The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-19
"D0 TIME" BY PROXY.
Some Who Have Gone to Jail for
Living.

From Tit Bits.
There are few things one man is not
prepared to do for another. said
prison official to the writer. and going
to prison for him is certainly not
among those at which he draws line.
Why, it is not many days since. as
you woulG read IN the papers, after
a man had been sentenced at Lon
don police court to six months i'm
prisonment for a brutal assault, his
brother begged the magistrate, with
tears in his eyes, to be allowed to
serve the sentence. an appeal which
was, of course. refused. In this case
the man who proposed to be his broth
er's proxy as a jail bird was probably
actuated by the highest motives. al
though / am bound to admit that
most of these prison substitutes have
nothing more noble than money to in
spire their self-sacrifice.
In another recent case a man who
had been arrested on his own confess
sion on a charge of housebreaking re-
ceived quite a rominal sentence, as IL
was his first offense and he Urofessed
penitence and a determination TO re-
form. Before he had served a week
of his sentence, however. he found
prison life so little to his taste that
he sought an interview with the gov
ernor and told him that the real Gull
prit was not himself, but a "pai' of
his.
1t appeared that the latter, finding
that the police were uncomfortably
hot on his track offered the prisoner
a certain sum of money IL he would
take his place and confess his guilt.
He knew well that If he himself were
caught with his long list of previous
convictions. he would not get off with
less than seven or fourteen stretch"
whereas his substitute, who had no
conviction recorded against him, would
be much more leniently treated.
There are many cases, too, in which
one convict personates another and
gets his freedom long before he is en-
titled to it. Only a few weeks ago /
noticed among the prisoners who were
about to be liberated on the eXpiry of
their sentences a man whose term /
thought was far from having expired.
l detailed him so that the matter could
be Investigated, and the convict, find
ing the game was up" confessed
that he had changed places with an
other prisoner. remarkably like him in
appearance, who had consented to
serve the balance of his sentence on
certain terms.
OF course, this amiable arrangement
could not be permitted, and my artful
friend is still doing time" while his
proxy is tasting the sweets of free
dom.
1t is not an uncommon thing for a
man out or bail to escape punishment
in this way. Last year a cashier who
was charged with embezzlement was
released on heavy bail. He used his
freedom to such advantage that he
procured a substitute so like himself
in appearance that even his friends
might have found it difficult to distin-
guish one from the other, and, after
installing him in his rooms and coach
ing him in all the facts of the case, he
disappeared.
The proxy was duly tried and sem
fenced to a long term of penal servi-
tude-much, no doubt, to his amaze
ment; and it was only by an accident
that he did not serve every day of 1t.
AS luck would have it, the real Grim
nal, who was all the time lying low
in Whitechapel, was run over and was
taken to a hospital IN a dying condt
tion. Here, probably overcome by re-
morse, he confessed his identity and
his guilt, and before his death left a
sworn statement declaring the entire
innocence of the man who had taken
his place
In another case the artifice failed to
work. A certain well-kpown criminal
was suspected OF having COfnn1lLIeQ d
series of burglaries in a western SUI
burb of London, and he was on the
point of being run to earth when, to
the establishment of the detectives en-
gagged in the pursuit, he voluntarily
gave himself into custody. There SEEM
ed to be no doubt that he was the very
man they were in search of; but one
of the detectives was not altogether
satisfied and decided to continue the
search on his own account.
The result was that the real bur-
glar, thinking himself safe and being
off his guard, was literally caught
mapping" early one morning in his
bedroom, and If any doubt of his iden-
tity had remained in his captor's mind
it would have been dissipated by find
inb some of the "swag" of the bur-
gled houses under the bed on which he
was lying.
But the most remarkable case know
of was that of a convict who success
fully perSonated another man who was
very much wanted by the police" and
actually served a sentence of five
years penal servitude in his place.
Just as his sentence was on the point
of expiring he received news that a
legacy of $4,000 had been left to him
by a well-known bookmakers of a
| shady reputation, and before he was
released he confessed to me that the
man who had left him the legacy was
| the real committer of the crime for
which he had suffered, and that the
| $4,000 was the exact sum for which he
had consented to go to prison as his
/ nrOXv