James Greenwood

“ Perhaps, as a rule, they are amazed that the dilapidated old things should turn out so fresh and smart-looking after their long rest in the gaol wardrobe; perhaps, on the other hand, having yearned for several months for this happy day, when they should, for the last time, strip from their bodies the hateful linsey-woolsey, and encase themselves in their own unconspicuous clothes of honest cut, they are a little disappointed at finding them so wofully seedy and unsuitable for a start in that amended and respectable life they have for so long been resolving to adopt. ”

“ As soon as the grate opens to him he would like to take to his heels and run with all his might. He would do so if it were night time, but he don't know who may be looking, and so the next best thing is to endeavour to pass as some workman of honest occupation employed to do a little job within the spiked walls; and it is easy to understand with what delight this sort of man at that moment would exchange the painful cleanness of his face and hands for a whitewash-splashed visage, or a sprinkling of sawdust and a ladder to carry. ”

“ However old their clothes may be, they have in them that constrained and uneasy gait which commonly distinguishes wearers of bran-new suits, and they glance suspiciously at their coat-sleeves, and give their waistcoats a straightening pull, and look down on their trousers and boots as though not more than half satisfied that their moulting from prison plumage is perfect, and that a few of the old tell-tale feathers may not be still adhering here and there. ”

“ It is easy enough to separate the black sheep - the jet black animals, who no more than a blackamoor may be scrubbed white - and the misguided sheep who has strayed from the honest flock, perhaps only this once in all his life, and would give his ears to get back again. ”

“ Nothing could be more plain and simple than such directions, but a greater amount of moral courage was necessary in calmly following them than innocent folk may be aware of. The gaol in which Master Maxsey was confined is a mile or so out of town, and every "delivery day" the meetings at the "gate," or in its immediate vicinity, between discharged prisoners and their friends, are much more numerous than select. It is a queer sight. The rule appears to be not to let out the poor gaol-birds entitled to release all at one flight. ”

“ One thing is certain, that if, as is asserted, cleanliness as a virtue ranks next to godliness, no body of men could appear as applicants for the renewed confidence of their fellow creatures with a fairer chance of success than these released prisoners. It must, I think, be some peculiar kind of soap with which the gaol-bird performs his final ablution before his emancipation. ”

“ There is a broad space to be traversed between the prison portal and the main thoroughfare, and it is both curious and instructive to observe their demeanour on first stepping out again into the free world. In one respect only are they all alike, especially as regards the males. ”

“ He is at present in the dark cell for insolence and throwing a plug of wet oakum in the face of a warder. You shall see him."
So saying, he led the way into a dismal corridor, at the extremity of which was a low-arched portal and a door. This the warder unlocked, and vanished from sight, and was presently heard to unfasten an inner door.
"Now, 99, turn out here; you're wanted;" and in a few seconds Jonathan Maxsey came shuffling out of the blackness behind him, and stood before us, blinking his eyes rapidly, as though, despite his over-hanging brows, the sudden light painfully affected them. ”

“ He carries himself with a make-believe easy swagger, and generally with his hands in the pockets of his trousers, excepting when he releases one of them to wave a friendly salute to a faithful ally waiting in the distance. Just the opposite is it with the not utterly lost sheep. ”

“ You and that there tanner wots your friend can keep your jolly good turn, as you calls it, and tie yerselves together with it, and jump over London Bridge. I don't want it; not while I can prig enough in any a hour, p'r'aps, to keep me for a week. Ten hours a day at 'tannerin for a bit of grub, and a fourpenny lodgin'! ”