SASHA.
CHAPTER XLII
MARRED LIVES
I
The discussion with the Girl is a source of much mortification. Hara.s.sed on every side, persecuted by the authorities, and hounded even into the street, my friend, in her hour of bitterness, confounds my appreciative disagreement with the denunciation of stupidity and inertia. I realize the inadequacy of the written word, and despair at the hopelessness of human understanding, as I vainly seek to elucidate the meaning of the Buffalo tragedy to friendly guards and prisoners. Continued correspondence with the Girl accentuates the divergence of our views, painfully discovering the fundamental difference of att.i.tude underlying even common conclusions.
By degrees the stress of activities reacts upon my friend"s correspondence. Our discussion lags, and soon ceases entirely. The world of the outside, temporarily brought closer, again recedes, and the urgency of the immediate absorbs me in the life of the prison.
II
A spirit of hopefulness breathes in the cell-house. The new commutation law is bringing liberty appreciably nearer. In the shops and yard the men excitedly discuss the increased "good time," and prisoners flit about with paper and pencil, seeking a tutored friend to "figure out"
their time of release. Even the solitaries, on the verge of despair, and the long-timers facing a vista of cheerless years, are instilled with new courage and hope.
The tenor of conversation is altered. With the appointment of the new Warden the constant grumbling over the food has ceased. Pleasant surprise is manifest at the welcome change in "the grub." I wonder at the tolerant silence regarding the disappointing Christmas dinner. The men impatiently frown down the occasional "kicker." The Warden is "green," they argue; he did not know that we are supposed to get currant bread for the holidays; he will do better, "jest give "im a chanc"t."
The improvement in the daily meals is enlarged upon, and the men thrill with amazed expectancy at the incredible report, "Oysters for New Year"s dinner!" With gratification we hear the Major"s expression of disgust at the filthy condition of the prison, his condemnation of the basket cell and dungeon as barbarous, and the promise of radical reforms. As an earnest of his regime he has released from solitary the men whom Warden Wright had punished for having served as witnesses in the defence of Murphy and Mong. Greedy for the large reward, Hopkins and his stools had accused the two men of a mysterious murder committed in Elk City several years previously. The criminal trial, involving the suicide of an officer[50] whom the Warden had forced to testify against the defendants, resulted in the acquittal of the prisoners, whereupon Captain Wright ordered the convict-witnesses for the defence to be punished.
[50] Officer Robert G. Hunter, who committed suicide August 30, 1901, in Clarion, Pa. (where the trial took place). He left a written confession, in which he accused Warden E. S.
Wright of forcing him to testify against men whom he knew to be innocent.
The new Warden, himself a physician, introduces hygienic rules, abolishes the "holy-stoning"[51] of the cell-house floor because of the detrimental effect of the dust, and decides to separate the consumptive and syphilitic prisoners from the comparatively healthy ones. Upon examination, 40 per cent. of the population are discovered in various stages of tuberculosis, and 20 per cent. insane. The death rate from consumption is found to range between 25 and 60 per cent. At light tasks in the block and the yard the Major finds employment for the sickly inmates; special gangs are a.s.signed to keeping the prison clean, the rest of the men at work in the shop. With the exception of a number of dangerously insane, who are to be committed to an asylum, every prisoner in the inst.i.tution is at work, and the vexed problem of idleness resulting from the anti-convict labor law is thus solved.
[51] The process of whitening stone floors by pulverizing sand into their surfaces.
The change of diet, better hygiene, and the abolition of the dungeon, produce a noticeable improvement in the life of the prison. The gloom of the cell-house perceptibly lifts, and presently the men are surprised at music hour, between six and seven in the evening, with the strains of merry ragtime by the newly organized penitentiary band.
III
New faces greet me on the range. But many old friends are missing. Billy Ryan is dead of consumption; "Frenchy" and Ben have become insane; Little Mat, the Duquesne striker, committed suicide. In sad remembrance I think of them, grown close and dear in the years of mutual suffering.
Some of the old-timers have survived, but broken in spirit and health.
"Praying" Andy is still in the block, his mind clouded, his lips constantly moving in prayer. "Me innocent," the old man reiterates, "G.o.d him know." Last month the Board has again refused to pardon the lifetimer, and now he is bereft of hope. "Me have no more money. My children they save and save, and bring me for pardon, and now no more money." Aleck Killain has also been refused by the Board at the same session. He is the oldest man in the prison, in point of service, and the most popular lifer. His innocence of murder is one of the traditions of Riverside. In the boat he had rented to a party of picnickers, a woman was found dead. No clew could be discovered, and Aleck was sentenced to life, because he could not be forced to divulge the names of the men who had hired his boat. He pauses to tell me the sad news: the authorities have opposed his pardon, demanding that he furnish the information desired by them. He looks sere with confinement, his eyes full of a mute sadness that can find no words. His face is deeply seamed, his features grave, almost immobile. In the long years of our friendship I have never seen Aleck laugh. Once or twice he smiled, and his whole being seemed radiant with rare sweetness. He speaks abruptly, with a perceptible effort.
"Yes, Aleck," he is saying, "it"s true. They refused me."
"But they pardoned Mac," I retort hotly. "He confessed to a cold-blooded murder, and he"s only been in four years."
"Good luck," he remarks.
"How, good luck?"
"Mac"s father accidentally struck oil on his farm."
"Well, what of it?"
"Three hundred barrels a day. Rich. Got his son a pardon."
"But on what ground did they dismiss your application? They know you are innocent."
"District Attorney came to me. "You"re innocent, we know. Tell us who did the murder." I had nothing to tell. Pardon refused."
"Is there any hope later on, Aleck?"
"When the present administration are all dead, perhaps."
Slowly he pa.s.ses on, at the approach of a guard. He walks weakly, with halting step.
"Old Sammy" is back again, his limp heavier, shoulders bent lower. "I"m here again, friend Aleck," he smiles apologetically. "What could I do?
The old woman died, an" my boys went off somewhere. Th" farm was sold that I was borned in," his voice trembles with emotion. "I couldn"t find th" boys, an" no one wanted me, an" wouldn"t give me any work. "Go to th" pogy",[52] they told me. I couldn"t, Aleck. I"ve worked all me life; I don"t want no charity. I made a bluff," he smiles between tears,--"Broke into a store, and here I am."
[52] Poorhouse.
With surprise I recognize "Tough" Monk among the first-grade men. For years he had been kept in stripes, and constantly punished for bad work in the hosiery department. He was called the laziest man in the prison: not once in five years had he accomplished his task. But the new Warden transferred him to the construction shop, where Monk was employed at his trade of blacksmith. "I hated that d.a.m.n sock makin"," he tells me.
"I"ve struck it right now, an" the Major says I"m the best worker in th"
shop. Wouldn"t believe it, eh, would you? Major promised me a ten-spot for the fancy iron work I did for them "lectric posts in th" yard. Says it"s artistic, see? That"s me all right; it"s work I like. I won"t lose any time, either. Warden says Old Sandy was a fool for makin" me knit socks with them big paws of mine. Th" Major is aw" right, aw" right."
With a glow of pleasure I meet "Smiling" Al, my colored friend from the jail. The good-natured boy looks old and infirm. His kindness has involved him in much trouble; he has been repeatedly punished for shouldering the faults of others, and now the Inspectors have informed him that he is to lose the greater part of his commutation time. He has grown wan with worry over the uncertainty of release. Every morning is tense with expectation. "Might be Ah goes to-day, Aleck," he hopefully smiles as I pause at his cell. But the weeks pa.s.s. The suspense is torturing the young negro, and he is visibly failing day by day.
A familiar voice greets me. "h.e.l.lo, Berk, ain"t you glad t" see an old pal?" Big Dave beams on me with his cheerful smile.
"No, Davy. I hoped you wouldn"t come back."
He becomes very grave. "Yes, I swore I"d swing sooner than come back.
Didn"t get a chanc"t. You see," he explains, his tone full of bitterness, "I goes t" work and gets a job, good job, too; an" I keeps "way from th" booze an" me pals. But th" d.a.m.n bulls was after me. Got me sacked from me job three times, an" den I knocked one of "em on th"
head. d.a.m.n his soul to h.e.l.l, wish I"d killed "im. "Old offender," they says to the jedge, and he soaks me for a seven spot. I was a sucker all right for tryin" t" be straight."
IV
In the large cage at the centre of the block, the men employed about the cell-house congregate in their idle moments. The shadows steal silently in and out of the inclosure, watchful of the approach of a guard. Within sounds the hum of subdued conversation, the men lounging about the sawdust barrel, absorbed in "Snakes" Wilson"s recital of his protracted struggle with "Old Sandy." He relates vividly his persistent waking at night, violent stamping on the floor, cries of "Murder! I see snakes!"
With admiring glances the young prisoners hang upon the lips of the old criminal, whose perseverance in shamming finally forced the former Warden to a.s.sign "Snakes" a special room in the hospital, where his snake-seeing propensities would become dormant, to suffer again violent awakening the moment he would be transferred to a cell. For ten years the struggle continued, involving numerous clubbings, the dungeon, and the strait-jacket, till the Warden yielded, and "Snakes" was permanently established in the comparative freedom of the special room.
Little groups stand about the cage, boisterous with the wit of the "Four-eyed Yegg," who styles himself "Bill Nye," or excitedly discussing the intricacies of the commutation law, the chances of Pittsburgh winning the baseball pennant the following season, and next Sunday"s dinner. With much animation, the rumored resignation of the Deputy Warden is discussed. The Major is gradually weeding out the "old gang,"
it is gossiped. A colonel of the militia is to secure the position of a.s.sistant to the Warden. This source of conversation is inexhaustible, every detail of local life serving for endless discussion and heated debate. But at the "lookout"s" whimpered warning of an approaching guard, the circle breaks up, each man pretending to be busy dusting and cleaning. Officer Mitch.e.l.l pa.s.ses by; with short legs wide apart, he stands surveying the a.s.sembled idlers from beneath his fierce-looking eyebrows.
"Quiet as me grandmother at church, ain"t ye? All of a sudden, too. And mighty busy, every d.a.m.n one of you. You "Snakes" there, what business you got here, eh?"