The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-04-10
ANOTHER JEAN VALJEAN.
Sent to Jail For Life Because He Stole
Small Piece of Bacon.

SSIlC W Jan VI 1sS(<tuSC llC EoColC
a Small Piece of Bacon.
Millions of Americans have shud-
dered at Victor Hugo's tremendous
arraignment of law in the story of
Jean Valjean-the youth who, for
stealing a loaf of bread for his starv-
ing family, was condemned to life
time of suffering, imprisonment and
persecution. And they have said:
'"That was terrible But that was in
France, and long ago. Such things
could not happen now-certainly not
in America"
But William Welch, looking out
bopelessly from behind iron bars,
gives them the lie. For William
Welch, in free America, has suffered
greater wrong than Jean Vatican.
Driven by hunger, he stole piece of
bacon from a dwelling house; and
for that "crime" he was sentenced to
the penitentiary for life by an Ohio
Judge, and driven insane by brooding
on the overwhelming injustice of it.
Six years ago Welch, a young man
of twenty-five, was wandering thru
southern Ohio, looking for work. He
found neither job nor generosity.
Penniless, lonely, hungry he lost his
reverence for the great god Property.
And so, one dark, bitter night, in
Greenville, he opened the door of a
dwelling house, entered and took a
few pounds of bacon to keep him
alive in his quest for work.
He lifted his hand against no man.
He attacked no woman. He frighten-
ed no child. He destroyed nothing.
He had to have food, and he took a
dollars worth of bacon-that was all.
He was seen, caught and hauled into
court. And being at heart an honest
man, Welch admitted stealing the ba-
con. He would steal to live, but he
would not lie to avoid punishment.
The law, however, was not so
square as the thief. Welch was gull
ty of "breaking and entering an in
habited dwelling at night" with in
tent to steal property. And that, in
Ohio, is an offense punishable with
life Imprisonment, unless the jury
recommends mercy.
Welch was destroyed by his own
honesty. BY pleading "guilty," he
surrendered his right to trial by
jury. And so there was no jury to
recommend mercy" Wherefore in
exorable law, in the person of Judge
Allread, sent him to the penitentiary
for life
1t is not likely that any jury would
have done that. And the lack of a
jury was merely technical. The judge
might have insisted on jury trial for
the prisoner, refusing to enter his
plea of "guilty." Judges have often
done so.
This judge merely said, There is
no alternative" So, speaking as a
statute book, and not as man deal
ing with flesh and blood and the pas
sions of life, with legal phrase he
took away this young mans lifelong
freedom, his human ties, even his
secret hopes-for stealing a piece Of
bacon!
The door of the penitentiary closed
on William Welch, his name became
a number, and he was forgotten. Just
the other day somebody happened
to recall the case, and inquired what
had become of William Welch, and
this is what he found:
The body of William Welch still
lives. But the soul of him is dead.
A few months of prison life brought
him face to face with his appalling
fate. Brooding over it in bitterness,
and longing for that little tint of
blue" which prisoners call the sky,
'his mind broke" Law had muir
dered the only part Of him that
raises man above brutes. And now
he is no more than an ape in cage.