BOTTOMLEY IN GOAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18577, 8 December 1923, Page 7 (Supplement)

BOTTOMLEY IN GOAL.

?: EXPERIENCES DESCRIBED.

BITTER REFLECTIONS.

OPTIMISM SUPERVENES. Tliis first instalment of a remarkable account by" Horatio Bottomley of his life in goal lias boon published in London. Below aro printed extracts from the story : — On Sunday afternoon, May 28, 1922, I est in the grounds at my country home, the glorious 'South Downs a few miles distant radiating their atmosphere of everlasting sleep— typical Sussex scenery all around. I was awaiting with absolute confidence the issue cf the ordeal. Thus, in confident, mood, I went back to town in '-he evening, and at 10.50 the next morning was at the Old Bailey for the final act. T At 4 o'clock in the afternoon I was being escorted by two warders m a cab to Wormwood Scrubs Prison, sentenced to seven Years penal servitude! By 5 o'clock 1 had been stripped and, weighed and put into convict, garb, my witch and chain, money, pocket-book ami papers Wing carefully listed and placed with my own clothes in the custody ut the prison authorities. \t length the doctor came. 1 suppose the resvi of that half-hour's meditation, and the terrible shock J had received, wore manifesting themselves in some way familiar to his experienced eye, for he at once ordered me into the hospital with instructions to remain in bed till I had seen him on the next- day, and before six o clock 1 was duly tucked up. This "apartment" measured 10ft. by Bft.. was fairly lofty, and was lighted bv a high and heavily-barred window, lis furniture consisted of a bed, a wooden chair, a washstand, and a small j table.

Suddenly Hurled oS Life's Wheel. There, on that lovely spring evening, 1 lav in a prison cell. Was this, then, the' End? Frees, Parliament, Power, Home, and all I loved torn from me, stripped of a sudden of everything I had struggled for ! _ n And how I had. struggled! During 50 strenuous years, always fighting, fight* ing, fighting—usually alone and singlehanded" and at- times against almost overwhelming odds ! And the bitterness of it was that my work was only really ■just beginning. Suddenly I had been hurled right off the wheel of life — into space and landed in goal! But there was no need for an "observation coll. * * Was not my mother, God rest her soul— lam sure she knows all that has happened—was not she a Holvoake, and did not her Druid blood, t.he oldest in the land, course through my veins? Had not she given name borne by Nelson of the Nile Kitchener of Khartoum, and the old warrior of ancient Rome ? Had not I rather appropriated to myself the character of John Bull of the Bulldog Breed _ Was not Charles Bradlaugh, bonniest of fighters, the mentor of ray youth Come, come. If, indeed, as it seemed, the world had of a sudden turned against me, well it should ba Bottomley contra mundum! (against the world.) Hie next pair of eves that looked through the ceil window should seft a smile on my face, and when the doctor called he would find me ready for the fray. Hopelessly Left at the Pest. The Wednesday "was Derby Day, and again I was condemned to remain in bed. Derby Day Yes, I could hear the passing coaches on the main road, not far ..way. All roads lead to Epsom, and. as my mind wandered to the great carnival, i reflected once mo a how, in the Derby of life, I had been hoplelessly left at the post. "Hopelessly," did I say? j*ura spiro, spero ! On Thursday I was up, and bv the week-end was out at exercise with the other hospital patients. My appearance caused :■ mild sensation among both them and such of the general prisoners who saw me, including the once world-famous ! . Mr. HooW, an et-sherriE's son, .a late Parliamentary candidate, a solicitor I (knew, and a racing acquaintance of good family, who was seated on his haunches cutting the lawn grass. "Still on the turf," I whispered.as I passed. Here were priests and parsons, barristers and solicitors, colonels, majors, and - aptains, naval officers, doctors, schoolmasters, professors, accountants, surveyors, bankers, financiers, builders, aye! 'and even editors and journalists ! " Let me add that there have been times when I really doubted that I should ever see the outer world again. Bat an infinite faith in my destiny, a stern resolve and an inflexible optimism, kept me up— and will, I trust, do so till at last the day of liberty arrives. Eats as a Special Treat. And then when the prison gates open I shall repeat a portion of. " Nunc Dimittis," which I have bo often listened to in chapel: — "Lord now lettesfc Thou Thy _ servant depart in peace ... for mine eyes have seen." One characteristic of prisoners with which I was impressed was their intense love of anything in the shape of animal life. But, of course, their choice of pets was restricted —being, in fact, practically confined to birds, cats and mice, with very occasionally, by way of a special treat, a rat thrown in ! Bat mice were the prisoners' special favourites. They found their way into the cells from under the hot-water pipes, attracted by the smell of food, and what pals thev became with the men, who would tame them into regular companion l —teaching -them every conceivable kind of trick.