The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser., 1915-07-30
IN L!FE'S LAST HOURS
THOUGHTS OF CONDEMNED MAN
AWAITING EXECUTION.
No Authentic Record Has Ever Been
Made, but One Man Here Sets
Down How He Imagines He
Would Be Affected.

It Is curious fact that no man con-
demned to death by process Of law
has left what might be accepted as
an authentic account of his thoughts
and acts during the closing hours, w
R. Rose writes in the Cleveland Plain
Dealer
For the most part condemned men
are not intellectual men. To put their
feelings into words and transcribe
them on paper would be task for
which they could have no liking and
little aptitude. They approach the
hour of death, we may believe, in
dull and largely Unconditional manner,
keeping their thoughts away from the
dreaded hour and getting such COM
fort as they can out of the immediate
moment With men of higher grades
of intellect it would be different. The
mind of the man of reason and imagl
nation would be beyond his control.
To be alone with himself and his
thoughts and his sense of absolute
helplessness would be maddening.
Robert Louis Stevenson could have
clothed these final hours in poetic Eng
lish: Poe could have given them a
CHASTITY finish; o. Henry would have
made them worldly and cynical.
If it were possible to put yourself
in thought in a condemned mans
place how would your mind regard
the situation?
This is the way one man says it
would affect him:
Il reused up this morning with a
sudden start. Something called me.
1t battered at my ears.
Two more days-two more days!
'I wonder why I sleep. wonder
why l eat! Pm ashamed of my body.
1t Is a c1od. 1t doesn't understand.
Once in while, however, my stom-
ach has that horrible sinking sensa-
ton and my body realizes for mo-
ment what my mind endures. Then it
goes back to its old ways-its appe-
tite, its demand for exercise, it's call
for sleep
II am beginning to look upon my
self as something apart from my body.
Perhaps l am. Perhaps it is only my
body they will hang, while my spirit
but why should l speculate when
am so soon to know?
"Of course 1 pray. That's the primal
instinct. I cry out for longer life.
beseech and make promises-a cow
ards cry. Yet there's comfort in it. It
draws my mind from that one mad
dening thought
There's something else in which
find little comfort. I am going on
a journey that billions have under
taken. The millions who are alive are
only a small part Of the host that has
peopled the earth. | am going over
to the great majority, and whatever
my destination may be I shall have
company. There are near and dear
ones in that tide of outgoing souls
Is there a shadowy shore where we
may meet?
God, it is night again!
'"The guard has just looked in. The
death lamp in the corridor is burning.
A single thread of light comes through
the grating Is 1t hope?
"One more day.
Il feel torpid. Is the thought Of
death dulled? Have 1 exhausted its
terrors?
Il family wonder if my body will
shame me? Will it break my pride?
There will be no tomorrow. Some
how, the thought doesn't unnerve me-
No, no. I'm not going to break down!
There are men in the corridor
hear their tramping feet, their hurried
voices Someone has called my name!
My heart bumps my ribs. Hope is fun.
bling at the lock,
II am reprieved!"