ll those physical ills, so I always answered,

"Yes, sir." He wound up by inquiring if I ever had a stroke of the horse
glanders. I knew what was meant by that disease, and replied in the
negative.

He then looked at me over the top of his spectacles, and, in a rather
doubting manner, said, "and you really have had all these diseases? By
the way," he continued, "are you alive at the present moment after all
that you have suffered?" Mr. Mooney is an Irishman. He was having a
little cold-blooded sport at my expense. Whenever you meet an Irishman
you will always strike a budget of fun.

His next question was, "Are you a sound man?"

My reply was to the effect that I was, physically, mentally and morally.
So he wrote down in his book opposite my name "physically and mentally
a sound man." He said he would take my word for being sound morally, but
that he would not put that down on the books for the present, for fear
there might be a mistake somewhere. Before discharging me, he calmly
stated that I would make a good coal miner. All the prisoners undergo
this medical cross-examination.

After I had run the doctor's gauntlet, I was conducted from the south
wing of the cell-house to the north wing. Here I met for the first time
Mr. Elliott, who has charge of this building during the daytime. It is
a part of this highly efficient officer's duty to cross-examine the
prisoners as to where they have lived and what they have been doing. His
examinations are very rigid. He is a bright man, a good judge of human
nature, and can tell a criminal at sight. He would make an able criminal
lawyer. He is the prison detective. By means of these examinations he
often obtains clues that lead to the detection of the perpetrators of
crime. I have been told by good authority that on account of information
obtained by this official, two murderers were discovered in the Kansas
penitentiary, and, after their terms had expired, they were immediately
arrested, and, on requisition, taken back to the Eastern States, where
the crimes had been committed, and there tried, convicted and punished
according to the laws of those States. After I had been asked all manner
of questions by this official, he very kindly informed me that I came to
the penitentiary with a bad record. He further stated that I was
looked upon as one of the worst criminals in the State of Kansas. This
information was rather a set-back to me, as I had no idea that I was in
possession