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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
UNINVITED GUESTS

Much as the prisoner likes company, yet there is some company that he would rather dispense with. Uninvited they come to the cells and remain as long as they please. First of all comes little Miss Bedbug. She

BEDBUG

The Cockroach

causes more pain than any of the others, for as the prisoner lies upon his hard, iron bed, without springs and with a sack of straw for a mattress, there comes forth from every crack and corner a small army of these little pests. Being bloodthirsty little things, they suck the blood from the prisoner's body and

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cause him to lose much sleep besides. The prison pays out much money for exterminators to kill off these bugs, but the exterminator is in my opinion as much of a pest as are the bugs, and it never kills them altogether,

THE LITTLE FLEA

for just as soon as one crop disappears another crop appears. Then there is the cockroach. He comes in several sizes, but all of a dark brown color. The smallest roaches are about one-quarter of an inch and the largest are over two inches long. Believe me, the large ones are "some animals." If those big fellows could only be trained for some good purpose or used as runners. Unlike the bedbug, the roach never bites, or

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in anyway injures human beings, but is always on the lookout for something good to eat. As there are delicacies in nearly every cell, likewise there are roaches in every cell. It matters not if the eatables are wrapped in paper or cardboard, the roach will eat the

THE ANT

covers as well as the contents. Seen through a microscope, the roach is one of the ugliest things on earth. His body is covered with slime, and the scientists accuse him of carrying tubercular germs from place to place. Like the bedbug, he is a very unwelcome visitor; and an everlasting campaign of

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extermination must be kept up or they will increase and carry off the prison. Then there is the centipede, also called the thousand-leg or the water bug. He is a dark gray color, is well supplied with legs, is fond of damp places and usually makes his home in cracks in the stone walls. While I have never known of him to bite or injure a human being, yet it is unpleasant to have him take his daily exercise over your body as you lie in bed. And he certainly can run; I believe that he can beat a race horse run-

 

 

THOUSAND LEG