The times., 1899-11-12

eight miles for another While they were waiting
the mail arrived. The postoice was right opposite.
IN the bag letter Tor Crouch.
The postmaster brought If and the warden
opened II and read il to the prisoner, asking
him who it was from, and the nggeT said II
from his mother-that the man she worked
for had written it. Oi course the warden knew
it from Crouchs girl, for Crouch had always
sworn he had family, the judge told me
Then Crouch asked the warden if he'd answer II
for him before he died. The warden said he
would, and he got a sheet OF paper, a pen and
ink. and sitting down 10y Crouch under the gal
lows asked him what he wanted to say. And
now. here comes the funny part All that negro
wanted TO say was just this,
I'm enjoying good health and hope to see
you before long. SAM CROj Gil
Then Crouch reached over and took the pen
out of the wardcn's hands, and marked o cross
underneath what the warden had written, and
when the warden asked him what he did that
for, Ec said be wanted his mother TO have some
thing he had touched himself By that time the
new rope came, and they swung him up. Curious
wasn't Itz The warden said IL was the funniest
message he ever knew dying ulgger TO send
and he'd hung good many Of 'em. It struck
me as being some secret kind Of a password
You never can tell about these coons.
This was on a railway train. Just as
the story was finished the youth who had
told it got of at a station, and tai,
bony negro woman sprang out of the
crowd and caught the porter's arm with
volley of eager questions She said;
''WeH, I'm mighty dispinted. been a-waitin'
and a-WaiJin' tiG ! mos gin out. Amt nobody
helped me like him. You toP me las time dat
he'd be here today" and her voice shook. ''l Ou
tell him ] got his letter and dat ] think bout
him night an day and dat I'd ruddcT see him
dan anybody lu de worH An you tell hm-an'
doau' We forgit dia-dat you see his sister Marias
chllc-dIs is hel--h0' up yer haid, honey, and
let him We. thought ii he come today he'd
like to see er, cause he useter tote her eoun'
on ms back when she warn bigger'n Fhote.
An We see him, did ye? Well, I'm mighty glad
O. dat"
And this IS what the porter said when
he came back and was asked about it:
Beats all why nobody aim done toll her
been talkin' TO her every Saturday now for
month, tellin' her J see him an dat he's a-comin'
down, an dat he'd sent her his love, an once or
twice lately I'd bring her lii things he sent
her. Cose he didn't send EN-, cause he was
whar he couldn't git TO EN-, but she didn't
know no better. He's de only son now she's
got, and he's been mighty good to her an dat
liz chile she had wild her. ! knowed him ever
since he worked on de railroad. Mos all de
money he got he give to her. II he done de
thing dey said he done / amt got nothin mo-
10 say but ] don't believe Ire done it, and never
viii. ! thought maybe dey'd let him go, an
den he'd come home, an she wouldn't have to
suffer no mo- dat made me keep on a-lyin' to
her"
What's been the matter? Has he been ar
Tested?'
/" Rested! Rested FO' God, sub, dey done
hung his las week"
At the blackness and despair of this
tragedy Mr.. Smith has, perhaps wisely
only hinted. IN telling the story he has
kept throughout the light, matter of fact
| tone IN which the life of a criminal
is generally discussed nowadays. But
| when one thinks it all over, and pictures
| the mute suffering Of the man who chose
| to die alone, in silence, rather than bring
his mother to witness his fate; the feeling
of despair with which he must have looked
| into the faces of the white jury as he fe.t
| the net of evidence closing about him;
the silent intensity of feeling among his
own race, who, like the porter, were con
yinced of his innocence but, like the
young lawyer saw no hope for him or for
! themselves in a like predicament, the
drama is one of the most terribly tragic.
even in its bare outlines, lately put into
literature. It's force is not lesseued by
the fact that Hopkinson Smith is by birth
and sympathes SoutherneT. descended
from men who came into close contact
with the negro, yet akin 10 those who
carelessly condemned this negro 10 death
"on general principles" II is only late Y
that the tragedy OF the ignorant has be
gun to be told, that it has been recognized
that the man who uses bad English, or
who cannot express his deepest feelings
| in speech at all, may nevertheless have
! Just as many emotions as the cultivated
man who can talk about them and analyze
/ them with subtlety and eXacttude Mr..
Smith has done two or three pieces Of work
! Of this type before in Tom GTogan" and
Captain Joe, ." and he is generally at his
best in this field. (Boston: Houghton,
Mifftin Co. $L50.)