came to his office. "Don't you think that you
have worn this thing long enough, my boy?" said the deputy
warden. "Yes," was the negro's laconic reply. "Well,
I will take it off right now, and here is a pass to the clothing
department. You go over and pull off these stripes and get a new
suit. Get to look like a man, and act like one." This shows
the kindness of Mr. David. Nearly every prisoner would have appreciated
a favor of that kind immediately; but did Prince? No, he became
more and more sulky, and there was murder in his heart. He wanted
to get even with the world-with someone, be did not know with whom,
but he did know that he must kill somebody. His next move was to
start a mutiny in the shop. He suggested that some of the other
prisoners take sledge hammers and go from place to place in the
shop and break up the machinery, "And while you are doing
that I will go upon the. guard stand and I will not only kill the
but will cut his head plumb
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off." The other boys refused to join him. He had
however, one friend, the prison chaplain, Mr. Johnson. The two would
visit every Sunday afternoon, and I presume they talked religion.
However all this religion seemed to work the wrong way, for instead
of repenting, Prince became more and more bloodthirsty. He must commit
a murder. He put in his spare time in the shop making a piece of
steel into a double edged knife, and he made it as sharp as a razor.
He carved a wooden handle and fastened the blade onto it with broom
wire: It was now a regular stiletto and a weapon well fit to use
for assassination.
On the following Sunday Warden Smith visited Lancaster and attended
church. Prince afterwards stated that he was sorry that he did not
have the knife with him, and "I would have put Tom Smith on
the bum." So the next day he brought the stiletto to his cell
and concealed it there. He decided that the deputy warden was to
be the next victim.
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