The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1905-08-25

The Punta Gorda Herald has no
feeling of sorrow; no word of pity
nor compassion for the men who are
behind prison bars
Here is the way the Herald talks:
"rhe esteemed Lake City Index in a moment
OF thoughtfulness refers to the state convicts as
unfortunate people They are nothing OF the
kind, they mostly lot OF uum,tigated
seoundreis who are v-ry fortunate in not having
been shot fo- their outrages.''
Nevertheless, whether guilty or in
nocent, these men are unfortunate"
The man is unfortunate" whose
training, or want Of training, blinds
him to the hideousness of crime.
1t goes without saying that inno-
cent men, convicted of crimes at
which their hearts shudder, on false
and perjured testimony. and in hui
initiation and disgrace, are wearing
out their lives behind prison bars, are
indeed unfortunate.
And how many innocent men have
so suffered?
History is replete with an array of
names; and. if so many are known,
how many more have silently suffered
and passed out as ''unknown?''
Paul, the Great Apostle, was in
prison bonds and suffered many
stripes
Bare, frowning prison walls, and
the jibes of the multitude, were not
unfamiliar to the Man of Sorrows,
and he finally suffered the doom that
is meted out to the most. hardened
felon-
Who can read Byron's prisoner of
Chillon," without being touched with
pity for this suffering victim of OPP
preston?
But here is story of to-day that
comes to US from Georgia that ought
at least not let the fountains of pity
run dry, but, ON the contrary, should
touch a Gve-wire of sympathy and
sorrow in every beating, pulsing
heart.
We shall let Mrs. ". H. FELTON, tell
the SAD, touching story which she
res in the Atlanta Journal:
The story of Charles He nry Fra. k
lin. who was condemned to be hung In
Bibb superior court over twenty years
ago, and who was respited on the
gallOws, after the rope had been tied
on his neck and his feet were stand
ing on the death trap under the gal
lows tree, beggars romance and proves
the truth of the old saying that fact
is stranger than fiction.
His respite procured change in the
sentence and he was sent up as life
convict and served twenty-one years
of this hard sentence, although he was
an innocent man al the time. and his
life had been sworn away by the real
murderer.
And this Suspended here in Georgia.
The real murderer confessed the crime
on bis death bed and told bystanders
that Franklin was an innocent suff erer
This poor victim of another's wrong
doing had not only been nearly hung,
but he served at the hardest work as
a life term convict in Cole City coal
mines and On railroad grades in sum
mer's heat and winters frost, and at
rock quarries, where toll was of the
hardest and punishment severest. His
wife died on the day when the hang
mans rope was fastened on his poor
neck-died from grief, shame, humilia-
ton and despair. leaving little baby
girl three days old Her suffering was
greater than she could bear and her
life left it's grief-stricken tenement to
find perhaps rest that was denied her
here on earth.
This poor wretched man had also a
mother. whose agony was lmmeaSur-
able and who died as pauper, con-
sumed by the agony of her grief and
the condition of her hopeless son, a
life convict in Georgia's chaingangs.
This poor Mr.. Franklin was s. years
old when the prison doors were OPEN
ed and he was told to go, as ne had
been cleared by the confession of the
real murderer
But what was there for him on the
outside, after such bitter servitude
and degradation, except the liberty
to go where he pleased, the liberty to
suosist and make living the best he