When a letter is condemned, the prisoner is sometimes permitted to try again, and sometimes he is left to guess its fate. Should any one write a true account of the place, its laws, and customs, and regulations, it would be as impossible for the letter to get into the Post Office, as it is for a guinea to pass by the fingers of a Jew. And it is a very frequent case that a man is most shamefully abused by his keeper, on account of some lines in his letters, which he penned as innocently as a martyr, but which did not happen to be worded according to the _grammar of the place_. I write this from experience; for I am the man. But I am not the _only_ man. Should any one ask the names of the others, I might answer--"_legions_," for they "_are many_." And for some offence innocently committed in this way, many have been marked for the arrows of vengeance, which have not lingered long on the string. Should a letter to any prisoner be deemed inadmissible, he would not know that any had been sent to him. No matter how interesting it might be to him, the keeper destroys it and is silent. Many facts confirm this statement. I have now by me a letter which I recently received from my brother, in which he writes--"I received not one letter from you all the time you were there, though I wrote you many." Not one of _his_ letters ever reached me, and I wrote very many to him. This is not a singular case; I know of _many_ similar ones. Another circumstance ought to be mentioned here.--There is no provision made to pay the postage on letters sent to the prisoners, and as they are generally destitute of money, it often happens that their letters are never taken out of the office. When any letter _is_ taken out of the Post office, the postage is charged to the prisoner, and he must pay it, whether he gets the letter or not. All other communications are subject to the same vexatious rules as the letters are. If a prisoner wishes to send a petition to his friends for them to sign in his behalf, and forward to the Governor and Council; or if he wishes to send one to that body with his own signature, it must be worded _just so_, or it cannot be sent. The keeper of the prison takes it upon himself to decide what _is_ and what is _not_ proper to go before the Executive. He also, as if possessed of omniscience, knows all the _facts_ in the case, better than the man that has _experienced_ them; and as there is no law binding him but his own will, he acts in such cases, very frequently, as if there were no God to take notice of his conduct, and no judgment for the guilty.