Bisbee daily review., 1911-10-18

"a / NSTE behind him in the door of a n9AzSl death cell. hopes to feel and
 breathe the open air again.
 save for s few terrible mo ments when he marches out to the scaffold, to die Never does he dream that he will again see the gayety Of life and freedom expressed in scenes of strength and skill, or that he will be permitted to participate in them. writes s special correspondent of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch That is why. In all the annals of baseball. there is no record of such an umpire as Casey murderer Casey of the Nevada state prison-who went from a death cell to judge a baseball game between two teams of his fellow conyicts.
 Patrick c. Casey, whose wooden leg and sobricuet of "Pegleg" tell one chapter in the story of his misfortunes, was fan of fans in a time gone past. That was before he wandered into the land where ~six-shooters" and Bowie knives set the Darwinian theory aside. That was before Goldfeld had sprung up in the desert 10 lure men on to hardships that might yield luxury or death, and before Casey, in that turbu- tent and terrible Goldfield summer of 1909. deliberately sauntered down street of the mushroom city. slew Mrs. Thomas Heslip on her own door 'step and dangerously wounded Mrs. Thomas Mann, a guest st the Heslip home.
 Between Casey. the prison umpire. and Casey. the boy, wrangling with other boys cn a corner lot where coming champs were wont 10 put their hopfs to test, a series of event. tul years had interposed a record which was long and not too good. and n which Casey had played the game with lead instead of the horsehide spheroid of the diamond
 But the years had not made Casey forget. and the wayward life of the mining camps had not stamped out oi his soul the spirit of sport, and his 0ld-time love of our national game When be was led to the warden's of ice a few weeks ago and informed hat his plea for new trial had re leased him. for a time, at any rate, from the death cell he had occupied since December ', 1909, his first re. quest was that he might take some part in the baseball games then be. ing planned for prisoners whose sen tenees stop short of the gallows And when he stood behind the bat to offici- ate at the first of the prisoners baseball games, there was no tremor or doubt in the voice that cried: Bat. ter up; play ball"
 Surely Remarkable Game.
 In order 10 see the ball game, Casey gave the warden his word of honor that he would abide by all the rules governing the prison yard He promised that he would act as fair and impartial judge. He swore that he would make no attempt to escape or to cheat the gallows by destroying himself while he was at liberty in the yard. In a word. Casey, the Goldfeld murderer. whose life was being de manded by all the people of Nevada was strictly "on his honor" to be good one afternoon.
 Surely that was a unique and per haps remarkable game of ball There vas no velvet green with soft brown paths of earth. The diamond was black striPs of paint laid on the hard face of the prison yard. which is blasted and quarried out of solid rock. in the heart of which the exoa gatOrs found msstodon tracks and foot prints of prehistoric men.
 One team was composed of shines, as the negro prisoners are called and the other white men whose crime, ranged from petit larceny to murder Around the diamond sat 200 other fel lows. above whom rose the walls o the prison yard. With them wal Warden Baker. who took charge O the prison last January. and imme diately began working out a system of reform in which baseball plays nt small part
 Completing the picture were th, guards. patroling the top of the walli in sharp relief against the blue skie of freedom. and constantly counting the men in the yard lest any attemp at escape should be made.
 Umpire's Decision Went"
 Nobody dared question a decision from the peg-legged lord of the game To have cried loudly for judgment on 8 close play ct base. or to hay complained strenuously when Case, announced strike" safe" or ~yr