"Go," he said to an officer, "and instantly take off those irons
when you take him inside the prison."

I was taken in and the irons were taken off. I was then undressed,
my clothes were removed to another room, and I was redressed in the
prison uniform. This was a grotesque uniform indeed. The suit was
red and blue, half and half, like a harlequin's, and to crown all
came a hat or cap, like a fool's cap, a foot and a half high and
running up to a peak. Miserable as I was, I could scarcely help
smiling at the utterly absurd appearance I knew I then presented. I
even ventured to remark upon it; but was suddenly and sternly
checked with the command:

"Silence! There's no talking allowed here."

Then began my twenty-four hours' solitary confinement, and
twenty-four wretched hours they were. I had only bread and water to
eat and drink, and I need not say that my unhappy thoughts would not
permit me to sleep. At noon next day I was taken from my cell, and
brought again before the warden, Mr. Robinson, who kindly said:

"You have no trade, you say; what do you want to go to work at?"

"Anything light; I am not used to hard labor," I replied.

So the warden directed that I should be put at work in the brush
shop, where all kinds of brushes were made. Mr. Eddy was the officer
in charge of this shop, and Mr. Knowles, the contractor for the
labor employed in the brush business, was present. Both of these
gentlemen took pains to instruct me in the work I was to begin upon,