Twenty-Five Years in Seventeen Prisons; The Life Story of an Ex-Convict with His Impressions of Our Prison System (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ... I was put upon ' dissing' (i.e., distributing type from the 'forme' used into the various cases), and as this cannot be done without the aid of cold water, I often had my fingers frozen to the lead used in the process. One might have borne this with some degree of equanimity if the warder in charge had been, I do not say kind, but reasonable. He was, on the contrary, distinguished above his official fellows not only for the coarseness of his mind, but for the marvellous ingenuity he displayed in making himself ridiculous, and yet he was not, on the whole, a bad-hearted man. As a specimen of his style, I may mention two little incidents which, though uninteresting in themselves, are amusing as symptoms. I had occasion to set up in type a sentence in which the words 'King's Cross Station' appeared. I set it just as I have written it here. When the proof was submitted for this gentleman's inspection and correction, it was sent back to me, and on looking over it, I found that he had run his pen through the apostrophe in the word 'King's, ' and thus made the famous Metropolitan railway-station in Pentonville Road stand thus: 'Kings Cross.' Thinking that it was a slip on his part, I took no notice of the correction, but left it standing as originally set. The forme was then put upon the press, and the order for 1,000 tickets printed off. On checking it he called for the revised proof, and finding that I had taken no notice of his correction, he reported me for disobedience of orders. The matter, however, had evidently been brought under the notice of the steward, for whose department the work was intended, and that gentleman intervened between us so effectually that, instead of being reported, I was told by the governor's clerk that I had acted properly in the ma...