Santa Fe new Mexican. [volume] (Santa Fe, N.M.) 1898-1951, 1898-08-24
A JAIL INCIDENT.

The other morning | went to see an ex
smining magistrate before whom l had In
| behalf of a poor devil to recommend a stay
of proceedings. Tho hall of witnesses
where l was waiting was full of people
sheriff S officers, clerks engrossing behind
a glass partition, witnesses whispering to
each other in advance of their depositions,
women of the people, impressive and gar.
rulous, who were telling the officers their
entire lives in order to arrive at the affair
that had brought them there. Near me
an open door lit the somber lobby of the
examining magistrate, a lobby which
leads everywhere, even to the scaffold and
from which the prisoners issue as accused.
Some of these unfortunates, brought there
under a strong escort by way of the stair
ease of la c~onciergerie, lay about on the
benches awaiting their turn to be interro-
gated, and it is in this antechalnber of the
convict prison that l overheard a lovers
dialogue, an idyl of the Faubourg, as i'm
FASHIONED as "lOarystis, but more heart
breaking. Yes, in the midst of this shad-
ow, where so many criminals have left
something of their shuddering, of their
hopes and of their RACES, l saw two beings
love and smile and, however lowly was
this love, however faded was this smile,
the old lobby must have been as astonished
by it as a miry and black street of Paris,
were it penetrated by the cooling Of a tur-
tie dove.
In a ~listless attitude, almost unoon-
coio,,c "a onrr yivl xu,ao pootoI ot tho ,rI
of a bench, quiet as a working woman
who waits the price Of her days labor.
She wore the calico bonnet and the sad
costume of Saint Lazare with an air of re-
pose and of well being, as though the
prison regime were the best thing she had
found in all her life. The guard who sat
beside her seemed to find her much to his
taste, and they laughed together softly.
At the other end Of the lobby, wholly in
the shadow, was seated, handouts ON
wrists, the Desgrieux of this Manon. She
had not seen him at first, but as soon as her
eyes became accustomed to the darkness
she perceived him and trembled,
"Why, that's Pignou-hel Pignour'
The guard silenoed her. The prisoners
are expressly forbidden to talk to each
other.
"Oh, / beg of you, only one world" said
she, leaning forward toward the remotest
part of the lobby.
But the soldier remained inhexible.
"No, no; it can't be done-only If you
have some message to give him tell it to
me. l will repeat it to him"
Then a dialogue was entered into be-
tween this girl and her Pignou, with the
guard as interpreter.
Much moved, without needing those
who surrounded her, she began:
"Tell him l have never loved any one
but him that / will never love another in
all my life,
The guard made a number of steps in
the lobby, and, rebuilding his gravity as
though to take from the proceeding all
that was too kindly, he repeated:
"She says she has never loved but you,
and that she'll never love another"
l heard "a grumbling, a confused STAN
mering, which must have been the response
of Pignou; then the guard went back with
measured step toward the bench.
"What did he say?' demanded the child,
all anxious and as though waiting were
too long. "Well, tell me what he said
nowv'
"He said he was very miserable"
Then, carried away by her emotion and
the custom Of the noisy and communica-
tive streets, she cried out loud:
"Don't be weary, m'ami-the good days
will come again!"
And in this voice, still young, there was
something piteous, almost maternal.
Plainly this was the woman of the people,
with her courage under affection and her
doglike devotion.
From the depths of the lobby a voice re-
! piled, the voice of Pignou, wine soaked,
torn, burned with alcohol:
eva done! The good days-Ill have
them at tie end of my five years!"
He knew his case we'll, that one!
The guards cried: "Chut! Keep quiet!"
But too late.
A door had opened, and the examining
magistrate himself appeared on the sill.
Skullcap Of velvet, grizzled whiskers,
mouth thin and evil, the eye scrutinizinR,
d~istrustful, but not profound, it was just
the type of an examining magistrate, one
of those men who thinks he has a Grim
inal before him always, like those doctors
of the insane who see maniacs everywhere.
That one in particular had a certain way
Of looking at you SO annoying and SO in
sulting that you felt guilty without hav-
ing done anything. With II glance of
the eye he terrified all the lobby: "What
does all this noise mean? Try to do your
duty a little BETTER" he said, addressing
the guards.
Then he closed his door with a sharp
click.
The municipal guard taken to task, red,
mortified, looked around a moment for
some one upon whom to lay the blame.
But the little girl said nothing more, Pi.
gnou sat quiet on his bench. All at once
he perceived me, and as I was at the door
of the hall, almost in the lobby, he took
me by the arm and jerked me around bru'
tally.
"What are you doing there, your
Translated From the French Of Alphonse
Daudet For Short Stories.