Nor is prison a mere matter of clothes, they cannot make a
convict any more than they can make a gentleman. I realize perfectly that
my point of view cannot be yours; but neither when I go to Paris is my
point of view that of a Frenchman. Just as an American may perhaps
understand some things about Paris which are not so clear to the average
Frenchman, so perhaps a short residence among you here may enable me to
judge some things about the Prison System more accurately than those who
live too close to the problem to see it in its true perspective.

A word to the officials. My plan will not altogether succeed unless I am
treated exactly like these other men. I ask you, therefore, to aid me by
making no discrimination in my favor. Relax your regular discipline not a
jot because I am here. Give me the same guidance as these others--but no
more. If I offend against the rules, deal out to me the same punishment--I
shall expect it.

Here again I do not deceive myself; I realize perfectly that I shall not
see the Prison System in quite its normal running order. Things can
hardly, with the best intentions, keep going exactly the same while I am
here. Long ago when I was a very young school commissioner I found out
that neither teachers nor scholars can behave quite naturally when a
member of the school board is present. But let me assure you that I come
not on any errand of official investigation. I come in no sense as a spy
upon officers or inmates; I come not to discover anything; I come solely
to test, so far as I can, the effect of the system upon the mind of the
prisoner. I shall study myself, rather than you; or rather, I shall study
you through myself.

Perhaps many of you will think, as many outside the walls will think, that
at best this action is quixotic--another "fool's errand, by one of the
fools." I shall not argue the matter further. I believe that I fully
realize the shortcomings which will attend the experience, yet still I
shall undertake it. For somehow, deep down, I have the feeling that after
I have really lived among you, marched in your lines, shared your food,
gone to the same cells at night, and in the morning looked out at the
pieces of God's sunlight through the same iron bars--that then, and not
until then, can I feel the knowledge which will break down the barriers
between my soul and the souls of my brothers.

A final word to you all. When I come among you do your best to forget who
I am. Think