Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-01-11

The Eastern Pententlary yesterday
,,osed IN about n man who came from an
stber prison al his own request and thereby
.dded n twelve-month TO his sentence
,bls because he wants the facilities to
snread his life upon paper, in his writing
ask the question why and thereby bring
20 fruitlon the things he has taught him
self since first going TO prison in 1905,
Unable to read or write his own name.
The man is Berry williams. and as he
ssf In tho warden's office yesterday finger
ing his checiered cap lie talked Of life in
tsnsely with the polished diction of n
scboIar and closed his speech with quo
,aton from Pope's Essay on Man"
81 love Pope said he, while uniformed
guards hurried in and out and the prison
clanked and hummed along its way. 'IIe
satisfies me by getting down to the really
big Rngs.'
ouainted with charges OF his who talk
loudly about the reform and uplifting they
are going to do when they get our.
"I have no ambition to be an uplifter,"
said Williams looking out of the high win
dow at the patch Of free sky My conduct
is not an example and l am not going to
exploit it as such. or course. | don't think
| shall do another wrong when | get out
OF prison again But you must remem-
her the world doesn't know that and do
not ask them to believe It. ! simply have
question and / must write 1t down fully"
Neither has Mr.. McEcnty failed to meet
those among his pupils who aspire to liter
ary works.
JUST A WRITER OF VERSES
please don't put me down as n writer"
said Williams II have simply lived-that's
all. Poetry? why. yes, / have written
some verses. How did you know? don't
talk much about them. Just vcrses-not
poetry"
And then into the broad sweep of War
den "Bob's" jurisdiction come so often the
"snned against" complainer. the profess
sional wilmer who says II didn't do the
Job"
"Ive often stolen" said williams, slowly
and impersonally as if he were chronlcling
the weather six times I've gone to prison
and three times been acquitted. The world
is not against me; | have not been abused
Abused Why. 7 met Gray and Pope in
prison" lie smiled. "Such companions |
never knew in my wandcrings about the
continent
Williams was born in. tho South In 1905
at the age of twcnty-ciEht--he went to
MOyamensing Prison, convicted Of larceny.
He procured primer-the kind siX-year-
old children use--and fingered it over
words had never meant anything to me-"
he explained. "ard / looked and looked
into that little book until the words were
blurred with the straining Of my eyes
Then, one day" lie went ont. "there
came to me cellmate who knew a few
words ! got around him little by giving
MN tobacco, for he was a sullen fellow.
HIS explanations gave me a start. In u
little while | got a dictionary"
shortly after that he was released from
Moyamensing. In a few months the walls
OF the New County Prison loomed up before
aim Again he went TO his work.
READS DON QUrXoTE
TN those days." he said, there were no
schools in the New County Prison. / started
IN TO read the simpler books. Then ! ran
across Don QuiXotc-und, by the way, how
10 you pronounce II, no one / ever met
seems to know Well / found that won.
derful work. re-read It five times, and
started in along historical lines"
IN the years that followed, Williams read
every book available on history. His range
extended abroad and to the medieval and
ancient periods.
year or so ago the convicts reading
tooE another turn. He came to know poetry.
tray "Elegy' was his first verse reading,
ana from Gray's works he went into those
OF Pope, As he explained, his reading
mere appears to have been a natural Sc.
quehce' lie had seen pages of history,
me acts and the facts of mind and now
came the delving into the why's" and
'Wherefores' of existence.
Il wanted to take the ideas within me
ana compare them 10 those Of the poets"
sald this man who never sat for one second
IN classroom or never had the slightest
hint OF a teacher.
Williams has written verse One time
ne pad prison friend with whom he had
disagreement. Lines to a Friend" was
lhe result. Some OF the rhymes are quite
conventional, but now and then he shoots
away from the usual to couch quite neatly
ana IN unhaCkneyed phrases a beautiful
thought A couple of plantation scenes, in
sludlng Summer Sunrise" and "a Stormy
Night" are rather astounding for their
melrical perfection and word tone
But when you write your book" the in
eVitaole query came up, you are surely
going to answer by the history of your self
edueation the question, "Why Am 1 Here?"
i hoped that my book would not be