six at night
A convict sub-overseer then calls out the names , and somebody replies . If an answer is returned to each name , all is considered right . The lights are taken away , and save for a few minutes at eight o'clock , when the good-conduct men are let in , the ruffians are left to their own devices until morning . Knowing what I know of the customs of the convicts , my heart sickens when I in imagination put myself in the place of a newly-transported man , plunged from six at night until daybreak into that foetid den of worse than wild beasts . May 15th . -- There is a place enclosed between high walls adjoining the convict barracks , called the Lumber Yard . This is where the prisoners mess .