washing clothes, and scrubbing out the cells.

The majority of the prisoners are committed for assault and battery or
larceny, for terms varying from one month to four years and a half;
those committed for graver offences are confined at Sing Sing; all
drunkards, vagrants, and disorderly characters at the workhouse. During
the past year two thousand three hundred and fifteen persons were
incarcerated for different periods--two thousand one hundred and
thirty-nine whites, one hundred and seventy-six blacks. Of these about
one third were native Americans, one third Irish, one tenth German, and
the remainder of various nationalities. The visitor to the Penitentiary
cannot but be struck by the youth of the male prisoners compared with
that of the females, the bulk of the males being between fourteen and
thirty years of age, the females between twenty-five and fifty. Few
young girls find their way here, as in their earlier career they are
able to gain enough by a life of prostitution, without committing
larceny, and consequently do not resort to it till their charms begin
to wear, and the consequent diminution of their means of subsistence
from such a source compels them to resort to some other. There is
another fact which appears in these statistics of crime, one highly
suggestive to the housekeeper. Of the four hundred and eleven female
prisoners committed during the past year, no less than three hundred
and two were domestic servants, and of these two hundred and forty-one
were Irish girls and women.

At twelve o'clock the prison bell rings for dinner. It is a sad sight
to stand on the terrace and see the various gangs of men and lads march
home from their work, the greater proportion of them fine, sturdy
looking young fellows; it is sadder still to see some of them carrying
a heavy iron ball and chain slung over the shoulder and attached to a