always upon the same spots. And the patterings of the feet in that short
walk had worn the board into hollows at the treads. I felt those hollows
with my hands, traced their formation, and despite my unhappy plight
could not refrain from musing upon the stories which those hollows could
relate--stories of abandoned hope, frenzy, madness, resignation,
suppressed fury, and pathetic awaiting of the doom which could not be
averted.

Those hollows exercised an irresistible fascination for me, and when I
started to walk they drew my feet as certainly as the magnet attracts
the iron filings. I would strive to avoid the hollows and for a few
seconds would succeed, but within a short time my feet fell into them.
Later I learned from one of my wardens that the pacings of the criminals
condemned to this and the other cells is so persistent and ceaseless as
to demand the renewal of the boards at frequent intervals.

In the United States the third degree has attained a revolting ill-fame.
But the American third degree must be paradise in comparison with what
can only be described as its equivalent in Germany. The Teuton method is
far more effective and brutal. The man is not badgered, coaxed, and
threatened in the hope of extorting a signed confession, but he is
condemned to loneliness, silence and solitude amid a gloom which can be
felt, and which within a short time eats into your very soul. Add to
this complete deprivation of exercise and insufficient, un-nourishing,
food, and one can gather some faint idea of the effect which is wrought
upon the human body. The German idea is to wear down a man physically as
well as mentally, until at last he is brought to the verge of insanity
and collapse. By breaking the bodily strength and undermining the mind
he is reduced to such a deplorable condition as to render him as pliable
as putty in the hands of his accusers. He is rendered absolutely