een richer by the experiences that were to befall
me in the next several months, I should have turned and run like the
very devil. He might have shot at me, but he'd have had to hit me to
get me. He'd have never run after me, for two hoboes in the hand are
worth more than one on the get-away. But like a dummy I stood still
when he halted me. Our conversation was brief.

"What hotel are you stopping at?" he queried.

He had me. I wasn't stopping at any hotel, and, since I did not know
the name of a hotel in the place, I could not claim residence in any
of them. Also, I was up too early in the morning. Everything was
against me.

"I just arrived," I said.

"Well, you turn around and walk in front of me, and not too far in
front. There's somebody wants to see you."

I was "pinched." I knew who wanted to see me. With that "fly-cop" and
the two hoboes at my heels, and under the direction of the former, I
led the way to the city jail. There we were searched and our names
registered. I have forgotten, now, under which name I was registered.
I gave the name of Jack Drake, but when they searched me, they found
letters addressed to Jack London. This caused trouble and required
explanation, all of which has passed from my mind, and to this day I
do not know whether I was pinched as Jack Drake or Jack London. But
one or the other, it should be there to-day in the prison register of
Niagara Falls. Reference can bring it to light. The time was somewhere
in the latter part of June, 1894. It was only a few days after my
arrest that the great railroad strike began.

From the office we were led to the "Hobo" and locked in. The "Hobo" is
that part of a prison where the minor offenders are confined together
in a large iron cage. Since hoboes constitute the principal division
of the minor offenders, the aforesaid iron cage is called the Hobo.
Here we met several hoboes who had already been pinched that morning,
and every little while the door was unlocked and two or three more
were thrust in on us. At last, when we totalled sixteen, we were led
upstairs into the court-room. And now I shall faithfully describe
what took place in that court-room, for know that my patriotic
American citizenship there received a shock from which it has never
fully recovered.

In the court-room were the sixteen prisoners, the judge, and two
bailiffs. The judge seemed to act as his own clerk. There were no
witnesses. There were no citizens of Niagara Fal