oney. A marked coin led to his conviction, and he got a three years'
sentence. He was never, afterward, out six months at a time, and was
sent up successively for burglary, criminal assault, robbery, larceny,
cattle-stealing and horse-stealing. At the expiration of his fifth term,
at Michigan City, he made his way to the office, where the directors
were in session. He begged them to allow him to build a shanty in a part
of the prison in which he could sleep and call his home. All that he
asked was that the scraps from the table be given him for food. The
board refused to allow him this, and Hicks bade them good-by. He walked
to a small town near by, where he soon was arrested for thieving, and
was taken to prison to serve what he declared to be his last term. His
head is as white as snow, and in keeping with his long, flowing beard,
and he looks like a patriarch, yet is not stooped a particle. His desire
now is to secure honest work, that will guarantee him a home. He wishes
to spend the rest of his days a free man. Had this man been assisted
just a little at the expiration of his first term, he might have become
a useful citizen, but as it was, his life was spent behind the bars.
When once the feet find themselves walking in the pathway of crime,
it is very difficult for them ever to walk in paths of honesty and
uprightness thereafter.

NINE TIMES

As I was walking through the penitentiary, in company with Deputy Warden
Bradbury, he pointed out an old convict, and said, "There is a fellow
that has seen prison life. He is here this time under the name of
Gus Loman. He is now serving his NINTH term in this prison. At the
expiration of one of his sentences he went away and was gone over a
year, and when he came back I asked him where he had been so long. His
reply was, 'Simply rusticating at Joliet, Ill., with some friends.'
Every time he is sent to prison he gives in a new and different name
and, of course, no one but himself knows what his real name is." When
asked why he comes to the prison so often, he remarked that, when once
in prison it is impossible to get work to do on the outside, and he had
made up his mind to spend the rest of his days in prison. He claimed
that the fates were against him and he could not make a living on the
outside, as no one would employ him; that he had tried it several times
and failed, and now he had given up all hope. He is a bold, bad and
natural thief. As soon as his term is out he