CHAPTEE XVIII.

LIFE ON BLACKWELL'S ISLAND —THE DREGS OP A GREAT
CITY — WHERE CRIMINALS, PAUPERS, AND LUNATICS ARE
CARED FOR —A CONVICT'S DAILY LIFE—" DRINK'S OUR
CURSE."

The "Tub of Misery"—A Miserable Sight — Gutter-Soaked Rags and Mat¬
ted Hair — Rounders — Terrible Scenes — Insanity in Handcuffs — Results
of Trying to "See Life" in New York — Aristocrats in Crime — Appeals
for Mercy — Sounds that Make the Blood Run Cold — White Heads '
Brought Low — A Pandemonium — Vermin-Infested Clothes — Insane
from the "Horrors"—Suicides — "Famine Meal"—Odd Delusions and
Beliefs of the Insane — The Queen of Heaven — The Mother of Forty-five
Children — Snakes in his Stomach—"Oh, Lord! They're Squirming
Again"—A Contented Tinker — Waiting for the River to Dry up—"For
the Love of God, Bring me a Coffin"—A Ghoul in the Dead-House — An
Irish Philosopher—The Penitentiary — Daily Life of Prisoners — A Hard
Fate — Convict Labor—Secret Communications between Prisoners — A
Puzzle to Keepers — Treating Crime as a Disease.

LONG ago, in days just preceding the second war with
England, New York boasted of two or three famous
gardens and certain orchards planted by sturdy Dutch burgh¬
ers, and yielding fruit impartially to their successors. From
Kip's garden roses Y'ere plucked for Washington ou his last
visit to New York, Y'hich he wore in his buttonhole, and
which made the tree from which they came always there¬
after a prized possession. From an orchard no less famous
came early summer apples, "Harvest Boughs," and, later,
Newtown pippins, which were said to have a finer flavor in the
orchard on Blackwell's Island than even in their native home
at Newtown.

Here on Blackwell's Island were to be found apple blos¬
soms, bloom of cherry and peach and plum; tender green of
grape-vines for spring, and for autumn all manner of fruit

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