, not a jewel of the first water, merely a petty criminal
who would steal and rob, commit burglary, and, if cornered, not stop
short of murder. Many a quiet hour we sat and talked together. He had
two or three jobs in view for the immediate future, in which my work
was cut out for me, and in which I joined in planning the details. I
had been with and seen much of criminals, and my pal never dreamed
that I was only fooling him, giving him a string thirty days long. He
thought I was the real goods, liked me because I was not stupid, and
liked me a bit, too, I think, for myself. Of course I had not the
slightest intention of joining him in a life of sordid, petty crime;
but I'd have been an idiot to throw away all the good things his
friendship made possible. When one is on the hot lava of hell, he
cannot pick and choose his path, and so it was with me in the Erie
County Pen. I had to stay in with the "push," or do hard labor on
bread and water; and to stay in with the push I had to make good with
my pal.

Life was not monotonous in the Pen. Every day something was happening:
men were having fits, going crazy, fighting, or the hall-men were
getting drunk. Rover Jack, one of the ordinary hall-men, was our star
"oryide." He was a true "profesh," a "blowed-in-the-glass" stiff, and
as such received all kinds of latitude from the hall-men in authority.
Pittsburg Joe, who was Second Hall-man, used to join Rover Jack in his
jags; and it was a saying of the pair that the Erie County Pen was the
only place where a man could get "slopped" and not be arrested. I
never knew, but I was told that bromide of potassium, gained in
devious ways from the dispensary, was the dope they used. But I do
know, whatever their dope was, that they got good and drunk on
occasion.

Our hall was a common stews, filled with the ruck and the filth, the
scum and dregs, of society--hereditary inefficients, degenerates,
wrecks, lunatics, addled intelligences, epileptics, monsters,
weaklings, in short, a very nightmare of humanity. Hence, fits
flourished with us. These fits seemed contagious. When one man began
throwing a fit, others followed his lead. I have seen seven men down
with fits at the same time, making the air hideous with their cries,
while as many more lunatics would be raging and gibbering up and down.
Nothing was ever done for the men with fits except to throw cold water
on them. It was useless to send for the medical student or the doctor.