cars pass to and from the rooms where the coal is taken out, to the
shaft, and hoisted to the top with their load of coal. Some of these
entries extend more than a mile out into the earth from the base of
the shaft. As my fellow-prisoner and I were passing along one of these
roadways to the place where I was to work, he asked me my name and the
nature of my offense. At this place let me inform, the reader that the
prisoners are given permission to converse with each other in the
mines. Their instructions are to the effect that they are not to talk
about anything but their work, but in the penitentiary the same rule
holds good as on the outside: "Give a man an inch and he will take a
yard." So, when permission is given to the convict to talk about his
work, he talks about everything else. In answer to my escort's
question as to the length of my sentence, I informed him that I had
eighteen months. He dryly remarked that was nothing, and if the judge
who sent me up could not give me a longer term than that, he should
have sent me home to my family. He also remarked that he was afraid I
would get into trouble in the mines on account of my short sentence.
There were a great many long-term fellows down there, who were
envious of short-term men, and were likely to put up jobs on them by
reporting their mistakes and violations of regulations to the officer
in charge, and thus get them punished. I informed my guide that I
thought I would get along some way with the prisoners, and keep out of
trouble. I then inquired of him as to the length of his sentence.

"Twenty-five stretches," was his reply. I did not know what he meant
by the term "stretches" and asked for information. "That is the prison
term for years, a stretch meaning a year," was his reply. I learned
that my companion, having twenty-five stretches, was carrying about
with him a twenty-five years' sentence. A quarter of a century in
prison! This was a young man. He had been in the prison for three