The Argosy, Volume XLIV — page 285: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE GREAT BANK ROBBERY. day. Men and women into whose pock- ets I had paid hundreds of dollars’ profit howled for my punishment. Public sentiment took no note of any difference between Henderson, Wilkins, and me. I was caught, and the wrath that-should have been bestowed on Wil- kins was given to me. Chatterton had a hard row to hoe, but he did the best he could. Mr. Els- mere did not come to see me. I heard nothing from him or Marjorie. The trial judge was against me from the start. I explained my connection with the Association. Said that all the- money I owned should go to pay those who had demanded withdrawal. This was accepted, but none the less I was convicted of fraud and sentenced to two years in Sing Sing prison. Never will I forget the dull despair that settled on my heart when I heard these words. Truly, this was a bright ending of a career in finance. Not once had I thought of defraud- ing any person of a dollar. That some day the business would go up in smoke IT had no doubt. But this sudden plunge from wealth and happiness and the love of a beautiful girl to a prison cell was wholly unlooked for. In sentencing me the judge delivered a speech on the dishonesty of my course. I had no opportunity to answer him. I was taken by a deputy sheriff and led away. The next day I was conveyed to Sing Sing, where they clad me in the prison garb, shaved my .head, and placed me with the shoemakers. I am not going to dwell upon my life at Sing Sing. The degradation of 1, the misery, the heart-breaking knowl- edge that Marjorie and her father thought me guilty, were almost more than I could bear. At first I was melancholy. But after a time I grew hardened. I associated with wretches who had committed all sorts of crimes. Their talk, when they found opportunity to speak, was ribald and showed the baseness of their lives. But what was I but human? It had its natural effect on me, and I grew to hate the world that had turned against me, I grew philosophical. Men who were 281 no more honest than I were conducting money producing enterprises without interference. Men led and robbed, but in so scientific a manner that they were pillars of their churches. - I began to hate Mr. Elsmere. The re- vulsion of my nature became so com- plete that I began to ask myself why, if I was to become branded as a thief, I had not had the foresight to steal enough to make me rich when I was re- leased ? Instead of that I had signed orders for the sale of my horses and all other property, and the proceeds, with what I had in bank, were to go to the relicf of the depositors, as far as they would reach. This 1s all | am going to say about my life in Sing Sing. It was’ a period of de- gradation and misery. It changed me, it changed my whole existence, and the two years were long in passing. I shall take up my life again in the next chapter with my release. CHAPTER IN. BITTER DISAPPOINTMENT. “HELLO, old sport! Glad to see you out again!” It was my first greeting upon fegain- ing my freedom. And the first person to greet me was Mr. Jarvis. But it was a different Mr. Jarvis than the one I had formerly known. He had grown somewhat stouter, but his clothing was seedy, and there was no jewelry in ev idence. “I’m glad to be free,” I answered. In truth, the sunlight, the fresh air, all of the earth I could see, seemed very good to me as I stepped from the pris- on door with the friendly words of the warden following his handshake. I, too, had changed. I had done con- siderable manual labor while in the prison, and my regular sleep, with my hearty appetite, had given me a rotund- ity of fisure and an Increased muscular power that I could not have acquired either during my life of ease or during mv brief career as a financier. I had apparently won the esteem of the officials at the prison, for there was nothing in my nature to cause me to GOHMGOOo SS (GO) awa