To be able the better to judge comparatively and see the drift of things in our prison management, let us select the more important items from the Reports of the years '70, '71 and '72, forming them into a table, taking the average number of the prisoners for each year, obtained by adding the numbers at its beginning and end, and dividing by two. Under the food and clothing items, let us insert what they pay in Massachusetts State Prison per day for food, and per year for clothing, to a prisoner or per capita: 1870. 1871. 1872. Average number, 123 1-2 104 1-2 85 1-2 Expense for Overseers and Guards, $5,960 03 $6,314 91 $6,613 32 " Physician, 100 00 250 38 282 00 " Provisions, 8,581 32 5,416 41 3,283 00 " " per capita, 69 48 51 83 38 39 " " per day, per capita, 19 14 1-5 10 1-2 " " per day in Mass. Prison, 18 18 6-10 18 7-10 " Fuel and Lights, 1,195 43 954 41 682 13 " Clothing, 1,963 94 1,447 86 1,472 24 " " per capita, 15 90 13 85 17 21 " " in Mass. Prison, 21 67 19 40 18 72 " Library, 262 95 94 84 0 " Ordinary Repairs, 1,937 64 1,057 08 1,029 50 Earnings of Convicts, 25,338 22 22,619 70 19,134 45 " " per capita, 209 22 216 41 223 79 This table tells its own story and is in perfect unison with all that has been uttered on former pages. The guards and overseers, the same in number, and with no additional labors, receive increased pay from year to year. Nor has there been any going up in the scale of wages outside to cause a demand for this. Nor were they more experienced and intelligent, thereby claiming higher compensation. Many were mere boys, some not overstocked with intelligence. They had one boy of seventeen for overseer in the shop. The physician's pay has also received a yearly rise in the scale, though with a large diminishing in numbers of prisoners and, as the Report says, a remarkably healthy state among them. How can we reconcile this? True, the first year he attended only when called, and subsequently every morning. But why the difference between the second and third years with the fewer men and alleged healthy state? This is what needs explaining.