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.