• Author: Unknown
• Editor:
• Newspaper: The Umpire volume V
• Page Number:
• Date: 6 26 1918
• Tags:
• advice
• pardon

PARDONED

It has long been a favorite dream of ours: that of waking some sunny morning, and finding a pardon in the left-hand pocket of our pajamas; and we have spent many hours in front of the mirror practising the smile we would wear all that day; but until thatdream materializes, if ever, we are driven to seek a vicarious pleasure in the contemplation of the happiness of others, who. are after the manner aforesaid restored to home, and friends and freedom.

There is no more popular—or less widely used, with the possible exception of that route that lies through the 7th Block corner— method of leaving here than this. It is so satisfyingly final; so all-embracing, you have everything restored to you but the few little trinkets of your trade the ‘‘cops’’ have kept as souvenirs of the occasion; and you go forth without a single string attached, feeling yourself at perfect liberty to push through the first setof swinging-doors that assail your vision, without any necessity for any furtive backward look to see if Rube, or R. L. M. is anywhere in the vicinity.

But do you, Mr. Pardoned Man, realize your true status, and the full measure of the responsibility that is yours? Society, thru it’s aceredited heads, has washed your slate clean; has given you back both freedom, and citizenship; and yours is the task of proving to all men by your works, that such has been no mistaken action, but a tardy justice, or a deserved reward. You owe it to the community that has received you back in fullest fellowship, and promises not to lock the back-door whenever you are seen approaching; you owe it to your fellows who may later wish to appeal for just such justice, or clemency as you have had, and whose destinies your success, or failure; may influence: for the world is so prone to lump us together, and judge all by the success, or failure of one. And one who comes after you, and is just as worthy of the chance that is yours, may find this avenue to freedom shut, and barred, because of your having momentarily laid aside your load of responsibility, and taken on a load of cheap booze, until the reserves need to be called out to help you get rid of it. You owe it to the friends, and loved ones who have believed in you, and fought for you, perhaps thru long and weary years, believing in you when all others denied, and who have hailed with such sincere rejoicing your restoration to their bosom; and lastly, you owe it to yourself; to that better self which persists thru all defeats, and stumblings, to try with the best that is in you to prove that the confidence that society has placed in you has been no sentimental error in judgment, but the true measure of a man. Be as Caesar’s wife, above even suspicion, and keep the faith with yourself, and your friends, and your fellows; and should unmerited disaster come, and discouragements press upon you, and you seem to have lost the battle, don’t throw a brick thru the nearest window, and tell the admonitory ‘‘cop" it is just your humorous way of asking for a ticket to the E. S. P., but rather fight on, for when one battle is lost, you can generally count on winning the next.