senger for this officer at the foot of the shaft. Each officer in the
penitentiary who has charge of a division of men has a messenger to run
errands for him. When this messenger came up to the officer he made his
obeisance. Convicts are taught to observe good manners in the presence
of the officials. He was told to take me to another officer in a distant
part of the mines, a Mr. Johns, who would give me work. From the foot of
the shaft there go out in almost all directions, roadways or "entries."
These underground roadways are about six feet in width and height. I
could walk erect in most of them. Along these entries was a car track,
over which the small coal cars pass to and from the rooms where the coal
is taken out, to the shaft, and hoisted to the top with their load of
coal. Some of these entries extend more than a mile out into the earth
from the base of the shaft. As my fellow-prisoner and I were passing
along one of these roadways to the place where I was to work, he asked
me my name and the nature of my offense. At this place let me inform,
the reader that the prisoners are given permission to converse with each
other in the mines. Their instructions are to the effect that they are
not to talk about anything but their work, but in the penitentiary the
same rule holds good as on the outside: "Give a man an inch and he will
take a yard." So, when permission is given to the convict to talk about
his work, he talks about everything else. In answer to my escort's
question as to the length of my sentence, I informed him that I had
eighteen months. He dryly remarked that was nothing, and if the judge
who sent me up could not give me a longer term than that, he should have
sent me home to my family. He also remarked that he was afraid I would
get into trouble in the mines on account of my short sentence. There
were a great many long-term fellows down there, who were envious of
short-term men, and were likely to put up jobs on them by reporting
their mistakes and violations of regulations to the officer in charge,
and thus get them punished. I informed my guide that I thought I would
get along some way with the prisoners, and keep out of trouble. I then
inquired of him as to the length of his sentence.

"Twenty-five stretches," was his reply. I did not know what he meant by
the term "stretches" and asked for information. "That is the prison term
for years, a stretch meaning a year," was his reply. I learned that my
comp