rve all that occurs within the prison walls, outside the buildings.
At stated times the officers emerge from the towers and walk along on
top of the wall to see if anything unusual is taking place about the
prison. Loose stones are piled on top of portions of the wall that
surrounds the prison, to prevent the convicts from securing a fastening
for ladder hooks, should they attempt to escape. A portion of this wall
was erected fifty-four years ago, the prison having been established
in 1836. Could these towering stones speak, what scenes of misery and
wretchedness they might describe! O, ye rocks, that make up this barrier
between freedom and the worst form of human slavery, as you have been
occupying your silent position for the past half hundred years, had your
ears been unstopped, what countless groans of despair would you have
heard? Could your eyes have opened, when first you took your place
in that prison wall fifty years ago, how many indescribable scenes of
anguish would you have witnessed? A heavy iron door swings upon its
creaking hinges. Bolts fly back into their sockets. I step into a
revolving iron cage, which, manipulated by a guard, turns half way round
on its axis, and I emerge from this into the prison campus the space
surrounded by the walls. What wonderful scenes now are discovered! Many
of them, indeed, are heartrending.

I will describe what I saw and make mention of what I heard. There are
four large buildings of brick and stone; honeycombed with cells--the
homes of the prisoners. The cells, in ONE of these buildings, are large
and commodious, and contain four criminals. In dimension they are nine
feet wide and thirteen feet long. The remainder of the cells are small
and contain but one man in a cell. The large cells are objectionable,
for the reason that the men, being locked up together in such small
rooms, get to talking, and often quarrels and fights result. A number
of convicts have been almost murdered in these larger cells, where there
were more than one occupant. Again, if there be three in a cell who
desire to have the fourth one removed, they combine against him and
render his existence while in the cell unbearable. They abuse him
constantly. If he reports them to the officer the three stoutly deny
all accusations, often bringing upon the innocent one punishment which
should have been meted out to the three guilty ones.

It requires but little stretch of the imagination to enable one to se