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The Inmate Of The Dungeon 1894 By: W. C. (William Chambers) Morrow (1853-1923) |
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By W. C. Morrow Copyright, 1894, by J. B. Lippincott & Co
After, the Board of State Prison Directors, sitting in session at the
prison, had heard and disposed of the complaints and petitions of a
number of convicts, the warden announced that all who wished to appear
had been heard. Thereupon a certain uneasy and apprehensive expression,
which all along had sat upon the faces of the directors, became visibly
deeper. The chairman nervous, energetic, abrupt, incisive man glanced
at a slip of paper in his hand, and said to the warden: "Send a guard for convict No 14,208." The warden started and become slightly pale. Somewhat confused, he
haltingly replied, "Why, he has expressed no desire to appear before
you." "Nevertheless, you will send for him at once," responded the chairman. The warden bowed stiffly and directed a guard to produce the convict.
Then, turning to the chairman, he said: "I am ignorant of your purpose in summoning this man, but of course I
have no objection. I desire, however, to make a statement concerning him
before he appears." "When we shall have called for a statement from you," boldly responded
the chairman, "you may make one." The warden sank back into his seat. He was a tall, fine looking man,
well bred and intelligent, and had a kindly face. Though ordinarily
cool, courageous, and self possessed, he was unable to conceal a strong
emotion which looked much like fear. A heavy silence fell upon the room,
disturbed only by the official stenographer, who was sharpening his
pencils. A stray beam of light from the westering sun slipped into the
room between the edge of the window shade and the sash, and fell across
the chair reserved for the convict. The uneasy eyes of the warden
finally fell upon this beam, and there his glance rested. The chairman,
without addressing any one particularly, remarked: "There are ways of learning what occurs in a prison without the
assistance of either the wardens or the convicts." Just then the guard appeared with the convict, who shambled in painfully
and laboriously, as with a string he held up from the floor the heavy
iron ball which was chained to his ankles. He was about forty five years
old. Undoubtedly he once had been a man of uncommon physical strength,
for a powerful skeleton showed underneath the sallow skin which covered
his emaciated frame. His sallowness was peculiar and ghastly It was
partly that of disease, and partly of something worse; and it was this
something that accounted also for his shrunken muscles and manifest
feebleness. There had been no time to prepare him for presentation to the Board. As
a consequence, his unstockinged toes showed through his gaping shoes;
the dingy suit of prison stripes which covered his gaunt frame was
frayed and tattered; his hair had not been recently cut to the prison
fashion, and, being rebellious, stood out upon his head like bristles;
and his beard, which, like his hair, was heavily dashed with gray, had
not been shaved for weeks. These incidents of his appearance combined
with a very peculiar expression of his face to make an extraordinary
picture. It is difficult to describe this almost unearthly expression.
With a certain suppressed ferocity it combined an inflexibility of
purpose that sat like an iron mask upon him. His eyes were hungry and
eager; they were the living part of him, and they shone luminous
from beneath shaggy brows. His forehead was massive, his head of fine
proportions, his jaw square and strong, and his thin, high nose showed
traces of an ancestry that must have made a mark in some corner of the
world at some time in history. He was prematurely old; this was seen
in his gray hair and in the uncommonly deep wrinkles which lined his
forehead and the corners of his eyes and of his mouth. Upon stumbling weakly into the room, faint with the labor of walking and
of carrying the iron ball, he looked around eagerly, like a bear
driven to his haunches by the hounds. His glance passed so rapidly and
unintelligently from one face to another that he could not have had
time to form a conception of the persons present, until his swift eyes
encountered the face of the warden, Instantly they flashed; he craned
his neck forward; his lips opened and became blue; the wrinkles deepened
about his mouth and eyes; his form grew rigid, and his breathing
stopped... Continue reading book >>
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