Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1902-01-02
7fe
SILENT CONVICT
4 FTER the gaping three-inch cash

4 FTER the gaping three-inch cash
~ in the head of Prison Guard
Morgan had been dressed by the
penitentiary physician and nip of
rye given the wounded man, he was
escorted into the presence of the new
warden to tell how it all happened.
''You see, it was this 'ere way, war
den," he began, after he had saluted
his chief and dropped into comfort
able position on the sofa in the pri-
vate room of the penitentiary Office.
six Of us were out there by the broom
shop cleanin' up the yard bit. Kid
Sly and Shorty were comm the rake
act. told Green to take spade and
throw some loose dirt up agin the tool
house. He was standin' in one of them
cat fits of his'n and paid no attention
to me. he just rolled his eyes and
worked his arms.''
Morgan paused and pressed huge
gnarled hand against his bandaged
Uranium.
"Take it easy" said the warden, sym
pathetically.
"Then," continued the guard, II
caught him by the shoulder and gave
him push toward the tool house, at
the same time tellin' him to get mill
tary move on himself. He reached
down, grabbed the spade and whacked
me across the noggan with it. When
the stars scattered out . little, saw
that Kid Sly and two of the other boys
were holdin' him. I whistled for help
and had him yanked back to his CELL"
Warden Hill reached for the huge
calf-bound volume in which the daily
delinquencies of the prisoners were re-
corded. The page allotted to Convict
GLIB, imprisoned for life, was blank,
save for the entry made in neat,
round hand, stating that all attempts
to make the prisoner talk since his in
generation had been unavailing. Muir
der was the crime and the date of the
commitment papers showed that eight
years of the life sentence had been
served. The warden looked perplexed.
Recently appointed, he had not yet had
time to look at the majority of the
prisoners in his charge. Besides, more
important matters awaited his atten-
ton. He closed the volume and turned
to the deputy warden.
"Give Convict Green five days in the
dark cell on bread and water" he said.
Ten minutes later, Convict Green,
closely guarded, was escorted to the
hallowed niche beneath the tier of cells
commonly known among the prisoners
as 'the hole" the door was unlocked
and Green thrust inside. The bolts
were shot and the guards retired.
With inky blackness on all sides of
him, Convict Green pressed his sweaty
palms against his throbbing forehead
and tried to think. Dull, agonizing
pains seemed to hover between his
temples and dart toward each eye. He
arose from the oaken plank upon which
he had been crouching and extended
both arms. His hands touched stone
wall on either side.
damp stone floor of the dungeon and
tried to think. For time he was con-
scious of only pain and anguish, but
at last the darkness which hung like a
pail over his clouded intellect began
to clear away. The red spots had
come again. What they were, Green
had often tried to find out, but he
never could. The huge patches of lurid
red came and danced before his eyes.
After a time they left, but terrible
pains remained behind torturing him
almost beyond endurance. If he tried
to find out what the red spots were
they always came back so much the
quicker. ..
The convict crept nearer the wall of
the dungeon and laid first one burning
cheek and then the other against the
damp stones. The mental anguish of
the man became less wracking; peri
DDS of intellectual calm followed in
which detached sections of conscious
ness became clarified. Now and then
he caught blurred glimpses of the past.
A few faint, half-obscured recollec-
lions of his childhood days actually
made the miserable inmate of the cell
smile with delight. Names he no long.
er remembered, but familiar faces
wearing pleasant smiles so different
from the scowling visages which he
now saw every day seemed to bright
en- up the cell. But finally one face,
smiling, coquettish, with dimpled
chin, and gracefully curving lips, re-
NAMED. Her he had worshiped
throughout his childhood and courted
in his youth. Like fash came the
memory of the joyous wedding trip,
the farm on the outskirts of Ne
braska village, his valiant struggle for
fortune.
Then the scene shifted to vast field
where withered corn rustled harshly
in the scorching breeze. There was a
fiery globe in the center of the heavens
piercing shafts of which seemed to
burn his very blood. The crop was ru-
ined. That was sure. The quarter
section was mortgaged and in the cot
tage near the village his wife was
scowling at the prospect of poverty
and loss of social prestige. Already
she was bemoaning the monotony of
the western country. Once she had &C.
tually told him that he was brute
and at the same time limited that DR..
Scott was such dashing. handsome
fellow. Then the red spots came for
the first time. Nothing ever was so
very clear after those horrid, carmine
tinted disks began to dance vindictive-
ly before his eyes.
One day, and this he remembered