doubted veracity, being about to visit the parents of a prisoner,
called and asked the warden how he was, with the answer, "He is all
right; you may tell his folks that he is all right." In a few days
after, it was found that, at the very time of this assertion, the man
was so sick that the doctor had nearly given him over to die.

Then I would sometimes smile and sometimes feel sorrowful at his
changeable appearance; perhaps if one of influence and authority came
in, he would put on peculiar airs of suavity, and expatiate upon how
things were and should be in prison, while one without that influence
might enter and receive entirely different treatment. I here see how our
rulers may have been led on at times, unaware of the true state of
things in the institution. How easy to cover up!

Then in the female department, I called for a convict in order to
arrange for her disposal on leaving prison, and was told, "The assistant
is in the city with the key to their apartment, therefore you can not
see the woman." But how was I surprised shortly to learn that, at the
moment of this assertion, the assistant was in the kitchen at work, and
known to be there by my informant.

Is it any wonder that such people disbelieve in prison reform?

43. _Reported quarrel between the warden and chaplain._ The idea has
been circulated, how extensively I know not, that the warden and
chaplain had a quarrel between them at the prison. It seems to have
pervaded some minds in the legislature at Concord in '71, being used to
the disadvantage of a bill before that body in regard to the prison, the
fate of which perhaps was made to turn on that. No doubt a certain
Concord gentleman, who had an ax of his own to grind in connection,
knows very well how this report was made so prevalent. Whether he or
another started it, I know not.

But that idea had not the slightest foundation in truth. The
circumstances of our official intercourse in all that passed, have been
faithfully set forth in the preceding pages, and the reader can see for
himself that there was no quarreling. When the warden told me to "bring
the key back and not touch it any more," I did as required, without
uttering a word. When I told him what I should do about fixing up the
Maine man before sending him away, his remark was in no fault-finding
tone. When he pointed out my work at first, and in our connected
colloquy, all our words were civil and courteous, no unpleasantness in