The Penn's Grove record., 1923-11-09
IIST-HEYS
EsYS-T EEEES
THE PRISON POET"
ULETEIO wrote this poem?"

Judge John W.. Willis of st.
Pau. Mimi, turned to his secretary
one day early in 1910 and, pointing to
a verse which appeared in an issue
of the paper published by the prison
ers of the st. Paul penitentiary, bade
the other read what he termed one
of the best bits of poetry l have COME
across in many a day'-a fragment
of which ran:
Haggard faces and trembling knees,
Eyes that shine with a weakling's gate;
Lips that mutter their ~blasphemies,
Murderous hearts that darkly wait;
These were they who were men of late.
Fit to hold a plough or a sword.
If a prayer this wall will penetrate,
Have pity on these, my comrades, Lord!
Interested in the psychology which
could give birth to such lines written
behind the bars of a ~penitentiary.
Judge Willis made a point of visiting
the prison, where he found a man
entered upon the prison books as
"JOhn Carter. age "a" but who admit
ted that both the name and age were
false. When questioned as to his true
name he would only reply: 81 have
too much pride to allow that to be
known and, with respect to his age,
he merely pointed to his gray hairs
and smiled.
Carter had been sentenced to ten
years in prison for burglary, but when
Judge Willis commenced to inyesti-
gate his case, he found that the man
had had nothing to eat for two days
prior to his crime, and that he had
broken into a railway restaurant with
the sOle idea of obtaining enough food
to save himself from starvation, after
being thrown from a freight train
while trying to beat his way from
Winnipeg to St. Paul.
Shortly after entering the prison
Garter had commenced to play the
organ in a manner which attracted the
instant attention of a music teacher in
st. Paul, who declared that he pos
sessed exceptional ability, and he also
contributed a number of poems to the
prison paper-pOems which had not
only led Judge Willis but a number of
editors throughout the country to an
appreciation of the genius of this con.
~vict-authOr. His Ballad of Misery
and Iron" which was widely quoted
In various sections of the United
States and Canada at the time, and
of which the verse above forms a
part. concludes with the remarkable
stanZa:
Poets sing of life at the lees
In tender verses and delicate
OF tears and manifold agonies.
Little they know of what they prate.
Out of this silence passionate
sounds a deeper, a wilder chord.
If song be heard through the narrow
gate,
Have pity on these, my comrades, Lord
But, as Judge Willis founud, Gar
ter was not a man who whined or
complained. He admitted his crime
and declared that the law had SEN
fenced him justly, and that he was
perfectly willing to work out the re-
manning half of his term. A movement
for pardon was instituted, however,
and, within a year., the prison gates
opened and "John Carter was once
more a free man. AS he stepped out
the warden asked If he would not
write something descriptive of the
way he felt. Garter" hesitated a mo-
ment and then replied:
LEAD me back to my cell. l must
have the iron bars In front of me"
A few moments later he stepped out.
a poem completed, the final lines Of
which read:
Unreal 1t seems,
Half ecstasy. half WEAKNESS and pain;
For so l fear this haven Of my dreams
Shall vanish and the storm come back
again"
"Who are you?" asked M of the
group of reporters who had gathered
to witness the release of the prison
poet. But Carter, his face grim, his
eyes fixed firmly on the world which
he was viewing for the first time In
five years, answered:
"That Is my secret. Possibly you
may zeal from me in the future"
1t is more than possible that the
world has heard from him, for genius
such as that of Carriers cannot be hid
den by a %pseudonym any more than it
can be confined by the walls of a
prison.