It was reported that, at a recent Suffrage Convention in Albany, Doctor Walker claimed that New Jersey’s early constitution included Women’s Suffrage,—that this part of the constitution was never finally repealed, though abrogated in some way, and that therefore New Jersey is a Suffrage State.
CHAPTER XXIX
OLD CAPITOL PRISON, WASHINGTON D. C., 1865
Among the unusual cases that often fell to me, was that of an elderly man, who had at one time been a judge in New Jersey, but drink had been his undoing. He was now serving a Civil Service sentence for petty larceny in Old Capitol Prison. I saw at once that he was a “bummer,” but that he had been a gentleman while sober. I did not feel much interest in this man personally, but he showed me a letter from his son, evidently educated, in which he begged his father to come home, saying he would take care of him and they might live together and be happy. The man had been a soldier for a short time, but had been degraded and discharged, and was now a prisoner of Civil Law. It was a difficult case, but for the sake of his faithful son I undertook it. I went to Judge Carter, of that district, urging him to let the man go.
“It is of no use, Miss Smith. The old fellow is a scamp and not to be trusted for a moment,” was the reply. “He will steal anything, and if I should let him go to-day he would be back here to-morrow on another charge. He was arrested on the charge of stealing a wheel-barrow.”
“Why, Judge,” I said, laughing, “he did not know what he was doing. He might as well have stolen a grindstone!”
This seemed greatly to amuse the judge, and he said directly: “Well, that settles it; if you will see that he goes out of the city on the train to his son, he may go. If he gets free he will be back here in a week on another charge.”
Quite pleased with my success, I went to the Sanitary Commission, still in Washington, secured a ticket to his home, and wrote to his son to meet him; then I notified the old man to be ready at a certain hour the next day when I would call for him.
When I went to the prison for him he began a round of deliberate lying, and tried every subterfuge to evade me and get away, so that he might remain in Washington. Finally I said: “You will go with me to the train where I will put you in charge of the conductor, who will deliver you to your son, and if you will not agree to this you may remain where you are.”
At last we started on our way down Pennsylvania Avenue. He insisted that the Government owed him money, so I took him to General Brice’s office, where his clerks soon found a record of desertion, fraud, and bounty-jumping. I lost no time in getting him to the train, threatening to have him arrested if he attempted to give me the slip. The conductor took him in charge and promised to deliver him to his son, and I was glad to get the old sinner off my hands. A few days after, I received a grateful letter from the faithful son.