The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1905-11-30

Thanksgiving day! The sunlight
seemed to smile the good message
| the winds to whisper 1.-THE very
| dry leaves that rustled along the
sidewalks might have known it, SO
| light and merry was their dance. A
haze lay over the hills, making them
look further away than usual in the
purple distance, while the great,
broad, peaceful river gave back
heavens blue in yet deeper shade
other in twinkling lines of silver and
gold
All nature was joyous-from the
golden sunbeams to the dusty little
sparrows who had been cherping Wig
orously since dawn. That was the
outside view of life. What of the
inside-for there by the peaceful
river was a great gray pile of build
ings. stern and forbidding. within
whose high thick walls shut each in
his anrrow cell lived-or existed
over thousand men. How greatly
the color of life depends on the van
tage point from which it is viewed.
To those without the day was glori-
ous-the view lovely with but a re-
greet that that big ugly pile of build
ings should blot the foreground and
intrude on the passerby the thought
of crime and misery. To those with
in only very limited glimpse of
the outer world could be seen. and
the sunshine of it only made the
shadow surrounding them the dark
er and more dismal
AS the bell changed forth its mes
sage that the rising hour had come.
yawns. crowns and signs echoed
along the galleries and made a vol
ume of suppressed sound in the
great building. Ten hundred and
fifty cells under one roof. Cells
three and one-half feet wide and
seven feet long. heavily barred and
bolted, opening on to iron galleries
built tier above tier. Yes, it was a
gloomy place filled with the heavy
tainted atmosphere so peculiar to
old prisons. 1t all spoke much more
of shadow than sunshine, for the
windows cut in those MASSIVE walls
were only like the Sits in some an
Client fortress keep, and so small
that the heavy bars that crossed
them seemed needles. No one ap-
peared glad to awake on that
Thanksgiving day in prison Sleep
blessed sleep, brings forgetfulness.
and despite hard bed and narrow
cell, TO many sweet dreams had
come. For awhile shame and sor-
row, WEAKNESS and pain, despair
and bitterness fall away, and the
dream self flies homeward, perhaps
back to the home of Innocent child
mood that in reality has long since
ceased to be. Freedom Is theirs
again, dear faces smile once more.
even the dead walk with them in
the old familiar haunts of memory.
The sound of complaint and dis
content is silenced at the tramp of
ofnclal rect. Something of the
great spirit of the day is felt and
Appreciated by the guard as thew
march to their places on the gal
leries and exchange a CHEEKY salu-
tation with the night officers thew
have come to relieve.
"A right royal THANKSGIVING dav
with a touch of frost in the air, 7"
said one to passing comrade. yes.
so l see and mighty glad I'll be to
get out of this cursed hole and
breath in some pure air. "Take mo
with YOU" growled voice at his
side and the bars OF the nearest cell
were feebly shaken. 1t avs n pount
old face that looked out and the
rough disordered hair was white
while in the eyes was the strained
WEAKNESS of one who looks long for
sail on hte horizon, a sail that
never comes.
Ma Ha' that's good. Take Won
with me? No, no. Pop, not till
you're ready for gallery %" There
was grim humor in the answer. for
he was life man and gallery 25 was
III the prison parlance, the iocuIar
name FOR the state graveyard on the
hiiislue' where row upon row of
hameless graves hold in stnl narrow
er celis the weary columns that have
ceased to tramp in the lockstep.
me CHEEKY officer. fresh from the
surshine and breezes continued or,
mis- way whistlng. till he came 70 -
cell the occupant of which had nor
risen but lay cursing and groanine
on his narrow cot
"liallow, Jack, get a move m vo,,
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