A shirt was handed me which I could not help
but wonder how many other men had worn; and
with a couple of blankets under my arm I trudged
off to the sleeping apartment. This was a long,
narrow room, traversed by two low iron rails. Be
tween these rails w r ere stretched, not hammocks,
but pieces of canvas, six feet long and less than two
feet wide. These were the beds, and they were
six inches apart and about eight inches above the
floor. The chief difficulty was that the head was
somewhat higher than the feet, which caused the
body constantly to slip down. Being slung to the
same rails, when one man moved, no matter how
slightly, the rest were set rocking; and whenever I
dozed somebody was sure to struggle back to the
position from which he had slipped, and arouse me
again.

Many hours passed before I won to sleep. It
was only seven in the evening, and the voices of
children, in shrill outcry, playing in the street, con
tinued till nearly midnight. The smell was fright
ful and sickening, while my imagination broke
loose, and my skin crept and crawled till I was
nearlv frantic. Grunting,;roanin, and snoring
arose like the sounds emitted by some sea monster,
and several times, afflicted by nightmare, one or
another, by his shrieks and yells, aroused the lot of
us. Toward morning I was awakened by a rat

[[107]]

p106 _ -chap- _ toc-1 _ p107w _ toc-2 _ +chap+ _ p108

v?