LETTER V

SAN FRANCISCO, 18--.
DEAR CHING-FOO: You will remember that I had just been thrust violently
into a cell in the city prison when I wrote last. I stumbled and fell on
some one. I got a blow and a curse= and on top of these a kick or two
and a shove. In a second or two it was plain that I was in a nest of
prisoners and was being "passed around"--for the instant I was knocked
out of the way of one I fell on the head or heels of another and was
promptly ejected, only to land on a third prisoner and get a new
contribution of kicks and curses and a new destination. I brought up at
last in an unoccupied corner, very much battered and bruised and sore,
but glad enough to be let alone for a little while. I was on the
flag-stones, for there was, no furniture in the den except a long, broad
board, or combination of boards, like a barn-door, and this bed was
accommodating five or six persons, and that was its full capacity. They
lay stretched side by side, snoring--when not fighting. One end of the
board was four, inches higher than the other, and so the slant answered
for a pillow. There were no blankets, and the night was a little chilly;
the nights are always a little chilly in San Francisco, though never
severely cold. The board was a deal more comfortable than the stones,
and occasionally some flag-stone plebeian like me would try to creep to a
place on it; and then the aristocrats would hammer him good and make him
think a flag pavement was a nice enough place after all.

I lay quiet in my corner, stroking my bruises, and listening to the
revelations the prisoners made to each other--and to me for some that
were near me talked to me a good deal. I had long had an idea that
Americans, being free, had no need of prisons, which are a contrivance of
despots for keeping restless patriots out of mischief. So I was