The Birmingham age-herald., 1912-11-22

v me uay .ol early suihihei III London garden. before the O birds had lost their spring song, or the pear trees dropped their last blos- som. our friend said suddenly, Why. there's a goldhnch!'
 | Blackbirds there were, thrushes, and tits in plenty, an owl at night, and a Christopher Columbus of cuckoo who solemnly, once year, mistook this green island of trees for the main lands of Kent and Surrey. but goldinch-never, q hear it--over therer' our friend said, and, getting up. he walked toward the house.
 When lie came back our friend sat down again and said T didn't know that you kept cage birdr'
 We admitted that the cook had a ca nary.
 There was silence. Some strong feeling had been aroused that neither of us
 could understand. Suddenly he burst out: T can't bear things in cages-ani- mals, birds, or men. I hate to see or think of them And looking at us an- grily as though we had taken an advan-
 tage in drawing from him this confess sion. he went on quickly:
 q was staying in a German town some years ago, with a friend who was making | inquiries into social matters. He asked me one day to go over prison with him. | I had never seen one, then, and agreed. | It was just such day as this-perfectly clear sky, and <with that cool dancing l tI, hot ca, in some parts of Germany The prison, which stood in the middle of the town, was one of those shaped like star, that | have been built over there on the plan | of Pentonville The system, they told us, was the same that you might have seen working here many years ago. The | Germans were then, and still, no doubt are, infatuated with the idea of immur- ing their prisoners in complete solitude.
 But it was a new toy to them then, and they were playing with it with that sort of fanatical thoroughness which the Ger mans give to everything they take up. l don't want to describe this prison. or what we saw in it; as far as an institu- | ton run on such dreadful lines all events impressed me favorably. I'll simply tell you of the one thing which I shall neve; 1 forget. because it symbolized to me for
 ever the caging of all creatures, animal or human, great or small.
 1 Our friend paused; then, with an added | irritation in his voice, as though aware
 of doing violence to his natural reserve he went on
 I've had been all over the grisly place i when the governor asked my friend
 whether he would like to see one or two
 of the life prisoners.
 ! "I will show you one he said who
 has been here 9 years. He is, you will
 understands remember his very words
 "a little worn by his long confinement
 While we were going toward this =-:s- oner's cell they told us his story. He had
 been a cabinet makers assistant. and stin quite boy. became infatuated with the wife of his own employer One night,
 being surprised at a stolen meeting with his inamorata, he blindiy struck out ana killed the husband on the spot He was sentenced to death, but on the interven- ton of some royalty who had been upset
 by the sight of corpses l believe at the battle of Sadowa, his sentence was com
 muted to imprisonment for life
 When we entered his cell he Vas
 standing perfectly still, gazing at his work. He looked quite @. though he couldn't have been more than 4C-a bent, trembling ruin of a figure, covered by a 1 drab colored apron. His face had the
 mealy hue and texture, as it were. of all
 prisonerss faces. He seemed to have no
 features; his cheeks were hollow; his
 eyes large. but, looking back I can't re- member their color-if, indeed. they had any color al all As we passed in. one by one. through the iron door, he took of his round cap. .drab colored too, like ev- erything about him, showing his dusty.
 nearly bald head, with few short gray hairs on end, and steod in an attitude of