Seven Wives and Seven Prisons

S IN THE DUNGEON-ESCAPE OF A PRISONER-IN THE DUNGEON AGAIN-THE MAD MAN, HALL-HE ATTEMPTS TO MURDER THE DEPUTY-I SAVE MOREY'S LIFE-HOWLING IN

should have taken the officer who brought me, to be the prisoner, I was so much the better dressed of the two. He then talked very seriously to me for a long time. He was sorry, and s

t-matrimonial monomania; that when I had gone through with one of these scrapes, and had suffered the severe punishment that was almost certain to follow, the whole was like a dream to me-a nightmare and nothing

I was told the rules, and was warned that if I did not observe them it would go hard with me. Then followed twenty-four

rked at a forge and handled a hammer. Consequently, in three or four days, my hands were terribly blistered, and as the Warden happened to come into the shop, I showed them to him, and quietly told him that I would do that work no longe

showed my blistered hands to him. He thought that was the way to "toughen" me. I thought not, and s

wn how the work was to be done. Every man was expected to hew out fifty snaths in a day. In three or four days the shop-keeper came and overlooked me while I was working in my bungling way, and said if I couldn't do better than that I must clear out of his shop and

and anything?"

marrying for insta

atter," said the Deputy; "them simple fact is,

ay or two more the shopkeeper undertook to show me how th

d I have a good mi

tep nearer to me I would make mincemeat of him. He thought it was advisable to stay where he was; but one

n the doorway a moment, and then, in a kind tone called me to him. I had no immediate quarrel with him, and so I dropped my axe and went to him. He told me that there was no use of "m

hole of yours," I exclaimed, "I won't go; you'

to my cell I went, willingly enough, and stayed there a week, during which time I suppose everyone

e to me and asked me if I was "willing" to come out and work. I was sick of solitary confinement, and longed to see the faces of men, even prisoners: so I told him if I could get any work I could do I was

ke it "play easier," as he described it, I did the job so satisfactorily that I had nearly every lock in the prison to take off and operate upon, if it was nothing more than to clean a

he jail fare at Easton. We lived upon the poorest possible salt beef for dinner, varied now and then with plucks and such stuff fr

efractory, rebellious rascal, who was ready to kill any of them, and, worst of all, who would not work. I determined

k was bread and water. The man who brought it never spoke to me. His face was the only one I saw during the livelong day. Day and night were alike to me;

his dungeon. At last I was nearly blind, and was scarcely able to stand up. I presume that the attendant who brought my daily dole of bread and my cup of water, reported my condition. One day the door open

d me. I was then taken into the shop where the snaths were finished by scraping and varnishing, the lightest part of the work, but I would not learn, would not do, would not try to do any

rt of the prison to another. I was what theatrical managers call a general utility man, and, not at all strangely, for it is human nature, n

ll. But that was only an ingeniously constructed dummy. The young man himself had made a hole under his bed into an adjoining vacant cell, the door of which stood open. He had crawled through his hole, come out of the vacant cell door, and gone up to the prison garret, where he found some old pieces of rope. These

nfinement in that horrible dungeon on the mere suspicion. This made ten weeks in al

the yards, dragging or carrying a heavy ball and chain. When bundles of snaths were to be carried from one shop to the other in the various processe

ens and the keepers knew it, an

be a better man. "Look at the loads which are put on me every day," he would say; as

o him, and in a moment the man sprung upon him. He had secured somehow, perhaps he had picked it up in the ya

help. I turned, ran to Hall, and with one blow of my fist knocked him nearly senseless; then help came

of the "hardest cases;" a mere chance had suddenly made me one of the most commendable men within those dreary walls. As for Hall, he was taken to the dungeon and securely chained by the feet to a ring in the center of the stone floor.

f and others; the dark cell was the only place for him. So Hall stayed there and howled, his cries

o go and get the tools and come there and take off Hall's irons. I went into the cell and in a few minutes I unfastened his feet from the rin

lower part of his face, and his wild eyes, fixed and glassy, were staring at the top wall of the dungeon. He must have been dead several hours. The

to attend the homely funeral. The ball and chain, all the personal property left by Hall, were put aside for the next murderer sentenced for life, or for the next "ugly" prisoner. "If I were only t

, and something good to eat. He also promised to present the circumstances of the Hall affair to the Governor, and to urge my pardon, but I do not think he ever did so, at least I

liberty. I was put into the cook shop where I could get better food, and I did pretty much what I pleased. By general consent I was let alone. They had fo