The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1911-09-29

/ ulu, anu Wien the tears ran GOWN
his cheeks, and he took one of the
visitors aside, to ask, with his trembl-
ing hands nervously clutching at his
coat to detain him, whether there
was no hope of his dismal sentence
being committed, the spectacle was
really too painful to witness. / never
saw or heard of any kind of misery
that impressed me more than the
wretchedness of this man.
There was sailor who had been
there upwards of eleven years. and
who in a few months time would be
free. Eleven years of solitary con-
fnement!
""I am very glad to hear your
time is nearly out" What does he
say? Nothing. Why does he stare
at his hands, and pick the flesh upon
his fingers, and raise his eyes for an
instant, every now and then, those
bare walls which have seen his head
turn gray? 1t is a way he has some
times.
1.-TWO years! l looked back through
two years in my own life-out of
jail, prosperous, happy, surrounded
by blessings, comforts, and good
fortune-and thought how wide a gap
it was, and how long those two years
passed in solitary captivity would
have been. l have the face of this
man, who was going to be released
next day, before me now 1t is al
most more memorable in its happi-
ness than the other faces in their
misery. How easy and how natural
it was for him to say that the system
was a good one; and that the time
went pretty quick-considering; "
and that when man once felt he
had offended the law, and must sat
isfy it, "he got along, somehow; !"
and so forth!
LAS | walked among those solitary
cells, and looked at the faces of the
men within them, | tried to picture
to myself the thoughts and feelings
natural to their condition. l imagined
the hood just taken off, and the scene
of their captivity disclosed to them in
all it's dismal monotony.
cat first, the man is stunned His
confinement is a hideous vision; and
his old lie a realty. He throws him
self upon his bed, and lies there
abandoned to despair. BY degrees the
insupportable solitude and barren
ness of the place rouses him from this
stupor, and when the trap in his
grated door is opened, he humbly
begs and prays for work. Give me
some work to do or shall go raving
mad"
He has it; and by fits and starts
applies himself to labor; but every
now and then there comes upon him
a burning sense of the years that
must be wasted in that stone coffin,
and an agony so piercing in the rec
objection of those who are hidden
from his view and knowledge, that
he starts from his seat, and striding
up and down the narrow room with
both hands clasped on his uolifted
head, hears spirits tempting him to
beat his brains out on the wall
Again he falls upon his bed, and
I
starts up, wondering whether any
other man is near; whether there IS
another cell like that on either side
+ of him: and listens keenly.
There is no sound, but )taer
: prisoners may be near for all that
! He remembers to have heard once
2 when he little thought of coming here
;, himself, that the cells were so con
structed that the prisoners could not
2 hear each other, through the officers
F.; could hear them. Where is the near
/, est man-upon the right, or on the
] left? or is there one in both direc
s tions? Where is he sitting now
:, with his face to the light? or is he
s walking to and fro? How is he dress
t ed? Has he been here long? Is he
d much worn away? Is he very white
and spectre-like? Does he think Of
- his neighbor, too?
Scarcely venturing to breathe, and
= listening while he thinks, he conjures
l. up a figure with his back towards
e him. and imagines it moving about
), in this next cell. He has no idea oil
the face. but he is certain of the
% dark form of STOPPING man. In the
e cell upon the other side, he puts
another figure, whose face is hidden
l. from him also. Day after day, and
often when he wakes up in the middle
of the night, he thinks of these two
q men until he is almost distracted
He never changes them. There they