of any such record as that. I begged of him to wait a little
while before he made up his mind conclusively as to my character, for
there might be such a thing as his being mistaken. There is no man that
is rendering more effective service to the State of Kansas in the way of
bringing criminals to justice than Mr. Elliott. He has been an officer
of the prison for nearly nine years. As an honest officer he is above
reproach. As a disciplinarian he has no superior in the West.

After this examination I was shown to my cell. It was now about two
o'clock in the afternoon of my first day in prison. I remained in the
cell alone during the entire afternoon. Of all the dark hours of my
eventful history, none have been filled with more gloom and sadness
than those of my first day in prison. Note my antecedents--a college
graduate, a county clerk, the president of a bank, and an editor of
a daily newspaper. All my life I had moved in the highest circles of
society, surrounded by the best and purest of both sexes, and now, here
I was, in the deplorable condition of having been hurled from that high
social position, down to the low degraded plane of a convict. As I sat
there in that desolate abode of the disgraced, I tried to look out down
the future. All was dark. For a time it seemed as if that sweet angel we
call hope had spread her wings and taken her departure from me forever.
The black cloud of despair seemed settling down upon me. But very few
persons possess the ability to make any thing of themselves after having
served a term in the penitentiary. Having once fallen to so low a plane
it is almost impossible to rise again. Young man, as you peruse this
book, think of these things. Once down as a felon it is a miracle if one
ever regains what he has lost. I sat brooding over these things for an
hour or more, when my manhood asserted itself. Hope returned. I reasoned
thus: I am a young man. I enjoy good health. There will be only a few
months of imprisonment and then I will be free. I thought of my loving
wife, my little children, my aged mother, my kind friends, and for their
sake I would not yield to despair. Soliciting the aid of a kind Heavenly
Father, I resolved to do the best I could toward regaining what I had
lost. My father was a minister of the gospel for fifty years prior to
his death. He was not blessed with much of this world's goods. For this
reason I began in very early life to aid myself. I spent seven years
in