as I was the only short-hand writer about
the institution. Day after day I kept this up, until I had material
sufficient of this nature to fill a book of more than two thousand
pages. My readers should also know, that a convict will tell a
fellow-prisoner the details of his crime, when he would not think of
saying a word about it to others. As a rule they deny their crimes to
those who are not, like themselves, criminals, pleading innocence. It is
not difficult for a prisoner to get the confidence of a fellow-prisoner.
In fact, criminals love to unburden their minds to those who possess
their confidence. The truth is, convicts have related their crimes
so often to me that it became tiresome. They say it relieves them
to communicate their troubles. Pinkerton, of Chicago, the prince of
detectives stated at one time that a criminal could not keep his secret.
It is true. I know it to be a fact. It has been demonstrated a hundred
times in my association with these convicts in the Kansas penitentiary.
Securing their confidence, these men have not only told me of the crimes
for which they have been sent to prison, but also of crimes that they
have committed, and, in the commission of which, they had not been
detected, which, if I should make them known, would cause a number of
them to remain in the penitentiary the rest of their lives. I am not in
the detective business, and will therefore keep what was confided to
me. I have met but few criminals in the mines that would not admit their
guilt. I have thought in many cases, convicts received sentences too
severe, and not at all commensurate with the crime committed. I have met
a few men, however, who would stubbornly deny their guilt and stoutly
affirm their innocence. I have worked upon these men day after day, and
never got anything out of them but that they were innocent. At times,
in tears, they would talk of their sufferings, and wonder if there was a
just God silently permitting the innocent to suffer for the guilty. I
am satisfied these men are innocent, and they have my sympathy. They are
exceptions. Others, while admitting their guilt on general principles,
and assenting to the justice of imprisonment, yet maintain that they
were innocent of the particular crime for which they stand convicted.
I trust the reader will not get his sympathies wrought too high, as
comparatively few angels find their way into modern prisons. I will give
you a few illustrations. These are just