River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1914-07-16

IL
trial." the chairman told him. THAT
is ALL
He was free, 1t was hard for hin
to understand A miracle had beer
wrought. it seemed to him. Kindness
mercy, compassion, had been offered
him. a thief. Dazed and spiritually
troubled. the old man walked to his
cell
He had not asked for mercy. and YET
If was given him. What would he find
outside? No one was interested in MIN
Yes. the boy Jim was.
Did the boy bring about his deliver
ance? Surely with a life term hanging
over his head he could not have reach
ed out from his hiding place and open
ed the gates of Sing Sing.
Perhaps it was the God the boy used
to pray to morning and night. Per-
haps Jim had been praying for him
and be had heard his prayers.
The awakening soul of Bill Hawkins
leaped to the beautiful thought. His
knees trembled, and he sank upon
them beside his iron cot. His head fell
in his hands, and he prayed. Indeed
lee prayed. for his eyes were wet with
the tears of gratitude.
Hawkins had come to Sing Sing with
nothing but his sins and his sentence
OF fifteen years. He carried away
with him a sense of thankfulnesS. a
thing he had never experienced before.
and the intention Of living the life of a
decent man.
The warden shook his hand and made
a pretense of beaming upon him. He
little knew what good had come from
his base share in the plan Of Detective
Michael Kearney to use one friend to
betray another.
The probationer's gray suit was
changed for new black one. and a
felt hat was pulled over his forehead.
hiding the defective formation. In his
pocket was enough money to take him
whence he came-the morass of hu-
mainly, the underworld of New York.
He would return there because no
other world would have him. but he
would return a different man.
He was not going forth to evangelize.
He was going to seek the woman who
had been a pretty girl once, the woman
who had suffered ten thousand times
what he had suffered.
At the Ossining station he bought a
ticket to New York and boarded the
first train. Two men Of all the crowd
seemed to notice him. One Of these
got aboard the train directly behind
him, while the other entered the coach
he had chosen by the opposite door.
The train was an express and they
were soon at Forty street,
where, in the swarm of thousands Of
men and women. many coaches were
unloading to the station platforms.
Shorter of stature than the average
in the teeming crowd. the head OF
Hawkins disappeared in sea of hats
and bonnets, but the two men who
had come with him from Ossining
were never more than ten feet away
from him.
Leaving the Grand Central station.
Hawkins struck to the east and board
ed train He went all the way to Park
row.
In one of the more widely read OF
the penny newspapers he sought a
means of finding the woman he want
ed. He entered the Park row newspa-
per office and, counting his cash, found
that he had So and some odd change.
He inquired of a clerk and found that
a personal" would cost him 81. He
was given a pencil and an advertise
ment blank. The personal was written
and paid for. and Bill departed.
AS the probationer reached the side
walk the two men who had followed
him separated. One kept on his heels
and the other, with look of triumph
in his eyes. hurried inside and to the
advertising clerk. He showed police
badge.
I'm Captain Kearney of central Of
fee" he said briskly. land want to