The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-07-22

Copyright, 1928, United States and ttIlda, Great Britain and South rica by the North American s-. ed.)
 rly Kane wins his way to re- k@sration while in prison. A wild l.. he killed two carmen in a hold and after r months In Murderers
 W got new trial with life i'm T. .&onment sentence instead of death. studies law, reads, trains himself ta 1e a magazine writer, and con t.. yes the idea of a law permitting 1''role for life prisoners who serve l1 ITS. By finesse he gets 1t passed. s new warden, with modern ideas, .n'"les Kane his private secretary. After 13 years Kane walks alone two t rs in the open country.
 II haven't the least idea" I re- tu ned.
 Well. sir"-and the speakers z; $ simply twinkled with humor- "hv came in and said to me, Warden, l ;ust thought that I'd tell you, that ii any of these guards or conNicts til you anything about me ] hope you won't believe it till you see me. Add I said to him. Why, G., what bave you been doing that you're so ;.aid?' Nothing, said he, except tn It I know how they are-always 3ting to tell lies on someone
 MT. G. is a rather good-hearted f How" was my reply he has his leculiarties."
 Evidently" responded the warden. Nnd what Is that passage in the Iable about the guilty fleeing when ID man pursueth?'
 X few days later G. came tC me sEd asked me to write out his resg- nation for him. I wrote it in
 J h 1a Ina arden did not say anything partic- uiarly about it having been handed i1 he remarked to me that day that whenever any man on a job gets ;zarful that he is going to be left out. :, is a sign that in some way he is filling short in his work and knows that he deserves to be let out. Like the master mechanic, however, G. went his way and I trust that he landed job where he was not in far. of someone telling lies about m.
 That was the spring that our country entered the World war. The word had gone broadcast that produc- tion and conservation was the de- sideratum and at the time when the warden in person was helping to fill out the registration cards fer the i'm mates, he would remark to man
  would be a good hand to come out and help make the prison farm pro duce more. The result of that line # thought, along with the warden's vstem-entirely new there--Gf get ting personally acquainted with every man in the prison, soon re- suited in pale and deteriorating nor tals being transformed into husky sun drowned men who were daily adding producing acreage to the formerly small portion of the reservation that was cultivated. New Hope And strength.
 Spring was in the air, also the spirit of the upholding of rights and doing everything toward winning.
 In and around the prison there was new feeling. new hope and new strength. And among the old timers who had been so long under the surface-smiling- hat ing the rule that so often broke forth and showed the combination claw and mailed fist-among them there was an unexpressed feeling of, The night is far spent. the day is at hand; let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light"
 One afternoon following our fin ishing the business of that day, the warden said to me: You haven't taken a walk on the outside fer quite while, have you, JacN?"
 Not for more than thirteen years" I told him. "The only outside I've seen was the sky overhead"
 we've been so busy here that l hadn't thought of that. Come along now"-and he arose and led the way to the dLor--"I want you to walk down around the barns and over where the boys are at work. Stay out couple of hours or so--and then we'll take drive some of these afternoons"
 followed him, my head almost swimming.
 Out in the front yard the warden addressed the guard on duty.
 "From now on Jack will have the run of the yards here and all down around the barns and orchard and garden" he told him. "Ie is going now for the first stroll he's taken for quite a time. You won't need to ay any attention to him-Tll take I responsibility"
 f. looked at my watch--a good y,nepiece that I was allowed to buy 1915, and I am wearing it as I Fite these lnes-and then turned o the warden.
 "At 4.4s shnrpH'
 "It is now 2;43," l told him. "Ill be back here at 4:4S sharp"
 "You must be a stickler for ac- curacy," he chuckled. And then he spoke to the guard; "Now then, Mir. A., we'll see whether this fellow Is one who comes up to the scratch" Can you, dear reader imagine what the first walk meant to me. had been for the greater part of two years in the shadow of the death chair. Then came long years of combined regret, misery, longing and despair In one hand, with de- termination, effort, longing and hope on the other. Who but one consti- tuted as, I am is able to understand the meaning of the phrase. thirteen years behind a prison wall? And there on that day after the darksome thirteen years had been left behind there I was, walking tn the out side of those walls and breathing again the pure God given air.
 Half way down the eighty-yard driveway to the barns I halted and looked back. It was the first view of those walls from the outside that I had ever had since the one brief glance at them on the day I entered upon my life sentence. One brief glance was about all I bestowed upon them that day-that later day, which no day of resurrection could outshine. For were there not things of sauty-wondrous beauty--all around me?
 I entered the front part of tho barn. Sleek horses stabled there nefehed to me. and I went straight to one of them and stroked his mug zle and mane. Then through an open dl.nruaX [ SAW n numher of high