| PAGE. | |
| In Prison. | [9] |
| Make the Best of It. | [12] |
| Punishment. | [14] |
| Capital Punishment. | [22] |
| Life Imprisonment. | [26] |
| The Dungeon. | [28] |
| Cat-o’-nine-tails. | [33] |
| Buck and Gagged. | [34] |
| Lock-step March. | [34] |
| Literary Privileges. | [37] |
| Tobacco Allowance. | [46] |
| The Prisoner’s Work. | [47] |
| The Stockades. | [48] |
| The Chain Gang. | [49] |
| The Felon’s Cell. | [53] |
| The Library. | [56] |
| The Chapel. | [58] |
| Scaling the Prison Walls. | [60] |
| A Prison Reform. | [64] |
| History of West Virginia Penitentiary. | [73] |
| (As Written by a Prisoner.) | |
| Letters from Prison Officials. | [107] |
| Testimonies of Convicts. | [121] |
| Released from Prison. | [141] |
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
| PAGE. | |
| The Black List. | [19] |
| Cat-o’-nine-tails. | [31] |
| Lock-step March. | [35] |
| The Chain Gang. | [51] |
| Scaling the Prison Walls. | [61] |
| Tracked by Bloodhounds—Captured. | [69] |
| Penitentiary of the State of West Virginia. | [105] |
| The Younger Brothers. | [145] |
BEHIND THE PRISON-BARS.
IN PRISON.
Our country is called the land of the free, but could we at one glance behold the thousands and tens of thousands now behind the prison-bars and know their irksome lives, there would be an awakening in hearts that have never known the bondage that exists in our midst.
A crime is perpetrated. Some one is arraigned before the court to answer the charges as to whether he is guilty or not. The jury renders a verdict, “Guilty.” The judge pronounces the sentence a term in prison. The poor unfortunate is now considered a convict. Shackles are brought to make him secure, in order to prevent his escape. An officer accompanies him to his prison house, where he is to be in servitude according to the length of his term of sentence. No one but the prisoner realizes the awful feelings as the prison door shuts behind him with a clang, and he hears the click of the lock fastening him in an iron cell. Whether innocent or guilty, he feels the awful disgrace upon himself and his friends. It would not seem so bad if only the guilty were brought to justice in this way, but ofttimes the facts reveal that not only hundreds, but thousands, of innocent persons are thus sentenced and brought into disgrace, many of them serving a life sentence.