eir worse side; but
I have no intention of overlooking or denying that side. They wouldn't be
in prison if they did not have it. But, although they may form the
toughest bunch in prison, they evidently have their better side also, and
is that not just as real as the worse side? And is it not the better side
that is the more important for us to consider? Important--whether we
approach the matter from the side of philanthropy or from that of
political economy. In either case we must consider it important that men
should not leave prison in such condition, mental, moral or physical, that
they will almost certainly commit more crimes and be returned to prison.

To which side, the better or the worse, does the Prison System now appeal?
Which does it encourage and develop? These are pretty vital questions.

At any rate it seems to me to have been great good luck that I was placed
in the basket-shop where I should associate with just these men; for if
these fellows are really among the more difficult cases in the prison,
then I think----

Wednesday morning, October 1.

At that interesting moment, while still writing my journal, the lights
suddenly went out on me; so I am finishing this next morning. The Warden
and Grant arrived soon after eight and must have stayed longer than I
thought; and somehow I seem to have missed the warning bell. I had not
begun to prepare for bed, when suddenly I was left in darkness. I had to
get my writing materials into the locker and make my evening toilet the
best way I could, with the help of the dim light from the corridor coming
through the grated door. There was one good thing about it, however; I was
too busy for a while to notice the blackness of the bars which had given
me such a shock the night before. It did not take so very long to make my
preparations, for the state of New York allows its boarders neither night
shirts nor pajamas. We have to sleep in the underclothes in which we have
worked all day. An arrangement which strikes one as being almost more
medieval than the sewage disposal system.

On Monday night, according to Jack Murphy, the men in my corridor all
waited to hear if I had the usual difficulties with my bed; and as some
other fellow's bed went down with him during the evening they thought they
had the laugh on me. This Tuesday night they certainly had. That infernal
armchair could not be placed where it did not catch the edge of the bed
when I let it down, so as to