american tragedy

Chapter 152 (1)
Chapter 330 (1)
Clyde will just suffer from it.Besides, only his mother visits him once a week.She couldn't see him much at the beginning of her work, and in the next two months, she went back and forth between Albany and Buffalo, and even rushed to New York City, but what she hoped at first did not succeed.Because, about her appeal to the church and the public, she was exhausted. (People don't know, only Clyde does.)

After three weeks of purely denomination efforts, she could only admit that at least the Christian denominations were not at all concerned, not at all Christian, especially the pastors in this area.Since they are so careful to represent the opinions of their congregants in everything here, they all think: This is a sensational and notorious trial, the result is settled, and Conservative people across the country believe that the case should be decided in this way, at least from the remarks in the newspapers.

Besides, what kind of person is this woman, and her son? A preacher, a clandestine preacher, who defies formal religious authorities and religious forms (theological seminaries, organized churches, and is the immediate institution--a careful and deliberate interpretation of the word of God, and, because, historical, and therefore legal, dogmatic interpretation) all the doctrines and methods prescribed by it, administering a future Approved inexplicable church.Besides, if she had stayed at home like a loving mother and devoted herself to taking care of her children, raising them, and educating them, would such a thing happen?

Not only that, according to Clyde's own testimony during the interrogation, didn't he commit the crime of raping this girl? And no matter whether he killed her or not, in the eyes of many people, this crime is the same as murder.Didn't he confess this himself? Appeal for a man convicted of adultery, even if he wasn't a murderer, (who can say for sure?) in church What? No church can be a place to debate the merits of this case.Moreover, there is even a fee, which is not possible.It did not matter how much every congregation in every church sympathized with Mrs. Griffiths personally, or resented her son's possible unjust sentence.No, no, it's not morally appropriate.In this way, perhaps even some plot of the crime will be instilled in the minds of young people.

Besides, because of the newspaper reports of her coming East to rescue her son, and her modest attire, most of the clergymen thought she was an oddity, not a member of any sect or disciplined theological system.In her appearance she showed contempt for other pure religions.

Therefore, it’s not that I’m hard-hearted that she gets the same result every time she asks. However, after thinking about it again, I still decide that it’s not possible. There must be some other good way, which is not too troublesome for Christians. , like a public place, for example; Christians can still go to hear the proper appeal if it is made through the newspaper.Thus Mrs. Griffiths was rejected everywhere, told to ask everywhere, with one exception—as for the Catholics, because of her prejudices, and because she had not even thought of them.She knew very well that the mercy of Christ, as explained by those who held the holy key of St. Peter, had no share in those who did not recognize the priesthood of Christ.

Therefore, she knocked on doors and bumped into walls everywhere every day.At last, out of frustration, I had to make a plea to a Jew.This man presides over the biggest movie theater in Utiga, a criminal movie theater, and she has his permission to use it for free to give a lecture on the merits of her son's case, entitled "A Mother for Her Son." "Appeal", the tickets cost [-] cents per person, resulting in a net income of [-] U.S. dollars.Although this amount was not large, it encouraged her greatly from the very beginning.She was convinced that it would not be long before, whatever the attitude of the orthodox Christians, she would be able to raise the cost of Clyde's appeal.It might take some time, but she always manages to pull it off.

However, she soon discovered that there were other factors that had to be considered.Car fare, her own expenses in Utiga and elsewhere, not to mention having to send some money to her husband in Denver.Her husband was now so poor that he could not live, and from such a tragedy in the family that he was always ill, so ill indeed, that the letters from Frank and Julia were always dreadful.Maybe he won't get better at all.There must be some relief over there.

Mrs. Griffiths was therefore obliged to set aside a portion of the only money now received, in addition to her own expenses.This is terrible, considering the urgency of Clyde's situation, but even so, in order to win the final victory, must she not have to do everything possible to support it? She must not sacrifice her life just to save Clyde alone. The husband also abandoned it.

However, even so, as time went by, the audience became less and less. In the end, there were only a dozen people, which was not enough for her own expenses. But in this way, after all her expenses were removed, she still accumulated eleven hundred dollars.

But at this moment, when she was very anxious, Frank and Julia sent a telegram saying that if she still wanted to see Riaza, she had better come home at once.He is very weak and I am afraid he will die.Thus several urgencies fell upon her alone, and besides that the only thing she could do with Clyde was to visit him once a week or two, and there was nothing else she could do. can do this.She therefore hastily consulted with Belknap and Jefferson, and related her present distress to them.

Now that she had collected eleven hundred dollars, and was going to give them all, they were merciful and persuaded her to go back to her husband.Clyde of course has no problem for the time being.There can also be a full year, at least ten months, before the records and briefs of the case need to be transcribed.Moreover, another year must necessarily elapse before a decision is made.And, there is no doubt that before this time, the rest of the appeal fee will also be raised.Otherwise, even if it couldn't be done, well, well, anyway (since she was exhausted and restless) she didn't have to worry.Messrs. Belknap and Jefferson must try to secure her son's interest, and everything else that must be done, to secure a fair trial for her son in due time.

In this way, a stone fell from her heart.She dropped the burden of that stone.In the end, I went to visit Clyde twice and comforted him by saying that she was determined to try her best to get back as soon as Asa regained her strength, and she had a way to pay for the cost of coming back.And so she set off.But as soon as she arrived in Denver, she discovered that restoring his strength would be far from easy.

At this time, leaving Clyde alone, he was always in deep thought and had no choice but to struggle and wait in this world.At least this world is at best a morbid psychological hell, and on the gate of this hell, it can be said to write Dante's words-"You who come here-please keep your hope outside the door. "

The eerie atmosphere! The relentless, heart-wrecking force! The inexplicable terror and depression of the prisoners—and often haunting.It doesn't matter whether they are brave or afraid, whether they brag about being bold, or whether they really don't care (there are such people), they all have to meditate here and wait here.At this time, because of the cruelty and misery of this kind of prison life, Clyde was psychologically—if not physically—in constant contact with twenty or so prisoners of different temperaments and nationalities; Similarly, each one is driven by some kind of fanaticism, greed and disaster, and their actions are either of the same nature as him, or similar to him in the environment.And the final result, which can be said to be the same as his, is murder, as a total psychological and physical explosion.Later, he was abandoned again.So, just like himself, he played a psychological and legal struggle and failure, and tasted the taste of terror and physical and mental difficulties.Now it's like being imprisoned in the middle of 22 iron cages - like being on an island - being imprisoned inside and waiting, but when are you waiting! What are you waiting for?

They are very clear.He is also very clear.Sometimes they shouted openly, yelled in despair, or prayed.Other times it's swearing, dirty things, crude jokes, or telling stories to everyone in the room, or laughing obscenely, or in the middle of the night, just when the nervous mind is struggling to enter the realm , when the body and spirit were supposed to be resting, they sighed and groaned.

There is a playground at the end of the long corridor.Every day from [-]:[-] am to [-]:[-] pm, the prisoners were escorted to the playground in groups of five or six.Exercise twice a day, for a few minutes each time, take a deep breath, take a walk, do calisthenics, or run, jump, all as you please.However, in case of any resistance, there is always a considerable number of police officers watching from the sidelines.From the second day after arriving here, Clyde was also escorted to the playground, sometimes with these people, sometimes with other people.At first he was very determined that he would never want to participate in this kind of group activities.But others, although they say the end is imminent, seem to enjoy such exercise.

There were two dark-eyed Italians with sinister features; one killed the girl because she refused to marry him; Attempt to burn the body to wipe out the traces! There is also the big old man Laleigh Donnelhui, with broad shoulders and big hands and feet. He was a soldier who served overseas. He used to work as a night watchman in a factory in Bullock. The foreman who fired him.Then one night, he finally went to some public wasteland and killed the foreman.But accidentally dropped a service medal on the ground, and was finally tracked down.Clyde was indifferent to all this, and his attitude was ambiguous, but it seemed polite. They guarded these cells in shifts day and night, two shifts at a time, and one shift every hour.And the police officer in Rochester, who had killed his wife because she was so determined to abandon him, and now he himself had to die.And Thomas Moller, a young "farmer," was really just a farmhand.Clyde had heard him yelling and moaning the first day he had been here.He killed his employer with a pitchfork, and he paid for it, so far as Clyde had heard.The man was always walking up and down, leaning against the wall, with his head bowed and his hands behind his back, a rough, strong country bumpkin of thirty or so.His expression was not so much capable of harming or killing people, as if he had been beaten up and bullied by others.Clyde doubted his affairs very much, whether he was really guilty or not.

Then there was Maitreya Nicholson, a lawyer from Buffalo, maybe forty or so, tall and slender, with a distinct air of superiority, a cultivated intellectual type.At first glance you would have said he wasn't a murderer, like Clyde, but he was convicted of poisoning a rich old man and then trying to appropriate his property.From Clyde's point of view, he was really a gentle and well-mannered man.On the first morning after Clyde's arrival, as soon as Nicholson saw him, he went up to him and said, "Aren't you scared?"I felt him standing there pale, cold all over, so frightened that he could hardly move, he couldn't even think.But Clyde was in that mood, and, as he himself was really doomed, replied, "Yes, yes, fear, I suppose." But as soon as the words were out of his mouth, he thought, Why would he say that, such a weak confession is not here.There was something about Nicholson that encouraged him, and he wished he hadn't just said so.

(End of this chapter)