and some allied politicians made a good thing out of this
prison industry. It was really not hard labor--the tasks set were simple
and not oppressive, but all of the products were promptly sold, and
the profits pocketed. It was good, therefore, to see all the prisoners
working, and it did them good. Cowperwood was glad of the chance to
do something, for he really did not care so much for books, and his
connection with Wingate and his old affairs were not sufficient to
employ his mind in a satisfactory way. At the same time, he could not
help thinking, if he seemed strange to himself, now, how much stranger
he would seem then, behind these narrow bars working at so commonplace a
task as caning chairs. Nevertheless, he now thanked Desmas for this,
as well as for the sheets and the toilet articles which had just been
brought in.

"That's all right," replied the latter, pleasantly and softly, by now
much intrigued by Cowperwood. "I know that there are men and men here,
the same as anywhere. If a man knows how to use these things and wants
to be clean, I wouldn't be one to put anything in his way."

The new overseer with whom Cowperwood had to deal was a very different
person from Elias Chapin. His name was Walter Bonhag, and he was not
more than thirty-seven years of age--a big, flabby sort of person with a
crafty mind, whose principal object in life was to see that this prison
situation as he found it should furnish him a better income than his
normal salary provided. A close study of Bonhag would have seemed to
indicate that he was a stool-pigeon of Desmas, but this was really not
true except in a limited way. Because Bonhag was shrewd and
sycophantic, quick to see a point in his or anybody else's favor, Desmas
instinctively realized that he was the kind of man who could be trusted
to be lenient on order or suggestion. That is, if Desmas had the least
interest in a prisoner he need scarcely say so much to Bonhag; he might
merely suggest that this man was used to a different kind of life, or
that, because of some past experience, it might go hard with him if he
were handled roughly; and Bonhag would strain himself to be pleasant.
The trouble was that to a shrewd man of any refinement his attentions
were objectionable, being obviously offered for a purpose, and to a poor
or ignorant man they were brutal and contemptuous. He had built up an
extra income for himself inside the prison by selling the prisoners
extra allowance