The Washington herald., 1913-12-28
PRISON STRIPES
FADING, HE SAYS
al Jennings Declares Life
Now Is Made Bearable
for Convicts.
MAY RUN FOR GOVERNOR
Tells Of Days When He Held Up
Trains-Started When Brother
Was Killed.
MAY RUN FOR GOVERNOR


are constantly improving, according to
Al Jennings, a probable candidate for the
governorship of Oklahoma, who spent
five years of his life in Federal prisons
| for train robbery. Many of the old rules
and regulations of his day have been
done away with, Mr.. Jennings declares,
| and now a man can be a man, although
| convict.
The prison stripes are fading" he
says.
He makes no bones of his past. He
will tell willingly of his start on the
| road" of his successes at the side door
of the express car, his fights with Of
ficers, and his time in prison. He keeps
his voice well modulated when he talks
OF this part of his life. The only time
he wakes violent is when the subject of
Oklahoma politics is broached. He has
been fighting the ring in that State
for years.
Jennings is not the ideal picture of the
train robber. In the first place he is
two or three inches below the average
height But his quick step and broad
shoulders tell of the life spent on the
cattle ranges of the West before he took
up the Winchester and went on the
road" His hair is dark red, his glance
is direct and friendly, and his mouth
takes a smile readily. But his nose is of
the variety that is commonly known as
the lighting nose"
Murder of Brother.
My start on the road dated from the
murder of my brother, Ed said Mr..
Jennings quietly. He was killed by
Jack Love and Temple Houston. Love
is now chairman of the railway commits
sion. Love was the litigant in a suit and
Houston was his lawyer. My brother was
the opposing attorney, and he won the
case.
"One day, after the case was tried,
Ed. was in a saloon. He was leaning
over a caTd table, when Houston came
up behind him and demanded an apol-
ogy for some things that had been said
at the trial. My brother answered him,
and turned to look up as another
brother of mine came in at the door,
and Houston shot him in the back of
the head. Ed. staggered around the
table and fell, and then Mr.. Coyote
Jack Love-came up and shot him as
he lay on the floor. That was what
started me of, and when 1 started
went fast"
Jennings often throws in a phrase
taken from the old days, even in his
talk of things of today. He says that
If he ever gets into power in Oklahoma
he is going to make the grating"
hunt the tall trees, and he
knows he can do it, for
IF a couple of men can go into
town full OF people and scare them
half to death, rob the bank, and get
away, think how one man, possessed
of the determination to do something
good, can scare a lot of folks who
know that they have been caught
Knew How to shoot.
No: I never had to learn to shoot
when 1 took to the road In the first
place, I had learned how years before,
while I was a boy working on the
cattle ranges Of the West
But, in the second place. a train
robber does not need TO be a good
shot. He is safer if he isn't. What
the train robber. or any kind of out
law. wants to do if he is being chased
is not to hurt his pursuers, but to
scare them. II a gang of men is chas-
ing another down a road, and the !
fugitive turns and fires into the road
at just the right angle to send the
bullet over the heads of those behind. |
the chances are they will first duck |
their heads, and then turn and run for
cover"
Mr.. Jennings has no respect for the |
train bandits OF this age. He says that |
real train robbery is impossible now
adays.
1.-The days of outlawry are gone. Con-
iitions now won't permit OF men doing |
the things they used to do. The in
,reasing population of the country and
the improved railway systems now make
i impossible
OF the prisons nowadays. Mr.. Jennings
said:
They are getting better because peo-
pie are interesting themselves more in
he relief of the poor devils in them.
Real Christian sentiment is spreading all
he time and the prison stripes are fad
ng.
Need Not Bow Heads.
Men no longer have to walk with
bowed heads and folded arms like slaves.
They may look straight forward and
still be men now, while under the old
system they are merely machines.
And mean literally what say when
[ speak of bowed heads and folded
arms. When 1 was in prison and a man
was called to the warden's room to make
report. or anything of the sort, he was
supposed to walk to the wall, fold his
,rns, placing his elbows against the
ralI. and bow his head: There he stood
,ntiI his number was called. Then he