The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-30

dream Of present security. for the
watch dog OF retrfbution lies CONSTANT
ly at your door, waiting to turn upon
his master. Your Judgment. gentle
men. has two handmaids: one lights
the flame of injustice; h other has
tens to Quench It, The temperament
of one is spite. deceit and revenge:
hat of the other IN love. charity and
integrity. One grasps at opportunities
for the evil that IL in II; the other for
the good oun therein. One leads you
into the Quagmire of trib-
ulation by false display: the other d.
rects you n green pastures Of con-
tent, where care n safety abide.
Both OF these are your slaves, subject
to your command.
standing here alone, lost upon the
bitter aikali plains OF despair, without
a trail. without a sienboard. h hor-
clouds OF an approaching night. a
night In who's vault no moon. no even
ing or morning star shall hin to
guide me on my way. Who, then. gen.
tlemen, shall you employ; which hand
maid will you dispatch TO my assist
ance? That one who cad with illu-
sive mirage the bewildered traveller to
a thirsty death, or she whose honest
smiles beguile his suffering into a place
of safety?
II have no power Of expression. ut
terance or orm of speech to shape
my words In; / know not how to win
your hearts. for in this I have but lit
tie practice. / am an unsophistocated
wanderer upon Gods great earth.
whose school was experience N whose
master IL observation. i can not play
upon the Eolian strings of your ears
with the soothing variations Of a sy-
cophant. neither can / paint to you
with polychromatic colors OF a Raphael
the desolate moorland stretching be-
fore me, this Dantean gulf OF starless
gloom, wherein I must take a Milton
Ian plunge forever from the day OF
hope, from the bright sunshine of lib
erty and the fear Eyes of those I love.
mo, gentlemen, I cannot. like a
thief, steal through the windows OF
your souls and pluck from thence your
secret impulses, but at its sanctuary
door tha contains our manhood,
your love, your life. your eternal
and joys. I knock as a b~enighted
stranger for assistance. For now
that above each portal imprinted In
letters OF gold are the lines: DO thou
to Others as thou would have others
do unto thee
"A convict! Gentlemen, do o real
ize the full meaning of the term? To
convict a man, to place him In a cell.
to deprive him of all his accustomed
recreation. does not define the word;
II Is a word whose definition embraces
a world of misery. not one life. but
that OF many: not n heart, but
many; not one thought. but many;
not one cry OF dispair, but, mercifui
God, how the turbulent waves of mis-
cry multiply here, there and every
where. II is a word. friends. that con-
geals the blood, harrows up the soul
and robs the senses of their power OF
reason, whose shock of despair Is OFT
en- felt I'm a future generation. Think.
gentlemen, of a wife In her solitary
surroundings, her helpless condition,
her cry OF mercy before the footstool
OF her God as she grasps the fathef-
less child to her heaving bosom. walt
ing. watching. ever waiting for loved
footsteps at her door. THINK. again,
of a mothers signs through the Ions
watches of the night. her unanswered
prayer. to behold again her Wander
ing boy, just once more before her life
ebbs out upon hat ocean Of eternal
light. Think, once more. of a gray
haired father bent low I'm the chilling
winds of autumn life; is he thus seer
ed and furrowed by storms of time?
Think you beyond the tender feelings
that animates the human breast; has
he forgotten to think as he steps feeb-
ly onward to his eternal resting place?
Friends. you are not wood. o
are not stones, blu men; being men.
with homes, with wives, with sons. and
daughters. whose love buoys you over
a summer sea and lights the beacons
I'm the night of storm. Should you
essay to define that n word to any
OF these. call IL death, not to one. u
many: the loss of social standing. the
loss OF liberty, the loss of future pros
poets. the loss of father. mother, wife
and child. Is nothing compared with
the loss of all eternal happiness. for
think you hat the communicating in
huence OF a prison life can be removed
by soap and water. or that the cast
ing aside OF the prison garb. the in
fictitious faint engendered by long as
ISOLATION disappears? Such. gentlemen.
would be contrary to the natural re-
suits attending the aw OF cause and
effect. A crime in itself can be erased
by OUTLYING its past influence. A
crime whose influence still exists, sur
rounded by a fostering temperature,
will spread as the ring worm upon the
face and multiply in our long con-
Meeting chain as the links OF the TINA
solanium, or seif-generative tape
worm.
Guilt sees i'm every ush an officer.
The knowledge of guilt makes towards
OF US all. The characteristics of guilt
can be traced In the ligament OF facial
expression. In Individual demeanor. In
the vaclllating eye n low groveling
disposition. Upon him who the indeli-
Bile finger of guilt has once traced Its
first impression. transformation begins
until IL a be G as plain as the
record on the wall.
Gentlemen. have I In pleading be-
fore you here to-day, evinced any de-
sire to desert my manhood by shrink
ing from the duty Il has imposed
upon me. that OF self defense? Have
I. in that action. displayed by look
or demeanor. anything foreign to an
honest nature? a any one Of you
find written upon my ace anything
beyond the wear and tear OF 40 win
tiers that might lead you to believe
me guilty OF c a crime as 1 am
| here charged with?
1T is written: MAJ know myself.
The full knowledge thereof assists you
in judging human nature about you,
E~nariauee and lonyeyffy furp tbs