The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-08-12
Word From Mother.

WOTu from MOJnSTs
I got the word for him. And he was
ready Il die for me In his gratitude.
Because of that word he opened the
safe of the Press Post Publishing COM
pany.
/ met Dick first walking about the
cell ranges at night. 1t vas Just q
few months after / arrived. was in
the transfer office and a about the
last man to be locked up. Dick had
been there % long the deputies trusted
him and gave him passes to leave his
cell and wander about the corridors.
| used to zee his small, nervous figure
pacing back and forth. He had a keen.
dark face and a restless gray eye. One
night | came upon him sitting In a
corner, eating a piece OF pie.
Have o slice. pardner2" he called
to me The other men Stunned Dick
a bit because he was moody and nerve
wracked-because, too, ne had a sharp,
almost brilliant mind, much superior
TO the average convict.
sat down, glad enough to share the
little feast he had bought. In the Ohio
penitentiary the conyiets from the state
restaurant we're allowed TO peddle pies
and coffee through the ranges at night.
Men who had q little money could treat
themselves. The paupers could famish
and let their tongues hang out with
longing just as paupers are privileged
10 DO the world over,
Dick always had money Hs wa
master mechanic in the state machine
shop. Convict labor was hired out to
contractors. II a worked over
time he was allowed a pittance for his
work. Dick earned a BIT OF spending
What did You have?" Dick asked
me. Friendship between convlcts al.
ways begins with this comparison Of
Il got life and five years. what.
sSot i all. he answered with A.
leaned forward, put his ear to the
ground. Then he sat back and low
cred his voice.
"Heii. I don't care. Been here near.
ly sixteen years. Think. Of II, m,
mother. lives right around the corner
come Of me. God, Amt It hell, TO thfnl
the way she's made to suffer. I'll be-
you she stands outside these inferno
walls at night-Ill bet she'd tear hei
heart out to hear from me. You
Dick swung into his story. Men II
prison hunger for conversation. They
viii tell their histories to any one wht
will listen to them.
Father q Soldier.
Little Dick was a gutter snIpe, HI
said, His father was a Union soldier
He died of delirium tremens when Dicl
kid just belonged down in the alleS
with the tin cans, His mother tool
In washing. She tried TO give the bo,
enough to eat. She sent him to school
Sometimes there was soup and .breat
for dinner; sometimes Dick took hi
| fnARla nnf nf tina Rtthhtah rtfaa
And one day the poor. ~ravenou it'll,
ragpioker broke into a box car ant
stole a Decent box OF crackers.
And they sent me. to hell for tn
rest OF my life for that" a wave o
, bitterness lashed like. a dark wave owe
good use II I'd had a chance" II
looked down at his hands. They wer
the strongest, most perfectly shape
hands | have ever seen. The finger
were long and tapered, muscular We
u take care Of Pey me- sA'a they Ky " sent me as'n |
/ the Mansfield reformatory and the
turned me out a master mechanic a
. 49,"
! His graduation papers were OF n
value, A man named e.. p. Lahma
controlled all the bolt works in tn
i him, and because he know the DANCE
: OF employing n upon their dischara,
. he made II a rule that no ex.convic
would be given work in his shops, Die
4 Price had a Job there, Somebody foun
that he had been dragged UP In a re
form school. He was fired.
! He couldn't get a Job. His mechanics
" training made him adept at safe manir
ulating. He cracked one. took a fe'
hundred dollars, got a jolt for II.
It WAS the same story again whe
he was released. No one would xiv
Il him a job. He could starve or stea
I. He cracked another safe, got caugf
and was given life,
You know, the old m came
? the court" he told me. And. &c
. I can hear II yet, the way she bawlt
= when they took me away. It's jul
y awful. You know, Jennings. u "
a could write to her, I'd die for you"