a young man seventeen
years of age--a mere boy. Tired of mining, we laid off awhile, resting.
During this time the old convict gave us instructions in the manner
of making counterfeit money. He told us how he would construct his
counterfeit molds out of plaster paris, which he would use in the same
manner that bullet molds are used. He would purchase some britannica
metal. On some dark night he would go into the forest, build up a fire,
melt the metal, pour the melted liquor into the molds, and in this
manner make silver dollars. He informed us that it didn't take very long
to make a hatful of money. A few days thereafter this young man, who was
with us in the room at the time, informed me that when he went out again
into the world, if he was unable to secure work, he would try his hand
at making counterfeit money. I advised him not to do this, as it was
almost a certainty that he would be detected. He thought differently.
About a month thereafter he was released from the prison. He went out
into the world, and, unable to obtain work, DID try his hand at making
counterfeit money. Shortly before my time expired here came this young
man to prison again, with a sentence of three years at hard labor for
making and passing counterfeit money. He had received his criminal
instruction in the penitentiary mines, the result of which will be that
he will spend the greater portion of his life a convict.

There are a great many instances where these young convicts, having
received their education in the coal mines, go into the world to become
hardened criminals. Down in this school of crime, in the midst of the
darkness, they learn how to make burglary tools, to crack safes, and to
become expert as pickpockets; they take lessons in confidence games,
and when their time expires they are prepared for a successful career
of crime. It is utterly impossible for the officers of the coal mines to
prevent these men from conversing with each other. If these mines were
sold, and the money obtained from the sale of them was used in building
workhouses on the surface, and these men placed at work there under the
watchful care of the official, they would then be unable to communicate
with each other, and would be saved from the debasing contamination of
the hardened criminals. They would be saved from all this that degrades
and makes heartless wretches.

A scene occurred in the mines one day that illustrates the fact that
judges sometimes, in