The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1914-01-11
FOR LIFE"
Death in Life" Mr.. Haw-
thorne Calls This Familiar
Prison Sentence, and He
Tells How Men Survive
Under 1t, and What They
Endure in Their Living
Grave.

hNt his Application for parole is
INV likely to be acted upon ia
vorahly, a guard pauses at
his cell door some morning and tells
him TO 90 TO the clothing shop at n
eertain hour. The prisoner, unless he
Inns been forewarned. accepts this as
Fproof positive that he will really be
Iset at liberty, and presents himself be.
fore the head tailor with smiling
couutenance. He is solemnly and
specihcally measured for II suit, looks
oyer the material out Of which II is to
be made. perhaps ventures to mention
<ome predictions as 10 the cut, and
lakes his departure with light heart.
Tle fact that the cloth is cheap. un-
6funkcn goods, which will shrivel up
II the first shower or severe humidity,
md will, at all events, get wrinkled
1ut of shape in a few days, does not
dasb the hopeful prisoner 3 iocundity;
1pr even the consideration that the
ktprison cut will he instantly recog-
nized all over the country. by every
detective. private or federal and acted
upou as circumstances may indicate. 1t
E not the clothes, good or bad, that
makes his long-tried heart glad; it is
the assurance of freedom. He would
be more than content with simple
bin cloth. If only freedom might go
Nth it,
As matter of fact, this measuring
COMMONLY means little, and guarantees
nothing al all. Indeed, it has rather
Ifhe appearance of a pleasant jest of
TAse plays with prisoners with which
hrcry old timer is familiar. One would
hay the authorities find amusement
mid the monotonous round OF their
ryocations, in thus stimulating hopes
which they know are not likely to be
iulfllcd Come, here is Il heart not
yet thoroughly broken; let MS try an
other blow al it,' DAYS, weeks,
months drag tediously by, and nothing
moro is heard of the parole, or Of the
5uit OF new clothes. They have never
been made mp, or if they by chance
hRvc been, they are put away to gather
lust on shelf underground; they are
Did clothes uow-years old sometimes.
And whec al last they are brought out
gain it IS probable that they will be
Rorn by same other more fortunate
nan, who ignores the misft for the
6ake OF getting past the prison doors.
The Man Who Was a Shell.
When this little drama was acted for
NJ benefit | noticed man sitting IN
b certain chair amid the other tailor
prisoners. stitching away perfunctorlly
d a piece of goods. L call him a man,
but he looked, 10 my fancy, like an
Rncient frog, or the semblaDce Of what
Had once been frog, from which, how
oser, all the impulses and Juices that
Had made him alive had slowly leaked
pwRy, until nothing but the shell was
Ieft, He was a pithless automaton, in
eInce become inert, and only enough
feasibility was left to enable him TO
fscl dimly miserable Who was he-or,
pettcr, who had he been2 | learned
Hat for seven years he had sat in that
<Rme chair from morning TIL night, do
ing the same Job Of sewing on one suit
liter another of prison clothing, Seven
<ears, But was he capable of no
rthcr employment? Might he not have
Deer given the relief of a change!
Maybe; but what would be the use7
They couldn Z be bothered finding him
new stunts all the time, since he had
earned how to do that one thing
satisfactorily, He was hfer.'
Life--your entire lifotime-means.
perhaps, a good deal TO you: even its
4orrows, in the retrospect, were good
m their way; they meant something.
Md you look forward to happier
things in the future; it will be a long
md on the whole a successful future,
perhaps. Think Of the variety and the
opportunity which this great, multi
nan; the friends, the activities, the
rhanges Of scene, the surprises, the con.
ulcts. success and failure, hope and
iear, triumph, defeat-life, in a word.
f is n divine thing. a glorious thing,
'{he God given birthright OF all men
P IS the molding Of character, the
fndiess stimulating struggle, the grow
t'g sense of human brotherhood, the
taces and hands Of our fellow
<rentures, the longer, deeper thoughts
8roused by the slow revelations OF ex-
Perlence as 10 the plan of human des-
my, and, therefore, are the words well
<nosen which condemn 4 man like your
|self to penal servitude '"tor life
But human language has no word to
ronvey the significance of lifelong inl'
Frsonment. II is surely not life; nor
's II death. Oh, death would be wei
fome, For death means either Gas Won
pay imagine you beheve) total cxtinc-
['on or it means increased life, free
rom material trammels. But death in
lle Is n D,onstrouS thing; life, for ex.
tmple, spent in a chair in squalid
Iailor s shop, doing over and over
gam the same piece OF squalid, MEAN
'ngiess work, with ever another
9qualid year stretching out it's length
'pefore you whom the last one has been
eompleted- Is life 40 cndured-thc
sacred creative gift, impaired to all
tnings, conscious or unconscious. with
ogt restriction? Life. the mystery,
&lich we are impotcnt to bestow, and
~nieh even death selfinflictcd or in.
pcted by others. cannot take away;
%nieh QUO thing only can take away
'ne dcath.iu.lifc of penal imprison-
ment; Is it not n formidable thought
.nhi we have incurred the burden of
tnis crime, which docs not transfer life
rom one phnse to another, but socks
~ anDihilatc 1T abs0Iutcly7
Il L. H. "a.