The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1909-03-27

mlCIed to make him sDTlef visit. The
governor, the governors council and
the prison commissioners see him on
their yearly or sometimes more fire.
quent visits to the prison. He rarely
sees prison officials, except his keep
er and the chaplain. The venerable
chaplain provides him with reading.
Despite his sentences, Pomeroy has
not labored for years.. This is one
rare subject upon which he can exer-
else his will, and he refuses to work.
AS this demonstration of will power
is not known to other prisoners, he is
not compelled. 1t would be unprofta-
BILE trouble to force him. ..-.f
He has practiced penmanship until
his handwriting is beautifully perfect.
1t looks like: spencerian copperplate
artfully shaded, firna regular and
small lettered. s.
He has the call Of 5000 books in
the prison library and of about 500
from the chaplain's private collection.
For thirty-three years; he has read
from them. OF late years he has out
grown fondness for fiction and has
spent most of his time with history
and in the acquiring Of foreign Ian
guages. He has a reading knowledge
of Latin, German, French, Spanish,
italian and Arabic. OF his proficiency
he alone knows; but with his lexi-
cons he translates from the foreign
books. aaY
His favorite novels are Balzac and
Dumas. At times he has read a Ger
man newspaper, presumably for prac-
tice in German, as heS has practiced
reading French newspapers. Ironical,
as it seems, although his life is bound
ed by narrow walls, he finds a sus-
tanning interest in magazine of out
door pastimes and princely country
estates. He has said that if he were
ever permitted his liberty he would
get farm in some Isolated portion
of Maine where he would raise poul.
try for the rest of his days.
Among the errors in newspaper &C.
counts of Pomeroy a few may be cor.
rected here. In keeping with the for.
mer public notion of}the prisoners
crimes Pomeroy has been the victim
of lurid accounts of how he has tor
! tured and mutilatedzrats, birds and
other pets. 1t need Only be asked
where he would getsaccess to such
animals in his cell. Itis true that he
once had a canary bird in his CELL but
he cherished it highly. In the morn
ing he would place aehp of water fol-
the bird to battle sth, and then he
would watch it as it Spread it's wings
and, made its way out of the prison
into the sunshine. The bird would
stay away about an Aeur at a time
While Pomeroy would meanwhile en-
terrain himself in anticipating it's re-
! turn.
In Pomeroy's day science was moi
advanced in explaining such mys
terles. The acts which he committed
were not judged in this light. The
boy was convicted on the basis of a
criminal; and his deeds were con
sldered as the work of a fiend. The
State Of Massachusetts, which has rec
ognized the scientific explanation OF
Jane Toppan's crimes, has placed
Pomeroy in a felon's cell, where he
has endured thirty-three years that
have been centuries to him. Public
opinion, which has been the great
power behind the official working OF
justice, has not been in possession OF
full knowledge of the prisoner. The
public has never dreamed that Pome.
! roy may be no more responsible for
! his slaughter than is blind man be.
cause he cannot see, deaf man be.
cause his ears do not hear. The boy
victim of an abnormal nature has
grown to manhood in a cell without
knowing why he had impulses whose
performances lured him into a stone
room, for life. Therefore today the
man sits in his cell ignorant of the
boy she once was. He has outgrown
the promptings of his boyhood. He
mas become a reasoning man. He is
now at the age when serious reason
ing is dominant. He has outgrown
the emotion of his youth. His Ions
years of study have developed his in
tellect, which in turn has usurped the
dominancy of his body. Such a beina
as ne is today, Pomeroy cannot &C
cept his fate as justice. Unconscious
OF the wellsprings of his deeds, he
has become different being.
Unable to believe that the deeds OF
the boy were the deeds of his will
Pomeroy feels convinced that he was
not responsible for what he did. The
mature man, unwilling to accept re-
sponsibility for the boy of long ago
has thought out for himself a philoso
ply of fatalism. Powers over which
he had no control, he argues, urged
the helpless boy in the unfortunate
course. He cannot see the ethics OF
the justice of a society that Furnishes
him now. More than that, he cannot
believe that there is God that would
allow injustice to be heaped upon him
For this reason Pomeroy refuses tc
tolerate the teachings Of religion. He
has no religious belief, no faith, He
reasons that If there were a God. thi,
superior force would not permit so
ciety to punish him.
| In such q predicament. feel;no hin,