The Monroe Journal

We were on the train a few days
ago and saw a man with his hands
locked in handcuffs sitting by the
side of a sheriff of an eastern
county. The man was a poor, weak-
looking little fellow, looked like he
was half dead with consumption,
and we asked the sheriff if he was
being taken to the penitentiary. He
told us he was and that his sen-
tence was for fifteen years for a
brutal murder. As we came upon
view of the penitentiary, with its
gloomy walls, we will never forget
the look that came into the eyes of
the condemned man. It seemed as
if the fifteen long years that was
to be spent within the gloomy walls
passed before his vision with the
one glance; the home that he had
left behind was pictured in his mind.
and, as a man who faces death for
a moment is said to see, his entire
life laid bare before him in the
one moment of peril, so in this one
glance we believe that this man saw
all the horrible days that lay before
him perhaps upon his mind and saw
all the happy days of boyhood and
the scenes of home life spread out
before him. There was a look of hor-
ror and terror upon his face that
we shall never forget and if ever a
man went through the tortures of
hell, and paid the penalty for his
sin within one moment we believe
this man did it.
We thought truly is the way of
the transgressor hard. In this man
It is where it will be a case of a
life for a life, with years of suffer-
ing thrown in to make his bitter-
ness complete.