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just tell me one thing. Billy Williams, our sheriff was sick when I left the earth; has he come here yet?" "No, but I look for him here today," says the king of hades, "and I wish you would take good care of him." "Indeed I shall," says Tommy, "he has arrested me so often for shooting craps that I shall give him special attention." Satan departs and Tom turns to a little female imp and asks, "Which is the worst department in this place." "Ah, the skunk oil bath," she says. Soon the sheriff arrives, is promptly set over there, and you hear him groan when the imps of hell tickle his ribs with their pronged forks. That picture often comes back to my memory and I think there would be no better place for those hypocrites who, with their lying, poisonous tongues and underhanded work, caused the death of four of our brave prison officials. If a warden objects to these people and their methods, the "gang" will call upon the governor or the state officials and tell what

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a wicked sinner, what an infidel, what a monster the warden is, and that he ought to be removed. If the governor has too much sense to pay attention to these fakirs why, then there is another way, the way used on that fatal day of February and again on that wintry day of March - bloody murder.

I must also introduce you to another specimen of the same tribe, less numerous, but not less poisonous. These are the long distance reformers, by themselves called "prison experts"; and some of them even call themselves "international prison experts." The funny part of it is that none of them were ever connected with a prison. They live an easy life and their graft is a good one. They sit in their home, usually in some large eastern city, and write articles about prison reform and prisons, yet they never saw the prisons they write about. For the benefit of my readers, as well as for the benefit of the publishers who are foolish

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enough to accept their slush as the truth, and publish it, I will show how they work. The "expert" sits down and writes to every prison warden for his latest report. Every prison publishes such a report every two years. There is much good reading in them, and many illustrations. They show the progress made at the prison since the last report was published. With these reports before him, it is easy enough for the "expert" to build a magazine article, which he trims with a liberal amount of hot air, which he did not have to send away for. Then he catches a publisher. It is a pity that two of our leading magazines within the last year have been caught by one of these sharks. The publisher prints this stuff, the public reads it and condemns the management of the prison. If you tell them that it is not the truth, the answer will be: "It must be the truth, for don't you see it was written by a 'prison expert"'?

I have never been much in favor of send-

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ing stuff to these fellows, but as one of them kept on writing me I finally sat down one evening and worked until midnight to get together the information he asked for. While he gets fancy prices from the publishers, yet he never saw fit to waste a stamp on me to acknowledge receipt of my letters. After waiting a month I wrote him and asked if he had received it. The following letter was received which speaks for itself, and exposes the methods of these men:

WASHINGTON, D. C., FEB. 28, 1913.
MR. WALTER WILSON,
Lancaster, Nebr.

DEAR SIR: I have yours of the 24th and beg to apologize most profoundly for my failure to acknowledge receipt of your earlier letters and clippings. The delay was due to the very interesting nature of the material, the hurried reading of which raised so many questions in my mind that I was impelled to put the matter aside until I should have had full opportunity to give it the careful reading that it deserved and to put to you the questions that occurred to me. Unfortunately I have been so rushed with a variety of other matters that the opportunity longed for has not yet arrived. I shall limit myself to a hasty and apologetic acknowledgement, and to the expression of the hope that you will continue to send me such information