Show R d L B by elmo scott watson saved by chance HOMAS PAINE with his stir i ring these are the times that thai try mens souls read to the men in army did much to relieve the despair of 1776 after serving as aide to gen nathanael greene he became secretary to the congressional committee of foreign affairs and helped get loans from france and holland but ut aiding the fight tor for human liberty of only one people wa was s not enough for him instead of settling down to enjoy life in the nation he helped found he went to england and in 1791 published his famous rights of man tor for which h he was outlawed by the kings court then he went to france where he was elected to the national convention but when he opposed the execution 0 of king louis XVI the jacobins expelled him from the convention when came into power paine was thrown into prison and condemned to the guillotine he was saved by the merest chance the prison keeper went along the corridor placing chalk marks on the doors of those to be executed the next morning in the prison gloom he did not notice that paines cell door was temporarily wide open and flat against the corridor wall so he put the chalk mark on what became the inside of the door when it was closed the guards passed by paine the next morning and the delay gave james monroe united states min ister to france time to obtain his release captive for 10 years I 1 TN N 1800 euis ellis P bean left his home in tennessee and drifted down the mississippi to natchez where he took a job with a pack train be cause they carried contraband the party was attacked by spanish sol diers bean with a few other sur livors was taken to prison in chi then followed one of the cruelest crue lesi periods of imprisonment that any man has ever endured and re bained sane for three years tit tie lay in prison at chihuahua and then escaped only to be recaptured beaten almost to death and chaimea to the prison wall after trying to escape again he was thrown into a dungeon at acapulco eventually allowed to work in chains during the daytime he killed his tac guards with a crowbar and go away again caught he put in another year in in dark dirty dungeons ano ana was flogged regularly again al lowed to work he killed seven mer mei and this time got miles awa away before he was seized in tion he was made the victim ol oi almost every kind of cru cruelty elty so well was he able to stand 11 years of this treatment unbroken in ill spirit and with defiance gleaming 11 his still bright eyes that his captors developed a superstitious tear oi 01 him when the revolution broke out they offered him a place in tt dualist Dy alist army which he accepted beadily but with his fingers crossed once at liberty he soon la ike us companions into going over I 1 ti he other side and was given a cap lainca finally he led a victoriou victo nou orce into acapulco and those lad iad been so cruel to him begge or mercy in true american fash on he showed no bitterness no elf de ire are for revenge go away an lont bother me were the allt cords he had for or those who ha iven him 10 years of torture 4 western newspaper union |