The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri PenitentiariesReynolds, John N. (John Newton)
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The Twin Hells: A Thrilling Narrative of Life in the Kansas and Missouri Penitentiaries
Reynolds, John N. (John Newton)
Prisons -- Kansas; Prisons -- Missouri
I, too, beheld the river of life and the sea of glass. Vast
multitudes of angels would pass in and out through the gates of the
city, singing, oh, such beautiful songs. Among the number I saw my dear
old mother, who died a few years ago of a broken heart because of my
wickedness. She looked toward me, and seemed to beckon me to her but I
could not move. There appeared to be a great weight upon me that held me
down. Now a gentle breeze wafted the fragrance of those lovely flowers
to me, and I could now, more plainly than ever, hear the sweet melody
of angel voices, and I said, oh, that I could be one of them. As I was
drinking from this cup of bliss it was suddenly dashed from my lips. I
was aroused from my slumbers. I was brought back from happy dreamland by
an inmate of my dark abode, who said to me that it was now time to enter
upon my future career. He bade me follow him. Retracing my steps I again
entered the dark passage way, and followed my guide for a time, when we
came to a door that opened in the side of the passage, and, going along
this, we finally found ourselves passing through another door, and lo!
I beheld the lake of fire. Just before me I could see, as far as the eye
could reach, that literal lake of fire and brimstone. Huge billows of
fire would roll over each other, and great waves of fiery flame would
dash against each other and leap high in the air like the waves of the
sea during a violent storm. On the crest of these waves I could see
human beings rise, but soon to be carried down again to the lowest depth
of this awful lake of fire. When borne on the crest, of these awful
billows for a time their curses against a just God would be appalling,
and their pitiful cries for water would be heartrending. This vast
region of fire echoed and re-echoed with the wails of these lost
spirits. Presently I turned my eyes to the door through which I had a
few moments before entered, and I read these awful words: 'This is thy
doom; Eternity never ends.' Shortly I began to feel the earth give way
beneath my feet, and I soon found myself sinking down into the lake of
fire. An indescribable thirst for water now seized upon me. And calling
for water, my eyes opened in the prison hospital.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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