Americus times-recorder. [volume] (Americus, Ga.) 1891-current, 1913-12-02
(By W. H. ALBURN.)

Wethersfeld, Conn.,, Dec. bessie
Wakefield, the gidrl-who-never-had-a-
chance, sits in tiny cell in the state
prison here, waiting to be hanged.
And facing the horror of the gallows,
she writes:
81 have nee little room here, AMI
everyone is so good and kind to me.
You might think that Bessie is hap
by. And so she is, in a way. But
happiness is a relative thing. Com
pared to the home" she has known,
and the people with whom her lot in
life has been cast, she finds this grim
prison pleasant-pleasant even in the
face of death.
Before Bessie came from the county
Jail at New Haven she said to Mrs.
Basserman, the matron:
"The months have spent here have
been the happiest of my life. Because
here people have been kind to me-"
And yet Bessie sits on her cot, hour
after hour, sobbing bitterly, and lies
crying through the long hours of the
night.
Why?
Because of he children.
For herself she doesn't care.
What will be, will be-" she says, as
she said so often to the matron at New
Haven. But my little George and
Cora-who will take care of them
when I'm gomez"
Story of Misery and Redeemed BY
Mother Love
There in brief, you have the life
story of this girl. 1t is a story of
misery, toll, immortality, if you will,
perhaps even crime-of a destiny
wrought out under the pressure of
bad heredity and sordid environment,
but redeemed by pure and overpow-
iering Mother Love.
And here are the facts, most of
which were Not submitted to the jury
that found Bessie guilty of numbering
her husband, VIM Wakefield, AMI
which were Not taken into account by
either jury or judge.
Bessie was one of fifteen children
born to Mr.. and Mrs Frank Webster
of Middleberry, Conn. Both parents
are illiterate and of low mentality. IN
that home there was not merely grind
ing poverty; there was lack of the
common decencies of life and even, it
is said of the common moralities.
In such a home Bessie lived for
fourteen years. She had but little
schooling. She helped her mother with
the tremendous task of caring for that
big family. Always there was wash
ing and ironing and dish-washing, al
ways the infinite toll of caring for Il
flock of little brothers and sisters. OF
the fifteen only six are now alive.
Some of the brothers are obviously de-
fective; Bessie's one sister, aged II,
is a paralytic.
Bessie Was Good Girl, But Her
Youth Was Slavery.
Bessie's youth, then, was slavery.
But Bessie was good girl. She work
ed hard, had no pleasures, had no girl
friends, no boy friends. She never
went anywhere. She had no clothes
fit to wear. She was often hungry
often cold.
At fourteen she went to work as
hired girl. Several farmers wives
employed her. They all speak well of
her. She was faithful, gentle, good.
There was no hardness of cruelty in
her. She would not kill chicken.
She loved all animal life. Dogs, horses
and kittens were her friends.
Then came VIM Wakefield, twice
her age. He was kind to her, kinder
than her own family or any one else
had been-nntil he married her. She
was II then. He was the first man she
had even kept company with.
Bessie was married in December
I19O6. In March her first baby was
born. Wakefield never liked littl