The Black Mask — page 44: what you’re looking at

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

am was! Judge MacPherson—a man of the world who should be able to distin- guish between women—laughed at me, and with one wave of his smug hand, with one word sentenced me to six months’ confinement and a lifetime of hell! Never so long as I live will I for- get his face! “That same night my baby was taken ill, my husband tried to find me—his search discovered to him the fact that I was in jail for soliciting on the street! “Then the jealousy—the suspicions he had felt for me burst into flame, making him ready to believe the worst of me. “T never saw him but once after that. That one time he denounced me as a woman unfit to live—as a thing too vile to breathe the same air as my child. Then he told me the boy was dead. Of course, he secured my release, but it was too late. “When I came out of prison, I went to Judge MacPherson’s home. I re- member he was sitting at dinner. He was very annoyed at having his meal disturbed by a pale, bedraggled, sloven- ly-looking woman. He was at no pains to hide his annoyance, I told him what he had done to me, an innocent woman, and I demanded that he right this wrong. “There was the same smiling sneer on his face as when he sentenced me. “‘Tust how can I do this, my dear lady?’ he said, -“ ‘Go to my husband,’ I cried wildly, I had not learned to restrain myself then—‘tell him that I am innocent— absolutely innocent. My baby is gone— but there is still a chance for me, if he will take me—you must explain to him —you must make him understand!’ - “He laughed—laughed at me. ““Old stuff, my dear!’ he sneered, ‘old stuff. Why can’t you women think of something original? Of course, you are all innocent, none of. The Abandoned House ‘stroyed innocence and laughed at his you will even admit to a first offense. I’m sorry if your child is dead, that is, if you had one, but I certainly won’t help to hoodwink a man—who evidently is a person of principle. If you don’t want to suffer, behave yourself; that’s all I have to say. Good evening!’ “Then he showed me the door. I _ think I went insane. I remember stand-— ing outside and pounding on it, scream- ing maJedictions on him, shrieking to~ him that he must clear me, that he must give me back my good name. Then some one seized me, and I was dragged away to the station-house again, I left it under a six months’ sentence for dis- orderly conduct. ~~ “When I got out this time, dazed, broken, aged, I realized that nothing I could ever do or say would reinstate me. This second arrest, caused by the man who had ruined me, had branded me forever and forever. I learned my hus- band had divorced me, disposed of everything in our home and sailed to France. “Those who had been my friends passed me on the street without recog- nition. There was no one in the world I could turn to. I was practically with- out means, To be sure, I owned this house, but I did not have the money to keep it in repair, and I could not live in it. The memories it recalled were maddening. Then, too, I felt everyone knew my story, and I could not face their scornful glances. “Time and again I was tempted to kill myself, but one thing always held me back ; my undying soul-eating hatred for the man who had passed judgment on me. “One day I realized why this mon- strous thing had happened to me. I was to- be the instrument with which to save innumerable women from a fate similar to*mine! ‘It was to be my task to rid the world of the viper who de- jmicbooks.com