I turned and talked with my friend; but my thoughts were not in what we were saying. That advertisement followed them, and filled them to the exclusion of every other subject. In the abstraction which it caused the hour in which I was to leave the city passed, and I missed my train. I must remain and avail myself of another. While I was waiting, that advertisement returned to my reflections, and urged its cause imperatively as a command. It was a call, to me, resistless as the voice that awoke the young Israelitish Prophet from his slumbers. In another moment the struggle with my pride was over, and my spirit answered,--I will go, even to lust-besotted Sodom if thou leadest, Light of my path! I seated myself in a street car, went to the prison, applied for the place, and obtained it. Day by day I wrote down what I saw and heard, what I said and did. Why? In obedience to the same Voice that called me to the work. The tale is before you. May it touch the heart of every one who reads the story, and melt it into a compassion which will labor for the redemption of the prisoner; into a pity which will echo around the cry--Open the prison doors, not to let the prisoner go free, but to let in, to him, the light of moral knowledge, and the discipline of Christian charity. CONTENTS. PAGE WHY WRITTEN iii I. FIRST DAY IN PRISON 1 II. AT NIGHT 13 III. SECOND DAY IN PRISON 23 IV. A QUARREL, AND DISCIPLINE 34 V. THE SUPERVISOR, AND THE RULES 48 VI. FIRST NIGHT ALONE IN PRISON 58 VII. THE MASTER AND THE RULES 75 VIII. MRS. HARDHACK 79 IX. A BREAD-AND-WATER BOARDER 87 X. AN ARRIVAL 93 XI. INSIDE MANAGEMENT 98 XII. SUNDAY 102 XIII. LIFE AMONG THE LOWLY 110 XIV. INSPECTION OF PRIVATE APARTMENTS 127 XV. A DAY OF ODDS AND ENDS 138 XVI. A FRIGHT 151 XVII. VISITING DAY 156 XVIII. CALLAHAN AGAIN 163 XIX. DISCOMFORTS, AND THE END 178 I. FIRST DAY IN PRISON. It was Saturday morning that I became an inmate of the Penitentiary. I was conducted to the kitchen, where I was to oversee the cooking for the prisoners, and to the prison adjoining it, which I was to see kept in order, by the Deputy Master of the institution, who gave me my keys and installed me in my office of Prison Matron.