Within Prison Walls / being a narrative during a week of voluntary confinement in the state prison at Auburn, New York

BEING A NARRATIVE OF PERSONAL EXPERIENCE DURING A WEEK OF VOLUNTARY CONFINEMENT IN THE STATE PRISON AT AUBURN, NEW YORK
NEW YORK AND LONDON D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 1928
Copyright, 1914, by D. APPLETON AND COMPANY Printed in the United States of America
THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS DEDICATED TO OUR BROTHERS IN GRAY AND ESPECIALLY TO THOSE WHO, DURING MY SHORT STAY AMONG THEM IN AUBURN PRISON, WON MY LASTING GRATITUDE AND AFFECTION BY THEIR COURTESY, SYMPATHY, AND UNDERSTANDING

Many years back, in my early boyhood, I was taken through Auburn Prison. It has always been the main object of interest in our town, and I was a small sized unit in a party of sightseers. No incident of childhood made a more vivid impression upon me. The dark, scowling faces bent over their tasks; the hideous striped clothing, which carried with it an unexplainable sense of shame; the ugly close cropped heads and shaven faces; the horrible sinuous lines of outcast humanity crawling along in the dreadful lockstep; the whole thing aroused such terror in my imagination that I never recovered from the painful impression. All the nightmares and evil dreams of my childhood centered about the figure of an escaped convict. He chased me along dark streets, where I was unable to run fast or cry aloud; he peeked through windows at me as I lay in bed, even after the shades had been pinned close to escape his evil eye; as I ascended a flight of stairs in dreamland and looked back, he would come creeping through an open door, holding a long knife in his hand, while my mother all unconscious of danger sat reading under the shaded library lamp; he was a visitor frequent enough to make night hideous for a time, and it was many long years before he took a departure which I trust is final.
After this early experience I carefully avoided the Prison. Its gray stone walls frowned from across the street every time I departed or arrived on a New York Central train, but I made no effort to go again inside. In fact I persistently refused to join my friends whenever they made a visit there; once had been quite enough.