They will prattle to him of their doings or the homes where they are probably unhappy and which they scarcely regret. They will lament their misdeeds, and make many promises to behave better another time. After all, they are not badly off in La Petite Roquette. Ill-used, half-starved gutter children have been heard to speak in high praise of a place where they were well housed, well clothed, treated kindly and,--strange experience for them,--where they got something to eat every day of their lives. The confinement within four walls, at an age when life is full of spring and movement, is no doubt irksome to these little Arabs of the streets; but the Administration does its best to provide them with certain regulation amusements. In the exercising yards they may be seen behind the iron bars trundling hoops; and squads of them, each standing alone in his own separate compartment, are exercised in the “extension motions” by word of command--“_un_,” “_deux_,” “_trois_,” and so forth; words which they are obliged to repeat in a shrill treble, with the double idea of enforcing attention and, by tiring their voices, of removing all desire to chatter among themselves. In many respects, the establishment is a model one; and it does, in fact, serve as such for those who conduct juvenile reformatories in all civilised quarters of the globe. Saint Lazare, indeed, is still in use; and only in December, 1905, after having been repeatedly condemned, could it be said that its days were numbered. A General Council of the Department of the Seine at that time voted a sum for the erection of an entirely new prison. The authorities were urged to begin at once the demolition and ex-propriation of the establishment. No doubt the cost of the new site and new buildings will be sensibly assisted by the sale of the present premises, situated in the heart of Paris and on very valuable property. CHAPTER X A MODEL PENITENTIARY Fresnes--Final stage in the criminal career--The last chosen site for the guillotine--History of the guillotine--Earlier models of the instrument--The Italian “mannaia”--The “Maiden” used in Edinburgh and some cities in Yorkshire--Opinions on capital punishment--The alternative--Condition of eighty murderers who escaped the death sentence, when seen at Ghent ten years later--La Grande Roquette--Its inmates--The condemned cell--The march to the scaffold--Principal executions in late years--Verger murders the Archbishop of Paris in 1857--Avinain and other cruel murderers--Campi and Marchandon who took life boldly in the best parts of Paris--Execution of the hostages during the Commune--The site still preserved and honored--Passing of La Roquette--New and imposing prison of Fresnes on the outskirts of Paris--Opened in 1898--Closing considerations.