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Show KISS ME, TOO. In the print shop of the Michigan State Prison is a man called Jim, doing a life sentence. Up to last spring he was regarded as a desperate, dangerous man, ready to rebellion at any hour. He planned a general outbreak and was "given away" by one of the conspirators. He plotted a general mutiny or rebellion and was again betrayed. He then kept his own counsel, and while never refusing to obey orders, he obeyed them like a man who only needed backing to make him refuse. One day in June a party of strangers came to visit the institution. One was an old gentleman, the others ladies and two of the ladies had small children. The guide took one of the children on his arm, and the other walked until the party began climbing stairs. Jim was working nearby, sulky and morose as ever, when the guide said, "Jim, won't you help thus little girl upstairs?" The convict hesitated, a scowl on his face, and the little girl held out her hands to him and said: "If you will, I ??? I'll kiss you!" [unreadable line] an instant and he lifted the child as tenderly as a father. Half-way up the stairs she kissed him. At the head of the stairs she said, "Now you've got to kiss me, too!" He blushed like a woman, looked into her innocent face and then kissed her cheek, and before he reached the foot of the stairs again he had tears in his eyes. Ever since that day he has been a changed man, and no one in the place gives less trouble. Maybe in his far away Western home he has a little ??? of his own. No one knows, for he never reveals his inner life, but the change so quickly wrought by a child proves that he has a heart, and gives hope that he may forsake his evil ways. |