The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-03-24


its DEPTHS are sealed. But its place in
literature is assured.
~ N a summer morning, now more
than two and a half centuries ago,
nearly all the inhabitants of Bos-
ton, then a little settlement between the
ocean and tlles Ksilst,si7s. sere assembled
befofs tie dS17f " siia pan assaiting the
coming forth of woman condemned to
wear the Scarlet Letter-the A which sig
nfied Aduiteress. She was to stand on
the stocks before the meeting house that
her shame might be in the eyes of the
people as q warning and a reproach.
1t was a hard-featured and a hard
hearted assemblage before which Hester
Prynne was about to appear with her
child in her arms and the letter of dis
grace upon her bosom. The men were
stern of feature, the women robust and
masculine in appearance and with little
of womans tenderness. When it became
rumored through the assembly that the
Magistrates, instead of condemning the
unfortunate woman to wear the Scarlet
Letter branded with hot iron upon her
forehead, had been content with the
lesser punishment Of condemning her to
wear it embroidered ON her bodice, MUIR
muir ran through the crowd that the
the Magistrates were overmerciful. Some
even cried out that Hester should have
suffered DEATH there being law for it
both in the Scriptures and in the statute
book.
Finally the door of the Jail was thrown
CAI -,
black, with his sta ffof office in his hand
and his sword by his side, stepped like
a black shadow into the sunshine. As he
reached out one hand to the prisoner
who had hesitated a moment in the door
way, the young woman repealed him and
came forth alone with a natural grace Of
dignity.
She bore in her arms a girl-child, three
months old, who winked at the bright
light, for it had known only the light
of a prison. For an instant the woman
clasped the child to her breast, as If to
hide the letter which burned there, then
proudly she changed its posture, so that
all might see the mark of her shame
the letter A cut from scarlet cloth set
upon her bodice and surrounded by the
most elaborate and slillfully-worked en-
oroidery done in gold thread
Size was tall, dark, beautiful woman
IF rich complexion and classic regularity
Of feature. Even in her hour of public
humiliation her pride was apparent her
strength of will manifest. There was no
,igh upon her beautiful face of the in
tense agony which every step of the way
rom the Jail to the market place caused
1er. H. fact her mental suffereing was
70 great that it took her almost beyond
he power to feel and enable her to play
ne part for which she had schooled her
self.
Hester was to stand for three hours
,pon the scaffold of the pillory, then to
De taken back for a term in prison and to
wear the Scarlet Letter for the rest of
aer life That she had not been branded
,n the forehead, that she was spared
putting her head in the pillory, in fact,
NAT she had not been condemned to
Ieatb was. the people said, owing large
~ to the intercesslons of the pastor into
whose church she had brought this great
candal
As Hester stood on the scaffold of the
allory. above her in the wooden balcony
Il the meeting house stood and sat the
yreat men of the town-the Worshipful
Master Bellingham. governor of the coll
nv, with his chief captain. the magis-
rates and the ministers. In their SOL
mn and ponderous way these Puritan
athers were as fond OF pomp ana snow
IS any people of their time, but they
compromised with their consciences by
making their displays grim and awe-in-
r,riny. They came forth to burn witch
r hang a Quaker in solemn state
vhich they now found suitable to the
enlistment of a woman who had in
urred the penalty of the Scarlet Letter.
ror two years this woman, Hester
ryps,e had lived in Boston She was
class, ~ If decayed fortune
- I'D been given IN marriage while
~, = mere child to an elderly man.
M ~, 4, deformed. but of considerable
hsn.' and a scholar of wide reputation
sseaa.itsf the time the scholar-husband was
-. bis books; but his leisure mo-