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Show ENJOYED PRISON LIFE. One of Dickens' Martyrs Returns to His Old Home. "Dickens, in his "American Notes," described one Charles Langheimer delving in his little garden oiftside his eastern penitentiary cell and the thought coming to him that the man was digging his own grave, says tn Philadelphia Times. He further wrote of him: "A more dejected, heart-broken, wretched creature it would be difficult diffi-cult to imagine. I never saw such a picture of forlorn affliction and distress dis-tress of mind. I never saw or heard of any kind of misery that impressed me more than the wretchedness of this man." That was in 1841. In 1870 Dickens Dick-ens died. In 1885 Langheimer was still alive. But that is not all of the tale. When the novelist saw the German Ger-man thief he was serving his second term of imprisonment in the penitentiary. peniten-tiary. After that he served twelve more, fourteen in all, in the same institution. in-stitution. The narrator once saw him in the quarter sessions after he had been sentenced to a brief imprisonment imprison-ment in the county prison. With tears pouring down his cheeks he begged to be sent back to the penitentiary, even though his time had to be doubled. His request was granted. When Langheimer Lang-heimer was 80 years of age and free of prison and without a penny in his pocket and almost too feeble to steal, he either reached the conclusion or was advised that he had better end his days peacefully in the almshouse.where he would be taken good care of. He was given an order of entrance to that institution and went there and was treated with extra consideration. He remained there but two days, when he walked out, traveled to the Eastern penitentiary, called upon Warden Cas-sidy Cas-sidy and with a broken voice and with tears in his eyes begged that kindly official to let him die in his old cell. His wish was granted and there a few days later he breathed his last, but not as a convict. Solitary confinement that permits people to die of old age cannot be such a dreadful thing. |
