The San Francisco call., 1907-03-31

l nIlea out country jug that can. be
SPIuhg al right We can make safe
lahas There is a John O'Brien at 1870
an d. Ia' and rattler at 1850. The shack
nearest kip TO the joint is one look and
q peep There is a speeder in the
snanty' s...,i and we can get TO, the main
the main fort by daylight
There is no special pleading for the
criminal but some Of the sketches
or the conditions that surround him
make it easy to understand how,
having once gone wrong, it IS
next door TO impossible for him
70 get right again. There is the sleuth.
kouka, prideful OF his Office. ambitious
OF preferment, shallow Drained and
swollen with authority, forever hound
ing ana prodding Archie down the easy
descent 10 habitual criminality Kou-
ka is typical. part Of a system that
recks little OF scientific theory in PEN
ology and denies entirely that a Grim
maj can ever become anything else
Arches downfall begins with the
theft OF trifie from in front of a shop.
he goes to workhouse for thirty
days, stamped thief from the moment
OF his arrest. On his way down there
is one fearsome passage that tells of
his punishment by hanging wrist-sus-
1t goes:
At first Archie found relief in chang
Ing his position BY raising himself
on uptoe he could ease the strain on
ms wrists; by hanging his weight from
his wrists he could ease the strain on
ms feet. He did this many times, but
ne found no rest in either position.
The handouts grew tight; they cut
into his wrists ike knives. His hands
were beginning TO go to sleep; they
lngled, the darting needles stung and
pricked and danced about Then his
hands seemed TO. have enlarged to a
preposterous size, and they were icy
cold Presently he was filled with ter
ror; he lost all sense of feeling in his
arms Rubbing his head against them
he found them cold; they Were no
longer his arms, but the arms Of some
one else. They felt like the arms of a
corpse. An awful terror laid hold Of
him. In his insteps there was a
mighty pain; his biceps ached: his neck
ached, ached. ached TO the bones of 1t;
his back was breaking. The pain
spread through his whole body, mad
dening him. With a great EFFORT he
tore and tugged and writhed, lifting
one foot then the other, then stamped
At last he hung there numb limp, in
ert. In the cell il was dark and still.
No sound could reach him from the
outer world The next day
and the next, and the next-for seven
days-Archie hung in the bull rings.
In the middle Of the eighth day. after
his head had been rolling and loiIing
about on his shoulders between his cold,
swollen. naked arms, he suddenly be-
came frantic. put forth a mighty effort,
lifted himself and began to bite b
hands and his wrists, gnashing /
teeth on the steel handouts, yamme
ing like a maniac When tho
guard came and flashed his lamp on
him Archies body was hanging there,
still, his chin on his breast. Down his
arms the blood was trickling from the
wounds he had made with his teeth.
The description OF the scene in the
death chamber is the climax, IL climax
there be, Of the tragedy:
He heard Beck lock the door of the
death chamber, locking il hurriedly, so
that he could be in time to look on.
The doctors held their watches
in their hands; and there before him