CHAPTEE XVI.

LIFE BEHIND THE BARS—A VISIT TO THE TOMBS —SCENES
WITHIN PRISON WALLS —RAYS OP LIGHT ON A DARK
PICTURE.

The Tombs — A Gloomy Prison — The Bridge of Sighs — Murderers' Row —
The Procession to the Gallows—"Flop Flop, Flop Flop" — "Many
Would Give a V to see it"—Bummers' Hall — Aristocratic Prisoners —
Prison Routine — Remarkable Escapes of Prisoners — The Dreary Station-
House Cell — A Bitter Cry—The Value of "Intlooenee"—Shyster Law¬
yers— Poverty-stricken Men, Women, and Children—A Wife's Pitiful
Plea — Tales of Destitution and Misery — Sad Cases—A Noble Woman
— An Unheeded Warning — Bribery, Corruption, and Extortion — A Day
in the Police Courts — How Justice is Administered — A Judge's Strange
and Thrilling Story—A Brave Woman and a Penitent Husband—"Give
me my Pound of Flesh "— The Tables Turned.

TIIEEE are still living a few old New Yorkers who, as
children, played about the Collect Pond. This was a
pretty sheet of water about which young people wandered in
summer evenings, though it was a long walk from the most
thickly built-up portion of the city, then below Fulton Street.
From the pond to the North Eiver was swamp-land, through
which ran a little rivulet on a line with the present Canal
Street. For years this pond supplied much of the drinking-
water for the city, but as it served also as sewer and dumping-
ground it became plain to the City Fathers of that day that
something must be done about it. There was strenuous oppo¬
sition. There always is opposition to the most self-evident
need for reform, but the Fathers had their way and the fiUing-
up of the pond began. It was a slow process and required
not only countless loads of sofl, but anything and everything
that could find place on the dumping-ground, from old shoes
to ashes and sweepings, over which the rag-pickers of the day
kept careful oversight.    Work as they would, it remained

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