The San Francisco call., 1909-02-14


called incorrigibles succumb to it I
have heard their rawlings through the
walls. To retain my balance l knew
that I had to keep my mind busy with
wholesome considerations. l began to
indulge in regular mental gymnastics,
Problems in mechanics. intricate spec
ulative feats in engineering and in
ventive considerations occupied my
time and brought me some measure of
solace.
These speculations began to take a
definite trend. and finally a clear cut
ambition stood out before me: / would
become an inventor.
Labor with my hands was denied me,
was to be forever denied. Inventive la
bors of my mind could not be SO re-
strained Whether or not they would
ever materiaHze in practical shape.
whether or not they would accrue to
any benefit more tangible than the sol
ace they brought me. did not matter
just then They would at least keep
me busy with something of accumula-
tive interest. This was for time
enough.
'Straightway it came to me that the
hope l tried TO deny was not dead. for a
man can not work without hope 1t
would not die Where before it had ex-
pressed itself in attempts to escape, it
now exerted itself in another kind of
emancipation. 1t was fashioning a key
that might unlock my cell door some
day. though the key was not one of
iron. Thus the beginning of new era
was ushered into my life.
Il did not permit the fearful handi-
caps that were against me to daunt.
l silenced the hopeless voices of dis
couragement that kept dinning in my
ears. | simply worked on. blindly pa
tiently. Surely something must hap
practical shape and application this
new product of my activity Ny brain
continued to busy itself with the new
pictures. / was patient with the
strange patience that comes with life
Imprisonment. I waited
And then. after those horrible years
in solitary confinement I was rewarded.
Substantial return was mine for my
persistence; hope had not mocked me.
] had given the lie to the skeptical
laughs and sneers For a man of au-
thority had walked past my cell, had
looked in. had in some subtle fashion
detected the changed attitude ! bore to-
ward the scheme of things and had then
restored me to comparative liberty
among my stripe clad fellows. And
the patent Office at Washington had
very shortly thereafter granted me ex
elusive right to useful device the
markets of the world had heretofore
never held-an invention / had worked
out in the gloom of my incorrigible's
cell
Here was one answer to my fellow
cons query: What's the use2'
And now. having unlocked the door
of my solitary cell. l began to entertain
a hope that | might in similar fashion
unlock even the outer door of the
prison, the last portal to the outer
world. l regulated my conduct to that
end. 1t was at this time that the cap
tain of the yard, as he afterward told
me, watched me so closely that I did
not so much as spit but that he heard
of it. I did not. however, at this time
know that I was being watched. That
right Lying and thinking the direction
of ones energies into the proper chan
nels. is more potent in unlocking dun
geon doors than any material device the
convict might attempt to fashion is
borne out by the fact of my subsequent
pardon; by that of many similar re-
prieves.
AMBITIONS HANDICAPS
"A word about the handicaps that
tend to discourage a prisoner in ap-
plying himself to creative labors of the
useful, legitimate sort while in con-
fnement:
I'm the first place, the very nature of
his habitation is bound to act as a
powerful deterrent against ambition
and wholesome mental as well as phys
ical life The little cell to which I was
confined for Ave years is a tomb OF
9x45s feet. 1t is absolutely bare except
for the mattress and two blankets
spread on the steel floor as bedding.
The light of the sun never enters.
Gloom pervades until 1t gets a sort OF
weight. All thought is at first pressed
from the confined mans mind. Then
horrible fancies and brutalizing concep-
tions begin to come. Every vestige OF
humanity he may have left is stran-
gled. In no manner does the con
demned man have any intercourse with
his kind Twice a day the silent guard
shoves a OF food through the slot
at the bottom Of the cell door-at feed
ing time. This and the whisper of the
guards shoes in his ceaseless patrol is
the only evidence the solitary has