A Jailhouse Editor's Final Chance
A young man, jailed for forgery, finds redemption through his artistry and an ultimatum from his father.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
W. H. Jordan, who forged a check and was sentenced by Judge Huston to 30 days in the county jail, will soon be dismissed from custody and will leave for Denver, Colorado, where he intends to make another start in life. His father has forwarded the necessary amount of money to take him there, and has warned him that this is his last chance to be a man. While in the jail, Jordan has been editing a little paper called the 'Yowl,' which shows that the man could be somebody if he wanted to. The illustrations indicate that Jordan is a cartoonist of no mean ability.
“His father has forwarded the necessary amount of money to take him there, and has warned him that this is his last chance to be a man.”
The intersection of incarceration, artistic expression, and the 'fresh start' narrative is a perennial human interest story. The mention of his jail-edited paper 'The Yowl' provides a rare window into prisoner-led media and internal culture of the early 20th century.
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