Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1921-06-02
The Convict's
Wife
&c. 1921. Western Newspaper union.)
BY WILLIAM FALL


The Little Gray Lady had left our
boarding house!
1t was all the more astonishing be-
cause she had lived there, so Mrs. Pot
ter said, for fourteen years. She had
occupied that little half bare room of
hers on the top story nearly all of
that time. When she had come, most
of us young fellows had been children
playing Indians and making mud pud-
dings. Nobody had thought that she
would ever leave. She went out every
morning at $50 to her work-she was
cashier in some Office downtown--and
came back promptly at six; she had
no friends; she never went out in the
evening.
We looked at each other in aston
ishment that evening at the dinner ta-
BILE when Mrs. Potter told us. No, the
Little Gray Lady had given no expla-
nation. She had merely said, very
sweetly, that she was going away, had
packed her trunk and gone, giving
some address in a modest uptown
street
Perhaps she's gone to get mar
ried," suggested Parsons, a shock
haired youth who sat at Mrs. Potter's
right.
Mr.. Parsons, there isn't any man
worthy of her." said Mrs. Potter Sc
verely, and to that he heartily agreed.
remember that night wildly, for
we were all engrossed by the news
that Governor Cowper had pardoned
Melchior Jetley, the murderer. Jetley
had served seventeen years for the
murder of Sam Briggs. Jetley had re-
Gently married a very charming wo-
man, the daughter of fashionable
clergyman of our town. Their short
married life was singularly happy.
They had been married about eighteen
months when Jetley was called West
en- business. Somebody-some busy
body-sent him telegram which
brought him back in hurry. He went
home; Mrs. Jetley was not there. The
scared maid told him she had gone to
Kings restaurant frequented by
rather fiashy sporty" set. Jetley
went there in hanson, entered, saw
his wife seated at a table with Sam
Briggs, drinking cocktail. Jetley
pulled out revolver and shot Briggs
dead.
He was tried, sentenced to death,
and had his punishment commuted to
Imprisonment for life. After seventeen
years Governor Cowper pardoned him.
And the Imprisonment, and the par
don, too, divided society into two hot
ly antagonistic camps.
Look at it this way" said Parsons.
''The man shot fellow man in cold
blood. The law prescribes penalty
for murder. 1t should have been ex-
acted"
l maintained that it was every mans
| duty to defend his home. We were
divided half and half.
II don't believe the taking of life
is ever justified" put in Cranborne,
oui Socialist boarder. "Jetley was the
victim of his environment How many
of us would not have done the same?
Besides, did you fellows ever stop to
think that he may have had loved ones
who would suffer more than he by bis
death?"
You're q sentimentalist," sneered
Parsons. I'D like to have q look at
Jetley when he arrives at the station
tomorrow. The papers say he'll come
down on the 2:45. / guess therell be
| q pooh Of S;uhtcoarc
Eyes, ready to mob him." said Gran
borne.
"Well," interposed, lets 60 and
see"
| The train came in half an hour late.
| We were jammed into the heart of a
| station.
Suddenly a shout went up. That's
him y they yelled, that's him" And
| they surged forward and about him.
Then through the crowd a little wo-
man pushed her way, forcing aside the
strongest men by some super-humanly
endowed strength. She went up to the
| tired man and put her arms round his
neck and kissed him, and the tired man
| dropped his bag and stared at her and
| said something softly and then COW
cred his face with his hands; and
was near enough to see the tears
trickling between his fingers. And the
woman was the Little Gray Lady!
That's all / know. That's all / can
tell, and don't know her name, which
wasn't that of his wife, but may have
been assumed. I'm only recording
what ! saw before the police pushed
us away, and the tired man and the
Little Gray Lady disappeared from our
sight for ever.