The morning journal-courier., 1907-12-20
THE PRESIDENCY.
Friday, Dece,abcr 20, 1907,
rHs RETURN OF WALKER.

mining camp ana NllTl oPPl undertook to make way with his life The detectives found on his person a vial containing poison and a revolver 1 silent witnesses of the fearful knowl- edge that has of late been with him that ultimately his choice would lie between death and Imprisonment; a free life was no longer his to either contemplate or indulge. It will be but few days before he will be arraign- ed at the bar of justice, where he will receive the sentence which will add him to the collection of thieves main tained at State expense at Wethers- field
 Walkers fearful lack of the sense of humor which is essential to decent ly rounded character, and his complete need of imagination, are now laid bare by his flight, capture and return AS we said at the time, it was his want of a sense of humor which made him develop the thieving side of his nature, Some people would call it knowledge that he lacked, but that seems to us to feebly express the loose cog in his mental machinery which kept him from realizing the utter futility of his dishonest enterprise. There was once a prisoner, a convict, imprisoned at the States prison by the name of Davis. He was in for life upon the charge of treason, which followed the murder of prison official He had a sense of humor, though perhaps it was grim in it's character. He came by good conduct to be a trusty. He was given . enngeSment in the prison pharmacy Ef1d became an expert in the art of compromising medicinal connections and faithful in serving them to the occupants of his little hospital, He knew his. Shakespeare by heart and could quote disputed passages with out reference to the works of the poet He became widely known on that ac- counS and could carry on corre- spondence with friends formulated by apt quotations from the works of the master builder. When an addition was being made to the part of the prison in which he was confined the oppor- ' tunity came to him to escape. Two other prisoners had made wooden key which fitted the great iron door which shut out the world. He declined and remained at his post. When he was asked to explain his refusal he quoted from the great interpreter of human hearts to the effect that he preferred to remain a prisoner and ward of the State of Connecticut than become a hunted animal sure to be either caught or killed. His sense o1 hulnor saved him. His fellow prison CTS were recaptured
 The criminal instinct is essentially without a sense of humor and Walk ers experience proves it. He was not without education and the social op. portunities which are thought to be guarantees of sober and reflective con. duct He had a position in the com nunity by reason or his connection with the bank and with the church Older men sought his counsel anC younger men sought Av emulate his ex ample. There is no reason to believt that he either realized this ldct O was moved by it. To him, lacking sense of hnmor, these outward demon Strations were but tools with which t work more effectively the ruin of tn Interests confided to his care Fl smirked while he stole; he praye' while he plotted to steal more Tn power to laugh heartily would hay killed automatically the desire to g wrong, The natural ability he pessesse would have been used to increase tn sum and total of human happines and contentment under his control ill stead of being finally used as it wa used to rife and despoil We are nc sure but that latent sense of humo would have led him to make way wit his life when caught d-handed l it's absence he ran away to part which he thought were unknown. never occurred to him that the ager eies for the detection of crime and tn apprehension of criminals have deve
 oped with the criminal instinct, He di not knew what Convict Davis knew.
 young man bred amid humble cond
 lions. With characteristic egotisn
 which only lysemphasized his lack of tn
 humorous instinct, he allowed that |
 of all men would be able to baffle tt
 machinery of the law and defeat tll
 efforts of trained sleuths to locat
 him There have been other figures
 he history of crime which have cor
 iucted themselves with exactly tr