FAME WON IN PRISON

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3270, 10 March 1931, Page 7

FAME WON IN PRISON

A convict who was recently released on parole from a State penitentiary in the United States found himself not only hailed as one of the leading composers of America, but as the fortunate possessor of a bank balance of £IB,OOO. .When a sentence of death passed upon Damascus Gallur was commuted to one of penal servitude for life he was sent to the San Quentin prison, where the authorities allowed him to exercise his bent for music (says a writer in the London Sunday Express). He organised a band, which was soon hailed as one of the finest in the United States. Then he sent compositions to music publishers, who banked for him the royalties that accrued.

There is a similar story of another American. He had given way to drink, and had received a stiff sentence for a crime which he committed while under the influence of liquor. In prison he was given permission to produce a magazine, and so high a standard was reached that, when a copy came into the hands of a leading editor, it was arranged that the young, man should be given a fresh start upon his release. The prisoner made several hundred dollars from articles which he wrote while he was completing his sentence. In England John Bunyan earned immortal fame with his " Pilgrim's Progress," which he wrote while he was serving a sentence in Bedford gaol.

But there is a still more remarkable story. When Sir James Murray was compiling the Oxford Dictionary some of the most valuable information was' sent by a Dr Minor, who wrote from a small village in Berkshire. So great was the assistance rendered by the doctor that Sir James Murray arranged to call on-him; and only then did he discover that his mysterious helper was an inmate of Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, whither he had been sent for a murder committed during a fit of insanity. In the preface of the Oxford Dictionary there is an acknowledgment to Dr W. C. Minor, of Crowthorne, Berkshire.