rdice had gone forever. I was now a
man among men. I was happy. I saw what an easy thing it is to fight, to
defend yourself. I saw what an exhilaration, a pleasure, the exchanging
of righteous blows can be.

* * * * *

Always my dream was of being a big man when I got out--some day. Always
I acted as if living a famous prison romance like that of Baron Von
Trenck's.

* * * * *

I collected from the living voices of my fellow prisoners innumerable
jail and cocaine songs, and rhymes of the criminal world. I wrote them
down on pieces of wrapping paper that the jailer occasionally covered
the food-basket with in lieu of newspaper.

"Oh, coco-Marie, and coco-Marai,
I'se gon' ta whiff cocaine 'twill I die.
Ho! (sniff) Ho! (sniff) baby, take a whiff of me!"

(The sniffing sound indicating the snuffing up into the nostril of the
"snow," or "happy dust," as it is called in the underworld.)

Then there was the song about lice:

"There's a lice in jail
As big as a rail;
When you lie down
They'll tickle your tail--
Hard times in jail, poor boy!..."

And another, more general:

"Along come the jailer
About 'leven o'clock,
Bunch o' keys in his right hand,
The jailhouse do'h was locked....
'Cheer up, you pris'ners,'
I heard that jailer say,
'You got to go to the cane-brakes
Foh ninety yeahs to stay!'"

As you can guess, most of these jail songs and ballads of the underworld
could only be printed in asterisks. I was hoping, in the interests of
folklore, to preserve them for some learned society's private printing
press.

* * * * *

A fresher green came to the stray branches of the trees that crossed our
barred windows. The world outside seemed to waken with bird-song. It was
spring, and time for the sitting of the grand jury that was to decide
whether we were, each of us, to be held over for trial by petty jury ...
days of fretful eagerness and discontent ... from the windows the yellow
trusty-girl said she could see lines of buggies driving in to town. It
was the custom of farmers for miles around to drive in to their county
seat during the court assizes ... a week or so of holidays like a
continuous circus for them.

When the sheriff would have occasion to come into the room in which
stood our big cage, the boys would crowd up to the bars, each one hoping
for news favourable to his cas