Goldsmiths Friend Abroad Again | Page 7

no furniture in the den
except a long, broad board, or combination of boards, like a barn-door,
and this bed was accommodating five or six persons, and that was its
full capacity. They lay stretched side by side, snoring--when not
fighting. One end of the board was four, inches higher than the other,
and so the slant answered for a pillow. There were no blankets, and the
night was a little chilly; the nights are always a little chilly in San
Francisco, though never severely cold. The board was a deal more
comfortable than the stones, and occasionally some flag-stone plebeian
like me would try to creep to a place on it; and then the aristocrats
would hammer him good and make him think a flag pavement was a
nice enough place after all.
I lay quiet in my corner, stroking my bruises, and listening to the
revelations the prisoners made to each other--and to me for some that
were near me talked to me a good deal. I had long had an idea that
Americans, being free, had no need of prisons, which are a contrivance
of despots for keeping restless patriots out of mischief. So I was
considerably surprised to find out my mistake.
Ours was a big general cell, it seemed, for the temporary
accommodation of all comers whose crimes were trifling. Among us
they were two Americans, two "Greasers" (Mexicans), a Frenchman, a

German, four Irishmen, a Chilenean (and, in the next cell, only
separated from us by a grating, two women), all drunk, and all more or
less noisy; and as night fell and advanced, they grew more and more
discontented and disorderly, occasionally; shaking the prison bars and
glaring through them at the slowly pacing officer, and cursing him with
all their hearts. The two women were nearly middle-aged, and they had
only had enough liquor to stimulate instead of stupefy them.
Consequently they would fondle and kiss each other for some minutes,
and then fall to fighting and keep it up till they were just two grotesque
tangles of rags and blood and tumbled hair. Then they would rest
awhile and pant and swear. While they were affectionate they always
spoke of each other as "ladies," but while they were fighting "strumpet"
was the mildest name they could think of--and they could only make
that do by tacking some sounding profanity to it. In their last fight,
which was toward midnight, one of them bit off the other's finger, and
then the officer interfered and put the "Greaser" into the "dark cell" to
answer for it because the woman that did it laid it on him, and the other
woman did not deny it because, as she said afterward, she "wanted
another crack at the huzzy when her finger quit hurting," and so she did
not want her removed. By this time those two women had mutilated
each other's clothes to that extent that there was not sufficient left to
cover their nakedness. I found that one of these creatures had spent nine
years in the county jail, and that the other one had spent about four or
five years in the same place. They had done it from choice. As soon as
they were discharged from captivity they would go straight and get
drunk, and then steal some trifling thing while an officer was observing
them. That would entitle them to another two, months in jail, and there
they would occupy clean, airy apartments, and have good food in
plenty, and being at no expense at all, they, could make shirts for the
clothiers at half a dollar apiece and thus keep themselves in smoking
tobacco and such other luxuries as they wanted. When the two months
were up they would go just as straight as they could walk to Mother
Leonard's and get drunk; and from there to Kearney street and steal
something; and thence to this city prison, and next day back to the old
quarters in the county jail again. One of them had really kept this up for
nine years and the other four or five, and both said they meant to end
their days in that prison. **--[**The former of the two did.--Ed.

Men.]--Finally, both these creatures fell upon me while I was dozing
with my head against their grating, and battered me considerably,
because they discovered that I was a Chinaman, and they said I was "a
bloody interlopin' loafer come from the devil's own country to take the
bread out of dacent people's mouths and put down the wages for work
whin it was all a Christian could do to kape body and sowl together as
it was." "Loafer" means one who will not work. AH SONG HI.

LETTER VI
SAN FRANCISCO, 18--.
DEAR CHING-FOO: To