The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1908-04-22

Those who sat is the courtroom
have gone each to his own interests
in the place which we that are free
call the world The judge has re-
tired to his chambers where he re-
moves his robe of office, and within
an hour or so he will be dining in
his home or at his club. The jurors,
perhaps, are conducted to their no.
tells. where, impatiently, they wait
the coming of another day in court
The reporters have scurried to their
offices. and the news of the trial is
being cast into ignots and put un-
der editorial trip-hammers. The
SPECTATORS have gone home, and the
prisoner has been taken back to the
tombs prison across The Bridge OF
Signs.
Imagine an island, dreaded by all
humanity, on which each hapless,
involuntary inhabitant is the build
er of a canoe. Each has his own
model of boat in which he hopes to
cross the threatening sea to an Ely
sian strand. OF his canoe he talks |
from the rising to the setting of the !
sun. disputing as to its merits with
his fellow artisans. Canoes, and
nothing but canoes, are seen at every
hand. Many are wrecks strewn along
the shore, some are still tossing in
the treacherous breakers. Some are
patched and broken, while others
have a draught too heavy or too
light. yet they all suffice for the live
long day conferences of their de-
signers. No one is bored. Each is
interested, not only in what he him
self is doing, but also in the means
of escape being devised by his neigh
bors. There is no other thought in
that country but the single one of
getting away from his narrow isle
to the mainland of liberty.
Imagine such a place, and you
sense the life of the Tombs prison,
whose citizens constantly plan trial
trips into the dark ocean of doubt
that surrounds them, for the prison |
er's case is the canoe, and the Tombs I
prison is the world of one idea" {
Denied the enjoyment of life be- |
yond its steel doors, they have an ex-
istence all their own within. 1t is c
a world of hopes and fears and sor- {
rows. 1t is a world of passionate in v
tensity. There they dwell, absorbed {
in watching the labors and the plan t
ming by which each believes liberty t
can be gained There they watch {
destiny pilot one of their little crafts
to safety while she skaters another
upon the rocks. S
All Kinds of Men.
All kinds of men are gathered IN I
the Tombs. No walk of life has fail |
ed a contribution The man convict !
ed of Juggling the assets of a great !
insurance company, and he charged t
with stealing a doormat are in ad- I
Joining cells. The white and the ]
black are herded together. They OF
the under world of darkness, burglar
and thug, are companions OF the
youth who came to this desert lsland
of tears and stone from a land where
Measure weaves its bright mirage.
Yet. by the vital force of a single
thought are all made builders OF ca
noes.
What reck they of the outer {
world To them the downfall of ,
dynasty would not be so much as the
hanging of a door. Tell one of them
that it is showing outside. He Will
saw Eyes, but my lawyer is going to
she out a writ of habeas corpus LOT
mo - AS they walk the CORRIDORS
sometimes, in Indian file, or TWO
abreast when space permits, talking
90 +bav 90 their conversation is
blended into kind of patter' from
which sound keywords- indlct-
ment." witnesses" district attor-
new plea, second degree "ex-
animation AisC
guilty" Words, once part of sem
fences. yet strangely detached as
from the very earnestness win
which they are spoken, they rise out
Of mumbled and disconnected dis
course. indisputable evidence OF the
unity of theme.
Those of the Tombs eat, drink and
sleep their cases. No detail OF the
criminal law escapes these prisoners
of hope in the world of one idea.
ONLY one thought is ever present
Translated into the parlance OF the
Tombs it is how to beat it, tor
e,,io,,rrey wishes 10 get away