Arizona republican., 1897-09-16

were not allowed to have any ink in the prison. One of the first things that impressed me about Shakespeare was that it was so much like the Bi- ble He seemed to me to explain the Bible. He speaks of God and Christ so often that I decided to count the number of times the words occurred. So I punched a hole in this card every time I found such a reference. Fi- nally I found that Shakespeare speaks of God and Christ S57 times, of mercy 179 times, of merciless twelve and of merciful nineteen"
 Davis handed me a much worn Bi- ble, and on the f1yleaf I found these words:
 From Dr. Stone" Beneath Davis had written these lines from Henry V, act iv, scene 4: With blood he sealed a testam ent of noble ended love"
 I asked him if he preferred the Bi- ble to Shakespeare, and he said:
 "No, not that; but I want them both with me always The one ex- plains the other. I have always read the Bible, and I love it. But Shakes peare has been a great comfort and consolation to me through all these years. The more I read his works the more I love them.
 Sometimes when I read Shakes peare 1 think I am a free man again, with the flowers and the .birds about me just as they are in Shakespeare. Within the past year l have suffered three hemorrhages, and sometimes I have felt that my time had about run. But like King Richard
 q am sworn brother sweet to grim
 necessity And he and I will keep a league till
 death."
 'When I first began to rea1 Shakes peare the prisoners used to laugh at me. The officers would say. At that old Shakespeare again, John? You will be a crank one Of these days
 well, kept on, and now 1t is diff ferent. I have tread Shakespeare through two and three times every year, and now they all knlow what a comfort it has been to me-
 asked him what he considered Shakespeare's greatest play, and he said:
 T think Hamlet is his master piece, but if a man has been through what 1 have he will enjoy the 'Mer- chant Of Venice about as much as any of the plays. I like 'Othello,' Julius Caesar ard Anthony and Cleopatra
 'fWihaIt lines do you consider the strongest?" I asked.
 That depends uDcn what you mean. If you want the language, read those Hines in Midsummer Nights Dream,' act II, which begin, And now they never meet in grove or green Or in act III You have been down to the beach, have you then, think of these lines:
 '-Even till the eastern gate. all fiery
 red,
 Opening on Neptune with fair, blessed
 beams,
 Turns into yellow gold his salt green
 streams" etc.
 Or if you want a great deal made out of a little thing, read those lines of Lear act ", scene 6, Oh, let me kiss that hand etc. Or if you want something strong, read those lines of Paulina in Winters Tale,' act III, scene ?, where she knows the queen is not dead but says:
 "But, Oh, thou tyrant! Do not repent,
 etc."
 And so Davis rambled on, hour af- ter hour, quching whole pages and criticising and explaining as he went along. And all this knowledge was acquired by the glimmer of prison lamp, behind iron bars and stone walls, snatched, as it were, from time itself, when, after weary day of toll in the shops, he read while oth- CTS slept.
 He told me he had never broken a prison rule but once, when he woke up one night and tried to repeat some lines from Hamlet" He forgot the connection, and SO Nit his lamp to find a word that had slipped from his memory. Had a guard seen the light in Davis's cell he might have, in those days at Wethersield, gone to dungeon on bread and water as a penalty.
 During hours and days and years this wonderful mind, all untaught and inexperienced in reading such heavy sentences, had worked out, little by little, an education, found an inspira- tion and a hope. In those long years as he told me when I was leaving him, he had chung to the hope o1 mercy that Shakespeare held out fol those who suffer.-New York Herald