The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1923-02-09
POET SINGS TO
WORLD IN CELL
Outbursts of Life Convict in
Pennsylvania State Prison
Win Praise of Critics.
TELLS STORY OF HIS LIFE
Verses Are Lixened i'm intensity, Ar
tistic Merit and Realism to Oscar
Wilde,s @'BalIad of Read
ing Gaos-s

ladelphia.-Thewe are faw-Dreak-
erS and law-breakers. There are cum
ming men who make crime a DELHI
crate object and there are Others who
sin impulsively updar extenuating cir
cunstances The lnan who is desg-
mated as -B S266' and is "a 4lifer' in
the Eastern state penitentiary here
evidently belongs to the latter class
of convicts, though it hardly seems
fair to classify him as a convict after
one has learned his story. Undoubted-
iy he occupies unique niche In the
realm of criminolegy and is a subject
for the psychologist.
The confessions of most criminals
are crude enough, out in "a Tale of
Walled Town and Other Verses Clip
pincott company B S266 relates the
story of his interstisag life in such ex-
cellent poetry that William Stanley
Braithwaite, the well-known critic,
visited the poet in prison and wrete
an enthusiastic Introduction to the
book, which is attracting the attention
of persons who know whats what In
lpoetry.
"a Tale of Walled Town." like
oscar Wilde's Ballad of Reading
Gaol,' is poem of lyrical intensity,
artistic merit and powerful realism. 1t
is AN honest confession, for the poet
does not deny his sins.
1t was only when locked in his cell
that this unusual man turned to lit
erature and writing for consolation
against terrible despair; for he had
written VIRTUALLY nothing before for
print
Ill treated as Child
Adopted when a child, he was badly ,
treated and was forced to run away 6
and work out his own salvation as ID
best he could at a time when other !
youths have parental protection and 7
influence. The poet sings with sad,
haunting beauty:
II know no mothers face; nor knew
The mother love that was my due;
Yet dreamed of such the long years n
through n
And@never did the dream come true, =
/ held SO dear
He wandered about the world a rest N
less youth. He found surcease in la
Dor and fell in love, but again was I'M Y
fortunate. The woman in the case was
If a wealthy family, and the match
vas opposed The lovers eloped and -
or year We're exceedingly happy.
She having been used to costly clothes
md gems, sighed for them again, and VI
he poet, who loved not wisely but too ca
veil, stole that she might have luxu- al
les. He was given seven years. After 1t
erving his time he returned to his sa
wife, and then occurred his saddest III
appointment and his downfall. 81
He found her receiving the atten- III
ions of rich mans son. She had W
Orgotten her ardent husband, who yo
ad stolen to please her selfish or
-himsl The poet is quite frank about ST.
!; e@E
There was a mana rich mans SON
Toll slowly! -
ad coveted what I had won, -
nd for her feet web had spun.
faced him of winters night,
hen all the world about white, ~
s his face in the freight /
Looking on me- =
For such as he there was no prayer; Z
Toll slowly! *
struck: and when I left him there -.
Is blood had crimsoned all his hair. =
Here in this cell they coffined me; Z
Toll slowly -
ence dead to all save two or three. y.
nd all abiding memory"
Verses Show Originality.
The prison poet makes use Of the
frain, "toll slowly" frequently, and 20
18th telling effect 1t is as If the |vss
I'll is sounding the death knell of all e
S hopes. Not once is the reader Z
ven a chance to forget that this 20
,etic confession is bit of real hu- <xe
an drama. ~
The other verses in the book are full X
originality and intensity, though
me are playful and clever. and
hers reveal a vivid Imagination. x
le sensibility and an appreciation Of -
bility and beauty. "B $780," an I'M
Town convict, is true poet who has