Year: 1874

n lew niRnte aSo Peh VI "oioe0
were driven up Farmount avenue at
desperate gait, and from the carriage,
which was stopped at the gate of the
Eastern penitentiary, there jumped a
gentleman who made all haste to gain
an entrance into the gloomy institution
He presently reappeared, bearing in his
arms wasted form, which he deposited
with tender care in the carriage, which
was then driven away.


The occupants of the carriage were
heart-broken father and his dying son.
The latter was committed to the Eastern
penitentiary some two years ago for lar
ceny. His intelligence and amiability
soon made him general favorite. He
was at the time of his commitment
about eighteen years old, tall, we'll
| formed, handsome young man, without
single trace of the usual characters
tics of the criminal. The prison author
tiles took a special interest in his case,
but he was exceedingly reticent as to his
antecedents, and would tell nothing of
his history, except that he had fallen in
to bad company. About year ago he
began to show signs of the insidiOus
complaint consumption, which numbers
many victims in prison.


He slowly wasted away until two or
three weeks ago the physician in charge,
as he went through the hospital of the
institution, stopped moment beside the
cot of the patient and said to him, grave
ly, that il he had anything to say to any
person on earth, he had better do SO
without delay, as he had but a short
time to live. The remark seemed to
impress the poor fellow deeply. for he
shortly afterward asked for paper and
pencil, and, obtaining them, wrote:
" The son whom you have mourned as
dead is in the Eastern penitentiary,
Philadelphia. He signed the brief
note and sank back exhausted on his
couch. Being asked relative to the des-
tination of the note he had written. he
directed it to be addressed to lady in
a town in Massachusetts,, which was COM
piled with. A few days afterward gen.
tleman applied to one of the prison au-
thorities for permission to see the youth,
and when brought into his presence
evinced the strongest emotion. de stat
ed that he was the father of the dying
boy, and that the latter's mother being
at the White Mountains for her health,
which is very delicate, he, the father,
had opened the note sent from this city,
and was very glad he had done SO, as
the declaration contained in it would
surely have killed her. Their son had
been considered dead for more than two
years. Being wealthy, the parents had
given him good education and design
ed him for professional life, but, when
about 16 years of age, his mind became
affected by the influence of sensational
novels, and he formed an Unsuitable de-
sire to roam through the western wilds.
He ran away with the two sons of the
mayor of the town, but were traced to
the place they had chosen for Temporal
ry stay and brought home. The two
companions remained at home, but he
very soon afterward again ran off, and
his parents had since heard nothing of
him, except report that he had been
killed, which they believed.


The sight of his boy stretched upon a
bed of death within the forbidding walls
of prison, crushed the fathers heart,
but this only made his opportunities the
more effective, and he succeeded in pro.
curing his sons pardon, with which he
sped to the prison, and, doubtless, anx-
ious that, even if it were the last hour
that his son should live, it should be
spent in pure, free air, he had him car.
ried from the institution as above relat-
ed. 1t was his intention, should the son
live until he could be conveyed on board
a steamship, to have him taken home in
that way, otherwise he would let him
die alta hotel, and then have the body
taken on by rail to the home of his in
nocent and happy boyhood. The weight
Of sorrow that awaited the mother in
either case can easily be conceived.
Whether the dying young man revided
sufficiently to endure the sea trip, or
whether he died at the hotel his father
brought him to, we did not learn. The
narrative is brief but painful one, and
is not without powerful lesson to youth.


A little girl was sent to the pasture to
drive home the COW. While thus engsg-
ed she treated herself to climbing an
unnecessary fence, from which she fell
and was severely scratched and bruised.
On returning home che was asked If she
cried when she fell. "Why, no." she