The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-01-25
He died as with himself he yet con-

He died as with himself he yet con-
versed;
AS usual-his decision was reversed.
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A Rap at Attorneys md Juries.
The district attorneys and juries who
helped to fill the death chamber with
candidates for the chair did not es-
cape the attention of the resentful
bards of Sing Sing. Here is a poetical
stab at the jury:
To call them twelve trees would be
nothing unkind,
They were soaked and green; they
were swayed by the wind.
Sometimes the rhymesters of the
death chamber tried their hands on
lyrics. This is the best sentimental
poem printed in 1.-The Murderers Home
Journal:
TO HER PHOTOGRAPH
Painted by sunlight all the brightness
caught
From out the sky and to my prison
brought.
No vision, essence, son, so sweet by
AS smiles to me from her out her pho
tograph.
In the death chamber every man has
his fad. 1.-The Italian next door" re-
lates Molineux, makes gorgeous pic
ture frames from scraps of paper, dec
Grating them with colored pencils"
The authors fad seems to have been
working out chess problems with bits
of paper on a homemade board"
He also read a great deal. Paradise
Lost" being a book which fascinated
him. Its stately iarlbus, exceptional
trochee, dactyI, amp 'ibrach and ana
pest rolled and sang solemn music in
my soul" But he seems to have read
Millions "matchless epic' under diff
culties. He had a "'dog- cared and tat
tered volume taken from the prison Ii
brary" That book was unusually live
ly reading, for while holding the vol
ume the inhabitants assembled my
sleeve for lunch. The book was intel
lectual food for me. 1 was food for
l will spare the good readers feelings,
the good housewife is their enemy. 1t
was returned to the library with pair
of tongs.
MOIineux as Mayor.
Molineux was "the Mayor" of the
death chamber; very properly So" he
explains, because was l not the old
est inhabitant? All questions were re-
ferred to me. I was the final court Of
arbitration. What 1 said went" One
day, however, a rival appeared, one
Benjamin, a gentleman of color" He
promptly disputed the right of Mayor
Molineux to his office and announced
himself a candidate for the position.
HE denounced me-" records Molineux,
Gin every scathing phrase to which he
could lay his tongue. 1 was an aris-
tocrat representative of trusts.
taught Benjamin lesson. 1 told him
that did not care for office any more,
that it was a burden I would gladly lay
down. He wept as he thanked me. He
worked hard and received pledges of
support from every voter-they had
their instructions.
After the voting was over the sup
erintendent of elections the night
keeper announced Benjamin's unani-
nous election to the office of Mayor"
1.-THE sounds of revelry and thanksgiv-
ing from Benjamin's cage sounded like
rival camp-meetings possessed of the
devil" But the joy of the ambitious
gentleman of color" was short-liVed.
The strategy of the white man was too
much for him. When he was elected
Mayor MolineuX was promoted and
elected Governor. THE first official
act of His Excellency' was to exercise
his inherent right and remove his Hon
or the Mayor from office. Benjamin
never recovered. When, a few months
later, they escorted Ben through the
little door I think he was perfectly
willing to CO."
The foregoing extracts from Moli-
neux's book gave a fair idea of the hu-
morous vein which runs through the
volume. His lightheartedness was in
vincible, even in sight of the little
door" which 4ed to the execution
room" and the terrible chair" 1t is
anna zing that men can be merry and 10
cose in such an environment. The pop
ular idea is that they become prema-
turely old and gray; that they are eth
err sullen and silent, or that they spend
their time preparing for the life be-
yond 1.-THE chair" and the gallows. If
Molineux gives an accurate picture of
life in Sing Sing, men who live in the
shadow of death do not, as a rule, give
themselves great concern about the
fate that awaits them. OF course, there
are exceptions, as in the case of "the
professor" whose story has been told
above. THE sentence most-dreaded"
by the man convicted of crime seems
to be imprisonment for life. In one of
his sketches Of life in the Tombs Moli-
neux writes:
Life imprisonment Dreaded.
Sometimes, when an important trial