warders, it is usual for them to call for volunteers, of
whom they find a sufficient number anxious for a change, unless the
transfer is to an unpopular station, such as Dartmoor, which is among
the bogs, and a lonely, bleak place.

[Illustration: THEY DO IT DIFFERENTLY IN CHINA.]

[Illustration: THEY DON'T USE STRAIGHT-JACKETS IN PERSIA.]

Warders are exempted from doing night duty, which is all done by the
assistant warders, who are on that service one week out of three.
Although when on night duty they had the day for sleep and recreation,
I never saw one who did not detest it, because they must remain on duty
continuously for twelve hours, and must not read, sit down nor lean
against anything, nor have their hands behind them. These military
regulations apply as well to the whole time they are on duty in the
prison, day or night. A few years ago the time of daily duty was reduced
to twelve hours, with one hour at noon for dinner. Besides this, at
times they must do a good deal of extra duty. Each is allowed ten days
annual holiday, but is frequently obliged to take it piecemeal, a day or
two at a time, so that he cannot go far away from the scene of his
servitude. Their duties require unflagging attention and never-ceasing
vigilance, which must be a heavy tax on the brain, and the twelve hours
must be passed in standing or walking about. In fact, they are subjected
to military discipline, or rather despotism, and any known infraction of
the rules subjects them to penalties according to the nature of the
offense. Leaning against a wall, sitting down, etc., for a first
offense, they are mulcted in a small sum--12 to 60 cents, usually--and
are put back in the line of promotion. The fines go to the Officers'
Library fund. I knew one officer, Joseph Matthews, who had been
assistant warder twenty years, and, being frequently set back for doing
some small favor to prisoners, was discharged from the service in 1886,
without a pension, for some slight breach of regulations. He had a wife
and six children, and had worked twenty years for less than $7 per week.
For giving a convict a small bit of tobacco, a heavy fine, suspension,
and in case it was not the first offense, expulsion from the service
without a pension. For acting the go-between and facilitating
correspondence with the friends of convicts, expulsion--possibly
imprisonment. One of the assistant warders, who was convicted of having
received a bribe of L100 from