The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1916-11-10
WROTE HIS BEST IN PRISON
Autobiography Reveals Secret of
o. Henry's Life.

How O. Henry found himself
through adversely, how the author of
The Gentle Crater" The Untrim-
med Lamp, and other stories that
move the reader to laughter and to
tears, did much OF his best work in
prison cell is told by Prof c. Alphon-
so Smith, Poe professor OF English at
the University Of Virginia, who has
Just completed a biography Of the
late William sydney Porter, whose re-
markable personality was not long hid
den by the thin disguise OF 20.
Henry says the New York Evening
Post
Professor Smith. told of the short
story writer's boyhood and of the
term he spent in prison at Columbus,
o, He emphasized this experience
as something that had a direct bearing
on o. Henry's writing, and spoke of it
that there might be no more conjec-
ture and misunderstanding
A great many, if not nearly all, of
the worlds greatest writer's were
brought out, soul and mind, by some
tragic experience in their lives said
professor Smith. 20. Henry was a
signal example OF man who found
himself through trouble. Sir Walter
Raleigh wrote his history of the world
While in prison; John Bunyan is an
other. There was period in the life
of Walt Whitman that correspondent
TO the experience Of O.~Henry. Walt
Whitman was made as a poet and
prose writer by his sad experiences
while he was acting as nurse during
the Civil war He was with the sick,
the dying, and dead and ont of this
came his power of interpreting life
20. Henry ministered to the sick
and dying during his entire term in
prison, He was the prison drug clerk.
Here he began to get underneath, to
see life with breadth of vision, to
have great human sympathy. Every
body loved him in the prison. The
prison officials believed in his in.
nocence. No one who reads his let
tiers written at that time to his daugh
ter and to his mother-in-law can fail
to see the great power that was stir
ring him The letters were exquisite
and fine in feeling With the consent
VI MS hduSHLfi' tutN nave bttA it-
printed in full in the biography.
1T is out of the question to write
about the life of o. Henry without re-
counting the beginning of all-the
prison years When | was asked to
write this biography, | consented only
on condition that this prison episode
could be frankly told. | was thorough
" convinced of his innocence. |
knew O. Henry We were born with
in a stones throw of each other in
Greensboro, n. c. We had iished to-
gether. we camped together in the old
Caroline woods; and we played to-
gether He was born in az and | in
GA When he was charged with en-
bezzlement. / interviewed many oiti-
zens in Austin, Tex. and every single
one OF them believed he was not
guilty"
Prof Smith said that many had
asked him why o. Henry did not push
his case to obtain new trials until the
matter was cleared This he explained
BY saying that the writer did do
everything he could to have his name
cleared, but an unusual situation com
plicated the proceedings. In nut
shell. Prof. Smith said, the case stood
as follows.
"He was cashier in a bank that WIS
badly managed. 1t passed out OF exist
ence long ago those days patrons
of the bank would come In and take
out money from the drawer, say one
or two hundred dollars, and ii IL hap
pened to slip their minds, leave with
cut making a memorandum OF it. Be
fore the crash came. O. Henry protest.
ed against these loose methods. and
said that sooner or later the books
would not balance. They did not
balance as the bank officers soon
found out His predecessor and sue
oessor both. suffered for the careless
ness of the banking system.
The federal bank examiner came
along After locking over the books
he verified the discrepancies. The
prosecuting attorney did not want to
bring suit, but the examiner insisted.
And che people OF Austin said at the
time that o. Henry was the unfortu-
nate victim OF circumstances.
"All his life O. Henry realized that
he had made one fatal mistake in his
handling Of his predicament. He used
| to say that he and Lord Jim. one OF
Joseph COmad's characters, Were