248 AN AMERICAN FARMER IX EXGLAXD. 



pected only to admire, and are passed along to the culinary 

 department. 



Perfection again of a kitchen with an admirable, stout, digni- 

 fied chef, graduate of Paris doubtless, presiding. The diet-table, 

 he explains to us, is scientifically ordered ; the beef and bread 

 and vegetables are of the best, and we are shown how the quan- 

 tity for each man, in each particular, is accurately weighed out. 

 The patients are also weighed periodically, and the allowance of 

 food and of exercise is studiously adjusted to the condition of 

 each. 



Next we are taken to the day-cells, which are in several sepa- 

 rate courts. Within each is an ingeniously-contrived crank, 

 attached to a common shaft, revolving through all. This crank 

 is the exerciser. The prisoner stands at a certain distance before 

 it, takes hold of it with both hands, and, as it turns, a certain 

 motion is given to his whole body the most healthful sort of 

 motion : expanding the chest, and moving every joint of his 

 limbs. He remains in this cell ten hours each day, Sundays ex- 

 cepted ; and the usual allowance of exercise is half an hour, with 

 ten minutes rest after it, continued alternately during that time. 

 There is a library in the prison, from which primers, picture- 

 books, and tracts, are served out for the exercise of his mind 

 during the ten minutes bodily rests. 



For Sundays there is provided another sort of cells, which are 

 so arranged that each prisoner can look at the same central point, 

 but cannot see any other prisoner. At the central point is placed 

 an humble vessel, (doubtless as perfect as can be made by ordi- 

 nances, and duly clad in regulation vesture,) from which a stated 

 dose of gospel privileges is scientifically exhibited, and system- 

 atically imbibed by every patient prisoner I mean. There are 

 two such rations given on Sunday, with a dinner between, and 

 opportunity for reflection in private, before and after. 



