The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1909-12-22
D0FFS JAIL STRIPES
WORN FOR 27 YEARS
Warden Lines Up Convicts for
a Good-By to "the Old Man."
Whom Everybody Liked
JOY WHEN He IS RELEASED
Killed Man, He Says, to Save Young
Girls Honor - Considers Harry
Thaw Beneath Him - Released,
Laughs at Anything and Everything.

Thaw Beneath Him - Released,
Laughs at Anything and Everything.
Leavenworth, Kan.-One at time
the 800 inmates Of the Kansas Peni-
Tertiary bade a veteran comrade fare
well. It was John Rodgers, the Oldest
in point Of service among them, who
had just finished putting in twenty
seven years. 1t was a holiday and
the convicts had the freedom Of the
yard to talk and enjoy themselves at
will, and when Dad" as they called
him, walked down toward the iron
grated entrance, dressed in a new suit
OF citizens clothes, under escort OF
Warden J. X. Codding and Mr.. and
Mrs. Artlip, there was lineup and all
Of them gave him the friendly outward
hand salute in farewell. Rodgers was
released on a Governors parole. not
pardon. He had not broken the pris-
on rules in a quarter Of century, and
all the officials from the Warden down
have the same confidence that the old
man will make good and never have
20 come back. He leaves the prison
meek and submissive, for twenty-sev-
en- years under the close discipline Of
penitentiary guards had stamped out
nearly all his individuality and spirit.
Rodgers was 80 happy to get out
side that he was nearly starting of
without getting $1S0.17 due to him
from his earning at S-4 cents day
as a prisoner. After buying newspa-
pers he had saved this much. When
handed the money he was asked what
he would do with 1t, when he replied:
II don't know, but whatever Mr.. and
Mrs. Artlip, my friends. say"
When asked II he had any plans, he
replied: II can work, and my friends
will not regret keeping me. I know
that will not be burden on them. l
have no relatives"
When he left the prison and board.
ed an electric car for Leavenworth
Rodgers's face wore a constant smile.
He laughed at any and everything.
When he boarded passenger train
for st. Joseph he said he was sure
enough beginning to feel that he was
free. On reaching st. Joseph he went
to the home Of Mr.. Artlip, a prosper
GUS shoe merchant, where he revelled
In Thanksgiving dinner.
Rogers felt that he was martyr;
that he killed a man to protect wom-
an, and that he acted an honorable
part instead of committing a crime.
He considered himself high above
Harry Thaw, whose pleas of justif1ca-
ton he said were contemplate.
The defenseless woman Rodgers re-
fers to as protecting. married nineteen
years ago, and has a family OF chill
dren. She lives with her husband and
family in the State Of Wisconsin, and
will not likely have any part, one way
or the other, in the remainder OF the
life of the old man.
The crime which Rodgers committed
in the spring of 1880 is as follows: He
| was counting a girl when her STEP
father, Littleton Wallace, objected,
and demanded that his attentions
cease. The mother of the girl favored
| Rodgers as a suitor for her child, and
! domestic trouble followed. Finally
Rodgers, the mother and the girl left
| Wallace, who lived on a farm. Rod
| gers later on went back to the farm
and a quarrel followed, and Wallace
was shot by Rodgers. who claimed
that he acted in self-defense, and that
Wallace was trying to strike him with
a cane. Rodgers was tried and SEN
fenced to be hung. Under the old
Kansas law, repealed two years ago, a
prisoner sentenced to death was to be
brought to the penitentiary, and re-
main one year and then to be execut.
ed at any time after when the Gov
ernor fixed the date. None were hung
since 1873, as no Governor ever set a
date after a prisoner started serving
time in the penitentiary. At one time
there were sixty-five hang or death
convicts in the Kansas penitentiary.
Rodgers being free to discuss the
killing of Wallace, maintained that
Wallace was conspiring to ruin his
stepdaughter, and that the mother OF
the girl knew 1t, and that she, as well
as the girl, appealed to Rodgers to
save her. He claimed that when he
visited the Wallace farm near Fort
Scott, Wallace was so enraged over
the baking of his plans that Wallace
started at him with a cane, and the
killing followed.