So the company I am in is the one I have been dreading, is it? "The toughest bunch of fellows in the prison"--Murphy and Stuhlmiller and "Blackie," the good-natured fellow who gave away his tobacco and brings us the material for our baskets; and the other pleasant men whose acquaintance I have been making these last two days in the shop. It is incredible, inconceivable. What can be the explanation of it all? Is it possible that I am being made the victim of a clever system of deception? This is naturally my first thought. I can well imagine that Jack Murphy enjoys the novel sensation of having as his partner a man who is for the moment an object of peculiar interest to this community, that is simply human nature. No doubt Harley Stuhlmiller enjoys giving directions to the member of a state commission, that again is human nature. But that these men could assume virtues which they have not, and carry out a wholesale system of deceit--that is not possible. I have been on my guard every moment I have been here, and I have observed some few attempts to get into my good graces, with a possible expectation of future benefits; but on the other hand there has been a remarkable and most successful effort to carry out my request--to treat me as plain Tom Brown. No, that explanation doesn't explain; the truth must lie in another direction. And here is my idea. I am not seeing the worse side of these men because there is no occasion for them to show me their worse side; but I have no intention of overlooking or denying that side. They wouldn't be in prison if they did not have it. But, although they may form the toughest bunch in prison, they evidently have their better side also, and is that not just as real as the worse side? And is it not the better side that is the more important for us to consider? Important--whether we approach the matter from the side of philanthropy or from that of political economy. In either case we must consider it important that men should not leave prison in such condition, mental, moral or physical, that they will almost certainly commit more crimes and be returned to prison. To which side, the better or the worse, does the Prison System now appeal? Which does it encourage and develop? These are pretty vital questions. At any rate it seems to me to have been great good luck that I was placed in the basket-shop where I should associate with just these men; for if these fellows are really among the more difficult cases in the prison, then I think---- Wednesday morning, October 1.