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Show CARTOONS WAY OUT OFJRISON Evan Burton Johnson Has Sentence Commuted by Governor of California. Cali-fornia. San Francisco, March 29, Even Burton Johnson, newspaper cartoonist and until Thursday Convict No. S734 at Folsom penitentiary, arrived In San Francisco today en route to a Job. Johnson literally cartooned bis way out of prison, after being sentenced sen-tenced for an admitted forgery committed com-mitted when intoxicated. His sentence sen-tence was commuted by Governor Hiram Hi-ram W. Johnson. "My time In prison was not without with-out profit,'' he observed after admitting admit-ting that he was the "court jeBter" of Folsom. "What sort of work did I do? I didn't work. I simply refused to. Whea I was sent to tho prison farm I drew a picture of a cow in convict stripes. I called it "Chewing the Cud of Reflection." "I began cartooning mv way out at tho end of tho Jlrst week. I was bitter over the 'jam' I had got Into and started in on some of the officials. Each one was displeased until he saw the cartoons I made of the others. Then, he laughed. By and by some 200 of my drawings were hanging on the walls of prison officers." Cartoon Reaches Governor. Johnson's first cartoon to find its way to the governor was entitled "Dead Leaves" and showed the calendar cal-endar leaves of his four year sentence fluttering down to obliterate him. This he followed by others, about prison and political conditions until the governor gov-ernor became interested and finally was convinced that the man had been victimized. He wrote a three act play in prison, and evolved a mina-ture mina-ture comic doll In stripes, which he sometimes gives accompanied by a home made jingle on how to keep out of jail. Has Position In Portland. Johnson .has a position with an advertising ad-vertising concern in' Portland, Ore. Ho is 33 years old, of a muscular build, with a deep tan, be-lying popular popu-lar conception of prison pallor. He entered the field of art when he was fifteen years old, as a "regular staff member of the Philadelphia Inquirer," and later was in turn employed as a staff artist, specializing on sociological sociologi-cal and political cartoons, on the New York Evening World, the Denver (Rocky Mountain News, the Philadelphia Philadel-phia Press and other newspapers. On News Staff. "It was while a member of the staff of the Rocky Mountain News that, at the direction of the owner, Senator Thomas Patterson," said Johnson, "I drew a cartoon entitled 'The Political Slaughter House' directed against the Supremo Court of Colorado which resulted re-sulted In the citation of Senator Patterson Pat-terson for contempt and the impori-tion impori-tion of a fine, of $1,755. The case was carried to the United States Supreme Court. twice and the higher court reversed the Colorado verdict and ordered the fine refunded." |