at Concord; and they no doubt look
out quite as shrewdly. If, however, one is willing to turn from articles
fit for use, he can find those as cheap as he desires, going down from
thirteen cents to three or one, if he likes.

Then this boast of great gains at our prison gives a suspicious look,
to say the least. If we allow for all that cruel cutting off, previously
depicted, and even more, that would not bring the accounts to what would
appear probable. The agent, in purchasing legitimate articles,
manifested no skill beyond others. He certainly ran behind on wood as as
I happened to learn by experience. The man who furnished the prison with
this, agreed to supply some for me, of the same quality and price, but
failed to bring it at the time, which forced me to look elsewhere for
what I needed and which I found, with no extra painstaking and at a
bargain, reckoning price and quality, better by one dollar at least per
cord.

But if this withholding from the prisoners what they so greatly needed
and what was their just due, will not bring the accounts within the
region of probability, to what source shall we look for the discrepancy?
Let us examine the accounts carefully and see what we thus find. True,
it is said, "Figures won't lie," but men, when disposed, may so use them
as to lead wide of the truth. In our examination we find the same
dealing as before pointed out. Important items of expense in running the
institution are deliberately omitted in reckoning. Thus, there is the
warden's salary of $1000, the chaplain's, $750, printing the Report,
$121,98, appraisers', $78, amounting to $1949,98. Subtracting this from
the pretended gain, $6914,67 - 1949,98, gives 4964,69. Let us see what
this would be with the Charlestown number of men, $29,625,56, over two
times the comparative gain at Charlestown, a very large margin to be
accounted for in our withholding.

Certainly we can not afford to boast very loudly over these figures, but
should rather blush. The reader should bear in mind, that the prisoners
are let at both places on contract, ours at ninety cents per day, and
those in Massachusetts for over one dollar, so that her prison managers
enjoy an advantage over ours for rolling up gains. And when we talk of
gaining more than twice as much as she, we have reason to fear that
those hearing us will say, that too many of those dollars were ground
out of the flesh, and blood, and sinews, and life even of the
prisoners,--