| Show BIG TOM CONVICT there were those who said that convict was innocent of the crime which sent him to prison fortuch for such a long terra term of years but that there was scarce a hope of his over ever being a freeman free roan again they meant that he be was technically guilty he had bad sought to save a woman from a beating at the hands bands of her husband and in the struggle and excitement he be had struck a blow which caused the death of the man mail it was accident in a sells 0 but it was also manslaughter no man who is a man will stand by and see a woman beaten and yet if ho be interferes he must most take his cli chances ances with the law big tom as the convict was sometimes referred to was like most big men a child in his hia gent gentleness berless and good nature he did not complain but ho he grieved he thought of the years and years which must drag away before the prison doors would open to him and lie he moved about like a weak old man luau the prison officials felt pity for the man but a convict is a convict and all must be treated alike all who show obedience to the rules they sized him up as childlike and good natured and yet they said to each other as they talked of him look out for big tom I 1 lie ho will break loose some day and do some des thing they thought it would come during the first six months of his term then during tho the second then they almost became afraid of him men who are slow to an anger er who go on grieving brooding and bearing a mental burden for weeks arid and months aro are devils when the climax comes bi big tom bad the management of the trip hammer iu in the machine shop had they put him in the shoo shop or tailor shop he be would have rebelled at once his place was beside the biggest piece of machinery in the shops two pieces of machinery as it were tom and trip day by day and week by week and month by month as the ponderous hammer rose and fell and its blows shook the very earth for yards around making the convict smile and look proud the guards had an eye on him and kept saying to each other it will come it is only delayed when lie ho breaks loose be will kill some one arid and have to be killed in turn nearly half of the r second year had bad passed and the giant convict had never even sulked one day there came cama into the shop as sightseers a husband wife and little girl 4 or 5 years old children are seldom seen in prisons and it is a rare thing thine that they are taken into thu the shops in the ho yards if any ady one in that prison knew I dew that convict 1260 had bad a daughter a fair haired handsome child who could only walk alone when the jury pronounced pronoun cid his verdict of guilty he had bad forgotten the fact his wife bad visited him a ai often as ae visitors were allowed but the child had bad never buen been r seen een within the he grim walls knowing that her husband buti baud had bad killed a man by accident the wife could bear to see him wearing the horrible stripes of a convict but to let the child look upon him to gaze in wonder at the iron bars to ask why all those acu were there a thousand times timea nol and so this was the first child big tom had seen since the heavy doors shut him in father mother and child came clone to him and gazed at the ponderous hammer bammer with wondering eyes eye you would have argued that the sight of the child would have softened the convicts heart arid and brought tears to his eyes but it did dot it brought a feeling of madness ut of desperation of frenzy to save a woman from a brutal beating at the hauda bands of a drunken worthless thing not fit to bs be clawed with men he had bad struck a blow A jury had called it murder in the second degree and he be was here iu in prison on a sentence almost never neve ending rending ile eie had been wronged and the knowledge of it fired his hia heart aud and brought tile the long expected outbreak with a bud deu cry which startled every one in the y shop big tom made a spring forward seized the child in his hia arms and thero there was a shout of defiance on his bis lips lipa as he be held her at arms length and glared about him the mother of the child gasped for breath and stag staggered back to the wall arid and sank down the father stood staring as if struck dumb but presently held out ont his hands in silent supplication big tom glowered und and muttered in reply ho he was a convict a childless father he was dead to his child the was dead to him he be could not make another fathers fabber a heart ache and throb and grieve as his did but lie he would secure revenge |
