see but that it is just the thing, for if a person on the
outside takes comfort from the use of his pipe, much more will the man
who sits in the solitude of a felon's cell. If a prisoner violates a
prison rule his tobacco is taken away from him for a time. The majority
of the inmates will obey the rules of the prison through fear of having
their tobacco, taken away from them. Each prisoner also has access to
the books of the library, and another mode of punishment is to deprive
the offender the use of the library for a time. This, also, has a very
salutary effect. Another mode of punishment, is to place the unruly
convict in a dungeon and feed him nothing but bread and water. The
prisoner on entering this dreary abode must leave behind him his hat,
coat and shoes, and in this condition he is required often to spend days
and weeks in solitary confinement. The dungeon contains no furniture of
any description save a night bucket. Prisoners do not remain in these
dark holes very long until they promise obedience. It is one of the
most successful modes of prison punishment. In case of a second or
third offense, and sometimes for the first, in case it is a bad one, the
offender is liable to receive a flogging.

This is one of the few penal institutions in our country where the
cat-o'-nine-tails is used. When a prisoner's conduct has been such that
it is deemed advisable to whip him, he is taken from his cell and led
to a post in the rear of one of the large buildings, out of sight of the
other convicts. His clothing is then removed, with the exception of his
shoes. These are left on his feet to catch the blood that flows down his
limbs. In this nude condition he is tightly bound to a post with chains.
Standing at the post, in a helpless condition, he receives the lash. The
whip consists of several leather straps, or thongs, at the ends of which
small pieces of steel are fastened. Every blow brings the blood. I have
been told by reliable persons that, at times, prisoners have been so
severely flogged that the blood, flowing down their limbs into their
shoes would fill them and run out over the tops. This seems barbarous in
the extreme, and my humane reader at once cries out, "It should not be
tolerated." In Missouri this flogging of human beings in prison has been
going on for more than fifty years. After the punishment is over, the
prisoner, half dead with fright and pain, is led back to his cell, where
he remains for a day o