The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-02-19
PRISON SCHOLAR.
Story Of q Life Convict and
His knowledge.

Ihe Following interesting story is told
py George NJ. Stone of Hartford in
a letter to the Hartford Times:
On last Monday night, John H. Da-
Wis life prisoner, passed out of the
present life within prison walls at
Nethersfield. The crime Of this man
was grave one, the breach of an i'm
portant trust, and it was iexpiated in
measure, by more than twenty years of
serVitude and sorrow There is con-
nected with these years a unique chap
ter OF convict history, which cannot
fal to interest all who recognize heroic
ehdeaVor to retrieve a guilty past, or
ADMIRE steadfast purpose to conquer
circumstances by a course of patient
study, and by persistent effort for self
improvement. At the request of War
den Chamberlain in the summer of
| 1898 addressed the prisoners at Weth-
efsfleld on Sunday afternoon the
! topic being a visit to Stratford- on
Avon the home of SHAKESPEARE. With
] the details of a visit made the year
| previous freshly in mind, the scenery
OF the town was described. and it's
connection with passages of the great
poets works pointed Jut. The address
was not written, and sentences which
have long since passed out of the
speakers mind We're seized and held
IN the memory of this lonely prisoner
A reporter for the New York Herald
VINO wrote several columns on Davis
history gives in the prisoners own
words an account of the address and
its effect upon him.
The speaker" he said, Concluded
Wlch these statements: AS I went up
through the meadows, and along the
Avon at Stratford, I knew was near
ing the home of Shakespeare, for there
were the mowers, Just as when he wrote:
" When daisies pied and violets blue,
And lady smocks all silver white,
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue,
Do paint the meadows with delight.
In his talk the speaker quoted only
few lines from SHAKESPEARE! He spoke
of Lady Macbeth, however, and that
scene in the fifth act of the play where
she says: All the perfumes of Arabia
will not sweeten this little hand This
line impressed me, for it made me think
Of my own life. Finally he closed his
address, and 1 shall never forget his
words, He said: We can only hope that
the man who saw everything in life as
It was, the birds the fields and the
flowers, even when the film of death
was upon his eyes, saw a man, a Savior,
as he was
Il went to my cell with these words
ringing in my ears, determined to know
something more of Shakspere. The next
day | asked the librarian for a copy of
Shakspere, and got it. l kept it as long
o,,1, =
some other fellow asked for it, Then
waited anxiously until 1 could get it
again, and 50 on, until I had read it
through"
In the years that have interviewed,
this man has given nearly every leisure
moment of his narrow and restricted
life to the study of the myriad mind
ed' man, and was an expert in the
knowledge of his various plays. The
article mentioned states that he knew
Shakespeare works by heart from
cover to cover"
This latter remark is, of course, an
overstatement, but the facility with
which he could quote Shakespeare was
phenomenal, and perhaps was not eX-
ceeded by any other person.
Some quotation was upon his tongue
for every occasion, and it would seem
that while shut in from the outside
world in his stone cell, he had so trans
ferred the printed page to his mind
that it became the medium, to a large
extent of his thoughts and emotions
lie was a singular and most signifi-
ant example of a triumph over cir
umstanCes, when those circumstances
were enough to paralyze effort and
produce despanir.
The aptness and felicity of the pris-
oner's quotations indicated a degree of
mental mastery of the true import of
his favorite author, and not simply a
memoriter knowledge. What is better
still these remembered words were so
used as to indicate the true nobility of
the man. Some years since, report
goes. he had an opportunity to escape,
which he declined. When asked, why
did you stay?" he replied, In Timon
of Athens, Shakspere says, There is
no time so miserable, but q, man may
be true
Strenuous efforts We're made by his
friends a few months ago to obtain
pardon for Davis. but the state board,
to whom the pardoning power is COM
mitted, are very conservative, and
though the judge who condemned him,
the warden of the prison, and others,
appealed in his behalf, it was not
granted. Concerning this denial he
said to the reporter, You remember
what the duke said to Claudio? so
then you hope of pardon from Lord
Angelo? I can only reply as did Clau-
dio,
3" The miserable have no other medi-
cine,
But only hope
I have hope to live, and am prepared
to die"
Davis was a humble and consistent
believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. and
witnessed by a good fife to the reality
of his union with him. He was fond Of
tracing the thought of the Bible in