Many a time one can pick up a daily paper and see the headlines, "So
and So to be Liberated To-morrow," or, "Convict ... will return to the
world," or some such announcement. If a man who is at all notorious has
finished a term in prison, the article tells of the crime he committed
five, six or even ten years before; what he did; how he did it; why he
did it. Some account of his imprisonment--with an imaginary picture
of himself in his cell--may be added, with the stripes in evidence,
and even a chain and ball to make it more realistic. This heralds the
day of his discharge. What a welcome back after his weary paying of
the penalty through shame and loneliness, toil and disgrace, mingled
often with bitter tears of repentance during those best years lost from
his life forever! This raking up of the past reminds his friends and
acquaintances of the wretched story which had been nearly forgotten,
and tells it to many more who had not heard of it. Is this fair?
Perhaps it may be said that this is part of the penalty of doing wrong.
I answer that it should not be! In a civilized land our wrong-doers
must be punished by proper lawful means. The law does not require this
publicity after release. Why should the world ask it? Besides that,
could we not quote the recommendation given of old that only those who
are without sin have the right to cast stones, and, if that precept
were lived up to, very few would ever be cast at all, for the saint in
heart and life would be charitable.
It does not take many days of tramping in a fruitless search for
work, or many rebuffs and slights, to shake for the most sanguine man
the foundation of those castles he saw in the air before his term
expired. When money is gone, and there is no roof to cover the weary
head, no food to stop the gnawing of hunger, and no friend at hand to
sympathize, the whole airy structure topples to the ground amid the
dust and ashes of his fond hopes, and the poor man learns in bitterness
of heart an anger against society that makes him more dangerous and
desperate than he ever was before.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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