The Madison daily leader. [volume] (Madison, S.D.) 1890-current, 1912-12-14
10 DEATH
N ITS GRIN SHADOW
Some of the Doomed Men
Prayed; Some Cursed
and Struggled.

Lutz and Joseph Cordes. The former
was a German who had shot a man.
The second was an Italian who had
mistreated and then killed his daugh-
ter. Lutz had a son who was a Luth-
eran minister. He was resigned to
death. Cordes took on fearfully. The
| shades of all the cells were lowered SO
| that we could not see the mems faces,
but we could hear Cordes. No one of
| us slept the night before. All night
long we sang hymns and read chap
| tiers from the Bible. We read in turn
and sang together. We sang whatever
| the condemned man requested.
"Many Of those scenes l was destined
| to go through, and l became accustom-
| ed to them-yes, hardened. But the
| one scene to which | never could be-
| come calloused was the last parting of
| the relatives with the man who was
going away This was on the Sun
| day previous to the day he was to
| pass through the little green door. The
shades were mercifully lowered In
| front of our cells, and we were spared
| the sight of the scenes which were
taking place, but we could not shut
| out the cries and the screams that
| rang through the death house. oh, 1t
was awful!
ut seems to me that I will neve be
| able to forget the depths Of despair
sounded by those agonized cries. Fa-
| theirs and mothers, sisters, brothers,
! wives and sweethearts went by us,
| weeping and in Mysteries. They were
carried out fainting. They were drag.
| ged out raving like maniacs. There
| was an awful stiffness in the death
house just before those scenes and
long after the cries had ceased to echo
through the corridor.
Becker and the Gun Men.
1.-THE papers stated that no signs of
recognition were betrayed by Becker
or the four gun men when the latter
| were taken in there. You can rest as
sured that they have spoken since.
| The death house has no inequality of
rank. They are all on an even plane
there. / understand that Becker oc-
cupies my old cell. If he does he is
just two cells removed from the little
green door. They all talk. They can
read and write in their cells, and they
can smoke. They receive visitors, but
they talk with them four feet removed
from their cells. A wire screen sep
arates prisoner and visitor four feet
out from the cells.
"Your wife, mother, sister or sweet
heart may converse with you. She
cannot embrace you, she cannot kiss
you. She cannot touch you. You sure
ly have left the world behind you
when you enter the death house at
Sing Sing.
1.-The men play checkers. Each has
a checkerboard with the squares num-
bered. They make their own checkers
of bits of ~pasteboard or paper. From
their cells they cali the number of the
square from which and to which they
move and call the jumps. Some great
games are played there.
Everything Is Forgiven Then.
"The men fight. They cannot reach
each other, but they can call names
and curse each other. Then on the
night before a man goes away every
a who has had trouble asks his for
giveness and Is forgiven, no matter
what the offense. Then all 1oin In
prayer and song.
"The last man who went away be-
fore left was young Albert Wolter,
convicted of numbering Ruth Miller.
o Will remember the case. Most of
the girls body was found In a sack
on the roof Of the house where Wolter
lived. The sack was thrown down into
the yard, and there the bones were dis
covered. More bones were found In
VOTERS fireplace In his room. A hand
was found clutching hair which match
ed the color of his.
II believe that Wolter was innocent
of the murder. / heard him swear on
his knees before his father and moth
er when they visited him for the last
time that he had no hand in the muir
der. / shook hands with him when he
passed my cell. He said: Good luck
to you, old man. Goodby.' l said,
God bless YOU I couldn't say any
more.
Joseph Caralla, convicted of the
fendish murder Of a man, was the
worst specimen of manhood In the
death house In the two years / was
there. He was blasphemous beyond
belief. The day before the last he
cursed his Maker, he blasphemed
Christ. He threw the crucifx on the
floor and stamped on 1t. He tore up
the holy pictures which had been CIV
en- him and spat on them.
Dragged In Through the Door.
THAT night, the last night, we pray
ed with him and sang with him ms
with the rest. He went away, cursing
and fighting, and had to be finally
dragged through the door. And
heard that just before he was placed
In the chair he begged for a few mo-
ments In which to make his a with
God. He fell upon his knees and prayed.
"Only once did we sing for a man
on the day he was going away He