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- Джек Лондон
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- Стр. 188/210
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Nor
can
one
blame
them
.
They
had
experienced
similar
investigations
in
the
past
.
They
knew
on
which
side
their
bread
was
buttered
.
They
knew
that
all
their
sides
and
most
of
their
ribs
would
ache
very
quickly
after
the
taking
of
their
testimony
...
if
said
testimony
were
adverse
to
the
prison
administration
.
Oh
,
believe
me
,
my
reader
,
it
is
a
very
ancient
story
.
It
was
ancient
in
old
Babylon
,
many
a
thousand
years
ago
,
as
I
well
remember
of
that
old
time
when
I
rotted
in
prison
while
palace
intrigues
shook
the
court
.
As
I
have
said
,
every
convict
testified
to
the
humaneness
of
Warden
Atherton
's
administration
.
In
fact
,
so
touching
were
their
testimonials
to
the
kindness
of
the
Warden
,
to
the
good
and
varied
quality
of
the
food
and
the
cooking
,
to
the
gentleness
of
the
guards
,
and
to
the
general
decency
and
ease
and
comfort
of
the
prison
domicile
,
that
the
opposition
newspapers
of
San
Francisco
raised
an
indignant
cry
for
more
rigour
in
the
management
of
our
prisons
,
in
that
,
otherwise
,
honest
but
lazy
citizens
would
be
seduced
into
seeking
enrolment
as
prison
guests
.
The
Senate
Committee
even
invaded
solitary
,
where
the
three
of
us
had
little
to
lose
and
nothing
to
gain
.
Jake
Oppenheimer
spat
in
its
faces
and
told
its
members
,
all
and
sundry
,
to
go
to
hell
.
Ed
Morrell
told
them
what
a
noisome
stews
the
place
was
,
insulted
the
Warden
to
his
face
,
and
was
recommended
by
the
committee
to
be
given
a
taste
of
the
antiquated
and
obsolete
punishments
that
,
after
all
,
must
have
been
devised
by
previous
Wardens
out
of
necessity
for
the
right
handling
of
hard
characters
like
him
.
I
was
careful
not
to
insult
the
Warden
.
I
testified
craftily
,
and
as
a
scientist
,
beginning
with
small
beginnings
,
making
an
art
of
my
exposition
,
step
by
step
,
by
tiny
steps
,
inveigling
my
senatorial
auditors
on
into
willingness
and
eagerness
to
listen
to
the
next
exposure
,
the
whole
fabric
so
woven
that
there
was
no
natural
halting
place
at
which
to
drop
a
period
or
interpolate
a
query
...
in
this
fashion
,
thus
,
I
got
my
tale
across
.
Alas
!
no
whisper
of
what
I
divulged
ever
went
outside
the
prison
walls
.
The
Senate
Committee
gave
a
beautiful
whitewash
to
Warden
Atherton
and
San
Quentin
.
The
crusading
San
Francisco
newspaper
assured
its
working-class
readers
that
San
Quentin
was
whiter
than
snow
,
and
further
,
that
while
it
was
true
that
the
strait-jacket
was
still
a
recognized
legal
method
of
punishment
for
the
refractory
,
that
,
nevertheless
,
at
the
present
time
,
under
the
present
humane
and
spiritually
right-minded
Warden
,
the
strait-jacket
was
never
,
under
any
circumstance
,
used
.
And
while
the
poor
asses
of
labourers
read
and
believed
,
while
the
Senate
Committee
dined
and
wined
with
the
Warden
at
the
expense
of
the
state
and
the
tax
payer
,
Ed
Morrell
,
Jake
Oppenheimer
,
and
I
were
lying
in
our
jackets
,
laced
just
a
trifle
more
tightly
and
more
vindictively
than
we
had
ever
been
laced
before
.
"
It
is
to
laugh
,
"
Ed
Morrell
tapped
to
me
,
with
the
edge
of
the
sole
of
his
shoe
.
"
I
should
worry
,
"
tapped
Jake
.
And
as
for
me
,
I
too
capped
my
bitter
scorn
and
laughter
,
remembered
the
prison
houses
of
old
Babylon
,
smiled
to
myself
a
huge
cosmic
smile
,
and
drifted
off
and
away
into
the
largeness
of
the
little
death
that
made
me
heir
of
all
the
ages
and
the
rider
full-panoplied
and
astride
of
time
.
