PREFACE.
THE following pages treat of hell—A Kansas hell and a Missouri hell.
Those who desire to peruse works that tell about Heaven only, are urged
to drop this book and run. I was an inmate of the Kansas penitentiary
for sixteen months, and make mention of what came under my own
observation in connection with what I experienced. While an inmate of
this prison I occupied cells at various times with convicts who had
served terms in the Missouri prison. From these persons I gathered much
useful material for my book. After my release I visited the Missouri
penitentiary, and verified the statements of those criminals, and
gathered additional material from the prison records and the officials.
I have written chiefly for the youth of the country, but all ages will
be deeply interested in the following pages. A large majority of the
convicts are young men from sixteen to twenty-five years of age. They
had no idea of the terrible sufferings of a convict
life, or they surely would have resisted temptation and kept out of
crime. The following pages will impart to the reader some idea of what
he may expect to endure in case he becomes entangled in the meshes of
the law, and is compelled to do service for the State without any
remuneration. Every penitentiary is a veritable hell. Deprive a person
of his liberty, punish and maltreat him, and you fill his life with
misery akin to those who wander in the darkness of "eternal night," I
think, when the reader has perused the following pages, he will agree
with me, that the book has the proper title. That this volume may prove
an "eye-opener" to the boys who may read it, and prove interesting and
instructive to those of mature years, is the earnest wish of the
author.
