Norwich bulletin., 1915-02-04
KATE COBB LEARNING
 TO LIVE AGAIN.
Quietly Domiciied at Home of Her
 Daughter in Lebanon.

Mrs. Kate Cobb, whose recent pardon after 96 years of a. life sentence spent in states prison, has given her the opportunity to spend the remaining days of her life with her daughter, Ms. Luther Spalding, Of Lebanon, is described in a sketch of her written in the New York Tribune as 9 gentle, little old lady. with Q mind of her own and some remnants even of sense Of humor.
 Her hair was not even gray and was pl'irnly crimped, as anybody's grand mothers hair would be. Had she cuIled it all those 36 years in prison? forgot to ask. IT she had not, think of the personal pride which would sur- vive those years and take up hair curl ing again at SC! The same personal pride has kept Kate Cobb erect in posture and direct in her look. Her gray eyes are dimmed with suffering of the past, but they are gone in a flash lil1o April showers, as that in- domitahle pride reassertS itself.
 T know l went there an innocent woman" said Mrs. Cobb in the inter view that she gave, and I never lost cated. That will never happen now, but at least l am free. l can work out my own salvation, if people will give me a fair chance.
 Pretty soon. when the walking is better 1 shall try to return some of the calls my friends have been kind enough to make. It won't be easy. My instinct IS to run away and hide where no one Will ever stare at me again. l have been out Of the house only twice since I came home, and that was just up to the store. You don't know what it is to feel that everybody is watching and goSsiping about you. ! am not brave enough to face the world yet.
 Not Able to Laugh Yet.
 ssAIy friends fell me t1 make q hold stand, to go out and laugh. ] can't do it. Not yet, 1 shall make the calls, though, be&ore long. 1 feel it is my duty, since people have been so kind
 How does il feel to be at home again? Well, of course. I am very happy, but in q quiet way. l find l don't care much about the things 1 went without all those years. pake candy, for instance. When was there Mrs. Cobb never uses the word prison-"we would often long to have some chocolate drops. We never were allowed to have candy except on holj- days. NOW 1 have it before me all the time and I don't care about it at aL.-
 Sometimes VIC laugh because don't know about the little things in the house. Nobody thinks to tell me be- cause the little things are so simple, and other people take them so for granted.
 ''When I first came out l didn't know
  l have worn nothing but blue checked SinSham for 36 years. There were lots of little things like these newfangled snapperS that I didn't understand. I am going to wait q little while before get many new clothes. They say the skirts are going to be wider this spring. I couldn't stand it to wear d hobble skirt, I'm sure.
 "Oh, I'm not so ignorant about fash ions as you think. You know I have SzoS yfv,1.g n years, and We had visitors, too.''
 Feels No Resentment.
 Kate Cobb seems incapable of resent nIent. All the passion, the hatred, of the woman in her prime are gone ironed out by prison discipline (liter- ally ironed out, too-Kate Cobb spent r years ironing in the prison laun-
 i'You don't seem to feel any bitter ness against the state which kept you there all that time" I voiced my won der.
 Well. l was always treated kindly" she answered. T have nothing to com plain Of. have many happy memories of my life there. It had Co be so. One There were times, of course, when wanted to die. when l wished they had sent me to the gallows in the begin ming, times when l lost my faith and thought l would never be free again. Then 1 would remember my children and the friends who believed in me. would make up my mind to stick it out for six months more. That was the way l lived, six months at a. time. Yes, I was sentenced for life, but I had faith that some time some new governor would pardon me.
 Why didn't l give up and stop ask ing for a pardon when 1t had been Se- fused so ofteno I don't know. This last time I really had little expecta- ton that it would be granted, but I did it inst to remind them I was still there and still insisting on my inno- cence. The warden came and told me after supper that the pardon had been granted. I went away the next day. That didn't give me long to get ready but naturally I didn't mind hurrying. It took only F hours to get out after se years.
 How did I keep my mind alert all those years?
 My dear. that was the hardest thing Of all
 ''One by one the girls who were there when I came went crazy or died. It was hard on the rest of us. We never knew who would so next. I made up my mind it wouldn't be l. The only way to save my reason was by working. All the terrible thoughts that came to me I worked out through my hands. I seved and seNed and sewed-and then sewed some more. I read, too. but that did not soot1e ne as sewing did. Every year at Christmas time we had an Nex- libition and sale of our needlework. I always had a number of pieces sold Yes, they let me have the money. We were allowed to make pretty things for our rooms, too. I embroidered dozens of dresses and doilies for my friends.
 "No, we were not cempelled to live