Evening star., 1924-08-28
CHA Fl Elk '.
THE SLEEPING WOLF.

1t was about this time that the
newspapers were full of the daring
escape of a convict from San Quen-
| tin prison. He was a ferocious man.
He had been ill-made in the making:
| He had not been born right. and he
had not been helped any by the mould
| ing he had received at the hands
| of society. The hands of society are
| harsh, and this man was striking
| sample of its handiwork. He was
a beast-a human beast, it is true,
but nevertheless so terrible d beast
that he can best be characterized as
| carnivorouS.
| In San Quentin prison he had prov
| ed incorrigible. Punishment failed
| to break his spirit. He could die
dumb mad and fighting to the last
| but he could not live and be beaten.
| The more fiercely he fought. the more
| harshly society handled him, and the
| only effect of harshness was to make
| him fiercer. Straight Jackets. star
| walton. and beatingS and clubbinES
| We're the wrong treatment for Jim
| Hall: but it was the treatment he
| received. 1t was the treatment he
| had received from the time he was
little pulpy boy in a San Fran
cisco slum-soft clay in the hands
of society and ready to be formed
| into something.
1
| In prison that he encountered guard
| that was almost as great beast as
| be. The guard treated him unfairly,
lied about him to the warden, lost
him his credits. 'persecuted him. The
| difference between them was that
| the guard carried a bunch of keys
and a revolver. Jim Hall had only
| his naked hands and his teeth. But
he sprang upon the guard one day
| and used his teeth on the others
| throat just like any jungle animal.
| After this, Jim Hall went to live
in the incorrigible cell He lived
there three years. The cell was of
, iron, the floor, the walls, the roof.
He never left this cell. He never
saw the sky nor the sunshine. Day
was twilight and night was a black k
silence. He was in an iron tomb,
buried alive He saw no human face,
spoke to no human thing. When his
food was showed in to him. he growl-
ed like a wild animal. He hated all
things. For days and nights he bel
lowed his rage at the universe. For
weeks and months he never made a
sound in the black silence eating his
very soul. He was man and a mon
strosity, as fearful thing of fear
as ever gibbered in the visions of
a maddened brain.
And then, one night, he escaped.
The warden said it was impoSSi BILE,
but nevertheless the cell was empty,
and half in half out of it lay the
body of a dead guard. Two other
dead guards marked his trail through
| the prison to the outer walls, and
he had killed with his hands to avoid
noise.
He was armed with the weapons of
the slain guards-a live arsenal that
fed through the hills pursued by the
organized might of society. A heavy
price of gold was upon his head.
Avaricious farmers hunted him with
shot-gunS. His blood might pay off
a mortgage or send a son to college.
| Philosophical citizens took down
| their rifles and went out after him.
A pack of bloodhounds followed the
way of his bleeding feet. And the
sleuthhounds of the law, the paid
fighting animals of society, with tel
ephone, and telegraph, and special
train, clung to his trail night and
| day.
Sometimes they came upon him,
and faced him like heroes, or Stam-
peded through barb-wire fences to
the delight of the commonwealth
reading the account at the breakfast
table. 1t was after such encounters
| that the dead and wounded were
carted back to the towns. and their
places filled by men eager for the
man-hunt.
And then Jim Hall disappeared.
The bloodhoundS vainly quested on
the lost trail Inoffensive ranchers