Dickens may fairly be said to have begun his sight-seeing in America by going to jail. He commenced with those in Boston, and wherever else he found a prison he had a look at it. The interest he took in penal reform, which rendered him familiar with nearly every gaol in England, did not desert him when he made his first voyage across the Atlantic. In the "American Notes," among a number of minor and comparatively unimportant observations, most of which are, in fact, long out of date, and lost in the changed conditions of jail construction, discipline and government, there are two descriptions, which retain their interest. The first in order of occurrence in the book, relates to a prison as famous throughout America as Newgate is in Great Britain, and which, indeed, is the closest approach we have to the gloomy criminal cage of London. You may find it in a description of a walk about New York in Chapter 6: "What is this dismal-fronted pile of bastard Egyptian, like an enchanter's palace in a melodrama? A famous prison called the Tombs. Shall we go in? "So. A long, narrow and lofty building, stove-heated as usual, with four galleries, one above the other, going round it, and communicating by stairs. Between the two sides of each gallery, and in its center, a bridge for the greater convenience of crossing. On each of these bridges sits a man, dozing or reading, or talking to an idle companion. On each tier are two opposite rows of small iron doors. They look like furnace doors, but are cold and black, as though the fires within had all gone out. Some two or three are open, and women with drooping heads bent down are talking to the inmates. The whole is lighted by a skylight, but it is fast closed; and from the roof there dangle, limp and drooping, two useless windsails. "A man with keys appears to show us round. A good-looking fellow, and in his way civil and obliging. "'Are those black doors the cells?' "'Yes' "'Are they all full?' "'Well, they're pretty nigh full, and that's a fact and no two ways about it.' "'Those at the bottom are unwholesome, surely.' "'Why, we do only put colored people in 'em. That's the truth.' "'When do the prisoners take exercise?' "'Well, they do without it pretty much.' "'Do they never walk in the yard?' "'Considerable seldom.' "'Sometimes, I suppose?' "'Well, it's rare they do. They keep pretty bright without it.' "'But suppose a man were here for a twelve-month? I know this is only a prison for criminals who are charged with some grave offenses, while they are awaiting trial, or are under remand, but the law affords criminals many means of delay. What with motions for new trials, arrest of judgment and what not, a prisoner might be here for twelve months, I take it, might he not?' "'Well, I guess he might.' "'Do you mean to say that in all that time he would never come out at that little iron door for exercise?'