A TALE FOR TEARS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3195, 9 June 1915, Page 73

A TALE FOR TEARS.

Here is the story of an extraordinary man—quite a genius in his way—who was, as he said, sentenced to imprisonment “for life and 10 years,” and yet when he died the other day as a freeman he had won the affection and respect of the w r arden of his gaol and of his fellow prisoners. His life is a tremendous object-lesson in the way to treat men and in how not to treat them. —His Wonderful Pistol.— “John Murphy, known as ‘Canada Blackie,’ vras sentenced to life imprison' ment at Schoharie, New York, in 1903 t having participated in a raid upon a coum try bank, in which the watchman wa( killed, says the Outlook. “Two othei members of the gang were executed. Nina years later Blackie made a desperate attempt to escape from the prison at Dannmora in the same State, seriously wounding a keeper with a pistol made” out of a section of gaspipe and charged with powder accumulated from match-ends. An additional sentence of 10 years was imposed on himj hence ‘for life and 10 years.’ —A Prisoner’s Resources. — “He was a man of extraordinary ability ingenuity, and courage, feared by all hi»

keepers on account of his skill and his desperate character. For 20 months he mas lodged in a dark ceil in Sing Sing Prison, New York, keeping his reason very much as Silvio Pellico kept his, by r ingenious little devices —recalling all the verses he had ever known and laboriously reconstructing the lines, taking his buttons fiom his clothes and scattering them in the darkness about his cell in order that lie might find them again, counting and recounting the little holes in the boilerplate of the door. He was finally removed to Auburn, where for several years he was kept continuously in solitary confinement. “When Mr Osborne first came upon him in Auburn Prison, it was considered perilous for the keeper to enter his ceil. Mr Osborne mitigated the' conditions of his punishment. He was allowed to join the other convicts in the prison yard on Saturday afternoon ; he became a member of the Mutual Welfare League. -—Made His Own Key.—“One day, after he had gained Blackie’s confidence, Mr Osborne was in his cell, and Blackie presented him with a key made by- himself which would have opened the door of his cell at any time, a knife of a very terrible character which he had fa hionecl out of pieces of metal, a tin box of powder, and some guncotton, all of which had been secreted in his cell. He also asked Mr Osborne to say to tire warden that he no longer needed special watching, that he would play fair with the rules of the prison. “Last December Blackie was brought to Sing Sing in order that Mr 0 - borne might have him under his eye and give him the best possible conditions. He was put in the warden’s quarters under the care of a nurse, and he became the trusted counsellor of Mr Osborne in all matters relating to intercourse with the prisoners. No important step vva.s taken by 7 the Golden ’Rule Brotherhood without consultation with Blackie. —Pardoned ! “On February 7 16 Governor Whitman pardoned him. He died in full possession of his faculties, with the ministrations of an unselfish woman who had learned his story 7 , and in the intimate counsels of the warden of the prison. He felt no bitterness towards any person, but regarded himself as a victim of a system. He died nearly blind and the victim of tuberculosis, fastened upon him by 7 the conditions of the prisons in which he had passed so many years. When, not many 7 days ago, the latest execution took place at Sing Sing at an early hour in the morning, and all the inmates were nervously awaiting the dimming of the electric lights which indicated that the current had been diverted, Blackie raised his voice and prayed for the soul, of the executed man. “Ho had more than once said, to Mr Osborne that if h f e had been treated differently at the start his career would have been very different. Our barbarous prison system blighted what would have been a brilliant career, and made of an able man a law-breaker.” Mr Osborne is the new warden of Sing Sing, and is making noble experiments in the better treatment of the prisoners.