't
be certain, but there was chance of it.
She closed the door, and shut all the
light and sunshine out again. and 1 was
glad to be out with it, though my soul
ached for her when l thought -
''Wny, he was the only son of his
mother and she was W widow"
The keeper of the keys at the Alameda
County Jail informed me that "Ciara" had
! a visitor.
Then l will wait" said.
HIN J" he announced. proceeding to
unlock the inner door. She's liable to
stay all day. You'd better come up-the
girls pretty weak. Her mother was just
he,e TO see her and we had hard WORK to
get her back upstairs"
l followed as he led up to the back top
part of the building and entered the
women's ward. 1t was a large room. A
good fire was burning in a stove at the
| further end. Clara Fallmer's hat and coat
lay on the bed near by, some papers lay
on the table, and Clara Fallmer hersef,
her pretty brown hair braided in two
tight braids, leaned against the table and
talked to the "girl friend"
She turned when 1 spoke to her, and
smiled pleasantly.
II don't look very presenta ble," she
said, CLAN cling at the brilliant green skirt
which she wore and the loose red waist.
"but it hurts me to move my shoulder.
l can feel the bullet you know, and it's
hard for me to comb my hair"
Il told yez to crimp yer hair, darlin',"
said voice from near by.
1t was a woman standing inside of the
inner cell, and leaning half way toward US
"a woman with gray hair and dropping
| eyes and scanned and SCARED face
Clara nodded her head and smiled at
! her.
! Over in the further corner by the win
! dow China and Japan had hung up a flag
| of truce, and the Chinese woman patiently
smoothed the straight black hair of the
| other.
1.-The japanese woman's here for beat
ing her children" explained this youth
full inmate of a prison cell whom l bad
come to interview. "The Chinese girl
they hold because they think she has been
sold into slavery"
alt must be awful here -
She shrugged her shoulders. Cant
/ help 1t. l have to stay
This was certainly philosophical, and l
suppose it is wisest TO laugh and look
pleasant and make the best of it, only
well, fear is good thing sometimes and
| despair over ones misdeeds sometimes
purifies.
''They tell me, said, "that you do not
regret what you did"
She opened her eyes and just glanced my
way with little half smile of surprise
81 don't know why they said that" she
replied. 'Of course anybody would be
sorry TO do thing like that"
Sorry? A word so weak and incompe-
tent that has ceased to convey anything
more than i pleasant sound to our ears
Long ago it was divorced completely from
the sill sad thought of sorrow and it has
nothing left more effective than the i'm
press of fippsncy.
Life is all we are sure OF" 1 said. at
is hard to go into place We know moth
Ing Of"
Where we will have little wings" Clara
said, laughing lightly.
II can't talk much" she ADDED, land
people seem 10 think 1 ought to tell them
everything. but my lawyers have told me
not TO make statements and so OF course
can't. And l don't want 10 talk of him, 4"
she said; "he is dead, and they testified
that killed him, and that's all"
/ AIR God help her if it only were all.
But there is so much more-so much.
And the woof being broken she must
worry with the blignted web until she
dies-until the warpls woven out.
She moved her shoulder, it is the left
one that holds the bullet, and her face
changed with the pain.
AZ shall have ii take out, she said, "be-
fore the trial, and sitting there com posed
| and quiet, she might have been speaking
of a party rather than a chance for life or
death.
"Do you dread it2"
No." she said; 1.-The operation will not
be dangerous as it is so near the surface
| 1t was funny, when l shot myself l didn't
feel anything. l fell down and then
tried 10 get up, and found couldn't. But
felt it afterward."
And she laughed again, just pleasantly.
The girl is not leaden with despair, but
there is no mirth in her. l think there
never has been and l know there never
can be. "Bat the trial." 1 said, ''do you
dread it?'
Her face sobered then. YES" she said
Al don't like the people and L don't like
the horrible details 10 be tod over and
over, and it will take long while" Her
friend leaned forward and put her arm
about her IN pretty way.
"But it has to be-" she said. brighten
ing up again, land it can't be helped"
'And if you could help it, if you could
bring him back to life, back from the
! grave in which he slying?"