The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-10-28
III. o. johnson Must Return to
State Penitentiary.
Violated His Parole by Drinking
Liquor.
STORY OF DOWNFALL.
From a Prosperous Merchant He
Became q Moral Wreck.
Convicted OF Burglary and Sem
fenced TO Prison.

After being out of the penitentiary
only a week. H. o. Johnson, who is
under sentence from Douglas county
for seven years for burglary. will prob
ably be sent back to serve the re-
mainder of his time. johnson is now
in the Topeka city prison.
On October 20, only a week ago.
Governor Bailey granted Johnson a
conditional pardon. One of the condi-
tions always specified in a parole or
conditional pardon is that the person
receiving it shall absolutely refrain
from drinking and shall keep out OF
bad company. In Johnson's case War
den Jewett laid special emphasis on
the necessity of his leaving liquor
alone. and Johnson wrote a letter to
Governor Bailey specifically promisins
on this point. On the strength of a let
ter from Judge Smart, who sentenced
johnson, and long petition from
Douglas county. and the fact that his
family needed his support Governor
Bailey allowed Johnson his freedom
conditionally.
johnson immediately came to Topeka
and got employment in the pickle fac-
tory. That was week ago. Twice
since then the Topeka police have been
compelled to arrest him for being
drunk He told the story of his re-
lease from the penitentiary. and Chief
Stahl called on Governor Bailey Thurs
Johnson's arrest.
Several years ago Johnson was a
successful merchant at Lecompton.
His family consisted of a wife and
three children, two girls and a boy. The
boy has died since he was sent to the
penitentiary. The girls are now 16 and
Whisky ruined Johnson. He got so
that he drank to excess and his busi-
ness went to pieces. hts wife finally
got divorce because OF his drunken
ness. One night about four years ago
he committed burglary and WAS sent
to the penitentiary on July for seven
years.
Cling along to support her family, and
last spring she came to Topeka to be-
come an attendant in the Topeka
asylum in order to support them. She
had to leave the two young girls alone
at Lecompton. The older of the girls
has felt her fathers imprisonment very
keenly. She has repeatedly written to
Governor Bailey asking for her fathers
pardon She writes a beautiful hand.
almost like engraving, and her letters
have been pathetic. johnson himself is
an extremely intelligent man ana the
letters which he has written to the gov
ernor have been far above those ordf-
narily written by persons asking release,
from prison.
Judge Smart, before whom Johnson
was tried and convicted, has twice
written the governor, recommending
that Johnson be pardoned with certain
conditions hanging over him to keep
him strnight. Johnson has already
served more than half his term, and it
was largely because of Judge Smarts
recommendation that Governor Bailey
released him. johnson promised to get
for the SIInnOrt
of his family SO that his divorced wife
could remain at home to look after her
children.
Thursday night Governor Bailey
went down to the city jail and talked
to johnson personally. Johnson told
him that he hardly knew how he came
to break his parole. He said a trav-
cling man had asked him to have just
one drink, and he didn't remember
anything after that. He pleaded with
the tears running down his cheeks
for just one more chance to prove that
he would drink no more and would
take care of his family
But why didn't you improve the
chance that 4ia,1g was giyen iTha y0u? said said
asked you to drink with him was no
friend of yours, and you ought to
have known it. If you had told him
the circumstances if he had been a
friend to you he would certainly have
advised you against drinking instead
of asking you to drink"
Ch1ef Stdhl would IKE TO see JOhn-
son given another chance. Governor
Bailey would not send him back to
prison If the proper influences could
be thrown about him to keep him
from liquor. but how to accomplish
that is the problem. He has tele-
phoned to Warden Jewett to come to
Topeka to talk the matter over.
''It is mighty hard for me to resist a
man who is penitent,' said the gover-
nor today, "but it would look as
though a man who had been In the
penitentiary for over three years and
who knew he would be sent back If he
got drunk would keep from drinking.
l suppose this man has acquired such
a taste for liquor that he cannot leave
it alone when he is around where IT is.
If 1 could find somebody's who would
give this man work where he would
not be tempted to drink, 1 believe L
would give him another chance and
make him report to me personally. L
have already telephoned down to Law
renee about the matter. but the people
telephoned to would not take him.
I don't think it is of any use to leave
him out unless he has work and unless
he can keep away from liquor, so we
may have to send him back to Lam
sing"
1t looks as though the joy of the
girl down at LecomDton over her
fathers pardon will be short lived and
that her faith in him is to be rudely
shaken when she hears what he has
done.