very hot
tempers, all of them, indeed, who committed their crimes under the
influence of anger; others I sympathized with a good deal, inasmuch as
they had been sorely tempted, and seemed penitent and honest.

One of them had brought up a family of honest working men. After the
death of their mother, he married and lived with another woman, who was
addicted to intemperance, and he was so annoyed at her conduct and by
her tongue, that his passion obtained the mastery over him, and in a
moment of frenzy he killed her. This prisoner had had his arm broken at
Portland, which prevented his being sent abroad, whence he would have
been liberated by this time.

Another case was that of a comparatively young man, who shot his
sweetheart because she had chosen another man just as the prisoner was
looking forward to his marriage with her. He tried to shoot himself at
the same time, but the shot passed through the jaw and cheek bones,
leaving him in a sadly disfigured condition to meet his doom of penal
servitude for life.

I met several cases where murder was committed through jealousy. One
man murdered his wife for flirting or cohabiting with another man. A
second murdered the paramour and spared his wife, and so on. In the
majority of these cases, the prisoners were very unlikely to commit a
second offence.

There was one very peculiar case which I will here mention. The
prisoner was the worst cripple perhaps in the prison, and the quietest
man in it. He rarely spoke to anyone unless he was first spoken to, and
his answers were very brief. This man committed a deliberate murder;
although he had only one arm and but one good leg. He lay in wait for
his victim, and his motive for perpetrating the deed was not money but
revenge. The person he killed had injured or defrauded his father
before he died, and being unable to obtain justice he took revenge, and
is now paying the full penalty. He sits in the workroom along with the
others, but being paralyzed he is not compelled to work at anything.

Another peculiar case was that of a man who had starved his mother to
death, in order to obtain possession of her money. He was a miser, and
was often taunted for his crime by the thief fraternity. He was the
filthiest neighbour I ever had. Most of the prisoners are cleanly in
their habits, but this one was the reverse. He would have his food
stored away beside him, rather than give it to a fellow prisoner. He
was not a great eater, and