_Introduction_ _17_ _I._ _The Room with the Little Door_ _19_ _II._ _The Little Dead Mouse_ _26_ _III._ _A Forbidden Song_ _30_ _IV._ _The Murderers’ Home Journal_ _34_ _V._ _Fads_ _54_ _VI._ _The Mayor of the Death-Chamber_ _62_ _VII._ _A Psychological Experiment_ _67_ _VIII._ _Me and Mike_ _79_ _IX._ _Old John_ _82_ _X._ _Her Friend_ _94_ _XI._ _Life_ _97_ _XII._ _My Friend the Major_ _99_ _XIII._ _A Dissertation on the Third Degree_ _108_ _XIV._ _It’s Just Like Her_ _145_ _XV._ _Shorty_ _158_ _XVI._ _An Opinion on Expert Opinion_ _180_ _XVII._ _Prologue to a Little Comedy_ _195_ _XVIII._ _Impressions: The Last Night and The _197_ Next Morning_ _XIX._ _Impressions: Dawn in the Death-Chamber_ _208_ _XX._ _Impressions: While the Jury is Out_ _211_ _XXI._ _Impressions: The Friendship of _234_ Imagination_ _XXII._ _The Last Story_ _241_ _XXIII._ _The Story of the Ring, by Vance _243_ Thompson_ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _Introduction_ Most of the following is true, or founded on truth. A few are waifs—products of my imagination; little stories that came into my mind from time to time. Some of them are from letters written home while I was confined in the Tombs Prison in New York City, and in the Death-Chamber at Sing Sing. In them I have not inflicted myself to any great extent upon the reader. Herein is chiefly what I saw when trying to look upon the bright side. There are also glimpses of the side which cannot be made bright, look at it as one may. But if anything in these pages leads some one to think of what must be endured in either place, let me say, that no suffering was ever willingly caused by the officials with whom I came in contact during my “banishment,” and I take this opportunity to thank them all, without exception, for their consideration, sympathy, and unvarying kindness to me and mine. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ _The Room with the Little Door_ _CHAPTER I_ _The Room with the Little Door_