The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1909-05-06
What Could He Do?

am workingman who has never
received any education. There was
but one mandatory Of prominence in
the place where worked, very large
one, employing several thousand men.
One day the concern shut down, aud |
was thrown out of employment There
was nothing for me to do but go some
where else to look for work. visited
several cities, ut last bringing up in
Albany, n Y.
One night while walking on the
street a man came up to me and, say
ing 81 want you," slipped handouts on
my wrists. He was Joined by another
man, and the two took me to the city
| Jail and locked me up in cell.
learned later that they had made n
charge of burglary against me. OF
course told them that was no Grim.
inal, but what good did it do? They
said they knew all about me and had
been waiting for me to come back to
town. l had never been in Albany be-
fore
When the case came up in court
was tried for robbing, with others, a
dwelling. 4 man took the witness
stand who, after looking at me, swore
that l was one of gang who had
entered his house at night when the
family was asleep. Hearing a noise
below, he had gone downstairs and
discovered the men putting his silver
ware in sacks. He had watched us
for some time without being seen and
had had a good look at me- de went
back upstairs to concoct some method
| for the arrest Of the gang, but they
| had gone before he could do so.
The court assigned me an attorney,
but he was too we'll satisfied of my
guilt to pay much attention to my case.
/ might have made an effort to prove
my identity by applying at the factory
where had worked, but my attorney
said that to prove that a man of the
name l claimed had worked there
wouldn't do much good against hay
ing been identified by the man who
was robbed. l had no money with
which to fight for my liberty, so l was
sent to the penitentiary for ten years.
During my stay in prison of all the
horrible things l suffered the most
awful was that l was enduring pun
ishment which didn't belong to me.
If had been guilty / suppose would
not have suffered nearly so much. |
tried to think Of methods of getting
my case taken up, but even if ! had
| had an education, with the advantages
that education brings, what could l
there had been in Albany some Grim
! inal known to the police who looked
| like me. The only hope l had was
that some day they would get him and
he would confess that he had commit
ted the robbery with which ! was
charged. But this would have been
| an astonishing piece of luck for me,
and as was convicted man in pris-
on it wasn't likely that even if heard
of it could take advantage of it.
| ! had been in the penitentiary about
year when one Of the keepers spoke
to me, evidently thinking ! was some
one else l told him he was mistaken,
but he paid no attention to me. Then
another official did the same thing |
told him that he was the second man
who had made the same mistake, but
he paid no more attention to what l
said than the first. Some time after
this one Of these men came to me one
day and stared at me for some time.
Then l was told that one of the pris-
| cners had been mistaken for me- This
prisoner was pointed out to me, and
though | had several times seen him
he was a new convict-the likeness be-
tween us had not occurred to me. It's
singular how other people see like
nesses which we don't see ourselves
But after awhile noted that the man
was exactly my height and build, and
his face was shaped much like mine.
/ found out that he had been con-
| y1cted for q crime that had been COM
mitted in Albany. Then knew that
he was the man the police had been
looking for when they arrested me-
A hope flashed within me that here
was the means of regaining my free
dom. ! endeavored to interest the
keepers in the matter, but did not sue
coed. The fact that this man looked
like me didn't seem to stand for much
with them against the fact that we
were both convicts under the law. 1t
would have required some one to de-
vote great deal of attention to the
case to work out my freedom. And
who would do that except for pay? 1t
would have required many hundreds
Of dollars to hire such person, and
hadn't cent. got chance to speak
to my double one day and told him my
story, asking him to help me. saw
by his manner that he had been one of
the gang who had committed the rob-
berry for which l was convicted. He
asked me what there would be in II
for him, and saw at once that, though
the means of my liberation were at
hand, they would not be Of any use to
!