"THE HONOR SYSTEM"

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17877, 24 August 1918, Page 10

"THE HONOR SYSTEM"

WILLIAM FOX'S GIGANTIC PRISON PROBLEM PLAY. A'POWERFUL STORY. AT CRYSTAL PALACE. COMMENCING MONDAY. It is impossible in the brief space available to do justice to "The Honor System.", The story is so interwoven with romance, tragedy and pathos, relieved with humour and quaint scenes from animal life, that it will have to be seen to be appreciated. Circumstantial evidence leadß to the conviction of an innocent young American inventor, known as Joseph Stanton. Stanton is a young man; one whose clean living and upright character win for America a name among nations. His devotion to his aged mother is heautiful. The young inventor receives an offer of a position along the Mexican border, and leaves homo with many misgivings on the pai t of his mother, whom he' is destined never to see again owing to the dreadful fate which awaits him behind prison walls. What happens to young Stanton is what might occur to any unsuspecting young man to-day. it is this fact which makes the story nold you from scene to scene. _ Shortly after Stanton's arrival at his new post there is a conspiracy to bring about a Mexican raid. The raid is "pulled off" with all its gruesomo horrors. A marvellous series of battbs occur, Anally resulting in the triumph of the Americans who compose the population of " Howling Dog," the border town. In " Howling Dog" Stanton ha 3 no other form of " so-called amusement", than to watch the underworld denizens of the drinking places in their midnight orgies. . During one of these trips he meets a girl habitue who tries to enlist his sympathy on the score that she is held to the life by evil influences. This girl is working in league with a desperate character, who :u----duces her to enter into a scheme to iob Stanton's company. Stanton's attenpt to reform Trixie displays a chivalrous and ingenuous good nature. He attempts a task at which wiser than ho have failed. " Three Fingered Louis " incensed by the interference, attacks Stanton, and in the fight draws. a knife. Stanton defends himself. With a blow of a chair he fells the gambler. iThe blow results in instant death. Iho "bouncer" of the bar-room surreptitiously slips the knife out of the lead man's hand. Stanton is put under arrest by the sheriff, who, by the way, is one of his best friends. While Stanton is waiting in the sheriffs's home to be taken to prison, haunted by , the thoughts of his eld mother at home, the daughter of the sheriff gives aim some water to drink. As ho leaves the house, she brings flowers to him. • For this kindly act, she •is ever after cherished in his memory a 3 " The Little Lady of the Flowors." * The daughter of the sheriff, Edith, •meets at this time the State, Attorney Harrington, afterwards chairman of the i J ardon Board. He is the same person who engineered the Mexican raid. This man pays marked attention to Editli. who, just out of a convent, knows not the wiles of the worldly. She becomes engaged to him. Stanton, in the meantimej is tried, convicted and sentenced to . life imprisonment. The young wireless inventor is confined in a prison,conducted on the old lines. Tt is a rJurgatory where tortured souls and bodies undergo the terrorism of a warden whose cruelty equals that of Nero. .This warden delights in flogging, starving and maltreating his prisoners. Many of them are driven insane. Finally, they decide to rebel. On messages which they write with their own blood, they set a day and hour when they shall 'rise up and overwhelm their keepers The.prisoners carry out their, plan f>uccessfully. Among those who, escape is Stanton. "

After a series of thrilling adventures, in one of which he leaps from a railroad bridge, plunging into a roaring torrent hundreds of feet helow, he finds his way at night to a schoolhouse. On the walls of the schoolhouse he sees a picture of, the Governor of Arizona. This picture suggests his writing a. letter of appeal to the Governor, in which he asks him "For. God's sake come and see for yourself th,? horrors of your State prison." Stanton 'eaves the schoolhouse, and. comes upon his old ffiend the sheriff. The latter, alter greeting the convict warmly, turns his back, affording the condemned man opportunity to make good his escape. Instead, the convict tells the sheriff that all he asks is to have his jetter delivered personally to the Governor. He then says: "I am going back to prison where the State sent me to spend my life." He walks back to the prison, and its doors open and receive him "For the Sake of Honor." As a " reward" for his honourable return, ho is seized and most brutally flogged; after which he is thrown into the deepest dungeon, infested with rats, vermin and even huge snalws. from this dungeon none has ever been Known to emerge alive. . Finally the Governor receives the letter and determines to investigate conditions personally. When tho Governor calls at the prison he asks for Stanton. The, warden produces the wrong prisoner—ia coloured man—but tho Governor sees that tliis man is not Stanton, as he has not the same number on his convict suit. He demands the right prisoner, and threatens to turn the place "inside out." Finding Stanton nearly blind from his confinement in the dungeon, and learning of the true character of the cruel warden, he discharges the latter and appoints the Sheriff in his place. Prison reforms are introduced by the new warden. The Honor System is established, and Stanton receives medical aid which helps to restore his sight. While blind and helpless he is waited upon by "The Little Lady of the Flower's," whose identity h e does not suspect. Edith, finding that' she no longer cares for Harrington, writes him a note and breaks off tho engagement. This infuriates the rejected lover, who surmises the real sitmation. As chairman of the Pardon Board, Harrington resolves never to free' the prisoner as long as he holds his official position. The Governor calls a meeting of the Legislature and introduces a Prison Reform Bill. In this he is openly opposed by Harrington. A debate for and against the Honor System is engaged in before the Legisla-

ture. The Governor finally, to clinch his argument, brings the nearly blind prisoner Stanton upon tho scene. Amid •onfusion and outcries of opposition, the Governor bares the back of the convict and shows th© imprint of the cruel floggings he received on his return to prison. Harrington accuses the Governor of resorting to a " cheap, theatrical trick," and is ejected from Hie legislative chamber amid the jeers of the audience, who contemptuously slmwer their programmes _ upon him. The Reform Bill is carried through with a rush. Prison reforms are introduced. The men. instead of being locked in unsanitary cc v s, are allowed reasonable freedom. Certain of them can even go outside the prison. Convicts in plain clothes are shown working in the fields and on roads, playing baseball,' and enjoying all the benefits of a modern prison, run on " the Honor System/'

Under' the new regime the convict Stanton, his sight regained, is allowed to work out his wireless invention. His invention complete, he now only, needs a wireless station wherein to try it out. Stanton's pardon has been asked for by his friends a number of times, but his rival on the Pardon Board is obdurate. At length a three-day leave of absence to visit a wireless station is pleaded for, even Edith herself appealing to her old lover for the favour to Stanton. " How do I know he will return?" (is Harrington's pertinent question. Here the Governor stakes his honour on the convict's return. "If he does not" snaps Harrington, "then no more Honor System/" The challenge is accepted, and the convict is allowed to leave. He departs with the blessing of " the Little Lady of the Flowers," and with firm resolve to keep his pledge. In the meantime the ohairman of the Pardon Board gets in communication with his old pal, the cruel ex-warden, and between them they concoct a plot to prevent Stanton from ever appearing again. It is agreed that if Stanton does not return, the old warden is to be reinstated and the Honor System cast to the four winds. Stanton, on his way to the wireless station, stops in a big city. He is watched at the hotel by emissaries of the ohairman of the Pardon Board and of the ex-war-den. They trail him to the wireless station, waiting the opportunity to snare him in their toils.

The wireless invention proves a great success. Japan is communicated with, and the inventor is ready to start home. Ho wires the warden that he will return on a certain train. One of the gang of crooks steals into his room at night and takes the piece of wireless instrument. Stanton discovers his loss in the morning and is frantic. At this moment a " still-pigeon" in the hotel shows him an advertisement in the paper for a piece of lost machinery. Stanton, thinking this might be Ms instrument, rushes out of the hotel. Directed by the "fake" advertisement, he finds himself in the dive where the ex-warden has his gang. Realising he is trapped, he attempts to fight his wayi out. but is easily overmastered, the ex-warden felling him with a piece of lead pipe. In the meantime an ex-convict, " Frenchy," an enemy of the warden, summons aid, and with the help of a rival gang makes a furious attack on the exward'en's dive. The convict " Frenchy" is endeavouring to satisfy a grudge against the cruel ex-warden. The police come upon the scene, but not before "Frenfny" has killed the exwarden with a well-placed shot. Recognition . takes place between " Frenchy" and .his friend. Stanton, who is shown a way out of the dive to freedom. •.'-."• " .

Delayed by the conspiracy and the loss of his wireless instrument, he misses his train. He jumps a goods train, intending to ride back to the prison, but is pursued and attacked by one of the ex-warden's gang,-who succeeds in throwing him off the train. Injured and exhausted, the convict, to keep his honour, starts to walk, the woary journey to the prison." At this juncture; a curious coincidence occurs: the piece of circumstantial evidenoe-r-the knife—which led to the conviction of the prisoner in the first instance, is found. Trixie, the girl of the underworld, has reformed, joined the Salvation Army and married "the bouncer" who originally spirited the knife away. In repentance they write a confession to the Governor and send him the knife, which piece of tell-tale evidence the Governor lays before the Pardon Board, demanding Stanton's exoneration. The crook who attacks Stanton on the freight train also "squeals," and involves Harrington, chairman of the Board of Pardons. He is captured and meets with welldeserved punishment. \ Meantime, the prisoner has made his desperate way across the desert, amid heart-breaking obstacles. He reaches the prison at dawn and drops exhausted on the steps. His. long walk, his injuries, struggles and disappointments prove too much for him. Stanton dies just as a pardon, signed by the Governor, is placed in his hand. "He died that others might live." "The Honor System" is saved!