Page:Memoirs of Vidocq, Volume 1.djvu/171

 abuses of ardent spirits, which excite the convicts to a state contrary to the calm so necessary for them to be kept in, if we would have reflection bring on repentance. We do not mean to say that they should be entirely separated, as is the case in the United States in some instances, but this can scarcely be put in force without inconvenience with men sentenced to hard labour; we must watch that the orders and regulations of the prison be properly carried into effect by the prisoners who receive them. At the same time that we should preserve the health of those unfortunates, we should prevent serious disorders. On the days of relaxation it often happens, that a convict, desirous of a debauch, pledges his allowance for a fortnight for the present advances of some comrades. He gets drunk and disorderly, and is accordingly beaten, and then reduced to water and bean soup, when he needs more nourishing provisions to support him. There are, besides, other modes of providing for these orgies, they rob the workshops, the magazines, and in the wood-yards. Some pilfer the copper-sheathing, of which they make six liard pieces, which they sell at a much lower price to the country people; others steal the tools with which the little toys are formed which are sold to visitors; others take logs of wood, which chopped into small pieces, go to the fires of the argousins, who are thus in a measure conciliated. I am told, that at the present day, this system has been reformed, and I am happy to hear it: all that I can say is, that when I was at Brest it was as "notorious as the sun at noon day," that no argousin ever bought fire-wood.

It is in the blacksmiths' workshops that the prisoners instruct each other in the art of forging false keys and other instruments for opening doors, such as ripping-chisels (cadets), pincers (monseigneurs), picklocks (rossignols), &c. &c. This objection is perhaps irremediable, in a port where ships are to be fitted out; but why should such workshops be allowed