New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1915-06-12

Pm Just twenty-three years old to-
DAY." said John Boehmann.
And yet he was forty-three. But he
felt twenty-three, for it was his first
dav in the outside world after twenty
years o: prison.
Twenty years, When Boehmann went
TO Sing Sing, in 1895, Woodrow Wilson
was under forty and an obscure pro-
lessor in Wesleyan University. Will
lam J. Bryan was thifvy-flye and the
editor of an Omaha newspaper lie
hadn't even become known as the BOY
Orator Of the Platte. Mayor Mltchei
was a kid Of sixteen.
Oh, il was a long time ago twenty
years. They were just considering
running the Third Avenue elevated INTO
The Bronx, and there was faint idea
il might be electrified some day. Inc
Cuban flbusters filed the news col
urnns. Inspector Byrnes had Just re
signed. And United States battleshlps
were of the German coast celebrating
the opening of the kiel Canal.
So. Boehmann was like man born
anew. .-.
But il was all so big, so Supplying,
so bewildering this great new world
that he couldn't really comprele IT,
Very few of the things he said were
worth jotUlng GOWN, because hall the
cav he spent in New York he was
silent. He Just couldn't think OF any
thing to say. lie couldn't compress his
impressions sufficiently TO express them
in language One thing he did say
stood out. He was walking down ruin
Avenue.
Its worth living the whole twenty
years 20 be out again" he murmured'
tNo man who's never done time can
nave any idea Of what liberty really IS
Thirteen Months in Cell.
This was no sentimental twaddle on
poebmann's part. He is not given TO
sentiment. He is a very practical Ger
man. No one could be sentimental
about him, either, when he sees nm.
For. despite his twenty years, he IS IN
no way broken by prison, either men
tally or physically. lie stands erect
and broad-shoul dered, weighing per,
hans $50 or 100 pounds, strong and
robust. His face is bronzed and tanned
Eoehmann would have q hard time com
pelling any ones pity if one didn't
know he had been in Stir" so long.
And this is doubly surprising when
/. is considered that he spent thirteen
months in cell. Prisoners spend
months and years sometimes IN the
same cell, but they are taken out once
q week for a bath. Boehmann was
never taken out Of the cell from the
time he was sent there by warden
Sage. in 1897, until he was released by
/ Warden Johnson the next year. lie
never had a bath. His cell was never
cleaned. lie never had shave. his
beard grew down half way TO his waist
/ His hair hung about his shoulders like
a wild mans.
The warden had the air vent at the
hack OF the cell bricked up and also
The space beneath the grated door
And there Boehmann remained The
door was opened each day TO re-
move his cell bucket and to hand him
| food But he never came out. If you
have any ambition to find out what the
snace i'm Sing Sing cell is like you
might try to stand all day on a rug
obout three feet by six or seven and
| imagine there were walls on three sides
Of Won and a grated door in front, and
a ceiling that almost bumped your head
Rut that was eighteen years ago, and
u,bv Boehmann went to the cell can be
told later on. The news is what he did
yesterday.
He arrived at Grand Central Station
in the forenoon and somehow made his
way TO the Prison Association, in East
/ Fifteenth Street, alone. lie said yester-
day he had no idea, however how he
GOT there. He had been up since 3
/ O'clock in the morning, with one hours
sleep to his credit, and when he re
ported for his parole he was already
/ i'm a thought tornado.
After he signed his papers his first
/ thought was a straw hat For the one
he wore was Of an ancien vintage. 9th
crwise he looked very well He is a
tailor. and until few months ago he
had worked in the clothing shop and
had dressed every man that ever went
out of the prison in all those years. and
every man, too. who had gone to the
electric chair. SO he had made himself
a well fitting suit Of clothes.
The hat secured. Boehmann went 20
| luncheon with friend on the McAlpin
roof. The Waldorf had stunned him
and the McAlpin was piling one noun
; tain Of impressions on top OF the other