The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1905-04-01
gelett Sturp.
THE QUEENS PARDON.
on,- Hollana. ~ p..es .na whlle.


On the Heights Of Portland the Dscem-
ber mist, still undispersed BY suprise, hung
thick, obliterating all traces of the prison
buildings from the roads. where several
ships of the channel squadron lay at an
ohor. aud also from the Struggling row Of
houses at the base Of the northwest slope.
In the prison itself there was no light
a. sc, save in the corridors, up and down
which the ever alert waFiens paced mono
tonously 10 aud fro In most Of the cells
the prisoners slept, tired out Nith the pre-
yious day hewing Of stone and unconge-
NAL tasks: but in one che occupant, maD
Of thirty five, good looking in spite Of prison
garb. close crupped hair, and the ravases
of toll and despair, lay on his bed awake.
4 hsile more than ten years ago he had
stood in the dock Of west Of England city
listening TO Judge With a hard voice
though with kindly EYES, prnnouncing sen
,enee Of Fifteen years penal servitude. All
that an eloquent counsel could DO had been
done for him. but 10 no avail The eyi-
denee seemed eoaelasiyely damnatnry, and
the foreman Of the jury, after an absence
Il half an hour. answered guilty TO the
usual question with ring Of conviction in
his voice. The Judge words TO Thomas
Harborie fell on deaf ears. lie stood
stupidity gaming =, young girl sitting at
the back of che court in company ct 4
swee, faced old lady, as though he saw
nothing.
At last war,Ier touched him ou the
shoulder, and the same instant piteOus
cry Of. 20, Tonl Toni They NJ going
TO take you away from me, rang out in
couri. over which the dusk of late after
noon was creeping. gradually blosiing ous
the features Of those who sat at all IN
shadow. The prisoner turned round as
though about 20 say something to the judge
on the beach. and then. led By the war
der. be vanished down the dock stairs to
the cells. 10 be known no longer as Thomas
lIarborie. but by various numbers At
Portland convict prison rs ''No. -.
The sense Of innocence brought him no
need Of satisfaction; il merely filed him
with desperate wrath and blackest despair.
In the early period Of his solitary eonine
ment he found himself confronted day in
and out with the crushing sense Of legions
Of hours. minutes and seconds before he
could hope to be free man--f ever he
were 10 be one again, By good conduct -
against the very thought Of which he At
irst rebelled, refusing to accept any boon
at the hands Of fate-he might reduce these
wears to two-thirds maybe. What then,
millions of seconds, each one to him, n
prisoner, an appreciahle part Of hie; hun
dre,ls Of Thousands of leaden footed min
utes. each one filled with poignant des-
pair. must pass ere the time Of release
drew near. At work, under the scorchlng
sun OF in the keen air Of winter. IN the
auarries It was all the same. These hours
and minutes became embodied in the per
sons of the warders and fellow prisoners,
in the presence Of his chains.
From a possibly dangerous man he be-
came almost an inanimate machine; mere
eogwheel in the round of daily toll and
prison discipline. At first he attacked the
stone as though he were revengins his
wrongs upon human flesh and blood; at last
he tooled it with the uuthinking regularity
Of an antomaton. Ii takes year or two
to trample the human element out Of a man
Of Harborde's type; but the effect OF stone
walls. silence and brutalized companions, ii
slow. Is none the less sure, Only IN his
case he became an automaton instead of an
animal
Through the long December night,
while the mist enshrouded Portland and
restricted the range of lights at the Hill to
half a mile or less, and while the sirens
resounded from the lighthouse gallery al
most continuously, answered family by
Others from vessels far out at sea, or boom
ing harshly from others near at hand, Har-
borde Law awake reckoning the weeks, days,
hours and minutes which comprised the
remaining two years of his term. He had
lust dropped off into a half sleeping condl-
tion when his cell door opened, and instead
of the hard face of the warder come to tell
him to tidy up, he saw the governor and
chaplain, with the warder in the back
ground.
What could it mean? He sprang up,
rubbing his eyes, and almost before he
knew what was happening the governor
had told him in few words that he had
received the Queens pardon, and then
proceeded to read the same. What did 1t
all mean? No other thought terminated
in his dulled brain. Free! Free to go
where he willed! Free to walk out of the
iail gates Never to return within the
stone walls which had shut him in from the
outside world, as surely as though no other
world than that contained within them ex-
isted
The prison bell changed, startling him
into a state of wakefulness. The governor
had finished reading the ofhcial-ooking