San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1925-12-27

mosphere which prison reformers throw
about reformed criminals.
Mr.. Osborne might have shooed the
foolish girl away before it was too late,
but he saw no reason to do so in fact, he
appears to have been delighted. Here
was one of his brands snatched from the
burning with the chance to marry into
one of the best families of the land. How
lovely-for the brand.
One thing doomed in the way, a rather
large thing-his record-which the girl
thought made him only more interesting,
but might not strike her parents that way
To her and to the other prison refOrmers,
Charles youthful slip had already been
wiped off because he was sorry and he
had been a model prisoner, but perhaps
it could be officially purged. The oblig-
ing Mr.. Osborne persuaded Gov. Carlson's
successor, Gov. Shoup, that it would be a
handsome thing to give poor Charlie full
pardon and restore his citizenship and
the obliging Governor did so.
This act of executive generosity caused
no cheers in Colorado Springs, where
Scott's relatives still remembered that he
had been murdered. They wondered why
a Governor had taken such trouble. Was
IL 50 important IfdJ HurueTeT SHOulu
be able to vote? When they were told
that it was so he could marry without
embarrassment, they did not understand
that either. Why should anybody wish a
criminal to marry and perpetuate his
criminal instincts in the next generation?
l. was Col. Converse's question over
again: Why don't they help the honest
unfortunate instead of the common
erfemy?
Mr.. Osborne and Mary Converse
cheered, and she could not see why Charlie
Essick was not now just as good as any
one in the land and would make a per-
fectly good husband. But Mary's family
and friends didn't see it that way at all.
They could not see that Governors
signature could make a man who had
taken human life any less guilty than he
was before. They pleaded with her and
warned her. They prophesied that the
criminal would rise up in him again. He
would be cruel and mean to her. He
might even strike her and woman's life
would be in danger with such man.
They begged her to consider the disgrace.
Mary regarded all this as undemo-
cratic and snobbish, trying to keep a good
man down, ETC., and in spite of the
prayers, advice and tears of every friend
she had, she married that man. She
WOulQ prove WHO were WISE anu WHO were
fools and prove it she certainly did.
Mary's name was removed from the social
register The Converse family felt the
thing so keenly that they moved to Cape
Cod, stopped entertaining and lived alone
in their mansion, "The Moorings."
Three months after Mary drifted West
with her husband, Col. Converse died,
leaving over 100000, of which Mary,
youngest of five children, was given her
proportionate share. This was fortunate,
for Mary had found that she had, after
all, married an aristocrat of a certain
kind and that she must support him.
He was not the ancient aristocr"t who
lived on the taxes of his vassals, but the
modern aristocrat of crime who lives on
the taxes of everybody. He scorns to
work and pays no income tax. The coun-
try is dotted with the big stone houses in
which the taxpayers support him. Be
tween times he robs, cheats and murders
them unless someone is willing to save
him the trouble by supporting him as
Mary Converse supported her husband.
For some queer reason the couple set