Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 September 1915 — Page 3

GOING WRONG and GETTING RIGHT ..

By R OBERT H. MOULTON

HE glanced up from his ledger and caught the Invitation of the treasurer’s index finger. Once before that same signal had meant a raise of |25 a month or, as he and his wife had put it, a balance in a savings bank. . He laid down his pen and walked w into the treasurer’s office with an ex- » press ion as nearly radiant as- his inv scrutably set face ever wore. When he came out, a change had

come over him. His face was pallid and his lips were set. Yet he again had been offered a raise —not merely S3OO a year more, but double the salary he had been getting. And Instantly he had refused it There never was a man more dumbfounded than the treasurer by that refusal. The tender of his own position, which he was soon to resign, had been curtly refused. And as though it had been notice of discharge, the man whom he had promoted to the confidential set of books had served notice that he would leave within the week. “Time to quit,” the man muttered to himself as he finished his posting> put the books away in the private office and prepared to go home. Once before, as he vividly recalled, it had become time for him to make a sudden, iron resolution to quit- When the last bar had yielded to hla saw he had heard the turnkey in the corridor and abruptly he threw himself upon his bed. “Here’s a paper,” the turnkey had said, and went on. The prison wtfs just wdking up; summer dawn was creeping through the grated windows. He left the bunk and took the paper to the light Soon his eye caught the dispatch from Albany that announced that the New York legislature had passed the habitual criminal act. He shuddered slightly and glanced toward the nearly severed bars, knowing that if he escaped and was rearrested he would be likely never to walk the streets again a free man. It would be “life”

for him. He would spend the rest of his young life like a fly in a bottle. “Time to quit,” he had mutteredBetter discipline at home when he was a boy would have kept him out of trouble, but he was sent up to the reform school from Cincinnati. It was only a short term, but when he went back home he was branded as a discharged prisoner of the state, one of the fraternity against which most police officers, feel that they are pitted in implacable strife. When he followed his determination to be decent and get work, the first man had said: “Come around a little later.” It was not only the reply, but the quizzical smile that accompanied it which had made him feel thd gall and wormwood which most disr

charged prisoners must swallow, if unaided, a potion which turns many of them to the underworld, in desperation. He had not done so heinous a thing that mankind should shun him as a loathsome, dangerous, hunted thing. He was “broke" and hungry, but he went on hunting for a Job until another man turned him down cold and added some stinging words about convicts. That is what goaded him, as it goads others, ft*to following a desperate game, when he met a young fellow who also had served a bit in the leform school. They went in deep and the next sentence was to Columbus. That gave him a post-graduate oourse in the ways of the underworld, the tricks at the cleverest of the confidence men and burglars. With the ruses and wiles of crime an open book, his active mind soon set him to contriving burglaries as the leader of a gang, and the disposing of the loot. He never tasted liquor »ni! was equal to any emergency. Crime became an absorbing business with him. outlawed business filled with the ever-present dread of capture. He saved money, but all that he had saved went in the effort to save himself when he landed in a burly officer’s arms. He was sent to the penitentiary to Kansas and there he “did time," endured the grinding monotony of prison life and prison fare, as a prisoner. It was certain that all that burled past would be revealed if he applied for fidelity bond, as would be necessary, if he accepted the position of treasurer that had been offered to him. It was the* which made him decide in a flash that be could not be treasurer. - That "«gh* he did not go directly home. He •telegraphed to Superintendent Lyon of the Central Howard association in Chicago, using a name lie never before had used in that town —his own. The association bad found him the Job as bookkeeper when he was about to be discharged from ; the Kansas prison. In that'case he had applied ..without expecting anything but .advice, but he discovered when his case was taken up that its affiliations and its system could help a convict when he needed it most. A day or two later he received a reply, crisp in its instruction to report at once for another position. He got the new Job, began again, and in six years he was receiving SI,BOO a year. Then he

DEATH NECESSARY TO LIFE

For the Maintenance of the Latter the Former la Declared to Be Indispensable. Paradoxical as It may seem, death is necessary to sustain life. The complete dissolution and destruction of overy living thing, both animal and vegetable* is required to produce and life. If it were not for this •ystem of an all-wise Creator the earth would lose its fertility, becoming exhausted and sterile, everything now finds its way back,

to the earth, and. is broken down by bacteria, causing decay and conditions that make the material available again sot the production of crops. Bacteria are the connecting links between life and death, sustaining life by producing death. V B. P. Smoot, a lecturer for the Missouri state board of agriculture, summarises the works of King, Hopkins. Hall and others on this subject: “A plant grows, .dies and fails back to earth. It has taken food from the air and soil. This plant food Is locked np in the cells of the plant Before it can be used again to the cycle of life

received an offer from another company which accepted his record in the two recent positions . without questioning his past. He made good, and is now drawing $4,000 a year as sales manager. He has nothing now to fear from the police for he is a new man, his alertness, his decisiveness turned to new use. In the fifteen years of its existence the Central Howard association has assisted 12,557 men, just emerged from prison, to begin life over again, acting as the mediator between the prisoner and the rebuffs of “outrageous fortune.” Most of them secured employment with broad-minded business men who were willing to give the man an opportunity. Eighty per cent of all the men who have come to the association during the fifteen years of its activity have made good, and thousands of them are now established as useful citizens throughout the country. By their own unaided efforts they could scarcely have won, since they came in most cases without money, experience or adequate initiative. In 1914 the association assisted 2,200 men at an average cost of $5.49. Of this number, 147 were paroled to the superintendent, and the earnings of these men for themselves, as given upon the association’s records, of monthly reports, amounted to $58,441. The estimated earnings, upon the same basis, of the 2,200 discharged men brings a total of approximately SBBO,OOO. Add to this amount of earnings the $330,000 that it might otherwise have cost society to keep these men in prison, and we have a net gain of 90 times the cost to the public of maintaining the Central Howard association. The nation-wide responsibility of the association for the proper care of the ex-prisoner is shown by its records Indicating the nativity of each applicant From fourteen countries came some 350 prisoners, for whom as a foster country we have assumed the obligation of freedom and Justice. Every state in the Union furnished one or more of these men who applied to the association for aid. Inasmuch as not more than onefourth of these men belonged to any one state, either by reason of nativity or incarceration, it is apparent that the problem of caring for them is interstate and national. .No state can assume its obligation alone, since other states are neces-

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND. te-

it must be set free, or changed to another form. “The bacteria bring about this change. They att&ek the remains of the plant and 'Break them down into their elemental parts so the plant food there may be used again to grow more corn, wheat, oats or other plants. They link the world of the dead to the world of the living. Without them continued life on earth would soon be impossible. ' “Soon dead animals and plants would accumulate on the face of the earth. Soon all the available plant food would be locked up in their dead bodies. These bacteria are 'the scav-

sarily already caring for some of its delinquent citizens. . . The important thing for these men, and for any community into which they happen to come, is not what they have been, but what they will become if given an opportunity. The question as to where they were born, and why, when and where they were imprisoned, fades in the face of the pressing need for work and a chance to prove their worth. This need the Central Howard association is seeking to supply. The fruit of its endeavors is shown not only in the number of men it has encouraged, advised and aided in a material way, but in the continued and rapid changes taking place in public sentiment toward the offender and in the new freedom given to those in bondage everywhere. One of the finest tributes ever paid the Central Howard association is contained in the following which came unsolicited from a discharged prisoner whom the association had once befriended: “A little more than a year ago I was discharged from a prison In New York state, where I had just finished serving a term for highway robbery committed in New York city. There I was born and there I had for a number of years pursued a criminal career. “Before obtaining my freedom I had resolved to reform, to get work, and lead an honest life. “My best efforts to get a job of any sort were unsuccessful, so about a month later I left New York, with five dollars in my pocket and an unbroken resolution to stick to living on the ’square.’ “Last October I arrived in Chicago on a Wabash box car —ragged and friendless —after a zigzag chase of that will-o’-the-wisp, a job, covering over two thousand miles. In a couple of days the few dimes I had were gone for food and lodging. So that I presently found myself homeless, jobless and broke. “In casting about for means of obtaining the material with which to write East in an endeavor to get some money, I decided to ask a prison association to oblige me in this regard. A search of the city directory yielded the address of the Salvation Army Prison bureau. Going there I told the officer in charge that I was an ex-convict and would appreciate the favor of writing materials, etc. He said that there were no facilities there for writing. That I would perhaps find better accommodations at the Central Howard association. He very courteously invited me to return to his office if I met with failure there. “On the twelfth floor of a large office building in the heart of Chicago I found the Central Howard association. “It was my lucky day—in that small suite of offices I was to find more than I consciously sought or from my previous experience had been led to hope for. “On explaining my errand briefly, a littered table was cleared for me. Pen, ink and paper provided; no questions asked, and I proceeded to write for two hours. When I finished and prepared to leave I was called into a small private office. “You are a stranger here? Looking for a job? Have you a place to sleep tonight, to eat?” The men who asked these questions gave me money for my supper, lodging and breakfast, and told me to come there in the morning. That he would then send me to some places where I might get work. “I left there that late afternoon with a heart beating high with hope, with a new grip on my re- • solve to stay straight. “No word had been spoken of reform, no mention of religion made, no machine-made charity doled out, no maudlin pretense there, but instead the square dealing of practical help and understanding. * “The next morning I was given several cards and directions. Each card bore an application for work addressed to an employer specifying the job sought and my name. Each bore the signed recommendation of F. Emory Lyon, superintendent of the Central Howard association. “The European war was on, business unusually depressed, and Jobs more than scarce. Every day I went there for these cards until I finally secured a job. Every day for two weeks I found the same unfailing willingness to help me get work. Every night I was given money for food and lodging. Every day many others were receiving the same help and encouragement. “Chicago may well be proud of the work of this 'prison association; of the work of Doctor Lyon and his assistants. The reform of a criminal is generally considered a rather hopeless proposition, both by the public and by the criminal himself, and with good reason. That good reason is that the spirit and efficiency of the Central Howard association is rare indeed.”

engers of the world and upon them depends our welfare.”

Several Ohio lawyers once gathered in Judge Wilson’s room after adjournment of court, and were discussing the retirement of a member of the bar. Among them was one whose practice was worth $25,000 a year. He said, “I ‘have been practicing several years, and am well fixed. 1 have thought I would like to retire and de vote my remaining years to studies I have neglected.” "Study law,” pu’ in Judge Wilson.

Some Sarcasm.

Folf We Touch In Passing

By Julia Chandler Manz

WHOSE WIFE? The Man and The Woman were In In a public place. v They looked into each other’s eyes and were conscious of a distinct sense of recognition, although they knew perfectly.well that never before had they touched in passing. The Man felt Impelled to take her at once into his arms and hold her there for all time. Thus they stood apart looking into each other’s eyes. Then the crowd surged and they were lost to each other. For many months thereafter The Man sought The Woman everywhere, and when at last he found her she was watching two children at play, and the smile in her eyes was the sort of smile that has its well-spring only in a mother’s adoring heart. The Man watched her unseen and understood. A week later found him in a distant city, where, after a few years he died. The Woman never knew what became of The Man. She never saw him again after the day they had looked into each other’s eyes—and passed on. Sometimes she thought of him, but more often she did not, for her days were filled with duties to The Husband, and the children she brought him. Year by year she lived at his side, mindful of his creature comforts; sympathetic in the hours of his perplexities; proud of his achievements; Interested in the home

The Man Made No Answer, Taking the Woman’s Hand In His Own.

■he made him; devoted to the children God had given her, and in all she was not unhappy, although never once in her companionship with The Husband did she lift the veil which hung between him and her soul that he might see into the source of her being. The Husband had been gone to the Land Behind the Veil for more than two years before the woman thought of marrying again. He had been good to her, and he had left her comfortably situated in the matter of this world’s goods, but she was unutterably lonely. Their children had become old enough to be consumed by their Individual interests and The Woman was desolate. The Second Husband was also a good-man, much on the type of the first, and The Woman found herself very fond of him when, for the sake of companionship, she had become his wife. In the interim of her widowhood she had not, however, forgotten The Man. The thought of him always brought her a peculiar sense of peace, but somehow she ceased to hope that he would in any way cross the path of her life again. So she took up the threads which the First Husband’s had broken, and wove them into her new life with the Second Husband, but as it had been before, she gave nothing of her soul in the weaving. The bond between them was pleasant enough, but it was of the earth, earthly. It often set The Woman to thinking, when the twilight hours brought their lengthening shadows, and a certain sense of craving for one who could walk straight - T

into the secret chambers of her soul and feel at home there. And sometimes, in retrospective moments. The Woman wondered whose wife she would be in the Great Beyond, whereupon she turned to the Nazarene’s assurance of the Sadducees that "Id the Anastasia they are as the Angels of God in Heaven. They neither marry nor are given in marriage,” and in her heart she was glad, for somehow neither of her matrimonial ventures had created within her any keen desire for their eternal perpetuation, although the world called her a fortunate .woman in the matetr of her mates. One day The Woman fell ill. The doctor assured the Second Husband that she would not live, and The Woman, hearing, was thrilled with a sudden sense of happiness. She looked on the kind, troubled face of the Second Husband and knew as she looked that she was fond of him. She had also been fond of the First Husband. They were both good men and true and no woman could have companioned them in their respective homes without acquiring a sincere affection for either, but Just the same The Woman was rather glad, in a feeble sort of way, that marriage was all done with. She lay in her bed very ill and vory tired, and had a clear vision of the Sadducees asking the Master whose wife the woman who had seven husbands would be in the Anastasia, and she was h*

wardly smiling rather contentedly over the reply the Savior had made when she heard the doctor at her bedside say to the Second Husband that the sands of her life were running low. Suddenly she became conscious of a presence in her room other than her doctor and her ..family, and when she lifted her eyes it was to look, as in a far gone yesteryear, into the eyes of The Man, and now, as then, she felt her being suffused with radiance. The Man stood apart. He held out his arms to her. The Woman, rising in her spiritual body, went unswervingly to his side, and the doctor turned to the Second Husband and told him that she had died, and The Woman hearing, remembered the words of the Master spoken so many centuries ago to the Sadducees, and fear followed the happiness which had lighted her eyes. “He had reference to marriage in its earthly sense,” The Man answered her thought. "No purely physical tie is perpetual. Only the spiritual is eternity. Death disrupts every union that is not of the spirit as well as of the body. Tou have always been my mate. You always will be.” “And the two men I have companioned for a time?” questioned The Woman, anxious for their happiness. “Somewhere in the wonderful Universe of Spirit there is the altar ego —the complemental soul —for every one,” the man made answer, taking The Woman’s hand in his own. And together they turned thehr faces toward Eternity. What would he the result if we aH followed the advice we give to others