The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1904-12-27
CONv|CTS T!
SET FREE
Five Men Given Their
Liberty or a Xmas
Present.

by virtue of the power in me vest
ed. do grant to you, Arthur Meyners'
to you H. McCallum, to you Nishi-
yama, to you Samuel Lee Thomas, and
free pardon"
Standing with barred heads in the
shade of the spreading kamani tree in
the yard at Oahu Prison, High Sheriff
Henry read out those words, with the
signature Of George r. Carter, Gov
ernor of Hawaii 1t was the list of the
pardons that is granted by the govern
ment on Christmas day if any prison.
ers in the Jail are found worthy of
clemency during the year. The men,
before the reading of the pardons and
with not the remotest notion of what
was coming, had been lined in the front
of the stairway leading down into the
Jail yard. Behind them, where the sun
fell in a golden shower through the
leaves of tho kamani tree, their fellow
prisoners in the striped suits that all
men wear behind the bars, stood and
sat expectant of something but of
what they did not know.
Sheriff Henry with Deputy Rawlins
and Warden Kamana, presently came
out and stood upon the bottom steI,
where the shade of the big tree fell
most heavily. There was a slight pause
while a guard was sent to find the
prisoner Charles Heffernan, serving
two sentences for forgery, aggregating
six years. He came, at length, and was
addressed first.
"Heffernan," said the Sheriff, 81 hold
here a Communication of your two sent
ences of six years to five years from
February %, 1901" Heffernan bowed
his thanks, and retired Then the
sheriff turned to the other five, two
white men, a negro, Chinese and a
japanese and read the words that gave
them liberty.
And now" said the Sheriff, in con-
clusion, you are free men. You have
only to get your clothes and go. The
bars are down, for you"
The expression that came into the
faces of those men was of itself
thing that was almost worth living to
see. They had come forward when
their names We're called, and slouched
into their places with that indefinable
air of lack of manliness which comes
even to innocent men in prison. Under
the stimulus of pardon a glad light,
right from the soul leaped into the
face of each and their forms straight
ened, and their shoulders seemed to
square them selves as though they were
braced to meet once more the burden
of manhood which is mans proudest
possession as it is his hardest RESPONSE
bility. THY would live up to the man
hood, that the law, having taken away,
had now given back. The resolution
was as plainly written in the instant
change of bearing of the Asiatic as in
that of the American. The men pardon
ed We're:
Arthur Meyners, sentenced on July
IA, 1900 to serve six years for man
slaughter in the second degree.
II. McCallum, sentenced on May a,
lSU4, 10 pay Hne VI sEoV ior sehiiS
liquor without a license, with the al
tentative of one year in prison If he
should take the pauper's oath.
Nishiyama, sentenced on May 10,
1902, to serve three years for robbery
in the first degree.
Samuel Lee Thomas, sentenced on
February 10, 1908, to serve three years
for burglary in the first degree.
Wong Cheung Hung, sentenced on
January IL, 1899, to serve ten years
for manslaughter in the second degree.
Charles Heffernan, sentenced on Feb
ruary 2S, 1901 on two counts for forgery
to serve five years on one and one
year on the other committed so that
the term of both sentences will be but
five wears