The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-05-20

ally into lukewarm winter
i with chilly nights, but the
same fierce glare all day, and
several men had had their chains
struck off. and four had died In them
since Tom first felt the weight of his,
but the vacant spaces on the shelves
! were never vacant very long. Those
| eighty suits of letters were In con-
| tinual use. And still the dual work
! went on Of ehiseling the great road to
| given level and of degrading each
| newcomer to that of the worst man
| there before him, for there was no
| leyelfng up I'm these iron gangs, where
in mutual converse bred mutual de-
basement until best and worst found
common ground on the very bedrock
OF human infamy.
Tom for one, however, still stood out
among the worst, and there was an
other newcomer whom the gang had
nothing to teach either of misery or of
wickedness. Indeed, he laughed at the
one and greatly increased the other
This was an ancient felon known on
~ as the First Fleeter-a wizened page
of dreadful history, with not a tooth in
his head and but the one redeeming
ait III lHCt,SSdut he
had arrived with the first fleet In 1888
He had sinned and suffered through
those unspeakable early years until
the sense of suffering became as dead
as the moral sense, and not vestige
of either remained to him now. But
he would recount his crimes with grin
ming gums and gloat over unforgotten
agonies until there was a writing man
on every ledge but his own. He lay
above Tom, who would listen to him
by the hour.
According TO his own account, there
was literally nothing this old man had
not done or been done to in the early
days. He was cannibal, murderer and
worse, and his only regrets were for
neglected chances of additional crimes.
But his spirits never deserted him, and
for cruel man he was singularly good
natured. He had weak and cunning
eyes, perfectly bald head, displaying
every criminal cavity and protuber-
ance, and million wrinkles which,
like his mumbling gums, were never
still. Yet it was better to hear his
wicked laughter than the clanking
irons of men who neither slept nor
spoke, and the evils endured by the
majors iron gang. which the First
Fleeter poohpoohed with quaint su-
periority. did seem less intolera BILE aft
er one of his yarns.
bad rations?' he would croak when
the salt meat was rancid or the fresh
meat strong. TELL zee, there's none on
you knows what bad rations is You
should ha' been at Toongabbie forty |
year ago. We never had no rations at
all except when ship come into har-
Dor. Toongabhie would ha' learned
We! Many's the time I've dragged tim |
Der all day. twenty or thirty on US |
yoked to the one tree like bullocks. I
and dfned off of pounded grass and |
soup from a native dog. And glad to /
get It, tell zee. We wasn't pampered |
and spoilt like you blokes-not at Toon-
gabbie,''
Or perhaps some wretch was groan-
ing from the scourger's lash. The First
Fleeter waxed especially eloquent on
all such occasions.
.'Call that a nogging?' he would
quaver from his ledge. zone little
fifty? IL we'd had you at Toongabbie
you'd know what hogging was. Five
six an even eight bioomin' hundred
I've given an took What do you
think of that? There was no flies
q bout them fioggings. / tell &c: no. an
there was no flies about the han-ings
either. I've seen q man took an
strung up on the spot for prigging
handful of weeyilly biscuits, / have
An all the time we was dyiu' by dog
ems of the bad food an the ard graft
in the 'ot sun. Lord. how we did die.
There was a big hole dug: we collect
ed 'em every day an pitched 'em in.
| mind seeing one man pitched in be-
fore the breath was out of I'm. /
amt dead. he says. .You will be by
shutdown says the overseer. an do
you think we want You about the place
till tomorrow, you selfish man.: There
wasn't no flies about that overseer, eli
her; it was him as killed three men In
! fortnight by oyerwork at the saw.
They just dropped dead at their work. |
Take it away. is all he says, put it
n the ground an you never heard
nothing more. No, no. the old mon
ster would conclude, with his seniIe
there wasn't no flies about
hem old days in Toongabbie | can
ell zee. Id give bif To have al some
) this feather bed gang there. them a
vi l.,o 10. srdS Il, -