Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1909-01-29

duced by dark cell treatment could |
be considerably relieved. He advised |
all prisoner friends who might visit
"The Doghole' to toss button into
the air, and while away the time by
searching for 1t on hands and knees
stood the value of little things, and
he recognized the fact that a con-
tinuous hunt for a missing button
would drag the mind away from the
black abyss of insanity.
Gilfillan, cropping blindly in the
darkness, remembered the advice. He
ripped a button from his striped
| jacket and tossed 1t into the thick air.
Listening intently he heard it fall in
a far-away corner Of the cell, and
on hands and knees he started to
search for it.
The sport fascinated him. When he
discovered the metal disc he spun 1t
up and again started in pursuit. The
leaden hours rolled by slowly, but the
game continued. Gilfillan blessed the
button. He began to feel love for 1t.
He called to 1t when 1t hid from him
in the cracks between the cold stones,
and he cried Historically over 1t when
he discovered 1t after a long search.
1t seemed alive. It became a COM
panion to him in that horrible, black
vault into which not one single ray of
light came to pierece the darkness.
II was on the evening Of the sixth day
that Nemesis clinched with Gilfillan.
The prisoner had, up to that moment,
thrown the button up thousand
times and found it in each occasion by
laboriously searching on hands and
knees. But on the evening of the
sixth day peculiar incident hap
pened.
The prisoner threw the button up
into the blackness, but 1t did not come
down again.
Gilfillan waited with aching ears to
hear the tinkle of the metal on the
stone, but he heard no sound. The
button didn't fall, and the silence that
filled the cell as he stood listening,
hurt him. He clenched his teeth to
strangle scream of terror that fear
pushed to his lips. What was wrong?
The prisoners trembling knees gave
way under him and he sank to the
floor His hands moved out into the
darkness and commenced to feel the
stone flooring, but every nerve was
taut.
On every other occasion when he
had tossed up the button he had heard
it fall distinctly, but he was certain
thai there was not the slightest sound
after the last toss. Still, he would
search.
The hot hands crept over the stones
eagerly, feverishly. The fingers
worked madly, but the bare floor
Knocked their search. There was nc
button. Again and again and again
the prisoner searched. Through the
cold hours of the night he crawled
backwards and forwards till each join
ing between those tombstones of Hope
seemed familiar to his blind fingers
But there was nothing on the floor
The button had not fallen after he
had jerked it into the blackness.
Gilfillan tried to think. Why had il
not returned? he asked himself
What had happened to it? There was
4 nothing above him but bare walls, and
yet! Where was it? Again and
again he whispered the question of the
. thick black pail that seemed to heave
4 around him. He asked 1t in louder
tone. He screamed it. Then some
S thing like a laugh came from one
: corner of that misunderstanding pit OF
i horror. and Gilfillan was panic
k stricken.
e Imagination contrary to the opinion
e of scientific experts, lies in the stom
a ach, and the bread and water diet thai
d Gilfillan had been receiving was moi
sufficiently weighty to keep it down
4 The prisoner began to see things The
e thick waves of curse-incrusted dark
e ness welled up from the corners anC
# smothered him. Invisible hands
e grasped his throat and strangled him
It He kicked at the door leading into the
n dark corridor opening into the mair
t wing, but Warder Tomlinson, of the
d night watch, was slightly deaf, anC
e did not hear him. He raced arounC
o the cell with Terror-grasping gibber
ing Terror-at his heels, and tn,
Q stone vault echoed to his wild scream.
r of agony.
IS Wnen Warder Dunworth opened thu
e door on the morning of the seventh
l. day to acquaint Gilfllan of the fac
r. that his term in dark cell was over
If the hands of Terror had complete,
IS their work. The prisoners face wa
d battered beyond recognition wher,
'r he had dashed against the walls in hi
j, mad race, and he shrieked wildl,
y when the warder attempted to dra,
10 him into the light.
Eleven years afterwards, when al
D. enlightened prison controller did ava
e with the dark cells the masons, teal
a. ing down the black vault at Enlota
y found jacket button securel
a fastened in thick cobweb near tn
d. ceiling of the cell. But In the GRIN
e inal ward of Enlota insane asylum