I
saw the land, this character appeared to me well deserved.

The farmhouses were very numerous, generally built of good brick, and
putting forth strong claims on admiration in the shape of various
ornamental flourishes; an ambition which distinguishes the rural
architecture indeed of all this State, giving evidence of the ease and
growing wealth, if not of the purest taste, existing amongst the
proprietary.

Syracuse we passed through in the middle of the storm and the darkness
of night; and about six A.M. were safely landed under the ample portico
of the hotel at Auburn, celebrated for its prison, regulated upon what
is called the "silent system."

Whilst my companions were making toilet I set forth to visit this penal
abode, the character of which is made sufficiently evident as you
approach the lofty walls that encompass so much of misery and guilt. At
regular distances upon these battlements I perceived sentry-boxes, with
men keeping watch, musket in hand.

A small sum is here paid for admittance. On my arrival at the lodge, I
was informed that the prisoners were at breakfast, during which time
visitors were prohibited: I therefore had to wait some minutes in this
place; and, except the occasional fall of a heavy bolt, did not hear a
sound; the very turnkeys seemed infected by the system which it was
their duty to enforce, and they moved in and out in silence, or spoke in
monosyllables hardly above a whisper.

Following the gaoler, I was passed within the square at the very moment
when the prisoners were moving out from their breakfast-hall on the way
to renew their several labours; and the sight was to me one of sickening
melancholy.

They were marched from the building in squads, using what is called the
"lock-step," and were jammed together as close as they could possibly
tread: they moved in quick-time, and fell out singly, or in pairs, as
they arrived at the point nearest to the scene of their employment.

I observed that, notwithstanding the regularity of labour, and the
unquestionably wholesome diet provided here, the faces of the
individuals composing these ruffian squads were uniformly pale and
haggard; yet, on saying so much to my guide, I was assured that disease
is comparatively rare amongst them, and that many who enter here with
broken constitutions recover their bodily vigour and are made whole men
again.

The cleanliness of this prison-house, the convenient distribution of its
various off