The San Francisco call., 1913-09-15
Continued From Saturday
CHAPTER VI.-Continued


worst injuries to mar the girl con-
vfcts life. That which bore upon her
most weightily and incessantly was
the degradation of this environment,
from which there was never any re-
spite, the viciousness of this spot
wherein she had been cast through no
fault of her own. vileness was every
where, visibly in the faces OF many,
and it was brimming from the souls
of more. subtly hideous. The girl held
herself rigidly from any personal in
timaey with her fellows To some ex-
tent at least. she could separate her
self from their corruption in the mat
ter of personal association. But. ever
present, there was secret energy of
vice that could not be escaped so sim
ply-nor, indeed. by any device; that
breathed in the spiritual atmosphere
itself of the place. Always. this mys7s
terIous, invisible. yet horribly potent,
power of sin was like a miasma
Throughout the prison. Always. it was
striving to reach her soul, to make
her of its own. She fought the in
sidious. fetid force as best she might.
She was not evil by nature. She had
been well grounded in principles of
righteousness Nevertheless, though
she maintained the integrity of her
character, that character suffered
from the taint. There developed over
the girls original sensibility a she'll
of hardness. which in time would
surely come to make her less scrupu-
lous in her reckoning of right and
wrong.
Yet, as rule. character remains
the same throughout life as to its
prime essentials, and. in this case.
Mary Turner at the end of her term
was vftally almost as wholesome as
on the day when she began the serv-
4 ing of the sentence. The change
wrought in her was chiefly of an ex-
ternal sort. The kindness of her
heart and her desire for the seemly
joys of life We're unweakened. But
over the better qualities of her nature
was now spread a crust of worldly
hardness, denial of appeal to her
sensibilities. 1t was this that would
4
to contented companioning with
crime.
The best evidence of the fact that
Mary Turner's soul was not fatally
soiled must be found In the fact that
STILL at the expiration of her SEN
! tence. she was fully resolved to live
straight, as the saying is which she
had quoted to Glider. This, too, in
the face of sure knowledge as TO the
difficulties that would beset the effort,
and in the face of the temptations
offered to follow an easier path.
There was. for example, Aggie
Lynch. a fellow convict, with whom
she had a slight degree Of acquaint-
ance, nothing more. This young
woman criminal by training, offered
allurements of illegitimate employ
ment in the outer world when they
should be free. Mary endured the
companionship with this prisoner be-
cause a sixth sense proclaimed the
fact that here was one immoral,
rather than immoraI--and the differ
ence is mighty. For that reason. Ag-
/ gle Lynch was not actively offensive,
as were most of the others. She was
a dainty little blonde, with a baby
face, in which were set two light blue
| eyes, of sort to widen often IN de-
mure wonder over most things In
surprising and naughty world She
! had been convicted of blackmaiI. and
she made no pretense even of inno-
cence. Instead. she was inclined to
boast over her ability to bamboozle
men at her will. She was a natural
actress of the ingenue role, and in
that pose she could unfailingly beguile
the heart of the wisest Of worldly
men.
Perhaps the very keen student of
| physiognomy light have discovered
| grounds for suspecting her demure-
ness by reason of the thick, level
brows that cast a shadow on the bland
! Innocence of her face. For the rest
| she possessed a knack of rather
harmless perversity, fair smat-
tering of grammar and spelling. and a
lively sense of hunor within her own
Limitations, with particularly small
Intelligence in other directions. Her
one art was histrionics of the kind
| that made an individual appeal In
such she was inimitable. She had
been reared in a criminal family,
| which must excuse much. Long ago
she had lost track of her father: her
mother she had never known. Her
one relation was brother of high
standing as a pickpocket. One prin-
! cipal reason of her success in lead
ing on men to make fools of them
selves over her, to their everlasting
regret afterward. lay in the fact
that. in spite of all the gross irregu-
| Iaritfes of her life, she remained
.chaste. She deserved no credit for
such restraint, since 1t was matter
purely of temperament, not of re-
solve.
! The girl saw in Mary Turner the