The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-07
TH1 DAGos HAUNTED CELL.

| Too, from Natural Causes ?-"Natu-
 ral Causes be Damned" Says Shorty, l ty.
 One morning a few weeks after the old colonel's term of imprisonment be- l gan he halted Shorty, the head hall
 man, who was hurryng along the gall | lery, bare-footed, with pail and scrub ping brushes in his hads.
 "Is it possible, Shorty" he asked,
 that I hear little bird, a canary,
 singing in this place; or,is it only one Of ! hundred fantasies that have nearly driven me mad?'
 | Sure it's canary, Colonel" replied l Shorty, laying down the tools of his of | flee, and leaning up against the rail | with evident desire to talk; your nut | is sound on that point, all right. The 1 burds in c 42, jest above you, you know, your present address bein' D 42 | and it belongs to a dago named Pozzl | who's welcome to it for all of me- What's the man in for, and how | long has he got?" asked the old colonel, | basely yielding to chronic prison curi- l osity
 He's doin' a twelve year bit for show | in the queer, counterfeitin you know,
 and has been here jest about seven years. Let me see, take off one year for the fust four year, and then five
 mont's for each year thereafter, Forty and twelve make communication of fifty-two mont. Yes that's it, he's got about eight mont more, allowin him his good time, which I guess the war den won't take away from him arter all. You must hev' seen him, Colonel, dark completed man, with only one eye, and a scar down the side of his
 face; he helps pack in the tailor shop
 when he feels like it, and never marches
 in line; follers up afterwards, you
 know, like as if he was takin' stroll
 for his healt.."
 How is it that he is treated with such consideration asked the colonel,
 again yielding to prison habit, that
 of jealousy.
 He's a bad man. Colonel" explained
 shorty; the toughest mug in this ere
 soup-house, and they're all afeared of
 him, the screws, and even the warden
 hisself. Why, when he fust came, it
 was nothin' but one continooal scrap;
 he wouldn't say nothin but cuss; he
 wouldn't do nothin but tear hisself and
 anyone that came near him. They ball
 and chained him, they dungeoned him,
 they bread and watered him; but 1t was no use He'd make knife out of a lineup or bucket handle, and then it was look out for yer fit rib. Final ly, seein' as how he had sech a long bit and the only way to cure him was 10 kill him, they concluded to let him go his own gait so long as he didn't per sume on the indulgence. And he never has; he minds his own business. and there's no one so owdacious as to try to mind it for him. He's got money in tho Cffice, and he's fixed up his cell grand, with carpet and a camp chair and big head light of lamp, over which he cooks the queerest lot of messes you ever smelt My, sometimes your head will turn with the garlic. Y'ougl'ter take run up there some everfng. Colonel, when ou've got the privilege of the hall and give him buzz, His places a bang-up sight, and he might be friendly to you, seein as bow you're one of the aristocTicy But fes a tough mug, and they wouldn't dock hlnn for his good time, TO, not if the eincral government coughed up ten times the thirty cents day it pays for his ooord."
 And such wretch as that" ex- claimed the colonel, has a litt.e nno- cent bird as a pet"
 Sure, Colonel, he's the only man in the place that would keep the burd. Don't you know that canaries is un- lucky? Not but that its's pretty sight to see the creatur a-settin' on his shoulder and -peckin away at his ear It ain't in no cage, neither, but you couldn't coax it away with cargo of hempseed. if you had the nerve to try You can't most always tell, Colonel about these tough mugs. It seems os if they'd got to love someth' n or mud der, even if they do hoodoo themselves by the operation. I onct knew life man-he scoffed his woman with rag zor-that mourned hisself into con sumption because they took away his pet rat''
 And Shorty with a side glance at the office door, which was just opening, picked up the utensils and hurried to his work That evening just before the gong sounded for lights out and while
  mind by reading, he noticed a dark ob- feet swing to and fro before the door of his quarters. Reaching out, he discov- cred a package which had been let down oy a string from the tier above The contents proved to be bottle of fine Italian plums, and a scrawl on the wrapper, From Pozzi, Delaney street" instantly identified the donor with Shorty's tough mug" It did more, in- deed; it aroused the colonePs recollec- tion "Pozz, Delaney street. he "let me see: l ought to know that name. Why, yes, years ago, Pozzi and-and Gardin, that's right, had an account in our bank, no, in the savings institution, subject to the order of eith- | CT Nearly three thousand dollars, too, l when it was closed out. Now what | else was there Haven't I heard that | this Gardini turned states sevidence against Pozzi when he was tried? | Wasn't there woman in the case? An, | we'll I don't know, I don't care. What 1 difference does it all make?"
 It happened in the following week | that the night watchman was fat | keeper who by reason of gratuites re- ceived and expected was friendly to the colonel; so about seven o'clock he wad- | died along gallery D, unlocked cell AZ, | and told the old man that he might ease hall. Mindful of the obligations of